Patent ID: 8886092

Claim:
An electrophotographic apparatus comprising: an electrophotographic photosensitive member including a support and a photosensitive layer formed on the support; a developing unit configured to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on a surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member with a toner containing, as an external additive, inorganic fine particles having a number-average particle size (P[μm]) of 0.1 μm or more and 1.5 μm or less; and a cleaning unit configured to remove untransferred toner remaining on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member with a cleaning blade, wherein, depressed portions which are independent from one another, are formed in the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member at a density of 10 or more of the depressed portions per unit area of 1 cm 2 , and each of the depressed portions satisfies the following conditions; Conditions each of the depressed portions satisfies the following relationships where a depth of each of the depressed portions is defined as Rdv[μm], a minor-axis diameter of each of the depressed portions is defined as Lpc[μm], a major-axis diameter of each of the depressed portions is defined as Rpc[μm], and an angle formed between a direction of the major-axis of each of the depressed portions and a direction of movement of the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member is defined as θ[°]: 5[°]≦θ[°]≦85[°], 0.3 ×P [μm]≦ Rdv [μm]≦0.5 ×P [μm], 1.1 ×P [μm]≦ Lpc [μm]≦1.5 ×P [μm], and 50/Sinθ[μm]≦ Rpc [μm]≦1500[μm].