During a print cycle of a print apparatus, a liquid print agent including a carrier fluid is applied to a photoconductive surface. A proportion of the carrier fluid in the liquid print agent on the photoconductive surface is reduced at a first location by removably collecting a portion of the carrier fluid from the liquid print agent applied to the photoconductive surface. During a non-print cycle of the print apparatus, the removably collected portion of the carrier fluid is added to the photoconductive surface at the first location.

An image forming apparatus comprises an image carrier to rotate about a rotation axis, a cleaning blade to contact a surface of the image carrier, and a protective agent coater. The protective agent coater has a rotatable shaft extending along the rotation axis of the image carrier, an elastic body formed around the rotatable shaft, and a waste toner supply member. The waste toner supply member supplies waste toner to the elastic body of the protective agent coater. The elastic body transfers protective agent from a protective agent supply to the image carrier. The protective agent coater is positioned upstream of the cleaning blade in the rotation direction of the image carrier.

An image forming apparatus that executes an image forming operation for forming a toner image on a recording material and an application operation of applying a metal soap to a surface of an image bearing member by supplying a toner stored in a toner storing unit to the surface of the image bearing member from the developing member. A surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is lower than the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the image forming operation, and a speed difference between the surficial moving speed of the developing member and the surficial moving speed of the image bearing member during the application operation is larger than that during the image forming operation.

In an example of the disclosure, an imaging oil is applied upon a photoconductor surface. An element is brought into contact with the imaging oil at the photoconductor surface. The element has a first refractive index that is within a predefined tolerance of a second refractive index of the imaging oil. The photoconductor surface is exposed to light emitted by a writing component. The light passes through the element and the imaging oil.

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier unit, an image display control unit, and a forming unit. The image carrier unit holds images formed from a developer. The images include an image intended to be transferred to a medium and an image unintended to be transferred to the medium. The image display control unit causes a display unit to display an image asking whether the image unintended to be transferred is to be formed when a predetermined condition for forming the image unintended to be transferred is satisfied. The forming unit forms the image unintended to be transferred to the medium when a command of forming the image unintended to be transferred to the medium is input to a display on the display unit.

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a light source, a light guiding unit including a light guiding member, a casing portion provided with a first through hole, and a sheet-like elastic member provided with a second through hole. The light guiding unit penetrates the first through hole and the second through hole, and one end portion of the light guiding unit opposes the light source and is positioned inside the casing portion. In a flat surface of the light guiding unit perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the light guiding unit, an area of the second through hole is smaller than an area of the light guiding unit.

An image forming apparatus includes a lubricant application target member, an application roller which is provided at a position adjacent to the lubricant application target member to apply a lubricant to the lubricant application target member, a lubricant support member which supports the lubricant, and a movement mechanism which includes a guide coupled to the lubricant support member and extending along a linear direction. An engaging portion engages with the guide and restricts movement of the lubricant support member in a linear direction of the guide by engagement of the guide with the engaging portion.

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a toner supply unit, an application roller adjacent to the image carrier, a toner measuring unit, and a control unit. The toner supply unit supplies toner to the image carrier. The application roller applies a lubricant to the image carrier. The toner measuring unit measures an amount of toner transferred from the image carrier to the application roller. The control unit adjusts the supply of toner to be supplied to the image carrier in accordance with the amount of toner measured by the toner measuring unit.

In an example of a method for reducing contamination, a purified imaging oil is formed by filtering an imaging oil through an imaging oil filter, and then filtering the imaging oil through a polar absorbent filter. A surface of an amorphous silicon photoconductor of a liquid electrophotographic printing apparatus is maintained by periodically applying the purified imaging oil to the amorphous silicon photoconductor.

An image forming apparatus includes a lubricant application device to apply a lubricant to a photoreceptor surface of the image forming apparatus, and a lubricant residual amount detector to detect a residual amount of the lubricant. The residual amount of the lubricant is compared to a predetermined amount, and a charging device charges the photoreceptor surface by selectively applying a DC voltage of varying voltage to the photoreceptor surface in response to the comparison of the residual amount of the lubricant to the predetermined amount.