Cleaning process for an electrostatic copying apparatus

摘要

An electrophotograhic copying process forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of a photosensitive member, developes the image by applying a monocomponent developer to the latent image to form a toner image, transfers the thus formed toner image by contacting a receptor sheet with the photosensitive member to transfer the toner image to the surface of the receptor sheet, fixes the toner image onto the surface of the receptor sheet, eliminates electrostatic charge from the photosensitive member by irradiating the surface of the photosensitive member with an electrostatic eliminating lamp after the toner image has been transferred to the receptor sheet, and cleans the surface of the photosensitive member by removing the developer remaining on the surface thereof. A developer-holding member holds the same kind of developer as used in the developing step on the surface of said developer-holding member by a stationary magnet disposed within the developer-holding member, and the surface of the developer-holding member is moved in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the surface of the photosensitive member while contacting the two surfaces through the layer of the developer to mechanically brush the surface of the photosensitive member by the layer of the developer. The magnet having a plurality of poles, and the magnetic pole which is located closest to a position at which the surface of the developer-holding member is closest to the surface of the photosensitive member is downstream in the rotation direction of the developer-holding member by a certain angle with respect to the position at which the two surfaces are closest to each other.