Patent ID: 8116668

Claim:
A toner supplying roller, which is used in a developing apparatus comprising: a toner carrying member that conveys toner to a developing portion, which is opposite to an image bearing member, the toner supplying roller that abuts against the toner carrying member to supply the toner onto the toner carrying member; and a regulating member that regulates an amount of the toner supplied onto the toner carrying member, the toner supplying roller comprising: a foam elastic member provided on a surface of the toner supplying roller, the foam elastic member having the following characteristics: (1) an average diameter of a foam cell opening portion on a surface of the foam elastic member is 100 to 800 μm, (2) an unopened cell closed by a skin layer of a film thickness of 50 μm or less is present in the surface of the foam elastic member, and (3) assuming that a surface area of the foam elastic member is A, a total area of the foam cell opening portions is B, and a surface area of the unopened cell is C, the following relationship is satisfied: B A + 0.2 ≦ B + C A ≦ 0.95 .