CLEANING BLADE FAILURE PREDICTION PROCESSOR AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME

A cleaning blade failure prediction processor for an image forming apparatus includes a pixel count acquisition circuit to acquire pixel count data of a cleaning target of a cleaning blade. The cleaning target is divided into a plurality of areas in a main scanning direction of the cleaning target. The pixel count acquisition circuit acquires a pixel count for each of the plurality of areas of the cleaning target. The cleaning blade failure prediction processor also includes a first cumulative pixel count calculation circuit to calculate a cumulative pixel count for each of the plurality of areas of the cleaning target, a second cumulative pixel count calculation circuit to calculate a cumulative pixel count per distance traveled of the cleaning target, and a deformation identification circuit to determine whether or not the cleaning blade shows signs of deformation according to the cumulative pixel count per distance traveled.