An electrophotographic image forming apparatus using an organic photoreceptor in which at least a charge generation layer, a charge transport layer, and a protective layer are laminated in order on a conductive support includes at least a unit for supplying a lubricant onto a surface of the organic photoreceptor and a unit for removing toner remaining on the surface of the organic photoreceptor with a cleaning blade, and satisfying the following conditions (1) to (3): (1) the protective layer of the organic photoreceptor contains at least metal oxide fine particles in a cured resin obtained by curing a polymerizable compound; (2) a universal hardness of the surface of the organic photoreceptor is in a range of 220 to 280 N/mm.sup.2; and (3) a JIS-A hardness of a portion of the cleaning blade to be abutted on the organic photoreceptor is in a range of 70 to 78.

An image forming apparatus includes a belt, a plurality of image forming devices including a photosensitive member, a developing device, a transfer device and a blade, and a control device configured to form a pattern image on a first photosensitive member, when an image to be printed on a sheet is not formed, by applying a developing voltage to a first developing device, an absolute value thereof is greater than that when an image to be printed on a sheet is formed, transfer the pattern image onto the belt and apply a transfer voltage or transfer current having the same polarity as that applied to a second transfer device when an image to be printed on a sheet is formed to the second transfer device when the pattern image to be conveyed by the belt passes the second transfer device.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; an image forming unit configured to form, on the image carrier, an electrostatic latent image; a developing unit including a toner carrier configured to develop, on the image carrier, a toner image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image; an application unit configured to apply a lubricant onto the image carrier; a calculation unit configured to calculate an image portion ratio representing a ratio of a toner sticking region to the electrostatic latent image or the toner image; and a control unit configured to cause the lubricant mixed into the developing unit to stick to the toner carrier, and change, depending on the image portion ratio, an amount of the lubricant caused to stick to a non-image-formation region which is a region on the image carrier and in which the electrostatic latent image or the toner image is not formed.

In one implementation, an image forming apparatus may include a photoconductive unit and a refresh unit. The photoconductive unit may include a photoconductive layer. The photoconductive layer may have a first polarity during a print routine. The refresh unit may apply a voltage to the photoconductive layer to electrically bias the photoconductive layer to have a second polarity during a refresh routine.

An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a photosensitive drum, a cleaning member, a driving transmission portion, and a movement mechanism. The photosensitive drum is rotatably supported by the housing about a first shaft portion. The driving transmission portion transmits a rotation driving force to the photosensitive drum. The movement mechanism reciprocates the photosensitive drum in an axial direction. The movement mechanism includes a first rotation gear, a second rotation gear, a first intermediate gear, and a second intermediate gear. The first rotation gear integrally rotates with the photosensitive drum. The second rotation gear has teeth different in number from teeth of the first rotation gear and rotates with a predetermined speed difference relative to the first rotation gear. The first and second intermediate gears are a pair of rotation gears rotatable about a second shaft portion parallel to the first shaft portion.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing body; a developing unit which develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image bearing body as a toner image; a transfer unit which transfers the toner image to a receiver medium; a cleaning member which collects residual toner on the image bearing body; a lubricant supply unit which supplies lubricant onto the image bearing body; a measurement unit which measures a static frictional force generated between the image bearing body and the cleaning member; and a control unit which corrects the amount of lubricant on the image bearing body, wherein the control unit estimates a state of the lubricant on the image bearing body based on a change between a first and a second static frictional force, and based on the estimated state, the control unit selectively executes one of processing of supplying lubricant and processing of removing lubricant.

After an image formation operation, an ending operation, by which an interposed toner layer is formed on a photosensitive drum and the photosensitive drum is stopped in a state where the interposed toner layer is interposed between the photosensitive drum and an intermediate transfer belt, is executed. In a case where a signal for starting the image formation operation is input after the photosensitive drum is stopped without executing the ending operation, a control circuit is able to execute, before executing the image formation operation, a recovery operation by which predetermined toner in a band shape is formed on the photosensitive drum, the predetermined toner is supplied to a contact part of the photosensitive drum and a blade, and the photosensitive drum is caused to rotate for a predetermined time or more.

A delivery member for use in an image forming apparatus. The delivery member has a support member and a first layer disposed on the support member. The first layer includes a cross-linked elastomeric matrix, a stabilizing polymer comprising a polysiloxane backbone, and a functional material. Coating mixtures for preparing such delivery members having a first layer. Image forming apparatuses containing such delivery members.

A solid lubricant containing a fatty acid metal salt and a polyethylene having an acid value is prepared. The solid lubricant is disposed so as to be applied on a surface of an image bearing member of an image forming apparatus in electrophotography, and a lubricant layer is formed on the surface of the image bearing member with the solid lubricant.

Methods for lubricating an imaging member include applying lubricant-containing capsules to the surface of the imaging member via a non-contact applicator. The capsules are applied upstream of a cleaning blade after image transfer to another substrate, such that the cleaning blade ruptures the capsules, thereby releasing the lubricant contained therein.