Patent ID: 7979016

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an image bearing member configured to bear a latent electrostatic image on a surface thereof; a charging device configured to uniformly charge the surface of the image bearing member; an irradiation device configured to irradiate the surface of the image bearing member to form the latent electrostatic image thereon; a development device configured to develop the latent electrostatic image on the surface of the image bearing member with toner to form a toner image thereon; a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image to a transfer body; a cleaning device comprising a cleaning blade which is configured to remove residual toner remaining on the surface of the image bearing member with the cleaning blade; a protective agent application device configured to apply a protective agent comprising zinc stearate and zinc palmitate to the surface of the image bearing member, wherein a ratio of the zinc stearate and the zinc palmitate is from 66:34 to 40:60 by weight, and wherein with regard to C1s spectrum detected when the image bearing member is analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before the protective agent is applied to the surface of the image bearing member and peaks obtained by separating waveforms generated from different bonding statuses of carbon atoms according to binding energy, the image bearing member has a ratio A 0 of a sum of peak areas having a top of the peaks in a range of from 290.3 to 294 eV to a total area of the C1s spectrum of at least 3%, and with regard to C1s spectrum detected when the image bearing member is analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) after 500 images are output while the protective agent is applied to the image bearing member and the peaks obtained by separating waveforms generated from different bonding statuses of carbon atoms according to binding energy, a ratio A of a sum of peak areas having a top of the peaks in a range of from 290.3 to 294 eV to the total area of the C1s spectrum satisfies the following relationship: ( A 0 −A )/ A 0 ×100≧90(%).