Abstract: A cleaning blade, which is configured to be pressed against a toner image carrier that rotates in one direction, for removing residual toner from the toner image carrier, the cleaning blade having: a contact layer that is located in a side to come into contact with the toner image carrier; and a supporting layer that is located in a side not to come into contact with the toner image carrier, wherein tensile stress characteristic curves of a material of the contact layer and a material of the supporting layer intersect with each other. An image forming apparatus having a toner image carrier and the cleaning blade.

Abstract: A loop brush includes a shaft and a ribbon having loop-shaped fiber bundles arranged regularly on a base cloth. The ribbon is wound around the shaft at a prescribed angle. An arrangement angle that is an angle of an arrangement line, which is a straight line connecting adjacent fiber bundles, with respect to a longitudinal direction of the ribbon differs from a winding angle that is an angle of the longitudinal direction of the ribbon with respect to a circumferential direction of the shaft.

Abstract: Fiber bundle forms loops protruding beyond a surface side of a base member with constant spaces therebetween, in at least one of opposite ends located in a direction perpendicular to a weaving direction (W) of a ribbon brush, a weft extending between neighboring loops passes under a warp, and a weft extending through the loop passes above the warp.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus having: an image carrier that moves in a direction while holding a toner image on its surface; a cleaner that is located downstream from a transfer point where a toner image is transferred from the image carrier, with respect to the moving direction of the image carrier, to remove residual toner and other residues from the surface of the image carrier; a lubricant supply device for supplying a lubricant to the surface of the image carrier; and a flattener for spreading out the lubricant supplied from the lubricant supply device over the surface of the image carrier by pressing its edge portion against the surface of the image carrier; wherein the flattener has an impact resilience within a range of 48% to 68% under temperature of 25° C., and the edge portion of the flattener is arranged counter the moving direction of the image carrier.

Abstract: A blade member having; a contact layer in contact with a surface of an image carrier; and a support layer superimposed on the contact layer, wherein a first curve indicating a relation between loss tangent and temperature of the contact layer and a second curve indicating a relation between loss tangent and temperature of the support layer intersect with each other in a temperature range of not lower than 25° C. and not higher than 45° C.

Abstract: A lubricant application device 12 capable of shaving a solid lubricant evenly and lubricating an image carrying member evenly has a solid lubricant 25 formed by solidifying a lubricant for lubricating the surface of an image carrying member 8 which carries images composed of a developer, and a brush roller 24 rotating while abutting against the solid lubricant 25 and the image carrying member 8, wherein the brush roller 24 has looped bristles 23 implanted in an endless state and is rotated in a direction of the rotation following the rotation of the image carrying member 8, and has a circumferential velocity of the rotation of the brush roller 24 is faster than 56% of the circumferential velocity of the image carrying member 8 and slower than 80% of the circumferential velocity of the image carrying member 8.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image carrying member which carries an image composed of a developer, a lubricant application device which applies a lubricant onto the image carrying member, and a cleaning blade which abuts against the image carrying member to scrape the developer. The cleaning blade is formed of a material whose tensile stress-elongation test shows that the definite integral of a tensile stress with respect to an elongation percentage on an interval between the elongation percentage of zero and the elongation percentage at which the stress is a predetermined value is a predetermined upper limit value or less.

Abstract: In the lubricant application device 12, including a brush roller 23 which rotates while contacting an image carrying member 8 and a solid lubricant 24, shaves the solid lubricant 24 and applies the shaved solid lubricant 24 onto the image carrying member 8, and a flicker 26 which abuts against the brush roller 23 and knocks off a developer adhering to the brush roller 23 through a rotation of the brush roller 23, the brush roller 23 has looped bristles implanted in a state of endless loop, and the flicker 26 has a contact surface 29 which forms an acute angle, preferably an angle ? of 5° or more and 70° or less, with a direction of a tangent line on an upstream side in a rotation direction of the brush roller 23, and the looped bristles have the inclination of 30° or more and 60° or less with respect to a direction of a rotation axis of the brush roller 23.

Abstract: A solid lubricant-coating device is provided with a solid lubricant to be applied to the surface of a latent image-supporting member; a supply roller for scraping and supplying the solid lubricant onto the surface of the latent image-supporting member by self rotation; a pressing unit for pressing the solid lubricant onto the supply roller; a flattening unit for forming a thin film of the supplied solid lubricant on the surface of the latent image-supporting member; and a cleaning unit for removing the residual toner on the surface of the latent image-supporting member and recovering the solid lubricant thin film on the surface of the latent image-supporting member, wherein, when a thickness of the solid lubricant thin film immediately before the supply roller in the rotation direction of the latent image-supporting member is designated as thickness A (nm) and a thickness immediately after the flattening unit is designated as thickness B (nm), the thicknesses A and B satisfy the following relational formulae

Abstract: An image forming device includes a rotation member being held rotatably while making contact with an image carrier, a solid lubricant pressed so as to make contact with the rotation member, and a potential application unit for applying a potential to the rotation member, wherein the material of the solid lubricant and the material of the rotation member are selected so that the charged polarity of the solid lubricant charged due to the friction between the rotation member and the solid lubricant becomes identical with the charged polarity of toner, and the potential to be applied to the rotation member is set so as to be higher or lower than the surface potential of the neutralized image carrier so that the charges having the same polarity as the charged polarity of the solid lubricant are attracted from the rotation member to the neutralized image carrier.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises an image carrier, a lubricant application device that applies a first lubricant to the image carrier surface, and a developing device that houses a developer to which a second lubricant is added and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier. Here, the pure water contact angle ?1 of the first lubricant and the pure water contact angle ?2 of the second lubricant have the following relationship, ?1??2. Furthermore, a frictional coefficient of the second lubricant may be larger than a frictional coefficient of the first lubricant.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises an image carrier, a lubricant application device that applies a first lubricant to the image carrier surface, and a developing device that houses a developer to which a second lubricant is added and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier. Here, the pure water contact angle ?1 of the first lubricant and the pure water contact angle ?2 of the second lubricant have the following relationship, ?1??2. Furthermore, a frictional coefficient of the second lubricant may be larger than a frictional coefficient of the first lubricant.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a cleaner, which can be a cleaning blade, for removing residual toner from the surface of a rotatable image-bearing member, and a charger for imparting a charge to the residual toner before the residual toner is removed by the cleaner. The amount of charge imparted to the residual toner is less than 10 .mu.c/g.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus and a cleaning blade employed in the image forming apparatus which is operable to form an electrostatic latent image on an image carrying member, develop the latent image with toner into a visible toner image, transfer the toner image onto a record member and fix the same, and having an edge pressed against the image carrying member with a predetermined pressure for removing residual toner on the image carrying member after the transfer. A degree of toluene swelling of the cleaning blade is in a range from 20% to 100%, and the cleaning blade has an impact resilience in a range from 10% to 65%, a Young's modulus in a range from 30 to 120 kg/cm.sup.2, and a 300%-modulus in a range from 100 to 600 kg/cm.sup.2.