Image forming apparatus

Abstract

To prevent the occurrence of an increase in torque due to insufficient supply of metal soap to a surface of a photoreceptor.SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus comprises: a photoconductor drum 1; an electrifying roller 2; a developing roller 4; a cleaning blade 8; a toner storage unit 3b; and a control unit 202 that controls a metal soap application operation of applying, with the developing roller 4, metal soap stored in the toner storage unit 3b to a surface of the photoconductor drum 1. When performing the metal soap application operation, the control unit 202 performs control so that the moving speed of the surface of the photoconductor drum 1 becomes larger than the moving speed of the surface of the photoconductor drum 1 when performing an image forming operation.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Claims

1. A rotatable image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is formed on its surface, A charging member that charges the surface of the image carrier before the electrostatic latent image is formed, A developing member that contacts the image carrier and develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier with a developer to form a developer image, A cleaning member that contacts the image carrier and scrapes off the developer on the image carrier, A container for containing the developer containing metal soap, A control means for controlling the execution of an image forming operation in which the developer image is formed on the recording material, and a coating operation in which the metal soap contained in the storage section is applied to the surface of the image carrier by the developing member, Equipped with, The control means is capable of executing a plurality of image forming operations, including a first image forming operation that controls the moving speed of the surface of the image carrier to a first moving speed, and a second image forming operation that controls the moving speed of the surface of the image carrier to a second moving speed smaller than the first moving speed. The first movement speed is the maximum movement speed of the surface of the image carrier in the plurality of image forming operations. The image forming apparatus is characterized in that, when performing the coating operation, the control means controls the movement speed of the surface of the image carrier to a third movement speed that is greater than the first movement speed.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the control means controls the movement speed of the surface of the developing member to be greater than the movement speed of the surface of the image carrier when performing the coating operation.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means controls the ratio of the moving speed of the surface of the developing member to the moving speed of the surface of the image carrier to be between 60% and 140%.

4. A first voltage applying means for applying a charging voltage to the charging member, A second voltage applying means for applying a developing voltage to the developing member and Equipped with, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means controls the first potential difference, which is the difference between the potential of the surface of the image carrier charged by the charging member and the developing voltage, to be greater than the first potential difference in the image forming operation when performing the coating operation.

5. A supply member that supplies the developer contained in the storage section to the developing member, A third voltage applying means for applying a supply voltage to the supply member, Equipped with, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means controls the second voltage application means and the third voltage application means such that, when performing the coating operation, a second potential difference is formed at the contact portion between the supply member and the developing member, such that an electrostatic force acts on the metal soap in the direction from the supply member toward the developing member.

6. An intermediate transfer body on which the developer image on the image carrier is transferred, A transfer member for transferring the developer image on the image carrier to the intermediate transfer body, A pre-exposure means is provided downstream of the transfer member and upstream of the charging member in the rotational direction of the image carrier, for exposing the surface of the image carrier. Equipped with, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means controls the exposure amount of the pre-exposure means to be less than the exposure amount of the pre-exposure means in the image forming operation when performing the coating operation.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the control means does not perform exposure by the pre-exposure means when performing the coating operation.

8. The intermediate transfer body is capable of contacting or separating from the image carrier. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the control means controls the intermediate transfer bodies to separate when performing the coating operation.

9. The transfer member is provided with a fourth voltage application means for applying a transfer voltage, The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, characterized in that the control means controls the transfer voltage to 0V when performing the coating operation.

10. The image carrier is removable from the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means performs the coating operation when a new image carrier is mounted in the image forming apparatus.

11. The developer contains an organosilicon polymer, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the number of carbon atoms directly bonded to the silicon atoms of the organosilicon polymer is one to three.

12. The organosilicon polymer is R-SiO ３／２ The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, characterized by having a substructure represented by the following: Here, R is a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms.

13. The organosilicon polymer is R-SiO ３／２ The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, characterized by having a substructure represented by the following: Here, R is a hydrocarbon group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms.

14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the metal soap is at least one of zinc, calcium, and magnesium.

15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the metal soap is at least one of zinc stearate, calcium stearate, and magnesium stearate.

16. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the metal soap has a particle size of 0.15 μm or more and 2.0 μm or less.

17. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the image carrier has a protective layer made of acrylic resin on its outermost surface.

18. A storage unit that stores information regarding the usage history of the image carrier, A driving means for driving the image carrier, A detection means for detecting the torque of the drive means, Equipped with, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control means performs the coating operation when the amount of information regarding the usage history stored in the storage unit exceeds a predetermined number, or when the torque detected by the detection means exceeds a predetermined torque.

19. The image forming apparatus according to claim 18, characterized in that the information relating to the usage history includes the number of rotations of the image carrier or the number of recording materials on which the image forming operation was performed.

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