Patent ID: 8494429

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: multiple photoreceptors; multiple chargers that charge the respective photoreceptors; a latent image forming device that forms respective latent images on the respective charged photoreceptors; multiple developing devices that develop the respective latent images into respective toner images; multiple transfer devices that transfer the respective toner images onto an intermediate transfer member; multiple cleaning devices that remove residues remaining on the respective photoreceptors after transferring the respective toner images therefrom; and one or more BN-containing protective agent applicators that apply a BN-containing protective agent comprising a metal soap and boron nitride to the respective photoreceptors, wherein a total number of the photoreceptors is N, N being an integer of 2 or more, and a total number of the BN-containing protective agent applicators is a number in {1, . . . , N−1} when N is greater than 2, and is equal to 1 when N=2.