Patent ID: 7923065

Claim:
An image removing method comprising: heating a recording material having thereon an image including a thermoplastic material to a temperature at which the thermoplastic material has a plasticity; pressure-contacting a first outermost layer of an uppermost stream peeling member with a surface of the recording material, on which the image is formed, while the thermoplastic material in the image maintains a plasticity; separating the uppermost stream peeling member from the recording material to transfer at least a portion of the image to the uppermost stream peeling member; and repeating the heating, pressure-contacting and separating steps at least one more time using at least one downstream peeling member, wherein the first outermost layer of the uppermost stream peeling member does not have a plasticity when being pressure-contacted with the recording material, and at least one of the at least one downstream peeling member has a second outermost layer which has a plasticity when being pressure-contacted with the recording material, and wherein the image is formed on the recording material using an image forming material having a volume average particle diameter of not greater than 8 μm.