Patent ID: 8895216

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a conductive substrate, a photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive substrate, and a surface protective layer that is disposed on the photosensitive layer and contains fluororesin particles and a fluorinated alkyl group-containing copolymer; a charging unit that charges a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor; an electrostatic latent image forming unit that forms an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the charged electrophotographic photoreceptor; a developing unit that comprises a developer containing toner particles and zinc stearate, and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with the developer to form a toner image, a content of zinc stearate relative to the toner particles in the developer being from about 0.01% by weight to about 2% by weight; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor to a recording medium; and a cleaning unit that removes the developer remaining on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, wherein when the electrophotographic photoreceptor is rotated 50,000 times by repeating the formation of an image having image sections and non-image sections and having an image density of 7%, and then the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), a ratio of a zinc coating to a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor is in a range of from about 50% to about 100%; and wherein: the surface protective layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor contains at least one of a guanamine compound and a melamine compound, a structure originating from a charge transporting material having an alkoxy group, and a structure originating from a charge transporting material having a hydroxyl group; a total content of the guanamine compound and the melamine compound relative to a total solids content of the surface protective layer excluding the fluororesin particles and the fluorinated alkyl group-containing copolymer is from about 0.1% by weight to about 5% by weight; and a content of the structure originating from a charge transporting material having an alkoxy group relative to the total solids content of the surface protective layer excluding the fluororesin particles and the fluorinated alkyl group-containing copolymer is from about 10% by weight to about 40% by weight.