A support member for supporting a cleaning blade of an upstream side is
arranged between a charging roller of an image forming unit of the
upstream side and a developing sleeve of an image forming unit of a
downstream side. The support member is formed using a conductive member
(metallic plate), is arranged to completely go across a tangent between
the charging roller and the developing sleeve, and is grounded. Even when
a developing bias is applied to the developing sleeve during application
of a charging bias to the charging roller, the support member can
function as a shielding member to prevent noise in the charging bias,
which makes it possible to reduce a distance between the image forming
units.