Patent ID: 8628904

Claim:
A carrier used in a trickle development system of an electrophotographic apparatus, wherein the system develops a latent image with a developer including the carrier, and the developer is supplied to the system to replace a deteriorated carrier that was previously supplied to the system, the carrier comprising: single particles and bonding particles, each of the single particles having: a core material; and a resin layer covering the core material; wherein each of the bonding particles is constituted by a plurality of single particles that are bonded to each other via the resin layer, the carrier comprises a predetermined number of the single particles that do not constitute the bonding particles, a content ratio of the bonding particles to the single particles that do not constitute the bonding particles in the carrier, when expressed by (N2/(N1+N2)×100) in which the particle number of the single particles that do not constitute the bonding particles is designated as N1 and the particle number of the bonding particles is designated as N2, is from about 30% by number to about 95% by number, and a resin of the resin layer is a member selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinyl ether, polyvinyl ketone, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, styrene-acrylic acid copolymer, styrene methacrylate copolymer, fluorine resin, polyester, polycarbonate, phenol resin, and epoxy resin.