Patent ID: 8000641
Filing Date: 2011-08-16
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising at least an image holding member: a charging unit for charging the image holding member; a latent image forming unit for forming a latent image on a surface of the charged image holding member; a developing unit for developing the latent image formed on the surface of the image holding member with a developer containing at least a toner and a carrier to form a toner image; an intermediate transfer belt which contacts the image holding member and to which the toner image formed on the surface of the image holding member is primarily transferred; a primary transfer unit for primarily transferring the toner image formed on the surface of the image holding member onto the intermediate transfer belt by generating an electric field; a secondary transfer unit for secondarily transferring the toner image which has been primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt, onto a transfer receiving body; a fixing unit for fixing the toner image which has been transferred onto the transfer receiving body; an electric field generating unit for generating an electric field in a direction crossing a direction of an electric field generated by the primary transfer unit at a position aligning on an upstream side in a rotation direction of the intermediate transfer belt relative to the image holding member; and a cleaning unit for removing residual toner on the surface of the image holding member after transfer, a surface hardness of a side, of the intermediate transfer belt, contacting with the image holding member being 10 to 30, the surface hardness being a durometer hardness according to JIS K7215, the carrier having at least two resin-coated layers on a surface of a core material containing ferrite, and the core material having a surface roughness Sm (average interval of irregularities) of 2.0 μm or less, a surface roughness Ra (arithmetic average roughness) of 0.1 μm or more, and an average circularity degree of 0.975 to 1.000.