Patent ID: 8750760
Filing Date: 2014-06-10
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a latent electrostatic image bearing member, a latent electrostatic image forming unit configured to form a latent electrostatic image on the latent electrostatic image bearing member, a toner, a developing unit configured to develop the latent electrostatic image with the toner to form a visible image, a transfer unit configured to transfer the visible image onto the recording medium, and a fixing unit configured to fix the transferred visible image on a recording medium, wherein the fixing unit comprises a rotatable heating member which heats the recording medium having the unfixed visible image, a rotatable pressing member which comes into contact with the rotatable heating member to form a nip portion, and an air separation member which separates the recording medium from the rotatable heating member by air, wherein the toner comprises toner base particles each comprising at least a binder resin and a releasing agent, wherein the binder resin comprises at least a crystalline polyester resin and a non-crystalline resin, wherein a ratio of W/R is 0.045 to 0.85, where W denotes a peak height in a spectrum of the crystalline polyester resin, R denotes a peak height in a spectrum of the non-crystalline resin, and each of the spectra is measured by a total transmission method (KBr method) using a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer, and wherein the releasing agent is a microcrystalline wax comprising C20-C80 hydrocarbons, where the releasing agent comprises 55 to 70 mass % of a linear hydrocarbon based on a total amount of hydrocarbons in the releasing agent, and the releasing agent has a melting point of 65° C. to 90° C. where the melting point is defined as a maximum endothermic peak temperature measured through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).