To provide a conductive member for an electrophotographic machine that is capable of preventing hardening degradation of a surface layer that is caused by an ionic conductive agent contained in a conductive rubber elastic body layer, allowing the surface layer to be improved in durability.

A conductive member 10 for an electrophotographic machine includes a conductive rubber elastic body layer 14 containing crossiinked rubber and an ionic conductive agent, and a surface layer 16 provided on an outer periphery of the conductive rubber elastic body layer 14, wherein the surface layer 16 contains a polymer and polyphenol. Examples of the polyphenol include a tannin, gallic acid, ellagic acid, pyrogallol, catechin, and chlorogenic acid.

Provided is an electrophotographic apparatus, including an electrophotographic photosensitive member, a charging unit arranged in a non-abutment manner with respect to the electrophotographic photosensitive member, a cleaning unit or a developing unit arranged in abutment against the electrophotographic photosensitive member, and a transferring unit.

A conductive roll includes a support member, an elastic layer disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the support member, and a top layer disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the elastic layer. In a case where a pushing amount of a metal roll into the conductive roll is 1.7%, the metal roll having an outer diameter identical to an outer diameter of the conductive roll, a shrinkage rate of a surface of the conductive roll with respect to the outer diameter of the conductive roll is equal to or more than 5%.

Provided is an electrophotographic member that is excellent in charge-imparting performance for a toner, and that hardly causes tackiness on its surface even when placed under a high-temperature and high-humidity environment over a long time period. The electrophotographic member includes a substrate and a surface layer, in which the surface layer satisfies the following requirements (A) and (B): (A) the surface layer contains, in a region from its surface to a depth of up to 0.1 μm, a copolymer containing a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (1), and at least one selected from the group consisting of a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (2) and a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (3); and (B) the concentration of a nitrogen atom derived from a nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocyclic amine structure in the copolymer is from 6.0 mass % to 30.0 mass %.

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An inner resistive film is applied to a conductive substrate. Ductile particles are disposed substantially uniformly throughout the inner resistive film. An outer resistive film is applied to the inner resistive film.

A conductive member includes a substrate, an elastic layer on the substrate, and a surface layer on the elastic layer. The surface layer contains a resin and insulating particles. The insulating particles account for 50% or more and 70% or less of an area of a cross-section of the surface layer taken in a thickness direction.

A semiconductive roller to stably generate high-quality images for a long period of time by efficiently inhibiting migration of free epichlorohydrin (ECH) component to a surface of the semiconductive roller includes an elastic layer formed of a semiconductive rubber composition including about 50 to about 70 parts by weight of a base rubber and about 30 to about 50 parts by weight of a hydrin rubber. An extracted amount of the ECH component from the elastic layer is about 2% by volume or less, wherein the extracted amount is determined based on a reduced amount of chlorine (Cl) intensity measured using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis performed before and after extraction of the ECH component from the elastic layer using tetrahydrofuran (THF).

Provided is an image forming apparatus including an image bearing member, a charging member, an exposing member, a developer carrying member, a storage member to store a first lifetime threshold for the first image forming mode, a second lifetime threshold for the second image forming mode and a value related to a driving amount of the image bearing member. The image forming apparatus further includes a controller to (i) perform a first determination regarding the lifetime corresponding to the first mode based on the value related to the driving amount and the first lifetime threshold and (ii) perform a second determination regarding the lifetime corresponding to the second mode based on the value related to the driving amount and the second lifetime threshold, and a notifying unit to perform a notification based on a result of the first or second determination to the image bearing member.

Provided is such a conductive member that a change in its electrical resistance value caused by its long-term use is reduced to the extent possible. The conductive member has a conductive support and a conductive layer, the conductive layer contains a rubber composition formed of a modified epichlorohydrin rubber, and the modified epichlorohydrin rubber has a unit represented by the following formula (1). In the formula (1), R1, R2, and R3 each independently represent hydrogen or a saturated hydrocarbon group having 1 to 18 carbon atoms. ##STR00001##

The present invention provides an electrophotographic member in which an increase in resistance is small even in use at low temperature and which contributes to the formation of a high quality electrophotographic image, and a process cartridge and an electrophotographic apparatus using this electrophotographic member as a charging member or a developer carrying member. Therefore, the electrophotographic member of the present invention is an electrophotographic member including an electro-conductive mandrel and an electro-conductive layer, wherein the electro-conductive layer includes a urethane resin and an ion-conductive agent, the urethane resin has, between two adjacent urethane bonds, a structure represented by formula (1) and at least one structure selected from the group consisting of a structure represented by formula (2) and a structure represented by formula (3), and the ion-conductive agent contains a particular anion.