To provide an image forming apparatus which can prevent malfunction of the
open/close control of a shutter due to erroneous detection of the toner
on the transfer belt when the opening and closing of the shutter is
detected from the output from an optical sensor. The separation/contact
assembly for moving a cleaning member into and out of contact includes an
arm rotationally supported on a pivot, an abutment part fixed to the body
frame so as to limit the rotation of the arm and a spring for pressing
the arm in the clockwise direction. The cleaning member is attached at
the distal end of the arm. The cleaning member cleans the transfer belt
surface when the shutter is closed, so that the cleaned transfer belt
surface can be always detected when the shutter is open.