Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Shinji Nousho

Hideo Nakamori

Takashi Rokutanzono

Narihito Kojima

Hiroshi Nagame

Keisuke Shimoyama

Mitsuru Seto

Toshiyuki Kabata

Hidetoshi Kami

Eiji Kurimoto

Akihiro Sugino

Yasuyuki Yamashita

Yukio Ide

Takaaki Ikegami

Kohichi Ohshima

Junichiro Hashimoto

An image forming apparatus including an image bearing member having a surface free energy of not less than 45 mN/m, a charging device for charging the image bearing member, an irradiating device for irradiating the image bearing member with light to form a latent electrostatic image thereon, a developing device for developing the latent electrostatic image with a toner optionally containing a lubricant, a transfer device for transferring the developed image to a transfer medium, a cleaning device for cleaning the surface of the image bearing member, and optionally a lubricant supplying device for supplying a lubricant to the surface of the image bearing member. A lubricant is supplied to the surface of the image bearing member by at least one of the toner and the lubricant supplying device so that the surface free energy on average in an image formation area on the image bearing member is not greater than 32 mN/m while the maximum difference of the surface free energy is not greater than 5 mN/m.

Electrophotographic image forming apparatus, process cartridge and image forming method wherein lubricant is supplied to a surface of an image bearing member

An image forming apparatus having a latent electrostatic image bearing member, a metal-containing compound adhesion unit, a latent electrostatic image forming unit, a developing unit, a transferring unit, a fixing unit, and a cleaning unit, in which the rate of variability in the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, represented by the following equation, is 10% to 70%, Rate of variability=(W2/W1)&#xd7;100, in which W1 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound according to XPS immediately after the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member, and W2 represents the content of metallic atoms in the metal-containing compound adhered on the surface of the latent electrostatic image bearing member according to XPS after 100 sheets of paper are continuously printed using the image forming apparatus.

Process cartridge, image forming method, and image forming apparatus

An electrophotographic photoreceptor including an electroconductive substrate and a photosensitive layer located overlying the electroconductive substrate, wherein an outermost layer of the electrophotographic photoreceptor includes a particulate fluorine-containing resin, and wherein a primary particle of the particulate fluorine-containing resin and a secondary particle formed of agglomerated primary particles thereof, which are projected from a surface of the outermost layer and have an average particle diameter of from 0.15 to 3 &#x3bc;m, are present in an area ratio not less than 10% based on total surface area of the outermost layer.

Electrophotographic photoreceptor, and image forming method, image forming apparatus and process cartridge therefor using the electrophotographic photoreceptor

An electrophotographic photoconductor is composed of an electroconductive support, a photoconductive layer formed on the electroconductive support, and a protective layer formed on the photoconductive layer which is composed of a polyol curing-type urethane resin, and satisfies the condition of b/a.ltoreq.0.2, wherein a is the absorbance at 2920 cm.sup.- and b is the absorbance at 2260 cm.sup.-1 in an IR spectrum of the protective layer.

Electrophotographic photoconductor with overlayer of polyol-curing

An electrophotographic photoconductor comprises (a) an electroconductive support, (b) a photoconductive layer formed thereon comprising a selenium alloy, and (c) a protective layer which is formed on the photoconductive layer, contains a binder resin component and an anti-oxidizing agent. In an electrophotographic copying process and an electrophographic copying apparatus using this photoconductor, the protective layer is abraded at a predetermined rate during the copying process in such a fashion that the anti-oxidizing agent contained in the protective layer is always present at the surface of the protective layer, thereby protecting the photoconductor from ozone and ions which are generated during corona charging of the photoconductor.

Electrophotographic photoconductor and electrophotographic copying

An electrophotographic photoconductor is disclosed, which comprises an electroconductive substrate, a photoconductive layer formed on the electroconductive substrate, and a protective layer formed on the photoconductive layer, the protective layer comprising a binder resin and finely-divided particles of at least one metal oxide with the surface thereof being coated with a coupling agent selected from the group consisting of a titanate-type coupling agent, a fluorine-containing silane coupling agent, and an acetoalkoxyaluminum diisopropylate, dispersed in the binder resin.

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Numazu, Japan

Shinji Nousho