TRANSFER DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• Main Authors: MATSUMOTO, Koichi, TANAKA, Hiroaki, FUKUDA, Shigeru, SUGIURA, Satoya, SEKO, Masayuki, KUBO, Yosuke, NISHIMURA, Iori, TANEMURA, Daisuke, ONO, Masato, FURUKAWA, Masato
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.10.2024
• Subjects: CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS

A transfer device includes an intermediate transfer member consisting of an endless belt which consists of a layer containing a resin including at least one resin selected from the group consisting of a polyimide resin, a polyamide-imide resin, an aromatic polyether ether ketone resin, a polyphenylene sulfide resin, and a polyetherimide resin, conductive carbon particles, a silicone oil containing at least one polymer selected from the group consisting of dimethylpolysiloxane and organic group-substituted dimethylpolysiloxane or has the layer as an outermost layer, and in which an integral value of a statistical quantity L(r) represented by the following Equation (1) is 0 or more and 0.1 or less at an interparticle distance r of 0.05 μm or more and 0.30 μm or less in a spatial distribution of the conductive carbon particles existing in a 6.3 μm×4.2 μm evaluation region within an outer peripheral surface of the endless belt, a primary transfer device having a primary transfer roll made of a metal that applies an electric field to the intermediate transfer member by coming into contact with an inner peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer member, and performing primary transfer of a toner image formed on a surface of an image holder to the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer member, and a secondary transfer device performing secondary transfer of the toner image transferred to the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate transfer member to a surface of a recording medium.L⁡(r):=K⁡(r)/π-r(1)[In Equation (1), r represents the interparticle distance, and K(r) represents the Ripley's K function K(r) represented by the following Equation (2).]K⁡(r):=∑i≠jN1⁢(❘"\[LeftBracketingBar]"Xi-Xj❘"\[RightBracketingBar]"≤r)/s⁡(❘"\[LeftBracketingBar]"Xi-Xj❘"\[RightBracketingBar]")λ2(2)[In Equation (2), 1(|Xi−Xj|≤r) represents an indicator function, Xi and Xj represent coordinates of points i and j respectively, |Xi−Xj| represents a Euclidean distance between the coordinates Xi and Xj, r represents the interparticle distance, s(|Xi−Xj|) represents an edge correction factor s(x) of an evaluation region represented by the following Equation (3), x equals |Xi−Xj|, N represents the total number of particles in the evaluation region, and λ represents a number density of particles in the evaluation region.]s(x):=LxLy−x/π(2Lx+2Ly−x)  (3)[In Equation (3), Lx and Ly represent lengths (μm) of the sides of the evaluation region in an x-axis direction and a y-axis direction respectively, x equals |Xi−Xj|, Xi and Xj represent coordinates of points i and j respectively, and |Xi−Xj| represents a Euclidean distance between the coordinates Xi and Xj.]