Patent ID: 8012662

Claim:
A method of manufacturing toner comprising: melting and kneading a mixture comprising a binder resin and a coloring agent; cooling down the melted and kneaded mixture to provide a cooled mixture; coarsely pulverizing the cooled mixture to provide a coarsely pulverized mixture; finely pulverizing the coarsely pulverized mixture by supplying the coarsely pulverized mixture via a pulverized material supply to a mechanical pulverizer that comprises a rotation axis, a rotor attached to the rotation axis, and stators arranged around the rotor with a gap between the stators and a surface of the rotor and that performs pulverization in a circular space formed by the gap; and classifying the finely pulverized material by a classifier into at least fine powder, a toner product and coarse powder, wherein the coarse powder is returned to the pulverized material supply as part of the coarsely pulverized mixture, wherein the coarsely pulverized mixture is supplied to the mechanical pulverizer together with air, and wherein the following relationship is satisfied: T×M/F≦13.4, wherein T represents a difference between a temperature of the air supplied with the coarsely pulverized mixture to the pulverizer and a temperature of air discharged therefrom, M (μm) represents a weight average particle diameter of the toner product classified by the classifier, and F (kg/h) represents a supply amount of the coarsely pulverized mixture.