Patent ID: 6832058
Filing Date: 2004-12-14
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus comprising:(a) a rotary image forming body; (b) a charging device for charging a surface of the image forming body; (c) an exposure device for imagewise exposing the surface of the image forming body to form an electrostatic latent image; (d) a developing device for reverse-developing the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image through conveying a layer of two-component developer containing toner particles having a volume-average particle diameter of 3 &mgr;m to 5 &mgr;m to a developing region by a developer carrying body with a development bias applied, that is rotatably provided opposite to the image forming body through the developing region positioned between the image forming body and the developer carrying body; (e) a transfer device for transferring the toner image formed on the image forming body onto a recording medium or onto an intermediate transfer body in a transfer region; and (f) a cleaning device for removing untransferred toner particles remaining on the image forming body which have passed the transfer region, by a cleaning member provided in pressure contact with the surface of the image forming body, wherein a total charge quantity of the toner particles forming a useless toner image is 0.04L &mgr;C or less where L denotes a length in a lengthwise direction of the useless toner image representing the untransferred toner particles remaining on the image forming body, formed on the image forming body at a starting time and an ending time of an image forming sequence.