Patent ID: 7076199
Filing Date: 2006-07-11
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: (a) an image forming body on which a toner image is formed; (b) a transfer device provided in contact with the image forming body for transferring the toner image formed on the image forming body onto a transfer material; and (c) a lubricant coating mechanism comprising a brush roller provided in contact with a surface of the image forming body and a lump of lubricant which is pressed toward the brush roller, for coating a small amount of lubricant scraped off the lump of lubricant on the surface of the image forming body by rotating the brush roller, wherein the brush roller is rotated in a direction such that a periphery thereof moves reversely to a progressing direction of the image forming body at a contact area with the image forming body, and is set in a state that a pressing load of the lump of lubricant against the brush roller not less than 0.59 N and a coating amount of the lubricant for the image forming body is such that a consumption of the lump of lubricant per ten thousand times of image formation is 19.6 mg to 39.1 mg per a length of 1 cm along a rotary axis of the brush roller, and the following specific mutual relation with respect to a surface property between the image forming body and the transfer material is satisfied: an angle of contact of the image forming body for pure water when T seconds have passed after pure water was dropped on a surface thereof is greater than an angle of contact of the transfer material for pure water when T seconds have passed after pure water was dropped on a surface thereof, where T represents a transit time of toner particles through the contact area of the image forming body with the transfer device.