Patent ID: 7486914

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image bearing member having a surface free energy of not less than 45 mN/m; a charging device configured to charge the image bearing member; an irradiating device configured to irradiate the image bearing member with light to form a latent electrostatic image on the image bearing member; a developing device configured to develop the latent electrostatic image with a toner optionally comprising a lubricant material; a transfer device configured to transfer the developed image to a transfer medium; a cleaning device configured to clean a surface of the image bearing member; and optionally a lubricant material supplying device configured to supply a lubricant material to the surface of the image bearing member, wherein a lubricant material is supplied to the surface of the image bearing member by at least one of the toner and the lubricant material supplying device so that the surface free energy on average in an image formation area on the image bearing member is not greater than 32 mN/m while a difference between a maximum and a minimum of the surface free energy is not greater than 5 mN/m.