Patent ID: 7177570

Claim:
An image forming apparatus that forms an image using an electrophotographic process, comprising: a photoconductor that includes at least a conductive support, an undercoat layer, and a photoconductive layer, wherein the photoconductor has a surface with either a 10-point average roughness RzJIS of 0.1 μm≦RzJIS≦1.5 μm or a maximum height Rz of 2.5 μm or lower; a charger that charges the photoconductor; a developing device that develops a latent image on the photoconductor with toner to obtain a toner image; a transfer device that transfers the toner image to a transfer element; a cleaning device including a cleaning blade that cleans off toner remaining on the photoconductor after the toner image has been transferred; the photoconductor having a frictional resistance Rf of from 45 gram-force to 200 gram-force against a flat type belt made of polyurethane, and the belt having a JIS-A hardness of 83 degrees, a width of 5 mm, a length of 325 mm, a thickness of 2 mm, and a dead weight of 4.58 grams, the frictional resistance Rf of from 45 gram-force to 200 gram-force existing when the belt is suspended in a circumferential direction of the photoconductor; a 100-gram load is hung at one end of the belt so that a contact length thereof with the photoconductor is 3 mm and a contact area is 15 mm 2 during determination of frictional resistance of the photoconductor against the belt, a digital force gauge is fixed to another end of the belt and a value is read from the digital force gauge when the belt moves, and the frictional resistance Rf measured under such conditions that a value obtained by subtracting the 100-gram load from the read value of the digital force gauge is determined as the frictional resistance Rf.