Blade cleaning holder

Claim 1

In a copying apparatus wherein image developer material is cleaned from a reusable imaging surface by a resilient elongated cleaning blade with a cleaning edge in cleaning engagement with said imaging surface, and wherein said blade has a mounting edge mounted in a blade supporting member, and wherein said blade is a normally planar elastomeric strip with parallel surfaces spaced apart by the thickness of the cleaning blade, the improvement comprising: a blade retaining channel in said blade supporting member with a blade receiving opening, said blade retaining channel having a linear bottom base surface linearly supporting said mounting edge of said blade, said blade retaining channel having opposing generally planar and parallel walls spaced apart continuously from said channel base surface to said channel opening by a distance slightly greater than said thickness of said cleaning blade to provide unobstructed insertion of said cleaning blade through said channel to said base surface thereof without compression of said cleaning blade, said blade retaining channel having generally two linear segments with a slight angular transitional bend therebetween located intermediately between said base surface and said channel opening, said bend being sufficiently arcuate to resiliently bend said cleaning blade within said channel sufficiently to resiliently frictionally engage said cleaning blade against both of said opposing walls of said blade retaining channel to retain said cleaning blade within said channel against said base surface and to seal said base surface from said image developer material, said cleaning blade being retained in said blade supporting member solely by said resilient frictional engagement of said cleaning blade within said blade retaining channel.