Patent ID: 6625415
Filing Date: 2003-09-23
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
A liquid-development full-color electrophotographic apparatus comprising a development section using a liquid toner as a liquid developer, the development section being in contact with an image bearer body, on which an electrostatic latent image is formed, so as to supply the liquid developer onto the image bearer body, and causing toner particles contained in the liquid developer to adhere to the image bearer body according to an electric field established between the development section and the image bearer body to thereby form a toner image; an intermediate transfer roller to which the toner image is transferred from the image bearer body according to an electric field established between the same and the image bearer body; and a transfer-and-fixation section for melting the toner image transferred onto an intermediate transfer body through application of heat at a contact portion between said intermediate transfer body and a printing medium to thereby melt-transfer the toner image onto the printing medium,wherein a plurality of image bearer bodies are provided in such a manner as to correspond to liquid toners in a plurality of colors, and, while said intermediate transfer roller rotates one rotation, toner images formed on said image bearer bodies corresponding to the respective colors are sequentially transferred and superposed on said intermediate transfer roller; and wherein an electric field for transferring a toner image from each of said image bearer bodies to said intermediate transfer roller is established through application, to said corresponding image bearer bodies, of a voltage controlled according to electric characteristics peculiar to a color toner on said image bearer bodies while said intermediate transfer roller is grounded.