An inventive transfer roller (1) is made of a foam formed from an electrically conductive rubber composition containing an electrically conductive rubber, a crosslinking component, and a foaming agent including OBSH and 0.25 to 2.5 parts by mass of sodium hydrogen carbonate based on 1 part by mass of OBSH, and has an Asker-C hardness of not lower than 25 degrees and not higher than 35 degrees and an average foam cell diameter of not greater than 120 μm. Therefore, the transfer roller is flexible with a lower rubber hardness, and has smaller foam cell diameters. An inventive production method includes the steps of: forming the electrically conductive rubber composition into a tubular body; and maintaining the tubular body at a temperature of not lower than 120° C. and not higher than 140° C. to foam the rubber by a single-stage foaming process.

An endless belt includes a base material layer containing a polymer material and conductive particles, in which in dynamic viscoelasticity measurement at a temperature of 35° C., a value of loss tangent at a measurement frequency in a range from 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz is smaller than a value of loss tangent at a measurement frequency in a range from 10 Hz to 100 Hz, and tensile stress when the base material layer is stretched by 5% at a temperature of 24° C. is 7 MPa or more, and when the base material layer is stretched by 5% at a temperature of 24° C. and held for a period of 10 minutes, a maximum value TSmax and a minimum value TSmin of the tensile stress during the period satisfy a relationship of {(TSmax−TSmin)/TSmax×100}≤15.

An image forming apparatus includes an endless belt including a base layer and an electroconductive layer positioned on an inner peripheral surface side of the belt than the base layer and forming an inner peripheral surface of the belt, and a roller provided on the inner peripheral surface side of the belt and including a roller portion around which the belt is wound and which is formed of an aluminum material. The electroconductive layer contains a binder resin, an electroconductive agent, and a copper compound, and has surface resistivity of 5.0×10.sup.6Ω/□ or less. The roller includes an alumite layer forming a surface contacting the electroconductive layer.

An intermediate transfer belt has a first region and a second region in an outer circumferential surface thereof that is in contact with a blade. The first region has a first dynamic friction coefficient in a belt conveyance direction, and the second region has a second dynamic friction coefficient. The distance of the second region in the belt conveyance direction is less than the distance of the first region and is greater than the distance of a contact portion in which the blade is in contact with the intermediate transfer belt.

The crystallinity of a thermoplastic resin is 8% or more and 25% or less, the average primary particle size of carbon black is 10 nm or more and 30 nm or less, the content of the carbon black is 15.0 parts by mass or more and 30.0 parts by mass or less with respect to 100 parts by mass of an intermediate transfer belt, and (Li+Lo+Lc)/3≤100 nm, where Li, Lo, and Lc are values of an L-function indicating a dispersibility of the carbon black with respect to the thermoplastic resin in an inner peripheral surface region of the intermediate transfer belt, in an outer peripheral surface region, and in a central region that is a central portion of the intermediate transfer belt in a thickness direction of the intermediate transfer belt, respectively.

Disclosed are curable polymer compositions, elastomers thereof and release layers useful in the art of printing made of the disclosed elastomers. Disclosed are also intermediate transfer members having a release layer useful in the art of printing. Disclosed are anisotropic intermediate transfer members. Disclosed are curable adhesive compositions, that in some embodiments are useful in preparing intermediate transfer members useful in printing. Also disclosed are intermediate transfer members useful in the art of printing having a release layer with an image transfer surface having protonatable functional groups apparent thereupon. Also disclosed are methods of making such intermediate transfer members.

An electrophotographic member includes a base layer, an elastic layer, and a surface layer stacked in this order. The surface layer contains a fluorine resin and a fluorine rubber, the fluorine rubber is contained at a proportion of 0.5 parts by mass or more and 1.0 parts by mass or less with respect to 1 part by mass of the fluorine resin, and the surface layer further contains a compound represented by formula (1):

CH.sub.3(CH.sub.2).sub.m—O—((CH.sub.2).sub.lO).sub.n—OH  (1)

In formula (1), m, l, and n each independently represent an integer of 1 or more.

An image forming apparatus includes a unit horizontally insertable and drawable with respect to a main body frame, and a lock mechanism for the unit. The lock mechanism includes a lock member which has an engagement projection engageable with an engaged portion formed in the main body frame, and a biasing member which biases the lock member in a first direction toward engagement of the engagement projection with the engaged portion. Along with insertion of the unit, the lock member moves in a second direction, and when the unit is inserted to a predetermined position, biasing force of the biasing member causes the lock member to move in the first direction and the engagement projection engages with the engaged portion. By moving the lock member in the second direction, engagement between the engagement projection and the engaged portion is released to make it possible to draw the unit.

The surface layer of an intermediate transfer belt has a concavo-convex pattern formed thereon by spherical resin particles which are independently embedded in the layer so that the embedment rate in the thickness direction of the layer is higher than 50% but lower than 100%.

A polyimide resin film includes: a first layer that contains an imide resin, a bond composition ratio of a sum of a C—N bond and a C—O bond to bonds of all C elements that are present in a surface of the first layer being 4 atm % or more; and a second layer that is provided on the surface of the first layer.