Patent ID: 6829459
Filing Date: 2004-12-07
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An electrophotographic apparatus including a toner recycling system, said apparatus comprising:an electrophotographic photosensitive member comprising a support and a photosensitive layer on the support; charging means for charging the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member; exposing means for exposing the charged surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member to form an electrostatic latent image; developing means for developing the electrostatic latent image with toner so as to form a toner image; transferring means for transferring the toner image onto a recording medium; and fixing means for fixing the toner image on the recording medium, said charging means comprising a contact charging member that comes into contact with the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member, the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member being charged by direct injection of electrical charge from said contact charging member to said electrophotographic photosensitive member, said contact charging member comprising charged particles that come into contact with said electrophotographic photosensitive member and a charged particle support configured and positioned to support the charged particles, the surface of said charged particle support being conductive and elastic, said charging means also being means for supporting residual toner on the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member after transfer of the toner image by said transferring means, for normalizing the electrical charge of the normalized residual toner, and for returning the residual toner onto the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member, said developing means also being means for recovering the normalized residual toner returned onto the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member, wherein the absolute value of the charge potential difference between a first rotation and a second rotation of said electrophotographic photosensitive member is higher than 5 V and lower than 70 V, wherein said electrophotographic photosensitive member further comprises a charge injection layer at the surface thereof, wherein the surface of said electrophotographic photosensitive member is charged by direct injection of electrical charge from said contact charging member to said charge injection layer, wherein said charge injection layer comprises a binder resin and at least one of conductive particles and a charge transporting substance, wherein the binder resin comprises a curable resin, and wherein the curable resin is at least one resin selected from the group consisting of phenol resins, epoxy resins, and siloxane resins.