Patent ID: 9354558
Filing Date: 2016-05-31
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 charge image forming unit that forms an electrostatic charge image on a charged surface of the image holding member; a developing unit that stores a developer containing a toner and develops the electrostatic charge image formed on the surface of the image holding member so as to form a toner image; an intermediate transfer member onto a surface of which the toner image is transferred; a primary transfer unit that primarily transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the image holding member onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member; a secondary transfer unit that secondarily transfers the toner image transferred onto the surface of the intermediate transfer member onto a surface of a recording medium; and a guide unit that is provided on an upstream side of the primary transfer unit in a rotation direction of the intermediate transfer member, and guides at least one of the image holding member and the intermediate transfer member to a primary transfer position by the primary transfer unit so as to cause a portion of the surface of the image holding member and a portion of the surface of the intermediate transfer member to follow each other, wherein the toner contains a binder resin, a colorant, and a release agent and has a sea and island structure of 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 a centroid of the toner to a centroid of the island portion containing the release agent in the observation of a cross-section of the toner.