An external additive for toner, wherein the external additive is an organosilicon polymer particle, and defining A (nm) as the number-average particle diameter of primary particles of the external additive measured using a scanning electron microscope, and defining B (nm) as the number-average particle diameter of the external additive measured in accordance with a centrifugal sedimentation method, the A and the B satisfy a following Expression (1):

1.5≤B/A≤3.0  (1).

A lubricant application device includes an application roller with application bristles radially arranged about an outer circumferential surface thereof for receiving a lubricant from a lubricant supply source and applying the lubricant to a photosensitive body. A minimum distance between the outer circumferential surface of the application roller and the photosensitive body is shorter than a length of the application bristles. The lubricant application device has a drive unit for rotating the application roller and a controller for controlling the drive unit. The controller is adapted to control the drive unit to counteract a bristle-bending tendency of the application bristles.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier that carries a toner image including toner; a driver that rotates the image carrier; a toner remover that comes in contact with the image carrier and removes toner remaining on the image carrier while the image carrier is rotated in a forward direction by the driver; and a hardware processor that evaluates a degree of deterioration of the image carrier or the toner remover, determines a number of times of execution of removal operation in which the image carrier is rotated in a reverse direction and then rotated in the forward direction, on the basis of the degree of deterioration, and controls the driver to cause the removal operation to be executed the number of times of execution.

In an image forming apparatus, a cleaning blade, disposed on a downstream side of a transfer roller in a rotation direction of an image carrier, removes toner remaining on the image carrier after transfer of a toner image to an intermediate transfer member. After completion of an image forming operation, a controller causes the transfer roller to separate from the intermediate transfer member, cause the developing device to form on the image carrier a toner band to be supplied to the cleaning blade, and cause rotation of the image carrier to stop such that at least a part of the toner band formed on the image carrier stops within a section from a first position facing the transfer roller to a second position facing the cleaning blade in the rotation direction.

An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable image bearing member, a transfer member, a cleaning blade, a driving portion, and a controller. The controller is capable of executing, at a time of an end of a job, a plurality of operations including a first reverse rotating operation, a first normal rotating operation executed subsequently to the first reverse rotating operation, a second reverse rotating operation executed after the first normal rotating operation, and a second normal rotating operation executed subsequently to the second reverse rotating operation. The controller controls the driving portion so that a movement amount of the image bearing member in the second normal rotating operation is smaller than a movement amount of the image bearing member in the second reverse rotating operation.

An elastic member that comes into contact with a moving body that moves in a predetermined moving direction to scrape off a deposit on the moving body includes: a stress reducer that is provided at a contact end on a side to be in contact with the moving body and reduces vibration of internal stress generated due to contact between the moving body and the elastic member, wherein the stress reducer extends in a direction that is not perpendicular to the moving direction when the elastic member comes in contact with the moving body.

An image carrier unit includes an image carrier including a cylindrical main body portion and a pair of flange portions attached to both ends of the main body portion, a first cleaning member that rotates in contact under a prescribed pressure with an outer circumferential surface of the main body portion, a unit frame that rotatably supports the image carrier and the first cleaning member, and an image carrier protective cover that includes a cover main body extending in an axial direction of the image carrier and a side surface portion that is disposed on one end side of the cover main body. On the side surface portion, an image carrier holding portion is formed that performs positioning of the image carrier with respect to the unit frame and releases a pressure contact state between the image carrier and the first cleaning member.

An image bearing member includes an agitation member and a sheet member. A sheet portion of an agitation member comes into contact with a second side surface of the blade member. When viewed from a rotation axis direction of a shaft portion of the agitation member, an imaginary line A connects a position of an end portion on a most upstream side of the second side surface in the rotation direction and an axial center position of the shaft portion, and an imaginary line B is orthogonal to the imaginary line A and passes through the position of the end portion on the most upstream side of the second side surface, and the free end of the sheet member is disposed at a position closer to the blade member than a position where a second line intersects with an outer circumferential surface of the image bearing member.

A surface roughness Rz of an outer peripheral surface of an intermediate transfer belt is 0.05 μm or more, and toner contains toner base particles and an organosilicon polymer on the surface of the toner base particles. After residual toner on the intermediate transfer belt is collected by a blade into a belt cleaning device, the blade has a coating layer on its surface facing the intermediate transfer belt, the coating layer containing the organosilicon polymer.

An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, a charging device, an exposing device, a developing device, and a cleaning device. The cleaning device includes a toner keeping member, which has toner keeping portions disposed respectively at opposite end sides of a polishing roller along its axial direction with a gap from an outer circumferential surface of the polishing roller to keep between themselves and the polishing roller toner removed off an outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum. The toner keeping portions extend along the axial direction of the polishing roller, and of each toner keeping portion, one end part along the axial direction is located outward of an end part of a guaranteed development region but inward of an end part of a developing roller and another end part is located outward of an end part of the polishing roller.