A blade engagement apparatus moving blades into working positions in engagement with an image forming device moving surface for cleaning and/or metering release agent onto the surface. The blade engagement apparatus includes a pair of spaced apart links having slots receiving pins extending from the blades and an actuator rotating the links for moving the blades along track slots into and out of the working positions. The links couple the blades together for mutually exclusive cooperative movement alternating between the working positions and respective suspended positions wherein the blades are removed from the moving surface.