Abstract: A temperature sensor includes a metal tube having an opening tip portion, a temperature sensing element for measuring a temperature, a pair of lead wires contacting with a surface of the temperature sensing element, an insulating support material for insulating the pair of lead wires from the metal tube, and a coating material for covering the temperature sensing element, lead tip portions of the pair of lead wires, and a tip surface of the insulating support material at the opening tip portion of the metal tube. The coating material has a property of not allowing measurement target gas to pass through and contains oxide and at least one of platinum, platinum alloy, and platinum-containing oxide that are dispersed in the oxide.

Abstract: A temperature sensor includes a metal tube having an opening tip portion, a temperature sensing element for measuring a temperature, a pair of lead wires contacting with a surface of the temperature sensing element, an insulating support material for insulating the pair of lead wires from the metal tube, and a coating material for covering the temperature sensing element, lead tip portions of the pair of lead wires, and a tip surface of the insulating support material at the opening tip portion of the metal tube. The coating material has a property of not allowing measurement target gas to pass through and contains oxide and at least one of platinum, platinum alloy, and platinum-containing oxide that are dispersed in the oxide.

Abstract: A toner having: a peak temperature before fixation T1a of about 40° C. or more; and a peak temperature after fixation T1b that is lower than T1a by from about 10° C. to about 35° C.: T1a being a peak temperature of an endothermic peak occurring at the lowest temperature in a range of from 0° C. to 100° C. and obtained at a first warming-up step of a differential scanning calorimetry measurement that uses a toner before fixation as a sample; T1b being a peak temperature of an endothermic peak occurring at the lowest temperature within a range of from 0° C. to 100° C. and obtained at a first warming-up step of a differential scanning calorimetry measurement that uses a toner after fixation as a sample; and the toner after fixation being contained in a fixed image transferred from a transferring member and fixed on a recording medium, a maximum width of an image defect formed after conducting a folding test of the fixed image being 0.30 mm or less.

Abstract: The invention provides: an electrostatic latent image developing toner comprising a non-crystalline resin, a crystalline resin having a melting point of 50 to 100° C., and a colorant, and satisfying the relationship represented by the following formula (1), wherein A represents the content of the crystalline resin (% by mass) in the entire toner, and B represents the content of the crystalline resin (% by mass) in a classified toner which has been prepared by classifying the toner such that the volume average particle diameter thereof is in the range of (?)×D50T to (?)×D50T, wherein D50T represents the volume average particle diameter of the entire toner, and a method for producing the same, as well as an electrostatic latent image developing developer, a toner cartridge, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus using the same.

Abstract: A toner having: a peak temperature before fixation T1a of about 40° C. or more; and a peak temperature after fixation T1b that is lower than T1a by from about 10° C. to about 35° C.: T1a being a peak temperature of an endothermic peak occurring at the lowest temperature in a range of from 0° C. to 100° C. and obtained at a first warming-up step of a differential scanning calorimetry measurement that uses a toner before fixation as a sample; T1b being a peak temperature of an endothermic peak occurring at the lowest temperature within a range of from 0° C. to 100° C. and obtained at a first warming-up step of a differential scanning calorimetry measurement that uses a toner after fixation as a sample; and the toner after fixation being contained in a fixed image transferred from a transferring member and fixed on a recording medium, a maximum width of an image defect formed after conducting a folding test of the fixed image being 0.30 mm or less.

Abstract: The invention provides: an electrostatic latent image developing toner comprising a non-crystalline resin, a crystalline resin having a melting point of 50 to 100° C., and a colorant, and satisfying the relationship represented by the following formula (1), wherein A represents the content of the crystalline resin (% by mass) in the entire toner, and B represents the content of the crystalline resin (% by mass) in a classified toner which has been prepared by classifying the toner such that the volume average particle diameter thereof is in the range of (?)×D50T to (?)×D50T, wherein D50T represents the volume average particle diameter of the entire toner, and a method for producing the same, as well as an electrostatic latent image developing developer, a toner cartridge, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus using the same.

Abstract: The invention provides a toner for developing electrostatic charged images comprising toner mother particles containing a binder resin and a colorant, and an external additive, wherein: the average of shape factors SF1 of the toner mother particles represented by the following Formula (1) is 140 or less; the external additive contains higher alcohol particles having a volume-average particle diameter of 1 to 12 ?m; and the content of the higher alcohol particles having a diameter equal to or less than the volume-average particle diameter of the toner mother particles is in a range of 0.15 to 2.5 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of the toner mother particles. In addition, the invention provides a developer for developing electrostatic charged images comprising the toner. Further, the invention provides an image forming method using the toner.

Abstract: An electrostatic latent image developing toner that is made by adding electrically conductive powder as an external additive to toner particles comprising a binder resin and a colorant, wherein the liberation rate of the electrically conductive powder is from 50 to 90%; and the number average particle size distribution index G of the toner particles, which is represented by the following formula (1), is 1.20 or less. particle size distribution index G=D50/D16??Formula (1) And an electrostatic latent image developing toner that is made by adding a metal oxide as an external additive to toner particles comprising a binder resin and a colorant, wherein the liberation rate of the metal oxide is from 30 to 60%.

Abstract: The present invention provides a process cartridge that is freely attachable to and detachable from a main body of an image forming apparatus and that includes a latent image bearing body and a developing device having a developer storage space for storing a developer, the image forming apparatus and an image forming method. The invention also provides another image forming method using a one-component magnetic toner that is employable in a wide region of from a low process speed to a high process speed while achieving a high fixing ability.

Abstract: The invention provides a toner for developing electrostatic charged images comprising toner mother particles containing a binder resin and a colorant, and an external additive, wherein: the average of shape factors SF1 of the toner mother particles represented by the following Formula (1) is 140 or less; the external additive contains higher alcohol particles having a volume-average particle diameter of 1 to 12 ?m; and the content of the higher alcohol particles having a diameter equal to or less than the volume-average particle diameter of the toner mother particles is in a range of 0.15 to 2.5 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of the toner mother particles. In addition, the invention provides a developer for developing electrostatic charged images comprising the toner. Further, the invention provides an image forming method using the toner.

Abstract: The present invention provides a process cartridge that is freely attachable to and detachable from a main body of an image forming apparatus and that includes a latent image bearing body and a developing device having a developer storage space for storing a developer, the image forming apparatus and an image forming method. The invention also provides another image forming method using a one-component magnetic toner that is employable in a wide region of from a low process speed to a high process speed while achieving a high fixing ability.

Abstract: A toner for developing an electrostatic latent image, wherein in regard to the molecular weight by GPC of the THF dissolved components of the toner, the ratio of at least 5×105 in the integral molecular weight distribution is not higher than 1% by weight, the ratio of not higher than 3×103 is not higher than 30% by weight, and the ratio {W(5×103)/W(1×105)} of the ratio {W(5×103)} of not higher than 5×103 to the ratio {W(1×105)} of at least 1×105 is from 15 to 50. Also, the molecular weight by GPC of the THF dissolved components of the toner is distributed in the range of not larger than 1×106, the value of the differential molecular weight distribution of the molecular weight of 5×103 is not larger than 0.55%, and the value of the differential molecular weight distribution of the molecular weight of 1×105 is not larger than 0.15%.

Abstract: A toner for developing an electrostatic latent image contains a binder resin, a colorant, a wax, and inorganic fine particles. The toner contains the inorganic fine particles content in the range from 1 to 10% by weight, the temperature at which the complex viscosity &eegr;° of the toner in the case of measuring at a frequency of 100 rad/second shows 1000 Pa.s ranges from 125 to 145° C., and the temperature at which the complex viscosity &eegr;° of the toner in the case of measuring at a frequency of 100 rad/second shows 100 Pa.s ranges from 180 to 210° C.

Abstract: A full color electrophotographic toner including toner particles containing at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax, and external additives, at least one of the external additives being rutile titanium oxide having a volume resistivity of 1×1014 to 1×1018 &OHgr;cm, and a dispersion absolute deviation a of rutile titanium oxide being 0.17 or less, and a full color electrophotographic developer and an image forming method using the same are provided. In the full color electrophotographic toner, the full color electrophotographic developer and the image forming method of the invention, a retransfer phenomenon of the transferred toner can be prevented, a chargeability and a transferability are not problematic at all, a charging amount of the toner in long-term use can be rendered appropriate and stable, and a fluidity is also excellent.

Abstract: Provided is a toner having good offset resistance and capable of giving non-glaring, high-quality images with high OHP transparency, and a method of image formation with it. The toner includes at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax. The THF soluble component of the toner, as analyzed through gel permeation chromatography, has a number-average molecular weight falling between 2500 and 5500, a weight-average molecular weight falling between 13000 and 25000, and a peak molecular weight falling between 5000 and 15000, and contains a fraction having a molecular weight of at least 105 in a ratio of at most 10% by weight of the component and a fraction having a molecular weight of at least 104 in a ratio of from 30 to 70% by weight of the component, and the wax in the toner has a DSC endothermic peak falling between 50 and 120° C.

Abstract: A full-color latent image developing toner composed of toner particles containing a binder resin, a coloring agent, and a surface lubricant, and at least one kind of an external additive, wherein the toner contains at least about 3% the surface lubricant, the toner includes irregular-shaped particles of ML2/A≧125, and when the emission voltage caused by the carbon originated in the binder resin of the toner particles is X and the emission voltage caused by the element originated in the external additive is Y, and when the relationship between X(⅔) and Y are primary-regressed to the straight line passing through origin of a coordinate, the correlation factor of the element originated in at least one external additive is not less than 0.4. As the external additive, a titanium compound obtained by reacting TiO(OH)2 prepared by a wet method and a silane compound is preferably used.

Abstract: Provided is an image-forming process including a step of forming an electrostatic latent image on a latent image-carrier and a step of developing the latent image by a developer on a developer-carrier disposed facing the electrostatic latent image-carrier, a developer contains a color toner containing a wax which amount is from 1 to 10% by weight of the toner is used, and the developer-carrier wherein a ten-point average roughness (Rz) of the surface thereof of and the average spacing (Sm) of roughness peaks meet the following formula is used; 5.ltoreq.Rz.times.20.ltoreq.Sm. By the process, the conveying property of the developer is good, staining of the surface of the developer-carrier can be prevented, and images having a high quality and excellent in the fixing property over a long period time is obtained even in the case of using oil-less color toners containing a wax.

Abstract: An electrostatic latent image developer including a toner, which is formed from an outer additive and non-magnetic resin particles containing a binder resin and a coloring agent, and a carrier, in which a resin coating layer in which electroconductive fine powder is dispersed in a matrix resin is formed on a core, wherein a volume specific resistivity of said carrier is greater than or equal to 10.sup.9 .OMEGA..multidot.cm at an electric field strength of 3000 V/cm and is less than or equal to 10.sup.13 .OMEGA..multidot.cm at an electric field strength of 10000 V/cm, said outer additive contains titanium oxide whose volume specific resistivity of a compression-molded molded product is greater than or equal to 10.sup.6 .OMEGA..multidot.cm at an electric field strength of 3000 V/cm and is less than or equal to 10.sup.10 .OMEGA..multidot.

Abstract: The toner for developing an electrostatic charge image comprises a colorant, a binding resin and a resin copolymer of aliphatic hydrocarbon and aromatic hydrocarbon having 9 or more of carbon atoms. Preferably, the toner further comprises a wax. The endothermic peak of the wax at DSC is preferably from 70 to 100.degree. C. The petroleum resin copolymer preferably has a ring and ball softening point of from 80 to 170.degree. C., and the binding resin is preferably a polyester resin. The weight ratio of the aromatic hydrocarbon monomer and the aliphatic hydrocarbon monomer of the petroleum resin copolymer is preferably from 99:1 to 50:50.

Abstract: A heater unit 1 has a plurality of flat heaters 11 adjacently arranged side by side and having common upper and lower surfaces. The thickness T of the heaters 11 is substantially uniform. Each heater 11 has an adjacent end surface 111 which faces toward an adjacent end surface 111 of the adjacent heater 11. The heater unit 1 also has upper and lower electrodes 21 holding the heaters 11 and respectively attached to the upper and lower surfaces of the heaters 11. The adjacent end surfaces 111 of the heaters 11 adjoining each other, and the upper and lower electrodes 21 form an air gap 12 therebetween. The creepage distance L along each adjacent end surface 111 is larger than the thickness T of the heaters 11. The dielectric strength of the heater unit 1 depends on the creepage distance L. The thickness T of the heaters 11 can be decreased without decreasing the dielectric strength of the heater unit 1. The output of the heater unit 1 increases when the thickness T is decreased.