An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that has an outermost surface layer containing fluorine-containing resin particles, a charge transport material, and a binder resin, in which the number of carboxy groups contained in the fluorine-containing resin particles is 0 or greater and 30 or less per 10.sup.6 carbon atoms, and the outermost surface layer has a tan ? of 0.025 or greater and 0.030 or less, a charging device that comes into direct contact with the electrophotographic photoreceptor and applies only a DC voltage to charge the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic latent image forming device that forms an electrostatic latent image on a surface of the charged electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a developer containing a toner to form a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image by bringing the electrophotographic photoreceptor and a medium to be transferred into direct contact with each other, and a cleaning device that cleans the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor.

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive substrate, and does not contain lubricant particles in a region of 30% from a surface of an outermost surface layer with respect to a film thickness of the outermost surface layer or contains 5% by mass or less of the lubricant particles with respect to an entirety of the region, a charging device that charges a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic latent image forming device that forms an electrostatic latent image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a developer containing an electrostatic charge image developing toner to form a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image to a surface of a recording medium, and a cleaning device that has a cleaning blade and cleans the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by bringing the cleaning blade into contact with the surface after the toner image is transferred by the transfer device, in which a dynamic friction coefficient in a contact portion between the electrophotographic photoreceptor and the cleaning blade is 0.2 or greater and 0.6 or less.

According to some examples, an apparatus includes a monitoring module to determine a length of a portion of an imaging member as the imaging member rotates; and indicate a fault condition in response to the determined length being different from a reference length.

A developer container is manufactured in which, in molding, a recess is disposed in an area in which a confluence in which first resin poured from a first inlet and second resin poured from a second inlet merge is formed.

According to one example, there is provided apparatus for detecting a fault in a printing system. The apparatus includes a monitoring module to determine the length of a portion of an imaging member as the imaging member rotates; and indicate a fault condition when the determined length is different to a reference length.

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that includes a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer disposed on the conductive substrate, and does not contain lubricant particles in a region of 30% from a surface of an outermost surface layer with respect to a film thickness of the outermost surface layer or contains 5% by mass or less of the lubricant particles with respect to an entirety of the region, a charging device that charges a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic latent image forming device that forms an electrostatic latent image on the charged surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a developer containing an electrostatic charge image developing toner to form a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image to a surface of a recording medium, and a cleaning device that has a cleaning blade and cleans the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by bringing the cleaning blade into contact with the surface after the toner image is transferred by the transfer device, in which a dynamic friction coefficient in a contact portion between the electrophotographic photoreceptor and the cleaning blade is 0.2 or greater and 0.6 or less.

The electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a photosensitive layer on the support, in which a surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a particle, the surface layer has a particle partially exposed from the surface layer among the particle contained in the surface layer, the particle has a volume average particle diameter of 50.0 nm or more and 350.0 nm or less; in a cross-section of the surface layer, the number of the particle partially exposed from the surface layer is 80% by number or more based on a total number of the particle contained in the surface layer; and a total volume of an exposed portion of the particle partially exposed from the surface layer is 30% by volume or more and 80% by volume or less based on an entire volume of the particle contained in the surface layer.

Provided is an electrophotographic photosensitive member that achieves satisfactory transferability. An electrophotographic photosensitive member including a charge generating layer, a charge transporting layer, and a protection layer laminated on a support in the stated order, wherein the protection layer contains a binder resin and particles, and wherein when an average thickness of the protection layer in a site free of the particles is represented by T and a volume-average particle diameter of the particles is represented by Dm in a cross-section of the protection layer, the following formula (a) is satisfied.
Dm>TFormula(a)

An image forming apparatus includes an electrophotographic photoreceptor that has an outermost surface layer containing fluorine-containing resin particles, a charge transport material, and a binder resin, in which the number of carboxy groups contained in the fluorine-containing resin particles is 0 or greater and 30 or less per 10.sup.6 carbon atoms, and the outermost surface layer has a tan of 0.025 or greater and 0.030 or less, a charging device that comes into direct contact with the electrophotographic photoreceptor and applies only a DC voltage to charge the electrophotographic photoreceptor, an electrostatic latent image forming device that forms an electrostatic latent image on a surface of the charged electrophotographic photoreceptor, a developing device that develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor with a developer containing a toner to form a toner image, a transfer device that transfers the toner image by bringing the electrophotographic photoreceptor and a medium to be transferred into direct contact with each other, and a cleaning device that cleans the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor.

An image forming method includes charging operation a surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor that does not contain lubricant particles in a region of 30% from a surface of an outermost surface layer with respect to a film thickness of the outermost surface layer or contains 5% by mass or less of the lubricant particles with respect to an entirety of the region; forming an electrostatic latent image; developing the electrostatic latent image with a developer to form a toner image; transferring the toner image to a surface of a recording medium; and cleaning the surface of the electrophotographic photoreceptor by bringing a cleaning blade into contact with the surface after the toner image is transferred, wherein a dynamic friction coefficient in a contact portion between the electrophotographic photoreceptor and the cleaning blade is 0.2 or greater and 0.6 or less.