Patent ID: 8340562

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image bearing member, configured to bear a latent image, comprising a surface layer; a charging device configured to charge a surface of the image bearing member; a latent image forming device configured to form the latent image on the surface of the image bearing member; a development device configured to develop the latent image formed on the surface of the image bearing member with a development agent to form a toner image thereon; a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image to a transfer medium; a cleaning device configured to remove residual toner remaining on the surface of the image bearing member after transferring the toner image to the transfer medium; and a protection agent supplying device, configured to supply a protection agent to the surface layer of the image bearing member, that forms a protection layer thereon, wherein the protection agent comprises a metal soap and boron nitride, and an amount of the boron nitride in the protection layer applied to the image bearing member after image formation is 0.3 μg/cm 2 or less, wherein the protection agent supplying device comprises an extension blade that uniformly forms the protection layer on the surface of the image bearing member, and wherein the extension blade is in contact with the surface of the image bearing member in a counter manner.