CLEANING BLADE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cleaning blade that can reduce the occurrence of chipping of the blade due to concentration of stress, while reducing the occurrence of passing of a residual toner at the ends of the cleaning blade and turn-up of the blade, and an image forming apparatus.SOLUTION: A cleaning blade comprises: an edge part 31 that is in contact with a photoconductor drum 51; and end faces 32 that are provided at both ends in a direction along the edge part 31 and continue to the edge part 31. The end faces 32 each include, in at least partial area including an area on the edge part 31, a blade end hardened part 34 having a higher Young's modulus on its surface than that inside in the depth direction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2 【課題】クリーニングブレードの端部における残留トナーのすり抜けやブレード捲れの発生を抑えながら、応力集中によるブレードの欠けの発生も抑制できるクリーニングブレード及び画像形成装置を提供する。【解決手段】感光ドラム５１に当接するエッジ部３１と、エッジ部３１に沿った方向の両端部に設けられると共にエッジ部３１に連続する端面３２と、を備え、端面３２は、エッジ部３１側の領域を含む少なくとも一部の領域に、深さ方向の内部よりも表面のヤング率が高いブレード端硬化部３４を有する。【選択図】図２