Claims
- 1. An image forming apparatus comprising:an image carrier comprising a conductive support, at least a photoconductive layer formed on said conductive support, and a surface protection layer formed on said photoconductive layer and including a charge injection layer; a charging member for charging said image carrier in contact with said surface protection layer when applied with a voltage; and a developing unit for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier with toner to thereby produce a corresponding toner image, wherein said surface protection layer has a diamond-like carbon structure or an amorphous structure containing hydrogen, wherein said developing unit develops the latent image with a magnet brush formed by magnetic particles for development, wherein said charging member comprises magnetic particles for charging having a mean particle size smaller than a mean particle size of said magnetic particles for development, wherein said surface protection layer has a volume resistance of 109 Ω·cm to 1012 Ω·cm and a Knoop hardness of 400 kg/mm2 or greater, and wherein a light transmission of the surface protective layer is 50% or more of a wavelength of light used for exposing the image carrier.
- 2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image carrier and said charging member contact each other, and each moves at a particular linear velocity.
- 3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said image carrier and said charging member move in opposite directions to each other, as seen at a position where said image carrier and said charging member contact each other.
- 4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the developing unit bifunctions as a cleaning unit for collecting the toner left on said image carrier after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier to a recording medium.
- 13. An image forming apparatus comprising:image carrier means for carrying an image and comprising a conductive support, at least a photoconductive layer formed on said conductive support, and a surface protection layer formed on said photoconductive layer and including a charge injection layer; charging means for charging said image carrier means in contact with said surface protection layer when applied with a voltage; and developing means for developing a latent image formed on said image carrier means with toner to thereby produce a corresponding toner image, wherein said surface protection layer has a diamond-like carbon structure or an amorphous structure containing hydrogen, wherein said developing means develops the latent image with a magnet brush formed by magnetic particles for development, wherein said charging means comprises magnetic particles for charging having a mean particle size smaller than a mean particle size of said magnetic particles for development, wherein said surface protection layer has a volume resistance of 109 Ω·cm to 1012 Ω·cm and a Knoop hardness of 400 kg/mm2 or greater, and wherein a light transmission of the surface protective layer is 50% or more of a wavelength of light used for exposing the image carrier means.
- 14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said image carrier means and said charging means contact each other, and each moves at a particular linear velocity.
- 15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein said image carrier means and said charging means move in opposite directions to each other, as seen at a position where said image carrier means and said charging means contact each other.
- 16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
- 18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
- 19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 20. An apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
- 21. An apparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
- 22. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said magnetic particles for charging each have a conductive surface layer.
- 23. An apparatus as claimed in claim 22, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
- 24. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said developing means bifunctions as cleaning means for collecting the toner left on said image carrier means after a transfer of said toner image from said image carrier means to a recording medium.
Priority Claims (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
11-263035 |
Sep 1999 |
JP |
|
11-334582 |
Nov 1999 |
JP |
|
2000-253876 |
Aug 2000 |
JP |
|
Parent Case Info
The present application is a continuation application of application Ser. No. 10/028,769, filed Dec. 28, 2001 now abandoned, which is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 09/662,701, filed Sep. 15, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,751.
US Referenced Citations (13)
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Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10/028769 |
Dec 2001 |
US |
Child |
10/279901 |
|
US |