The cleaning performance (lifetime of cleaning blades and cleaning ability) of a leading type blade cleaning system for electro-photography is examined theoretically and experimentally from the viewpoint of tribology and rheology. Wear characteristics and cleaning ability of cleaning blades are found to be described well by a model which takes into account stick–slip behavior of the cleaning blade against a photoreceptor surface. A theoretical analysis of fatigue wear which takes into account vibration loss tangent (or rebound resilience), applied load on the cleaning blade on the photoreceptor surface, and friction coefficient between the blade edge and the photoreceptor surface, agrees well with results of accelerated wear experiments and lifetime evaluation tests using copying machines on the market. The cleaning blade edge once stretched by the photoreceptor surface during the stick process returns to its original position gradually with a characteristic relaxation time during the slip process and forces remaining toner particles to move against the rotating direction of photoreceptor drum. Therefore, toner particles have a greater possibility of going through the blade nip during the slip process. The theoretical analysis and the experimental results suggest that cleaning ability is proportional to the reciprocal of the relaxation time.