Patent ID: 7693476
Filing Date: 2010-04-06
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier; a charging unit that uniformly charges the image carrier; a developing unit that develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to obtain a toner image as a visual image; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image onto a transfer material; a cleaning unit that removes toner remaining on the image carrier; a protective-agent bar that contains a protective agent; and a protective-agent supplying unit that comprises a brush that rotates to supply the protective agent to the image carrier, wherein the brush is configured to be in contact with the protective-agent bar and the image carrier such that the protective agent adheres to the brush, and is supplied to a surface of the image carrier; fine powder of the protective agent is not formed upon pressure from the brush onto the protective-agent bar; and the protective agent has a surface hardness softer than a pencil hardness of 5B.