Patent ID: 7272344

Claim:
An image forming method comprising: a charging step of charging an image bearing member with a charging member; an electrostatic latent image forming step of forming an electrostatic charge image on the image bearing member thus charged; a developing step of developing the electrostatic charge image with a toner thereby forming a toner image; a transfer step of transferring the toner image, formed on the image bearing member, onto a recording medium either using or without using an intermediate transfer a member; a fixing step of heat fixing the toner image onto the recording medium; and a cleaning step of cleaning a surface of the image bearing member after the image transfer with a cleaning member, wherein the image bearing member has a universal surface hardness HU of 150 to 220 N/mm 2 and an elastic deformation ratio We of 40 to 65%, as measured in a hardness test employing a tetragonal cone diamond indenter pressed under a maximum load of 6 mN in an environment of a temperature of 25° C. and a humidity of 50%, wherein the charging member is a contacting charging roller so provided as to be brought into contact with the image bearing member, that a rotary axis of the contact charging roller and a rotary axis of the image bearing member mutually cross with a crossing angle θ(°), wherein the cleaning member is a cleaning blade so provided as to be brought into contact with the image bearing member, wherein abrasive particles are present in a contact portion between the cleaning blade and the image bearing member, and wherein for a ratio A (% by weight) of the transfer residual toner reaching the cleaning blade and the abrasive particles and for a contact pressure B (g/cm) of the cleaning blade, HU, We, A, B, and θ satisfy the following relations (I), (II) and (III): (1/6000)× HU×We≦A×B (I) A/B×θ (II) 10≦B≦50 (III).