Patent ID: 7822351
Filing Date: 2010-10-26
Classification: G03G

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image carrier that carries an image; a toner image forming unit that includes a charging unit, an exposing unit, and a developing unit, and forms a color toner image on the image carrier by superimposing toner images of at least two colors thereon by using developers of at least two colors through repeated charging and exposing of the image carrier by the charging unit and the exposing unit to form a latent image thereon and developing the latent image by the developing unit; a transferring/fixing unit configured to contact the image carrier carrying the color toner image so that the color toner image is transferred onto the transferring/fixing unit; a pressing unit that is in pressure-contact with the transferring/fixing unit to form a nip through which a recording medium is conveyed; a heating unit that heats the transferring/fixing unit and the recording medium; and a toner-layer filling-rate lowering unit that causes a toner layer of the toner images to be formed on the image carrier so that the toner layer has sufficient optical transparency for the exposing and a toner-layer filling rate is less than or equal to substantially 50%.