Patent ID: 7209698

Claim:
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image bearing member configured to bear a toner image on a surface thereof; a charging mechanism configured to uniformly charge the surface of the image bearing member; an intermediate transfer mechanism configured to transfer the toner image from the image bearing member to an image receiver; a cleaning mechanism configured to clean the surface of the image bearing member after the toner image is transferred to the image receiver; and a lubricant supplying mechanism configured to supply a powder lubricant contained therein to the surface of the image bearing member, the lubricant supplying mechanism comprising a lubricant housing and a lubricating blade configured to form a thin layer, the powder lubricant comprising at least one of a powder particle having a volume-based average particle diameter from greater than 0.1 mm to approximately 3.0 mm and disposed in the lubricant housing in contact with the lubricating blade prior to being supplied to the surface of the image bearing member, the lubricant supplying mechanism disposed between the cleaning mechanism and the charging mechanism.