Patent ID: 9720356
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G03G

Claim:
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 a 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 formed on the surface of the image holding member onto a surface of a recording medium; and a fixing unit that performs an operation of heating and pressing to the toner image on the recording medium twice or more by using one or more of a heating and pressing member which contacts with the toner image, 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 an 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 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, and wherein the release agent is a paraffin wax, and the binder resin is a polyester resin.