Patent ID: 7865114
Filing Date: 2011-01-04
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image bearing member configured to bear a latent electrostatic image a surface thereof; a charging device configured to uniformly charge the image bearing member; an irradiating device configured to irradiate the surface of the image bearing member with writing light to form the latent electrostatic image thereon; a developing device configured to develop and visualize the latent electrostatic image with a developing agent comprising a toner; a transfer device configured to transfer the visualized image to a recording medium; a fixing device configured to fix the visualized image on the recording medium; and a cleaning device configured to clean the surface of the image bearing member, wherein the image bearing member comprises a substrate on which at least a photosensitive layer and a cross-linked surface layer are accumulated and the cross-linked surface layer comprises a monomer having at least three radical polymerizable function groups without a charge transport structure and a radical polymerizable compound having a charge transport structure cured by a photo-energy irradiation device, wherein the toner has a volume average particle diameter of from 1 to 5 μm and an average circularity of from 0.95 to 0.98, wherein external additives added to a surface of the toner satisfy the following relationship: 1<3X/5+Y<3, wherein X represents an amount by weight % of an external additive having a primary particle diameter of from 10 to 20 nm and Y represents an amount by weight % of an external additive having an primary particle diameter of from 100 to 200 nm and X and Y satisfy the following relationship: X<Y, 0<X≦1 and 1≦Y, and wherein the cleaning device comprises a cleaning blade comprising a polyurethane rubber plate having a hardness of from 70 to 80°, and an rebound resilience of from 10 to 35% at 25° C.