Patent ID: 7274898

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a latent electrostatic image bearing member, a metal-containing compound adhesion unit configured to make a metal-containing compound adhere on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, a latent electrostatic image forming unit configured to form a latent electrostatic image on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, a developing unit configured to develop the latent electrostatic image using a toner to form a visible image, a transferring unit configured to transfer the visible image onto a recording medium, and a cleaning unit configured to clean a residual toner on the latent electrostatic image bearing member, wherein a rate of variability in the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member which is represented by the following Equation 1 is 10% to 70% Rate of variability=( W 2 /W 1)×100 Equation 1 where W1 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound according to x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy immediately after the metal-containing compound adhered to the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member by the action of the metal-containing compound adhesion unit W2 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member according to x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy after 100 sheets of paper are continuously printed through the use of the image forming apparatus.