Patent ID: 9367001
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: G03G

Claim Text:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image holding member; a charging unit that charges a surface of the image holding member; an electrostatic latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on a charged surface of the image holding member; a developing unit that stores a developer containing a toner and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image holding member by using the developer so as to form a toner image; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a surface of a recording medium; a fixing unit that includes a first member and a second member contacting with the first member, and fixes the toner image transferred on the surface of the recording medium while transporting the recording medium with a contact portion of the first member and the second member; and a moving unit that moves at least one of the first member and the second member toward a direction intersecting with a transporting direction of the recording medium, wherein the toner contains a binder resin, a colorant, and a release agent and has a sea portion containing the binder resin and an island portion containing the release agent, a maximum frequent value in distribution of the following eccentricity B of the island portion containing the release agent is in a range of from 0.75 to 0.95, and a skewness in the distribution of the following eccentricity B is in a range of from −1.10 to −0.50, the eccentricity B being represented by the following expression (1): wherein D indicates an equivalent circle diameter (μm) of the toner in an observation of a cross-section of the toner, and d indicates a distance (μm) from the centroid of the toner to the centroid of the island portion containing the release agent in the observation of a cross-section of the toner.