Patent ID: 7704664

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a toner comprising the steps of: coagulating resin particles containing at least binder resin, which have a particle diameter of 1 μm or less and are obtained from slurry containing coarse particles of binder resin by a high pressure homogenizer method, and particles of toner raw material not contained in the resin particles; and heating a resultant coagulated product, wherein the high pressure homogenizer method comprises: a pulverizing step for obtaining heated and pressurized slurry containing resin particles having a particle diameter of 1 μm or less by passing slurry containing coarse particles of binder resin through a pressure-resistant nozzle under heat and pressure and pulverizing the coarse particles of binder resin; a cooling step for cooling down the slurry obtained at the pulverizing step; and a depressurizing step for gradually depressurizing the slurry cooled down at the cooling step, to a pressure level at which no bubbling is caused, at the depressurizing step, a pressure on the slurry is gradually reduced to a level at which no bubbling is caused by passing the pressurized slurry containing resin particles, which is cooled down at the cooling step, through a multistage depressurization apparatus for performing stepwise depressurization.