Image forming apparatus

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes; a belt unit detachably mountable to a main assembly, said belt unit including a movable endless belt, a belt supporting roller, a steering unit for swinging the belt to incline relative to the supporting roller by a force produced by movement of the belt in a widthwise direction, and a cleaning unit, supported by the steering unit, for removing and collecting toner from the belt; a toner receiving unit, provided in the assembly, for receiving the toner collected by the cleaning unit; and a path member for guiding the toner collected by the cleaning unit to the toner receiving unit, the path member being supported by the assembly when the belt unit is not mounted, and the path member being supported by the cleaning swingably relative to the toner receiving unit when the belt unit is mounted.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a main assembly; a belt unit detachably mountable to said main assembly, said belt unit including a movable endless belt, a supporting roller, a steering unit, and a cleaning unit, wherein said supporting roller supports said endless belt, and said steering unit supports said endless belt and is configured to be inclined relative to said supporting roller so as to move said endless belt in a first widthwise direction perpendicular to a moving direction of said endless belt by a force produced by movement of said endless belt in a second widthwise direction opposite to the first widthwise direction, and wherein said cleaning unit is supported by said steering unit and is configured to remove and collect toner from said endless belt, said cleaning unit including a discharge opening configured to discharge the collected toner; an image forming station configured to form a toner image on said endless belt; a toner container including a receiving opening portion at a cleaning unit side, said toner container being provided in said main assembly and configured to contain the toner collected by said cleaning unit; and a path member configured to guide the toner collected by said cleaning unit to said toner container, including a first opening portion disposed at said cleaning unit side and a second opening portion disposed at said toner container side, wherein in a state that said belt unit is dismounted from said main assembly, said path member is supported by said main assembly, and wherein in a state that said belt unit is mounted to said main assembly, said path member is not supported by said main assembly, and is connected with said steering unit to be integrally movable with inclination of said steering unit, the first opening portion is disposed at a position corresponding to the discharge opening, and the second opening portion is disposed at a position inside the receiving opening portion such that the second opening portion does not contact the receiving opening portion when being moved by the inclination of said steering unit.