An image forming apparatus arranged to form an image on a recording material, the image forming apparatus including an object, an electrically conductive member; and an urging member arranged to urge the electrically conductive member towards the object and to electrically couple the electrically conductive member and the object to each other. In the image forming apparatus, the electrically conductive member is formed of a material having a low elastic coefficient that is lower than that of the urging member.

A coil spring includes a resilient portion having a first diameter defined by a first central axis that is hypothetical and an end coil abutting on one end of the resilient portion in an axial direction of the resilient portion. The end coil has a second diameter defined by a second central axis that is hypothetical and shifted from the first central axis of the resilient portion in parallelism with the first central axis of the resilient portion by a predetermined shift amount. A coupler has a first width that is smaller than the first diameter of the resilient portion and greater than a second width obtained by subtracting the predetermined shift amount from the first diameter of the resilient portion. The coupler is inserted into the end coil to secure the end coil to the coupler.

Provided is a roller, in particular a conductive roller, capable of suppressing generation of cut debris from a cut surface of an end part of a foam layer in the roller axial direction over a long period of time, and an image forming device using the roller. A roller includes a shaft 1, a foam layer 2 and at least one film layer 3 sequentially provided on the outer periphery of the shaft. Both end parts in the roller axial direction of the foam layer and the film layer are cut, a filler layer 4 is provided on the cut surface of the cut foam layer and the cut film layer, at least the cut surface of the foam layer is covered with the filler layer, and the filler layer contains a water-based urethane resin.

A fluorocarbon resin composite includes a fluorocarbon resin layer on a base, in which a fluorocarbon resin constituting the fluorocarbon resin layer is crosslinked by electron beam irradiation, and the base has a desired shape obtained by machining. The fluorocarbon resin is composed of a tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether) copolymer, polytetrafluoroethylene, or a mixture of the tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoro(alkyl vinyl ether) copolymer and polytetrafluoroethylene. A fluorocarbon resin composite, cookware, and a roller and a belt for use in office automation equipment are each produced by applying an uncrosslinked fluorocarbon resin on a base, subjecting the fluorocarbon resin to electron beam irradiation in a low-oxygen atmosphere to crosslink the fluorocarbon resin while the temperature of the fluorocarbon resin is maintained at a temperature equal to or higher than the melting point of the fluorocarbon resin, and machining the base into a desired shape. There is also provided methods for producing them.

A charging member includes a support member, a conductive elastic layer disposed on the support member, and a front surface layer disposed on the conductive elastic layer. Irregularities with a cycle of shorter than 0.1 mm and irregularities with a cycle of 0.1 mm or longer are distributed on an entirety of an outer circumferential surface of the charging member, and satisfy the following conditions of (1) and (2): (1) The irregularities with the cycle of shorter than 0.1 mm have an average height of 5 μm to 8 μm; and (2) The irregularities with the cycle of 0.1 mm or longer have an average height of 6 μm to 30 μm. A half-value width of a maximum frequency value of a height distribution on the outer circumferential surface is 1 μm to 3 μm.

The conductive member of this disclosure is formed of a UV cure resin obtained by curing under ultraviolet ray radiation a composition containing a urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer (A), a photo polymerization initiator (B) and an ionic conductive agent (C), wherein: the ionic conductive agent (C) contains an organic boron complex salt and a compound having a structure expressed with the following general formula(1), and a compounding amount of the organic boron complex salt is 0.2 parts by mass or more per 100 parts by mass of a curing component in the composition.

—SO2—NX—SO2—   (1)

(In the general formula (1), X represents an alkali metal.)

Provided is an electrophotographic electroconductive member including an electroconductive support and an electroconductive layer on the support, an electroconductive member is used, in which an electroconductive layer has a matrix comprising a first rubber, and domains dispersed in the matrix, the domains each comprising a second rubber and an electronic electroconductive agent, and for impedance measured by applying an AC voltage with an amplitude of 1 V to the electroconductive layer while varying frequencies between 1.0×10.sup.−2 Hz to 1.0×10.sup.7 Hz under a specific environment, when a double logarithmic plot with a frequency on an abscissa and an impedance on an ordinate is obtained, a slope on a high frequency side is −0.8 or more and —0.3 or less, and the impedance a low frequency side is from 1.0×10.sup.3 to 1.0×10.sup.7Ω.

A resistive film is applied to a conductive substrate. Ductile particles are disposed substantially uniformly throughout the resistive film. Brittleness of the resistive film is thereby reduced.

An electrostatic charge image developing carrier includes a magnetic core particle, and a coating layer that coats surfaces of the magnetic core particle, wherein the coating layer includes a binder resin, thermosetting resin particles, and crosslinked resin particles, and the crosslinked resin particle contains a polymer formed by polymerizing a monomer component including the same monomer as a monomer used in the polymerization of the binder resin.

An electrophotographic member includes an electro-conductive substrate and an elastic layer containing inorganic particles and a binder resin. The electrophotographic member has a protrusion on an outer surface of the electrophotographic member containing the inorganic particles, At least part of the inorganic particles contained in the protrusion are exposed to a surface of the protrusion, and the binder resin is present among the inorganic particles contained in the protrusion. An elastic modulus E1 of the binder resin measured at a first region in a cross-section in a thickness direction of the elastic layer is equal to or above 1000 MPa.