A laminating apparatus including: a laminating processor that executes laminating processing of laminating a film on a recording medium on which an image is formed; and a hardware processor that acquires information regarding image formation on the recording medium and determines whether to execute the laminating processing by the laminating processor on the recording medium based on the information regarding the image formation.

Provided is an image forming apparatus including an image bearer capable of bearing a toner image, where a latent image is formed on the image bearer, a developing unit configured to develop the latent image formed on the image bearer with a toner, and a cleaning unit including a blade-shaped elastic body, where the elastic body is brought into contact with a surface of the image bearer, wherein a friction coefficient Ft/Fn between the image bearer and the elastic body is 0.85 or greater but 1.1 or less, and self-excited vibration WRFt(LMH) of shear force of the elastic body in a LMH band is 1.5 gf or greater but 3.5 gf or less.

Provided is an image forming apparatus including an image bearer capable of bearing a toner image, where a latent image is formed on the image bearer, a developing unit configured to develop the latent image formed on the image bearer with a toner, and a cleaning unit including a blade-shaped elastic body, where the elastic body is brought into contact with a surface of the image bearer, wherein a friction coefficient Ft/Fn between the image bearer and the elastic body is 0.85 or greater but 1.1 or less, and self-excited vibration WRFt(LMH) of shear force of the elastic body in a LMH band is 1.5 gf or greater but 3.5 gf or less.

An electrophotographic photosensitive member having a protective layer wherein the density unevenness among output images is reduced with abrasion resistance maintained is provided. The present invention is an electrophotographic photosensitive member having a support, a photosensitive layer and a protective layer in this order, wherein the protective layer has a triarylamine structure and a cyclic structure represented by the formula (1) or (2):

##STR00001##

and an A value expressed by expression (4), A=S1/S2, wherein, in expression (4), S1 is a peak area based on in-plane deformation vibration of terminal olefin (CH.sub.2), and S2 is a peak area based on stretching vibration of CO among peak areas of a spectrum obtained by measuring a surface of the protective layer by total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy using Ge as an internal reflection element and using a measurement condition of 45 as an incidence angle is from 0.065 to 0.100.

An object of the present invention is achieved by an electrophotographic photoreceptor containing a conductive support sequentially laminated thereon with at least a photosensitive layer and a protective layer in that order, wherein the protective layer includes a cured composition having a radical polymerizable compound for a binder, a charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group, and a photopolymerization initiator; the charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group has a maximum absorption wavelength in the range of 40550 nm; and the charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group and the photopolymerization initiator satisfy Formula (A),
G=Eox(D/D.sup.+)Ered(A.sup./A)E*0.2 (eV).Formula (A):

An object of the present invention is achieved by an electrophotographic photoreceptor containing a conductive support sequentially laminated thereon with at least a photosensitive layer and a protective layer in that order, wherein the protective layer includes a cured composition having a radical polymerizable compound for a binder, a charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group, and a photopolymerization initiator; the charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group has a maximum absorption wavelength in the range of 40550 nm; and the charge transport agent having a radical polymerizable functional group and the photopolymerization initiator satisfy Formula (A),

G=Eox(D/D.sup.+)Ered(A.sup./A)E*0.2(eV). Formula (A):

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.

The present disclosure is related to coated photoconductors. In an example, a coated photoconductor can comprise a photoconductor including a substrate having a charge generation layer and charge transport layer adhered thereto and a top coating adhered to the photoconductor.

In a negatively-chargeable laminate-type electrophotographic photoreceptor, a charge generation layer and another charge transport layer are arranged on a conductive substrate directly or via an intermediate layer. The charge transport layer contains at least a hole-transporting substance, an electron-transporting substance and a binder resin; the mass ratio (R.sub.PN) [% by mass] between mass (P) of the hole-transporting substance and mass (N) of the electron-transporting substance is represented by the following equation (1), and satisfies the following equation (2):
R.sub.PN=(N/(P+N))100(1)
1R.sub.PN40(2); and
when a voltage of +6 kV is applied to the photoreceptor for 5 seconds via a resin sheet having a thickness of 50 m and a surface resistivity of 210.sup.7 /cm.sup.2, the surface potential difference (Vo) and half-tone potential difference (Vh) between before and after the voltage application are both 15 V or less.

An electrophotographic photoconductor includes a conductive support; and a photoconductive layer that contains at least a charge generation material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material and a binder resin, and that is provided on the conductive support, wherein the photoconductive layer has an outermost layer that contains a charge generation material, a hole transport material, an electron transport material, a binder resin and a highly branched polymer that is obtained by polymerizing, in the presence of a polymerization initiator, a monomer having, in a molecule, two or more radically polymerizable double bonds and a monomer having, in a molecule, a long-chain alkyl group or an alicyclic group and at least one radically polymerizable double bond. The electrophotographic photoconductor exhibits superior operational stability and stably high image quality, without problems with image memory, a contact member, or image defects due to cracks caused by contamination by oils/fats or sebum.