Image Forming Apparatus

1 . An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an image carrier configured to carry a toner image;

a cleaning member configured to remove residual toner on the image carrier by contacting a surface of the image carrier; and

a drive mechanism configured to rotate the image carrier and for reciprocating the image carrier in an axial direction of the image carrier.

2 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the drive mechanism comprises:

a first gear member provided to the image carrier;

a second gear member facing the first gear member, being rotatable coaxially with the first gear member, disposed immovably in the axial direction, and being different in number of teeth in comparison with the first gear member;

an idle gear provided to mesh with both the first gear member and the second gear member;

a cam surface provided to one of the first gear member and the second gear member and varying in axial distance in a circumferential direction of the one of the first gear member and the second gear member;

a cam follower provided to another of the first gear member and the second gear member so as to be abuttable with the cam surface; and

an urging member configured to urge the image carrier into a direction in which the cam surface and the cam follower abut each other.

3 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the one of the first gear member and the second gear member comprises a profile-shifted gear.

4 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the cam surface is formed to vary in the axial direction by a fixed amount per unit rotation angle.

5 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 2 ,

wherein the cam surface comprises at least two cam surfaces provided at positions of equally dividing a circumference of the first gear member, and

wherein the cam follower comprises at least two cam followers provided at positions of equally dividing a circumference of the second gear member.

6 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the first gear member is driven to rotate.

7 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the cleaning member is fixed to a cleaning portion configured to house residual toner removed from the image carrier.

8 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising, around the image carrier and along a rotational direction of the image carrier:

an exposure portion configured to form an electrostatic latent image by applying a light beam based on original image data onto the surface of the image carrier;

a developing portion configured to convert the electrostatic latent image on the image carrier into a toner image; and

a transfer section configured to transfer the toner image on the image carrier onto a transfer medium,

wherein the image carrier moves in the axial direction from 10 to 30 μm while rotating from the exposure portion to the transfer section.

9 . An image forming apparatus according to claim 8 ,

wherein the transfer medium comprises an intermediate transfer member,

wherein the image carrier comprises a plurality of image carriers disposed on a moving path of the intermediate transfer member, and

wherein a color image is formed by forming toner images of respective colors respectively onto surfaces of the plurality of image carriers, and sequentially superimposing and transferring the toner images of the respective colors, which have been formed respectively on the surfaces of the plurality of image carriers, onto the intermediate transfer member.