Patent ID: 7560216

Claim:
An image-fixing method, comprising: passing a recording medium bearing a toner image thereon through a nip formed between two or more fixing members so as to fix the toner image onto the recording medium, and ejecting the recording medium to beside of one of the two or more fixing members which contacts with a non-image-bearing surface of the recording medium, wherein one of the two or more fixing members which contacts with an image-bearing surface of the recording medium has a lower surface hardness than a surface hardness of the fixing member which contacts with the non-image-bearing surface of the recording medium, wherein a toner image has a maximum toner deposition amount of 0.4 mg/cm 2 to 1.5 mg/cm 2 at least a part thereof and wherein the toner image is comprised of a toner, the toner comprises toner particles, each toner particle comprises a wax having an aliphatic hydrocarbon chain in a polymeric structure thereof, a vinyl-modified polymer, and a polyester resin having an aromatic ring in a polymeric structure thereof, wherein the vinyl-modified polymer is a wax which is modified with a vinyl monomer having an average ester-group concentration of 8% by mass to 30% by mass at least at a part thereof, a total amount of the wax in the toner particle is 1% by mass to 20% by mass, the total amount of the wax is determined as a value which is mass-converted from an endothermic value of the wax in accordance with DSC, an amount of the wax located in a region of the toner particle including from the surface to 0.3 μm depth from the surface is 0.05 to 0.40, the amount of the wax located in the region is determined as an intensity ratio P 2850 /P 828 of a peak 2850 cm −1 derived from the wax to a peak 828 cm −1 derived from the polyester resin, in accordance with FTIR-ATR, a ratio of the amount of the wax located in the region to the total amount of the wax in the toner particle is 0.1 or more and less than 1.0, in which the amount of the wax located in the region is determined as a value which is mass-converted from an intensity ratio P 2850 /P 828 of a peak 2850 cm −1 derived from the wax to a peak 828 cm −1 derived from the polyester resin in accordance with FTIR-ATR, and the total amount of the wax is determined as a value which is mass-converted from an endothermic value of the wax in accordance with DSC, and at least a part of the wax is encapsulated in the toner particle in the form of dispersed particles.