JP3291618B2 - Image forming toner, image forming method and heat fixing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming toner used for a recording method utilizing an electrophotographic method, an electrostatic recording method, a magnetic recording method, and the like, an image forming method using the toner, and a heat fixing method. It is. More specifically, the present invention relates to a copying machine, a printer, and a fax machine, which form a toner image on an electrostatic latent image holding member in advance, transfer the toner image onto a recording material, and fix the transferred toner image on the recording material to form an image. The present invention relates to an image forming toner used in an image forming apparatus as described above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, many methods are known as electrophotography. In general, a photoconductive substance is used to form an electric latent image on a photoreceptor by various means. The latent image is developed into a visible image by developing with toner, and the toner image is transferred to a transfer material such as paper as necessary, and then the toner image is fixed on the transfer material by heat, pressure, etc. to obtain a copy. Things.

As a method for visualizing an electric latent image, a cascade developing method, a magnetic brush developing method, and a pressure developing method are known. Furthermore, a method is known in which a magnetic sleeve is used, and a rotating sleeve having a magnetic pole disposed at the center is used, and a magnetic field is caused to fly between the photosensitive member and the sleeve.

In recent years, LED and LBP printers have become the mainstream of printer devices, and the direction of technology has increased to higher resolutions, that is, 240,300 dpi in the past, but 400, 600, 800 dpi. Accordingly, higher definition has been required for the developing system. In addition, the functions of the copying machine have been advanced, and the digital copying machine is moving toward digitalization. In this direction, a method of forming an electrostatic charge image with a laser is mainly used, so that the direction is also moving toward a higher resolution, and a high-resolution and high-definition developing method is required similarly to a printer. . For this reason, the particle size of the toner has been reduced,
JP-A-1-112253 and JP-A-2-284158
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H11-264, a toner having a specific particle size distribution and a small particle size is proposed.

[0005] As described above, the trend is toward higher resolution as a recent trend, but since the circularity of the toner is not controlled, the density of the developed toner particles tends to be coarse, and the latter half of the developed image There is a problem that the tailing phenomenon easily occurs in the non-image portion. Further, there is a problem that the external additive hardly uniformly adheres to the surface of the toner, and the storage stability of the toner under high temperature and high humidity.

In general, a toner is manufactured by melt-kneading a colorant of a dye or a pigment in a binder resin such as a thermoplastic resin, uniformly dispersing the colorant, and then jet-milling using a jet stream. In particular, a method of finely pulverizing with a fine pulverizing device such as an impinging airflow pulverizer, and then classifying the obtained finely pulverized product by a classifier to produce a desired particle size, mass production,
It has become the current mainstream in terms of cost.

When an attempt is made to obtain a toner having an average particle diameter of 6 μm using these pulverizers, for example, the particle size distribution of the pulverized toner is 0.6 μm to 10 μm containing many fine particles.
It becomes a distribution of about μm, and fine particles are removed by a classification process and used for toner products.Ultra fine particles with a particle diameter of 1 μm or less have a strong adhesion to particles and behave in a state attached to large particles, so they are usually used. It is difficult to completely remove it in the classification process.

Many proposals have been made for removing or suppressing the generation of fine powder in the toner, but it has been conventionally difficult to accurately measure the distribution of particle diameters of 1.0 μm or less without being affected by noise. The particle size was 1μ
The ultrafine particles of the toner having a particle size of m or less were not clearly described. For example, in JP-A-58-42057 and JP-A-6-317931, the range of the target fine powder is 5 μm or less, and the ultrafine particles of the toner having a particle size of 1 μm or less are not clearly described.

If a large number of ultrafine particles having a particle size of 1 μm or less exist, the difference in the charge amount of the toner between the initial state and the state after a long run is large, and the phenomenon that the transferability of the toner fluctuates accordingly.

When such a phenomenon is present, it is difficult to uniformly transfer toner images of four colors in the generation of a full-color image, and problems tend to occur in terms of color unevenness and color balance.
It is not easy to stably output a high-quality full-color image.

Further, ultrafine particles having a particle size of 1 μm or less are easily deposited on the surface of the toner carrier or the surface of the latent image carrier.
Further, when a resin having a low softening point is used, the deposited ultrafine powder is likely to form a film, which causes image defects.

In recent years, printing speed has been increased,
For the purpose of low energy fixing, the binder resin of the toner is a resin that softens at a low temperature, and such a resin generally has a high crushing property and tends to generate ultrafine particles having a particle diameter of 1 μm or less. is there. Further, due to the property of softening at a low temperature, phenomena such as deposition and film formation on the surface of the toner carrier or the surface of the latent image carrier are more likely to occur.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming toner which solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming toner which is faithful to a document, faithful to a signal and faithful to a latent image and has substantially no tailing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming toner which is excellent in storability, in which an external additive uniformly adheres to the surface of the toner, does not impair the fluidity of the toner even in a high temperature and high humidity environment. is there.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming toner which has high transferability from the initial stage to after a long run (after endurance) and has little change in transferability.

It is an object of the present invention to suppress contamination on the surface of a toner carrier or a surface of a latent image carrier, to provide high transferability, and to provide a long life and high durability without lowering image quality such as a decrease in image density or fog. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming toner capable of stably obtaining a high-definition image with high stability.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming method and a heat fixing method using the improved image forming toner.

[0019]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image forming toner having toner particles containing at least a colorant, a binder resin and a wax, wherein the toner comprises: (i) an average circularity of 0.900 or more; A circularity distribution containing 20 to 60% by number of particles having a circularity less than 0.965 and a circularity less than 0.95, and having a mode circularity of 0.90 or more;
And (ii) having a circle-equivalent average diameter of 2.0 to 10.0 μm,
2. A region having an equivalent circle diameter of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and an equivalent circle diameter of 3.
The wax has a particle size distribution having at least one number frequency peak in a region larger than 0 μm and 10.0 μm or less, and the wax has an endothermic main peak of 60 to 120 ° C. by DSC measurement. The binder resin of the toner is a THF soluble component and 0 to 5.0% by weight of THF.
In the molecular weight distribution by GPC measurement of the THF-soluble component containing the insoluble component, the THF-soluble component was found to have a molecular weight of 50,0.
The content (M1) of the component having a molecular weight of less than 00 (M1) is 40 to 70%, and the content of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 (M1)
2) a molecular weight distribution having 20 to 45% and a content (M3) of 2 to 25% of a component exceeding 500,000 and satisfying the following condition (1): M1 ≧ M2> M3 (1) And a toner for forming an image.

Further, the present invention provides a latent image forming step of forming an electrostatic latent image on an electrostatic latent image holder; developing the electrostatic latent image held on the electrostatic latent image holder with toner. Developing the toner image to form a toner image; transferring the toner image to a recording material with or without an intermediate transfer member; and fixing the toner image transferred to the recording material to the recording material. And an image forming method comprising: using the above-described toner for forming an image as the toner.

Further, the present invention provides a heat fixing method comprising: an image forming step of forming a toner image on a recording material with toner; and a fixing step of heating and fixing the toner image formed on the recording material to the recording material. In, as the toner,
The present invention relates to a heat fixing method using the above-described image forming toner.

The present inventors have found that the circularity distribution of toner particles and the particle size distribution based on the equivalent circle diameter (particularly, the ratio of particles having a particle size of 1.0 μm or less) greatly affect electrophotographic characteristics. This has led to the invention.

[0023]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The "circularity" in the present invention is defined as:
It is used as a simple method of quantitatively expressing the shape of the particles, in the present invention is measured using a flow particle image analyzer FPIA-1000 manufactured by Toa Medical Electronics, the value obtained from the following equation Defined as circularity.

Circularity a = L ₀ / L (L ₀ ; perimeter of a circle having the same projected area as the particle image, L;
Perimeter of projected image of particle)

The circularity in the present invention is an index of the degree of unevenness of the toner particles. When the toner is perfectly spherical, the circularity is 1.00, and the circularity becomes smaller as the surface shape becomes more complicated. .

In the present invention, the toner has an average circularity of from 0.900 to 0.965, preferably from 0.930 to 0.9 in the circularity distribution of the toner measured using a flow type particle image analyzer. 960 with a circularity of 0.9
The content of the particles having a particle size of less than 5 is 20 to 60% by number, more preferably 20 to 50% by number, and the mode circularity is 0.1%.
When it is 90 or more, preferably 0.93 or more, the above problem can be solved without any adverse effect.

Further, the fixing speed is 120 mm / sec.
Even in the case of the above-described high speed, in the toner of the present invention, since the density of the toner in the unfixed toner image is high, the tailing phenomenon of the toner due to evaporation of water from the paper during fixing hardly occurs, and It has good heat conduction at the time of fixing and makes it difficult to cause fixing tailing.

When the average circularity of the toner is less than 0.900, the density of the developed toner particles tends to be coarse,
When an unfixed toner image is fixed, a tailing phenomenon is likely to occur in a non-image portion on the downstream side of the toner image in the recording material conveyance direction. If the average circularity of the toner exceeds 0.965, cleaning failure tends to occur. When the content of the toner particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 is less than 20% by number, poor cleaning is likely to occur, and when the content of the toner particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 exceeds 60% by number, In addition, the density of the developed toner particles is likely to be coarse, and the tailing phenomenon is likely to occur in the non-image portion of the toner image on the downstream side in the recording material conveyance direction when an unfixed toner image is fixed.

When the mode circularity is less than 0.90,
Similarly, the density of the developed toner particles tends to be coarse,
When an unfixed toner image is fixed, a tailing phenomenon is likely to occur in a non-image portion on the downstream side of the toner image in the recording material conveyance direction.

In the present invention, the toner has a circle-equivalent average diameter of 2.0 to 10.0 μm in particle size distribution,
By having at least one peak of the number frequency (%) in a region where the equivalent circle diameter of the toner is 0.6 to 3.0 μm and in a region larger than 3.0 μm and smaller than 10.0 μm, Good storage stability of toner. The reason for this is that the external additives tend to adhere to the toner densely by having peaks at different circle-equivalent average diameters, and as a result,
Good storage stability of the toner under high temperature and high humidity.

When the circle-equivalent average diameter is less than 2.0 μm,
Insufficient cleaning occurs and the equivalent circle diameter is 10.0μ.
If m exceeds m, the density of the developed toner particles tends to be coarse, and the tailing phenomenon is likely to occur in the non-image portion of the toner image downstream of the recording material conveyance direction when an unfixed toner image is fixed.

The toner of the present invention needs to have a wax having one or more endothermic peaks at 60 to 120 ° C. in differential thermal analysis.

When the endothermic peak in the differential thermal analysis of the wax is 60 to 120 ° C., the compatibility with the binder resin used in the present invention is good, and the developability under high temperature and high humidity is good.

The endothermic peak in the differential thermal analysis is 60-1.
The effect is at least one at 20 ° C., and the endothermic peak may be at a place exceeding 120 ° C.

Examples of such waxes include petroleum waxes such as paraffin wax, microcrystalline wax, and petrolactam and derivatives thereof; montan wax and derivatives thereof; hydrocarbon waxes and derivatives thereof by Fischer-Tropsch method; and polyethylene. Polyolefin waxes and derivatives thereof; natural waxes and derivatives thereof such as carnauba wax and candelilla wax; alcohols such as higher aliphatic alcohols; fatty acids and compounds thereof such as stearic acid and palmitic acid; acid amides, esters, ketones and hydrogenated castor oil And its derivatives, vegetable waxes and animal waxes. Derivatives include oxides, block copolymers with vinyl monomers, and graft-modified products.

The molecular weight of the wax according to the present invention is measured under the following measuring conditions. Apparatus: GPC-150C (Waters) Column: GMH-HT 30 cm, 2 columns (manufactured by Tosoh Corporation) Temperature: 135 ° C Solvent: o-dichlorobenzene (0.1 wt% ionol added) Flow rate: 1.0 ml / min Sample: 0 0.4 ml of 15 wt% sample

Measurement is performed under the above conditions, and the molecular weight of the sample is calculated using a molecular weight calibration curve prepared from a monodisperse polystyrene standard sample. In addition, Mark-Houw
It is calculated by converting into polyethylene using a conversion formula derived from the ink viscosity formula.

Further, the toner of the present invention contains a wax having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) and a number average molecular weight (Mw).
When the ratio (Mw / Mn) to n) is from 1.0 to 2.0, the toner melts sharply, so that the fixability is good even at a low temperature and the tailing is further suppressed.

The binder resin used in the toner according to the present invention has a THF insoluble content of 0 to 5%.
In the GPC molecular weight distribution of the THF-soluble component, as shown in FIG. 10, the THF-soluble component has a content (M1) of a component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 of 40 to 70% and a molecular weight of 50,000. The content (M2) of the component of 500,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 45
%, The content of the component having a molecular weight exceeding 500,000 (M3)
Is 2 to 25% and M1 ≧ M2> M3 needs to be satisfied.

The THF-insoluble content is 0 to 5% by weight, and the content (M1) of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 is 4%.
When the content is 0 to 70%, low-temperature fixability is good, and as a result, tailing suppression is also improved. When the content (M2) of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 45%,
When the content (M3) of the component exceeding 0,000 is 2 to 25%, the storage stability of the toner under high temperature and high humidity is good without impairing the fixability.

When the content of the THF-insoluble component exceeds 5% by weight,
Content M of component exceeding 500,000 in molecular weight 3 exceeds 25%
In this case, the low-temperature fixability deteriorates. Less than 50,000 molecular weight
Minute content M 1 exceeds 70%, M 1 ≧ M 2> M Full 3
If not, the storage stability of the toner under high temperature and high humidity and
There is a problem with hot offset.

The molecular weight of the THF-soluble component of the binder resin is measured by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). As a specific GPC measurement method, a sample obtained by previously extracting the toner with a THF (tetrahydrofuran) solvent using a Soxhlet extractor for 20 hours was used, and the column configuration was A-801, 802, 80 manufactured by Showa Denko.
3, 804, 805, 806, and 807 are connected, and the molecular weight distribution is measured using a standard polystyrene resin calibration curve. Content of components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 (M1), molecular weight 5
The content (M2) of the component of 0000 to 500,000 and the content (M3) of the component exceeding the molecular weight of 500,000 are
The area ratio of the GPC chromatogram is defined as% by weight.
The lower limit of the molecular weight region of the content (M1) of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 is set to 800 in consideration of noise at the time of measuring the molecular weight.

The THF-insoluble content of the binder resin refers to the weight ratio of the ultra-high molecular weight polymer component (substantially crosslinked polymer) insoluble in the THF solvent. THF of binder resin
The insoluble content is defined by a value measured as follows.

About 1 g of the binder resin is weighed (W ₁ g), placed in a cylindrical filter paper (for example, No. 86R made by Toyo Roshi Kabushiki Kaisha) and subjected to a Soxhlet extractor, and THF 100 to 200 as a solvent.
After extracting the soluble components with a THF solvent for 6 hours, evaporating the soluble components extracted with a THF solvent, vacuum drying at 100 ° C. for several hours, and weighing the amount of THF soluble resin components (W
₂ g). The THF-insoluble content of the binder resin is calculated from the following equation.

[0045]

(Equation 1)

In the raw material stage, the content and molecular weight distribution of the THF-insoluble component of the binder resin may change through a melt-kneading process for producing toner particles. It is necessary to measure the molecular weight distribution of the THF-soluble component and the content of the THF-insoluble component of the binder resin to be constituted.

The THF-soluble component of the binder resin constituting the toner particles is obtained by subjecting the toner to a Soxhlet extractor of toluene to extract the toluene-soluble component, and solidifying the extract to obtain a THF-soluble component.
It is possible to separate using F.

The content of the THF-insoluble content of the binder resin constituting the toner particles was determined by weighing about 1 g of the toner (W ₃ g), placing the weighed toner in a cylindrical filter paper (for example, No. 86R made by Toyo Filter Paper) and subjecting it to a Soxhlet extractor. , THF 100 to 20 as a solvent
The mixture was extracted with 0 ml for 6 hours, the soluble components extracted with the THF solvent were evaporated, and then dried at 100 ° C. for several hours under vacuum to obtain the weight of the THF soluble resin component (W ₄ g).
Weigh The weight of a component other than the binder resin component such as the colorant (magnetic substance) and wax in the toner is measured in advance, and is set to W ₅ g. The THF-insoluble content is obtained from the following equation.

[0049]

(Equation 2)

The kind of the binder resin used in the present invention is, for example, a homopolymer of styrene such as polyethylene, poly-p-chlorostyrene and polyvinyltoluene and a substituted product thereof, and styrene-p-chlorostyrene copolymer. Coalescing,
Styrene-vinyltoluene copolymer, styrene-vinylnaphthalene copolymer, styrene-acrylate copolymer, styrene-methacrylate copolymer, styrene-α-chloromethyl methacrylate copolymer, styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer Polymer, styrene-vinyl methyl ether copolymer, styrene-vinyl ethyl ether copolymer, styrene-vinyl methyl ketone copolymer,
Styrene-based copolymers such as styrene-butadiene copolymer, styrene-isoprene copolymer, styrene-acrylonitrile-indene copolymer; polyvinyl chloride; phenolic resin; natural modified phenolic resin; natural resin modified maleic acid resin; Resin; Methacryl resin; Polyvinyl acetate; Silicone resin; Polyester resin; Polyurethane; Polyamide resin; Furan resin; Epoxy resin; Xylene resin; Polyvinyl butyral; Terpene resin; Coumarone indene resin;
Crosslinked styrenic resins are also preferred binder resins.

As a comonomer for the styrene monomer of the styrene copolymer, a vinyl monomer can be used alone or in combination of two or more. Examples of the vinyl monomer include acrylic acid, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, dodecyl acrylate, octyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, phenyl acrylate, methacrylic acid, methyl methacrylate, Ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate,
Monocarboxylic acid having a double bond such as octyl methacrylate, acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, acrylamide or a substituted product thereof; for example, maleic acid,
Dicarboxylic acids having a double bond such as butyl maleate, methyl maleate and dimethyl maleate, and substituted products thereof; for example, vinyl esters such as vinyl chloride, vinyl acetate and vinyl benzoate; for example, ethylene, propylene, butylene Ethylene-based olefins such as vinyl methyl ketone and vinyl hexyl ketone; and vinyl ethers such as vinyl methyl ether, vinyl ethyl ether and vinyl isobutyl ether. Here, as the crosslinking agent, a compound having two or more polymerizable double bonds is mainly used, and it can be used alone or in combination of two or more. Examples of such a compound include aromatic divinyl compounds such as divinylbenzene and divinylnaphthalene; and carboxylic acids having two double bonds such as ethylene glycol diacrylate, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and 1,3-butanediol dimethacrylate. Acid esters: divinylaniline, divinylether,
Divinyl compounds such as divinyl sulfide and divinyl sulfone; and compounds having three or more vinyl groups.

In the present invention, the content of the wax and the THF-insoluble component having one or more endothermic peaks in the range of 60 to 120 ° C. in the differential thermal analysis is 0 to 5% by weight,
In the GPC molecular weight distribution of the THF-soluble component, the content (M1) of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 is 40 to 70%, and the content (M2) of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 4%.
5%, the content of the component having a molecular weight exceeding 500,000 (M
3) is a toner containing a binder resin satisfying M1 ≧ M2> M3, wherein the average circularity is 0.900 or more and less than 0.965, and the circularity is 0.95.
Particles having a content of less than 20 to 60% by number, a mode circularity of 0.90 or more, a circularity distribution of 2.0 to 10.0 μm, and a circle equivalent diameter. Has a particle size distribution having at least one number frequency (%) peak in each of a region of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and a region of more than 3.0 μm and 10.0 μm or less, thereby suppressing tailing, and The storage stability of the toner under high temperature and high humidity can be further improved.

In the present invention, in the particle size distribution based on the equivalent circle diameter of the particles measured using a flow type particle image analyzer, the number frequency is 2 to less than 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. It is present at 50%, preferably 5 to 40%. 2. The toner has an equivalent circle diameter of 0.95 to 3.
When the number frequency is less than 2% at less than 00 μm,
The density of the developed toner particles tends to be coarse, and tailing tends to occur. When the toner has an equivalent circle diameter of 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm and the number frequency exceeds 50%, there is a problem that fog suppression is deteriorated in a solid white image.

The toner of the present invention has at least a toner particle containing a colorant, a binder resin and a wax, and an external additive, and preferably the external additive contains inorganic fine particles. The reason for using the inorganic fine particles as the external additive is that they are hardly affected by the environment, do not deteriorate the fluidity of the toner even under high temperature and high humidity, and do not deteriorate the storage stability of the toner.

In the particle size distribution of the toner particles according to the present invention, the circle equivalent diameter is 0.60 μm or more and 1.00 μm or more.
It is preferable that the proportion of particles having a particle size of less than 0 to 5.0% by number in the number distribution. 0.60μ equivalent circle diameter
When particles having a particle size of m or more and less than 1.00 μm exist in an amount of 5.0% by number or more, the difference in the charge amount of the toner between the initial state and the state after a long run is large, and the toner transferability fluctuates accordingly. Easy to occur. Ultrafine powder easily accumulates on the surface of the toner carrier, and when a resin having a low softening point is used, the accumulated ultrafine powder easily forms a film. as a result,
There is a problem in image stains, stability of toner charge amount,
It tends to affect many image characteristics such as low image density and fog due to transferability deterioration.

Further, the circle-equivalent average diameter of the toner particles is 4.0.
To 10.0 μm. Average circle equivalent diameter is 1
If the average diameter exceeds 0.0 μm, it is difficult to stably obtain a high-definition image. If the average circle-equivalent diameter is less than 4.0 μm, a high-quality image can be stably obtained over a long period of time using the current technology. It is difficult.

In the production process of the toner, the toner particles are preferably subjected to a treatment for reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm. As a process to reduce
It is more preferable to perform a classification process that is more precise than usual and / or to perform a process of applying a mechanical impact force.

The circle-equivalent diameter of the toner particles in the present invention is 1.00.
The process of reducing particles having a particle diameter of less than μm is, for example, forcibly dispersing the particles having a particle diameter of less than 1.00 μm that cannot be removed in the normal toner classification step by using a compressed gas when supplying the toner in the classification step; A more precise classification process than usual is performed by a plurality of classification processes;
Specifically, particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm, which adhere to the surface of toner particles (having a particle size of 0 μm or more) and are smaller than 1.00 μm, are fixed to the surface of large toner particles by a treatment for applying mechanical impact force. .

In the particle size distribution according to the circle equivalent diameter of the toner particles in the present invention, the ratio of particles having a particle diameter of 0.60 μm or more and less than 1.00 μm easily achieves 0-5.0 number% of the whole on a number basis. As a means for doing so, a treatment for reducing particles having a circle equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm of the toner particles in the present invention as in the above example is preferably used.

Among the particles of 3.00 μm or more in the toner, particles having a circularity a of 0.90 or more are 90% by number.
More preferably, particles having a circularity of 0.98 or more and having a circularity of 0.98 or more are in the range of 0 to less than 30.0% by number. When this condition is satisfied, a change in transferability is further reduced.

In the present invention, the particle size distribution and circularity distribution of the equivalent circle diameter of the toner are determined by a flow type particle image analyzer FPI.
It is measured as follows using A-1000 (manufactured by Toa Medical Electronics).

In the measurement, fine dust is removed through a filter, and as a result, the measurement range (for example, a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and 159.21 μm) is placed in 10 ⁻³ cm ³ of water.
m) less than 20 particles of water 100-150ml
0.1 to 0.5 ml of a surfactant (preferably an alkylbenzene sulfonate) is added therein, and 0.1 to 0.5 g of a measurement sample is further added. And the particle concentration of the measurement sample is 3000 to 100
0.60 μm using a sample dispersion liquid adjusted to 00/10 ^-3 cm ³ (for particles in a diameter range equivalent to a measurement circle).
The particle size distribution and circularity distribution of particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 159.21 μm are measured.

The outline of the measurement is described in the catalog of FPIA-1000 (June 1995 version) issued by Toa Medical Electronics Co., Ltd., the operation manual of the measuring apparatus, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-1364.
No. 39, which is as follows.

The sample dispersion liquid is passed through a flow path (spread along the flow direction) of a flat and flat transparent flow cell (thickness: about 200 μm). The strobe and the CCD camera are mounted on the flow cell so as to be positioned on opposite sides of the flow cell so as to form an optical path that intersects with the thickness of the flow cell. While the sample dispersion is flowing, strobe light is irradiated at 1/30 second intervals to obtain an image of the particles flowing through the flow cell, so that each particle has a range parallel to the flow cell 2
Photographed as a two-dimensional image. The diameter of a circle having the same area is calculated as the equivalent circle diameter from the area of the two-dimensional image of each particle.

In about one minute, the equivalent circle diameter of 900 or more particles can be measured, and the number based on the equivalent circle diameter distribution and the ratio (number%) of the particles having the specified equivalent circle diameter can be measured. . In particular, the particle concentration of the example is 6000/10 ^3.
In the case of a toner dispersion of cm ³ , about 180
Zero circle equivalent diameters can be measured.

As shown in Table 1, the results (frequency% and cumulative%) can be obtained by dividing the range of 0.06 to 400 μm into 226 channels (divided into 30 channels per octave). In the actual measurement, the equivalent circle diameter is 0.
The particles are measured in a range of 60 μm or more and less than 159.21 μm.

[0067]

[Table 1]

In the present invention, the toner preferably has a volume average particle size (Dv) of 2.5 to 6.0 μm in a particle size distribution measured by a Coulter counter. When the volume average particle size (Dv) is less than 2.5 μm, the image density tends to decrease, and when the volume average particle size (Dv) exceeds 6.0 μm, it becomes difficult to form a high quality image.

The particle size distribution of the toner of the present invention is measured using a Coulter Counter TA-II, but a Coulter Multisizer (manufactured by Coulter Inc.) can be used. The electrolyte is 1% NaC using primary grade sodium chloride.
Prepare an aqueous solution. For example, ISOTON R-I
I (manufactured by Coulter Scientific Japan) can be used. As a measuring method, the electrolytic aqueous solution 100 to
In 150 ml, 0.1 to 5 ml of a surfactant, preferably an alkylbenzene sulfonate, is added as a dispersant,
Further, 2 to 20 mg of a measurement sample is added. The electrolytic solution in which the sample is suspended is subjected to a dispersion treatment for about 1 to 3 minutes by an ultrasonic disperser, and the volume and the number of toner particles having a size of 2.00 μm or more are measured by using the measuring device with a 100 μm aperture as an aperture. And the number distribution were calculated.

Then, the weight-based volume average particle diameter (Dv) (the median value of each channel is set as a representative value for each channel) obtained from the volume distribution according to the present invention was obtained.

The channels are 2.00 to 2.52
less than 2.5 μm; less than 2.52 to 3.17 μm;
4. less than 4.00 μm; 4.00 to less than 5.04 μm;
04 to less than 6.35 μm; 6.35 to less than 8.00 μm; 8.00 to less than 10.08 μm; 10.08 to 1
2.70 μm or less; 12.70 to less than 16.00 μm;
16.00 to less than 20.20 μm; 20.20 to 25.
Less than 40 μm; 25.40 to less than 32.00 μm; 3
13 channels of 2.00 to less than 40.30 μm are used.

The toner of the present invention is preferably a magnetic toner containing 30 to 200 parts by weight, preferably 50 to 150 parts by weight of a magnetic material as a colorant with respect to 100 parts by weight of the binder resin.

When the content of the magnetic substance is less than 30 parts by weight, the number of particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm generated at the time of pulverization tends to increase, and the particles having a particle diameter of less than 1.00 μm adhere to the surface of large toner particles. Since the adhesive force becomes strong, it becomes difficult to remove particles smaller than 1.00 μm by a usual method. Further, in a developing device using a magnetic force for conveying toner, the conveying property is insufficient, and the developer layer on the developer carrier tends to be uneven, resulting in image unevenness. The image density tended to decrease. When the content of the magnetic substance exceeds 200 parts by weight, there is a tendency that a problem occurs in the fixing property.

As the colorant used in the present invention, a black colorant using carbon black, a magnetic substance, and the following yellow / magenta / cyan colorants as a black colorant is used.

Examples of the yellow colorant include condensed azo compounds, isoindolinone compounds, anthraquinone compounds,
A compound represented by an azo metal complex, a methine compound or an allylamide compound is used. Specifically, C.I. I. Pigment Yellow 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 6
2, 74, 83, 93, 94, 95, 97, 109, 1
10, 111, 120, 127, 128, 129, 14
7, 168, 174, 176, 180, 181, 191
Etc. are preferably used.

Examples of the magenta colorant include condensed azo compounds, diketopyrrolopyrrole compounds, anthraquinones, quinacridone compounds, basic dye lake compounds, naphthol compounds, benzimidazolone compounds, thioindigo compounds, and perylene compounds. Specifically, C.I.
I. Pigment Red 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 23, 4
8: 2, 48: 3, 48: 4, 57: 1, 81: 1, 1
44, 146, 166, 169, 177, 184, 18
5, 202, 206, 220, 221, 254 are particularly preferred.

As the cyan coloring agent, copper phthalocyanine compounds and derivatives thereof, anthraquinone compounds, basic dye lake compounds and the like can be used. Specifically, C.I. I.
Pigment Blue 1, 7, 15, 15: 1, 15: 2,
15: 3, 15: 4, 60, 62, 66 can be particularly preferably used.

These colorants can be used alone or as a mixture, or in the form of a solid solution. The colorant of the present invention is selected from the viewpoints of hue angle, saturation, lightness, weather resistance, OHP transparency, and dispersibility in toner. The colorant is used in an amount of 1 to 20 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the resin.

When a magnetic material is used as a black colorant, unlike other colorants, 30 parts per 100 parts by weight of resin is used.
Used in an amount of up to 200 parts by weight.

As the magnetic material, there is a metal oxide containing an element of iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, magnesium, manganese, aluminum or silicon. Among them, ferric oxide,
Those containing iron oxide as a main component, such as γ-iron oxide, are preferred. From the viewpoint of controlling the chargeability of the toner, another metal element such as a silicon element or an aluminum element may be contained. These magnetic particles, BET specific surface area by nitrogen adsorption method preferably 2 to 3 m ² / g, especially 3~28m ² / g
The Mohs' hardness is preferably 5 to 7.

The shape of the magnetic material may be an octahedron, a hexahedron,
There are spherical, needle-like and scale-like, but octahedral, hexahedral, spherical,
An amorphous type having a small anisotropy is preferable for increasing the image density, and a spherical shape is particularly preferable. In order to further increase the image density, a magnetic material containing silica is particularly preferable.

The average particle size of the magnetic material is 0.05 to 1.
0 μm is preferable, and 0.1 to 0.6 μm is more preferable.
m, more preferably 0.1 to 0.4 μm.

The average particle diameter of the magnetic material was measured by taking a transmission electron micrograph of the magnetic powder and arbitrarily selecting 250 particles having a particle diameter of 0.01 μm or more per 40,000-fold magnification. The Martin diameter (the length of a line segment that bisects the projected area in a fixed direction) in the projected diameter is measured, and is represented by the number average diameter.

In the toner of the present invention, known external additives are used. In order to improve charge stability, developability, fluidity and storage stability, inorganic fine powders such as silica, alumina and titania, or The double oxide is preferred. Further, silica is more preferable. For example, as the silica, both a so-called dry method produced by vapor-phase oxidation of a silicon halide and an alkoxide, and a so-called wet silica produced from dry glass and alkoxide called fumed silica and water glass can be used. However, dry silica having less silanol groups on the surface and in the interior of the silica fine powder and having less production residues such as Na ₂ O and SO ₃ ^2- is preferred. In the case of fumed silica, for example, it is also possible to obtain a composite fine powder of silica and another metal oxide by using another metal halide such as aluminum chloride and titanium chloride together with a silicon halide in the production process. Is also included.

The inorganic fine powder used in the present invention is BET.
The specific surface area by measuring nitrogen adsorption in law 30 m ² / g or more, the silica fine powder 0 for 100 parts by weight of the toner, especially given good results in the range of 50 to 400 m ² / g.
It is particularly preferable to use 1 to 8 parts by weight, preferably 0.5 to 5 parts by weight, more preferably more than 1.0 to 3.0 parts by weight.

The inorganic fine powder used in the present invention may be, if necessary, a silicone varnish, for the purpose of hydrophobicity and charge control.
Treatment with silicone oil, various modified silicone oils, silane coupling agents, silane coupling agents having functional groups, and other treating agents such as organosilicon compounds and organotitanium compounds alone or in combination. Is preferred.

The specific surface area was determined by adsorbing nitrogen gas on the sample surface using a specific surface area measuring device Autosorb 1 (manufactured by Yuasa Ionics) according to the BET method, and calculating the specific surface area using the BET multipoint method.

In order to maintain stable toner storability, the inorganic fine powder is preferably treated at least with silicone oil.

An external additive other than the silica fine powder may be added to the magnetic toner of the present invention, if necessary. For example, resin fine particles and inorganic fine particles functioning as a charge auxiliary agent, a conductivity imparting agent, a fluidity imparting agent, an anti-caking agent, a release agent for fixing a hot roll, a lubricant, and an abrasive.

The fine resin particles have an average particle size of 0.1.
Those having a thickness of from 03 to 1.0 μm are preferred. Examples of the polymerizable monomer constituting the resin fine particles include styrene, o-methylstyrene, m-methylstyrene, p-methylstyrene, and p-methylstyrene.
Styrene monomers such as methoxystyrene and p-ethylstyrene; acrylic acid monomers; methacrylic acid monomers; methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, n-butyl acrylate, isobutyl acrylate, n-propyl acrylate N-octyl acrylate, dodecyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, stearyl acrylate,
Acrylic ester monomers such as 2-chloroethyl acrylate and phenyl acrylate; methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, n-propyl methacrylate, n-butyl methacrylate, isobutyl methacrylate, n-octyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid Methacrylate monomers such as dodecyl, 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate, stearyl methacrylate, phenyl methacrylate, dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, and diethylaminoethyl methacrylate; other monomers such as acrylonitrile, methacrylonitrile, and acrylamide No.

As the polymerization method, suspension polymerization, emulsion polymerization,
Soap-free polymerization or the like can be used, but more preferably particles obtained by soap-free polymerization are preferred.

The measurement of the average particle size of the resin fine particles is as follows.

[0093] A 0.02 g sample is placed in a 5 ml screw tube, 3 ml of ethanol is added, and the mixture is dispersed for 1 minute by an ultrasonic cleaner. The dispersion sample is placed on a scanning electron microscope sample stage so as to be uniform, and ethanol is volatilized. After sputtering the sample stage, set it on a scanning electron microscope,
Two photographs are taken at the same visual field at a magnification of 20,000, one is used for measuring the average particle diameter, and one is used as a reserve. A total of four straight lines of a diagonal line and a cross line are drawn on the photograph for measurement, and 50 clear and easy-to-measure particles on the surface layer are selected along the straight line. Select the particles with a computer-operated caliper to 0.01 μm
The average particle diameter is determined.

In particular, the resin fine particles having the above characteristics are primarily charged by bringing a contact charging system member such as a roller, a brush or a blade into contact with the surface of a photosensitive drum as an electrostatic latent image holding member as a primary charging device. It has been confirmed that when applied to an image forming method having a contact charging step of performing the following, a great effect is obtained in suppressing fusion of the photosensitive drum.

As the external additive fine particles, for example, Teflon,
Lubricants such as zinc stearate and polyvinylidene fluoride (polyvinylidene fluoride is preferred); cerium oxide;
Abrasives such as silicon carbide and strontium titanate (preferably strontium titanate); fluidity-imparting agents such as titanium oxide and aluminum oxide (particularly preferably hydrophobic); anti-caking agents; Conductivity-imparting agents such as zinc oxide, antimony oxide and tin oxide; and developability improvers such as white fine particles and black fine particles of opposite polarity can also be used.

In the toner of the present invention, a charge control agent may be added (internally added) to the toner particles or mixed (externally added) with the toner particles, if necessary. The charge control agent makes it possible to control the amount of charge optimally according to the development system. In particular, in the present invention, the balance between the particle size distribution and the amount of charge can be further stabilized.

The following substances control the toner to be negatively charged. For example, an organic metal complex or a chelate compound is effective, and examples thereof include a monoazo metal complex, an acetylacetone metal complex, an aromatic hydroxycarboxylic acid, and an aromatic dicarboxylic acid-based metal complex. Other examples include aromatic hydroxycarboxylic acids, aromatic monocarboxylic acids, aromatic polycarboxylic acids and their metal salts, their anhydrides, their esters, and phenol derivatives such as bisphenol.

The following substances can be controlled to be positively charged. Modified product with nigrosine and fatty acid metal salt; tributylbenzylammonium-1-hydroxy-4-
Quaternary ammonium salts such as naphthosulfonate and tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate, and onium salts such as phosphonium salts which are analogs thereof, lake pigments thereof, triphenylmethane dyes and lake pigments thereof As phosphorous tungsten,
Phosphorus molybdate, phosphotungsten molybdate, tannic acid, lauric acid, gallic acid, ferricyanide, ferrocyanide, etc.), metal salts of higher fatty acids; diorganotin oxides such as dibutyltin oxide, dioctyltin oxide, dicyclohexyltin oxide Diorganotin borates such as dibutyl tin borate, dioctyl tin borate and dicyclohexyl tin borate; these can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

The above-mentioned charge control agents are preferably used in the form of fine particles. In this case, the number average particle size of these charge control agents is preferably 4 μm or less, more preferably 0.5 to 3 μm. When these charge control agents are internally added to the toner, it is preferable to use 0.1 to 20 parts by weight, particularly 0.2 to 10 parts by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the binder resin.

The number average particle size of the charge control agent fine particles is measured by using a laser diffraction type particle size distribution analyzer for particles having a particle size of 0.1 μm or more under the following conditions.

(Measurement method) About 0.005 g of a sample (one cup in a microspatula) was placed in a 100 ml beaker, and about 30 ml of exchanged water was added. Then, 2-3 drops of a nonionic surfactant were added, and an ultrasonic dispersing machine was used. (USW) and disperse for 3 minutes.

After confirming the dispersion state, if there is any lumps, two more drops of dry well are added, and additional dispersion is performed for 2 minutes by USW. * Surfactant (water drainage for photographic paper): Stock solution of dry well [Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. 200ml]

(Measurement equipment and measurement conditions) SK LASER MICRON Sizer: Seishin Enterprise Model PRO-7000S Ultrasonic disperser (ultrasonic cleaning device): Takeda Rika AU-
10C type

In general, to prepare a toner, for example,
Binder resin, pigment as a colorant, dye, or magnetic material,
If necessary, a wax, a metal salt or a metal complex, a charge control agent and other additives are sufficiently mixed by a mixer such as a Henschel mixer or a ball mill, and then melted using a heat kneader such as a heating roll, a kneader or an extruder. While kneading to make the resins compatible with each other, disperse or dissolve the colorant, metal compounds, pigments, and dyes as necessary, solidify by cooling, pulverize, and perform classification and surface treatment as necessary. A method in which toner particles are obtained, and inorganic fine powder or the like is added and mixed as necessary to produce the toner particles is preferably used.

In order to achieve the specific circularity distribution and particle size distribution of the toner of the present invention, pulverization is carried out by a method using a known pulverizer such as a mechanical impact pulverizer or a jet pulverizer. Classification) may be sufficient, but in order to obtain a sharp circularity distribution, it is preferable to perform a treatment by applying heat to pulverize the material or to additionally apply a mechanical impact.

A hot-water bath method of dispersing finely pulverized (and, if necessary, further classified) toner particles in hot water or a method of passing them through a hot air stream may be used, but the charge amount of the toner is reduced. From the viewpoints of transfer characteristics, other image characteristics, and productivity, a method of applying a treatment by mechanical impact is most preferable.

Examples of the means for applying a mechanical impact force include a method using a mechanical impact pulverizer such as a Kryptron system manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and a turbo mill manufactured by Turbo Industries, Ltd.
Or, like a mechano-fusion system manufactured by Hosokawa Micron or a hybridization system manufactured by Nara Machinery Co., Ltd., the toner is pressed against the inside of the casing by centrifugal force using high-speed rotating blades, and the mechanical impact force is applied to the toner by compressive and frictional forces. Is added.
Specifically, in order to obtain the toner of the present invention, for example, FIG.
Using a turbo mill manufactured by Turbo Kogyo Co., Ltd., which is a mechanical impact crusher shown in FIG.
A method in which the rotor 114 is rotated at a peripheral speed of about 60 m / sec to 150 m / sec to adjust the circularity distribution and the particle size distribution while finely pulverizing the toner, or, in addition, to the surface by mechanical impact force. A method for performing the treatment is preferable.

When a mechanical impact force is applied after the finely pulverizing step of the toner or after the classification step, it is particularly preferable for suppressing tailing, preserving the toner, and improving transferability. .

The structure of the mechanical impact crusher shown in FIG. 13 is such that four processing blades 121 are horizontally mounted on a horizontal disk as shown in the sectional view of FIG. A surface reforming apparatus I of a system for applying a mechanical impact force, in which a rotating rotor 114 has processing chambers 1 arranged in four stages along a rotating shaft 115 extending in a horizontal direction.
Was used. As a specific method of the surface treatment, each rotor 114 is rotated at a peripheral speed of 40 by moving the drive motor 4.
As shown in FIG. 13, the cyclone 20 and the blower 24 were attached to the outlet side of the surface reforming apparatus I, and the toner was supplied at the upper part of the processing apparatus in a state where suction was performed at a blower air volume of 3.0 m ² The toner in the toner container 40 is supplied from the inlet 111 through the inlet 111 at a speed of 20 kg / h by the auto feeder 15 to perform the surface treatment of the magnetic toner. The magnetic toner introduced into the processing chamber 1 of the surface reforming device is subjected to an impact force when passing through the minute gap 113 between the rotating processing blade 121 and the inner wall of the processing chamber 1 and subjected to spheroidizing processing.

The surface-treated toner passes from the outlet 10 through the cyclone inlet 19 and is collected by the rotary valve 21. In addition, the bug fine powder of the toner passes through the bag filter 22 and is collected by the rotary valve 23.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show the impact type surface treatment apparatus.
As shown in the figure, the rotating shaft 61 is driven by the driving means,
The rotating disk 62 is rotated at a peripheral speed that does not cause the particles to be crushed due to the properties of the material to be surface-treated. A circulation flow returns to the center of the turntable 62.

Next, a predetermined amount of powder to be processed is charged from the raw material hopper 64 into the impact chamber 68, and the charged powder to be processed is instantaneously hit by the rotating disk 62 which rotates at a high speed. After receiving the impact action by rushing into the collision ring 58, the circulating flow returns to the impact chamber 68 again through the circulation path 63, and the surface treatment is performed again by the impact action. It is preferable to rotate the turntable so that the peripheral speed of the blade 55 is in the range of 60 m / sec to 150 m / sec.

Either of the order of the classification and the surface treatment may be performed first. In the classification step, it is preferable to use a multi-division classifier in terms of production efficiency.

A preferred specific example of the image forming method and the heat fixing method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

The surface of the OPC photosensitive drum 153 as an electrostatic latent image holding member is charged to a negative polarity by a contact charging member 161 comprising a charging roller as a primary charger, and is digitally scanned by image scanning by exposure 155 with a laser beam. A latent image is formed, and a negative frictionally chargeable magnetic toner 163 of a developing device 151 as a developing unit is provided with a developing sleeve 156 including a urethane rubber elastic blade 158 and a magnet 165 disposed in the counter direction. The electrostatic latent image is reversely developed. Alternatively, using an amorphous silicon photoconductor, the amorphous silicon photoconductor is charged to a positive polarity to form an electrostatic latent image, and regular development is performed using a negative frictionally chargeable magnetic toner. Developing sleeve 156
, An alternating bias, a pulse bias and / or a DC bias are applied by the bias applying means 162.
When a recording sheet P as a recording material is conveyed and reaches a transfer section, a contact transfer member 1 including a transfer roller as a transfer unit is provided.
The toner image on the surface of the photosensitive drum is electrostatically transferred onto the recording paper P by charging the recording paper P from the back surface (the surface opposite to the photosensitive drum side) by 54. The recording paper P separated from the photosensitive drum 153 is supplied to a fixing roller 171 and a pressure roller 172 of a heat and pressure fixing device having a fixing roller 171 having a heating unit 170 therein and a pressure roller 172 pressed against the fixing roller 171. The fixing process is performed to fix the toner image on the recording paper P by passing through the pressure contact portion of the recording paper P.

The magnetic toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 153 after the transfer step is removed by a cleaning device 164 having a cleaning blade 157. After the cleaning, the photosensitive drum 153 is neutralized by the erase exposure 160, and the process starting from the charging process by the primary charger 161 is repeated again.

The electrostatic latent image holder (photosensitive drum) has a photosensitive layer and a conductive substrate, and moves in the direction of the arrow. A non-magnetic cylindrical developing sleeve 156, which is a developer carrying member, rotates in the developing section so as to advance in the same direction as the surface of the electrostatic latent image holding member.
Inside the non-magnetic cylindrical developing sleeve 156, a multi-pole permanent magnet 165 (magnet roll) as a magnetic field generating means is arranged so as not to rotate. The magnetic toner 163 in the developing device 151 is applied on a non-magnetic cylindrical surface, and a negative tribo charge is given to the magnetic toner particles by friction between the surface of the developing sleeve 156 and the magnetic toner particles. Further, by disposing the elastic doctor blade 158, the thickness of the developer layer can be reduced (from 30 μm to 300 μm).
m) and uniformly regulate the photosensitive drum 1 in the developing section.
A toner layer thinner than the gap between 53 and the developing sleeve 156 is formed so as to be in non-contact. The rotational speed of the sleeve 156 is adjusted so that the surface speed of the sleeve is substantially equal to or close to the speed of the surface of the electrostatic latent image holding member.

An AC bias or a pulse bias may be applied to the developing sleeve 156 by the bias means 162. This AC bias is f 200-4,000H
It is preferable that z and Vpp are 500 to 3,000 V.

At the time of transfer of the magnetic toner particles in the developing portion, the magnetic toner particles are transferred to the electrostatic latent image side by an electrostatic force on the surface of the photosensitive drum 153 holding the electrostatic latent image and the action of an AC bias or a pulse bias. I do.

The developing sleeve 156 may have any structure. Usually, it comprises a non-magnetic developing sleeve 156 having a magnet 165 built-in. The developing sleeve 156 may be a cylindrical rotating body as shown. It is also possible to adopt a belt shape that moves in a circulating manner. Usually, aluminum or SUS is preferably used as the material.

The elastic blade 158 is made of a rubber elastic material such as urethane rubber, silicone rubber or NBR; a metal elastic material such as phosphor bronze or stainless steel; an elastic plate formed of a resin elastic material such as polyethylene terephthalate or high density polyethylene. It consists of. The elastic blade 158
The blade support member 159 made of a rigid body such as iron is brought into contact with the developing sleeve 156 by the elasticity of the member itself.
Is fixed to the toner container 152. Elastic blade 15
No. 8 preferably abuts in the counter direction with respect to the rotation direction of the developing sleeve 156 at a linear pressure of 5 to 80 g / cm.

Instead of the elastic blade 158, a magnetic doctor blade such as iron can be used.

As described above, the primary charging means has been described using the charging roller 161 as the contact charging means, but may be a contact charging means such as a charging blade or a charging brush, or a non-contact corona charging means. However, the contact charging means is preferable in that the generation of ozone due to charging is small. The transfer unit has been described using the transfer roller 154 as described above, but may be a contact charging unit such as a transfer blade or a non-contact corona transfer unit. However, the contact charging means is also preferable in that the generation of ozone due to transfer is small.

Instead of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
It is also possible to use an image forming apparatus using an intermediate transfer member shown in FIG. FIG. 17 shows an image forming apparatus of a type in which a toner image on an electrostatic latent image holding member is primarily transferred onto an intermediate transfer member, and then the toner image on the intermediate transfer member is secondarily transferred onto a recording material.

The photoreceptor 201 has a photosensitive layer 201b having an organic optical semiconductor on a substrate 201a, and rotates in the direction of the arrow to oppose and rotate in contact with the charging roller 202 (conductive elastic layer 202a, core metal 202b). To charge the photosensitive member 201 to a surface potential of about -600 V. The exposure is turned on and off on the photoreceptor by a polygon mirror in accordance with digital image information, thereby forming an electrostatic image having an exposed portion potential of -100 V and a dark portion potential of -600 V. Using a plurality of developing units 204-1, 204-2, 204-3, and 204-4, a magenta toner, a cyan toner, a yellow toner, or a black toner was obtained on the photosensitive member 201 by a reversal developing method to obtain a toner image. The toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer body 205 (elastic layer 205a, core metal 2 as a support) for each color.
05b) is transferred onto the intermediate transfer member 205 to form a color superimposed developed image of four colors. The transfer residual toner on the photoconductor 201 is collected in the residual toner container 209 by the cleaner member 208.

Since the toner according to the present invention has a high transfer efficiency, problems hardly occur even in a simple system without a bias roller or a cleaner member.

The intermediate transfer member 205 is formed of a pipe-shaped metal core 20.
5b is provided with a carbon black conductivity-imparting member by nitrile-
An elastic layer 205a sufficiently dispersed in butadiene rubber (NBR) was coated. The hardness of the coat layer is J
Based on IS K-6301, it was 30 degrees and the volume resistivity was 10 ⁹ Ω · cm. The transfer current required for transfer from the photosensitive member 201 to the intermediate transfer member 205 was about 5 μA, which was obtained by applying +2000 V from the power supply to the core 205b. Transfer material 2 from intermediate transfer body 205
After the transfer of the toner image to the sheet 06, the surface of the intermediate transfer member may be cleaned by the cleaner member 210.

The transfer roller is a 20 mm cored bar 207b.
The volume resistivity of the elastic layer 207a generated by coating a carbon conductive material on a material obtained by sufficiently dispersing a carbon conductive material in an ethylene-propylene-diene-based terpolymer (EPDM) foam is as follows: 10 ⁶ Ω · cm
And a material having a hardness of 35 degrees based on JIS K-6301 was used. Apply voltage to the transfer roller to
A transfer current of μA was applied. Transfer Roller 20 for Collectively Transferring Toner from Intermediate Transfer Body 205 to Transfer Material 206
For the contaminated toner on the surface 7, a fur brush cleaner or a cleaning member-less system is generally used as a cleaning member.

In the present invention, the developing device 204-
One of 1, 204-2, 204-3, and 204-4 was a magnetic one-component jumping development system using a magnetic toner, and a developing device configuration as shown in FIG. 14 was used. The other three non-magnetic color toner developing units used were two-component magnetic brush developing units or non-magnetic one-component developing units.

In the image forming method and the heat fixing method of the present invention, the heat fixing apparatus having the fixing roller 171 and the pressure roller 172 shown in FIG.
It is also possible to use the heat fixing method using a fixing film shown in FIG.

The heating and fixing device shown in FIG.
Fixing film 13 for contacting the toner image on 6
2. It has a heating element 131 as a heating means for heating the fixing film 132 and a pressure roller 135 as a pressing member for pressing the surface of the recording material 136 on the toner image side against the fixing film 132. .

In the fixing device shown in FIG.
No. 1 has a smaller heat capacity than a conventional heat roll and has a linear heating section, and the maximum temperature of the heating section is 10
The temperature is preferably from 0 to 300 ° C.

The fixing film 132 located between the heating element 131 and the pressing roller 135 as a pressing member is preferably a heat-resistant sheet having a thickness of 1 to 100 μm. Polyester, PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PF
A (tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoroalkylvinyl ether copolymer), PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), polyimide, polyamide, and other polymer sheets, metal sheets such as aluminum, and laminates composed of metal sheets and polymer sheets Sheets are used.

A more preferable configuration of the fixing film is that these heat-resistant sheets have a release layer and / or a low-resistance layer.

One specific example of the fixing device will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 131 denotes a low-heat-capacity linear heating element fixedly supported by the apparatus, for example, having a thickness of 1.0 mm and a width of 1 mm.
A resistance material 139 having a width of 1.0 mm is applied to an alumina substrate 140 having a length of 0 mm and a length of 240 mm, and is supplied with electricity from both ends in the longitudinal direction. Energization is DC100V cycle 20m
A pulse corresponding to a desired temperature and energy release amount controlled by the temperature detecting element 141 with a pulse-shaped waveform of sec is given by changing the pulse width. The approximate pulse width is 0.5 msec to 5 msec. The fixing film 132 moves in the direction of the arrow in the figure by contacting the heating element 131 whose energy and temperature are controlled in this manner.

An example of the fixing film has a thickness of 20 μm.
m heat-resistant film (for example, polyimide, polyetherimide, PES, PFA
It is an endless film in which a release layer obtained by adding a conductive agent to a fluororesin such as TFE or PAF) is coated at 10 μm.
Generally, the total thickness is less than 100 μm, more preferably 40 μm.
Less than m is good. The film is moved without wrinkles in the direction of the arrow due to the drive and tension by the drive roller 133 and the driven roller 134.

Reference numeral 135 denotes a pressure roller having a rubber elastic layer having good releasability such as silicone rubber.
The heating element is pressurized through the film with the pressure of kg, and is rotated by pressing against the film. The unfixed toner 137 on the recording material 136 is
It is guided to a fixing section by an entrance guide 138, and a fixed image is obtained by the above-described heating.

Although the fixing film 132 has been described as an endless belt, a sheet feeding shaft and a winding shaft may be used, and the fixing film may be an edged film.

In the heat fixing method as described above, since the heating element has a hard flat surface, in the fixing nip portion, the recording material pressed by the pressure roller is flat and fixes the toner on the recording material. Immediately before entering the recording section, the gap between the fixing film and the recording material becomes narrow due to its structure. Therefore, the air of the fixing film and the recording material is expelled backward.

When the line on the recording material in the longitudinal direction of the heating element enters, air is expelled toward the line. At this time, if toner is lightly loaded on the line, the air that has lost its place is lost. Breaks the line and exits rearward, causing the line to be broken and causing toner particles to scatter backward.

In particular, if the recording material is not smooth or absorbs moisture, the transfer electric field is weakened, and the attraction of the toner to the recording material is weakened. As a result, the toner particles are laid softly on the line, and this scattering phenomenon occurs. It will be easier. Further, even when the fixing speed is high, the wind pressure is increased, and the scattering phenomenon is worsened.

However, in the toner of the present invention, since the circularity of the toner is controlled, the density of the developed toner particles is likely to be high. Even if the toner image is fixed by such a heat fixing method, the scattering phenomenon can be prevented or reduced.

Further, in the toner of the present invention, the weight average molecular weight (Mw) and the number average molecular weight (M
The ratio (Mw / Mn) to n) is in the range of 1.0 to 2.0, and it melts sharply.

The toner of the present invention can be prepared by a magnetic one-component developing method,
It is used in a one-component developing method such as a non-magnetic one-component developing method and a two-component developing method having a toner and a carrier.

When the image forming method of the present invention is applied to a facsimile printer, the light image exposure L is an exposure for printing received data. FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing an example of this case.

The controller 181 controls the image reading section 180 and the printer 189. The entire controller 181 is controlled by the CPU 187. The read data from the image reading unit is transmitted to the partner station through the transmission circuit 183. Data received from the partner station is sent to the printer 189 through the receiving circuit 182. Predetermined image data is stored in the image memory. Printer controller 1
88 controls the printer 189. 184 is a telephone.

The image received from the line 185 (image information from the remote terminal connected via the line) is demodulated by the receiving circuit 182, and then the CPU 187 performs a decoding process on the image information and sequentially executes the image memory 186. Is stored in When the image of at least one page is stored in the memory 186, the image of the page is recorded. CPU187
Reads out one page of image information from the memory 186 and sends the combined one page of image information to the printer controller 188. The printer controller 188 uses C
Upon receiving the image information of one page from the PU 187, the printer 189 is controlled to record the image information of the page.

The CPU 187 receives the next page during recording by the printer 189.

As described above, image reception and recording are performed.

[0151]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described specifically with reference to Production Examples and Examples, but this does not limit the present invention in any way. All parts in the following formulations are parts by weight.

(Example 1)-Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (THP insoluble content 0.5%, THF soluble content GPC has a peak molecular weight of about 43000 in the molecular weight distribution by GPC) , 50% of components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 42% of components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 8% of components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000. 0.20 μm) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.5 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight polyethylene 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 106.7 ° C., Mw / Mn = 1.08)

The above materials were mixed in a blender,
The mixture was melted and kneaded with a twin-screw extruder heated to 100 ° C., and the cooled mixture was coarsely pulverized by a hammer mill. Then, the coarsely pulverized product was subjected to a peripheral speed of 100 m / sec under an atmosphere of 45 ° C. using a mechanical pulverizer shown in FIG. And finely pulverized by a pulverizer of a type that mechanically pulverizes the rotor by rotating. Next, the obtained finely pulverized product was strictly classified by a multi-division classifier using the Coanda effect to obtain toner particles. FIG. 10 shows a GPC chromatogram of the THF-soluble portion of the binder resin of the obtained toner particles.

To 100 parts of the obtained toner particles, 1.2 g of dry silica (primary average particle size 0.02 μm) hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane was used.
And the mixture was mixed with a mixer to obtain toner 1. In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity is 0.95, and particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 have 32.64%,
The mode circularity was 0.960. In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter is 61 μm,
0.6 to 3.0 μm, greater than 3.0 and 10.0 μm
Each of the following regions had one peak. Further, in the particle size distribution, the equivalent circle diameter is also 0,0.
In the region from 95 to less than 3.00 μm, the number frequency was 8.1%. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 1 thus obtained.
Shown in Table 2 shows the particle size frequency data of the obtained toner. FIG. 1 shows a particle size distribution diagram of the toner, FIG. 2 shows a circularity distribution diagram of the toner, and FIG. 3 shows a relationship diagram between the circularity and the equivalent circle diameter.

In the image evaluation, the toner 1 was used as the toner, and the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
An external fixing device (fixing speed of 150 mm / sec, fixing roller and pressurization) in which an unfixed image is created using (Canon Co .; A4 landscape, 24 sheets / min) and the fixing device mounted on LBP-930 is modified The unfixed image was fixed at a pressure of 25 kg with a roller). Image extraction was performed under an environment of 32.5 ° C. and 80% RH. As a recording paper, 65 g / m ² paper 32.5
One which was left for one day in an environment of 80 ° C. and 80% RH was used.

In the case of tailing, the number of tailings on the line was 0, and the suppression of tailing was very good.

The tailing evaluation method is as follows. An image pattern with a printing rate of 4% is printed up to 6000 sheets, and then a single pattern in which a 4-dot horizontal line is printed in a 20-dot space is printed. The number of trails was counted.

Good results were also obtained with respect to the storage stability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

As a method for evaluating the preservability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the toner was stored at 40 ° C. under 95% RH.
After printing an image pattern with a printing rate of 4% up to 6000 sheets using the toner left standing for one day, one solid black image was printed. The image density was as good as 1.50. Table 2 shows the obtained results. The image density was measured using a “Macbeth reflection densitometer” (manufactured by Macbeth).

(Example 2) Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (1.5% THF-insoluble component, THF-soluble component GPC has a peak molecular weight of about 41000 in the molecular weight distribution by GPC) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 60% for components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 30% for components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 10% for components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000) 0.24 μm) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.6 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight polyethylene 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 106.7 ° C., Mw / Mn = 1.08)

The above materials were mixed in a blender,
The mixture is melt-kneaded with a heated twin-screw extruder, and the cooled mixture is coarsely pulverized with a hammer mill. Then, the coarsely pulverized material is finely pulverized by a mechanical pulverizer by rotating a rotor under an atmosphere of 45 ° C. did. Next, the obtained finely pulverized product was strictly classified by a multi-division classifier using the Coanda effect to obtain toner particles.

[0162] The toner particles are subjected to 160
The surface treatment was performed at 0 rpm (peripheral speed: 80 m / sec) for 2 minutes. In addition, cooling water of 20 ° C. was passed through the surface reforming apparatus in order to control the internal temperature of the apparatus during the surface modification to a preferable range.

Dry silica (hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane) treated with 100 parts of the obtained toner particles (primary average particle size: 0.02 μm)
Was added and mixed with a mixer to obtain toner 2. In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity is 0.96.
Having 28.7% of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95;
The mode circularity was 0.98. In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter is 4.0 μm,
0.6 to 3.0 μm, greater than 3.0 and 10.0 μm
Each of the following regions had one peak. Further, in the particle size distribution, the equivalent circle diameter is also 0,0.
Number frequency is 15.5 at 95 to less than 3.00 μm
% Was present. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 2 thus obtained. Table 3 shows the particle size frequency data of the obtained toner. FIG. 4 shows a particle size distribution diagram of the toner, FIG. 5 shows a circularity distribution diagram of the toner, and FIG. 6 shows a relationship diagram between the circularity and the circle equivalent diameter of the toner.

An image was formed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 2 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 0, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.52.
And good results were obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

Example 3 Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (1.5% THF-insoluble component, THF-soluble component GPC has a peak molecular weight of about 45,000 in the molecular weight distribution by GPC) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 55% for components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 35% for components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 10% for components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000) 0.21 μm) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.4 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight polyethylene 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 106.7 ° C., Mw / Mn = 1.08)

The above materials were mixed in a blender and mixed at 90 ° C.
The mixture is melt-kneaded with a heated twin-screw extruder, and the cooled mixture is coarsely pulverized with a hammer mill. Then, the coarsely pulverized material is finely pulverized by a mechanical pulverizer by rotating a rotor under an atmosphere of 45 ° C. did. Next, the obtained finely pulverized product was strictly classified by a multi-division classifier using the Coanda effect to obtain toner particles.

Dry silica (hydrophobicized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane) (primary average particle diameter: 0.015 μm) was used for 100 parts of the obtained toner particles.
2 parts were added and mixed by a mixer to obtain a toner 3. In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity is 0.9.
4, having 36.5% of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95, and a mode circularity of 0.96. In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter is 4.3 μm, 0.6 to 3.0 μm, larger than 3.0 and 10.0.
Each had one peak in the region of μm or less. Further, in the same particle size distribution, the number frequency was 13.1% in a region where the equivalent circle diameter was 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 3 thus obtained. Table 4 shows the particle size frequency data of the obtained toner. FIG. 7 shows a particle size distribution diagram of the toner, FIG. 8 shows a circularity distribution diagram of the toner, and FIG. 9 shows a relationship diagram between the circularity of the toner and a circle equivalent diameter.

Image formation was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 3 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 0, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.51.
And good results were obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

(Example 4) Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (4.5% of THF-insoluble portion, THF-soluble portion, GPC having a peak molecular weight of about 52,000 in the molecular weight distribution by GPC) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 52% for components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 27% for components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, 21% for components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000) 0.22 μm) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.7 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight hydrocarbon wax 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 111 ° C., Mw / Mn = 1.70)

Using the above-mentioned materials, a toner was produced in the same manner as in Toner Production Example 1, except that the coarsely pulverized product was finely pulverized with a pulverizer of a type of mechanical pulverization by rotating a rotor at 35 ° C. . Dry silica (hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane) treated with 100 parts of dry toner (primary average particle diameter 0.022 μm)
Was added and mixed with a mixer to obtain a toner 4.

In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity was 0.92, particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 were 44.6%, and the mode circularity was 0.93.
In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter was 8.7 μm, and each had a peak in a range from 0.6 to 3.0 μm, greater than 3.0 and 10.0 μm or less. . Further, in the particle size distribution, the number frequency was 8.4% in the region where the equivalent circle diameter was 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 4 thus obtained.

An image was formed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 4 was used as the toner. As a result, as for the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 6, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.48.
And good results were obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

Example 5 Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half-ester copolymer (THP insoluble content: 4.8%, THF soluble content: GPC, molecular weight distribution: GPC: about 50,000) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 56% for components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 26% for components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 23% for components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000) 0.23 μm) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.3 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight hydrocarbon wax 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 111 ° C., Mw / Mn = 1.70)

Using the above-mentioned materials, a toner was produced in the same manner as in Example 2 except that the coarsely pulverized product was finely pulverized by a pulverizer of a type of mechanical pulverization by rotating a rotor at 35 ° C. To 100 parts of the obtained toner particles, 1.2 parts of dry silica (primary average particle size: 0.018 μm) hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane was added, and mixed with a mixer to form a toner 5. I got

In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity was 0.93, particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 were 49.3%, and the mode circularity was 0.95.
In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter was 8.2 μm, and each had a peak in a region from 0.6 to 3.0 μm, greater than 3.0 and 10.0 μm or less. . Further, in the same particle size distribution, the number frequency was 13.1% in a region where the equivalent circle diameter was 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 5 thus obtained.

An image was formed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 5 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 3, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.49.
And good results were obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

Example 6 Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (THP insoluble content 5%, THF soluble content GPC molecular weight distribution: peak molecular weight about 54000, molecular weight 5 Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 0.20 μm) 100% of components having a molecular weight of 48%, 28% of components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 24% of components having a molecular weight of 500,000 Parts-Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.8 µm) 2 parts-Low molecular weight hydrocarbon wax 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 111 ° C, Mw / Mn = 1.70)

Using the above-mentioned materials, a toner was produced in the same manner as in Example 3, except that the coarsely pulverized product was finely pulverized by a pulverizer of a type of mechanical pulverization by rotating a rotor at 35 ° C. To 100 parts of the obtained toner particles, 1.2 parts of dry silica (primary average particle size 0.025 μm) hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane was added, and mixed with a mixer to form toner 6. I got

In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity was 0.91, particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 were 56.1%, and the mode circularity was 0.92.
In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter was 8.9 μm, and each peak had one peak in the range of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and more than 3.0 and 10.0 μm or less. . Further, in the particle size distribution, the number frequency was 8.8% in a region where the equivalent circle diameter was 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 6 thus obtained.

An image was formed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 6 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 15, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.47.
And good results were obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

(Embodiment 7) In the image evaluation, toner 1 was used as the toner, and LBP-430 was used as the image forming apparatus.
An external fixing device (fixing speed: 51.4 mm / sec, fixing roller, with an unfixed image created using Canon (A4 vertical, 8 sheets / min) and a modified fixing device attached to LBP-430. An unfixed image was fixed with a pressure of 10 kg with a pressure roller). Image extraction was performed under an environment of 32.5 ° C. and 80% RH. As transfer paper, 65 g / m ² paper 3
One that had been left for one day under an environment of 2.5 ° C. and 80% RH was used.

In the case of tailing, the number of tailings on the line was 0, and the suppression of tailing was very good.

The evaluation method of the tailing is as follows. After forming an image pattern of a printing rate of 4% up to 6000 sheets, one pattern in which a 4-dot horizontal line is printed in 20 spaces is drawn and tailed. Counted the number.

Good results were also obtained with respect to the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

As a method for evaluating the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, a method of evaluating the storability at 40 ° C. and 95% RH was 30%.
An image pattern with a printing ratio of 4% was formed on up to 6000 sheets using the toner left for a day, and then a solid black image was formed on one sheet. The image density was as good as 1.48. Table 6 shows the obtained results. The image density was measured using a “Macbeth reflection densitometer” (manufactured by Macbeth).

(Comparative Example 1) 100 parts of styrene-butyl acrylate-divinylbenzene copolymer (in a molecular weight distribution of 5% of a THF-insoluble component and a THF-soluble component by GPC, a low molecular weight side peak is about 72,000, and a molecular weight is 50,000) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size: 0.24 μm) 28% of components having a molecular weight of less than 50%, and 22% of components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000. 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 2.0 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight polypropylene 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 145 ° C., Mw / Mn = 8.8)

The above materials were mixed in a blender,
The mixture was melted and kneaded with a twin-screw extruder heated to ℃, and the cooled mixture was roughly pulverized by a hammer mill, and the coarsely pulverized product was finely pulverized by a jet mill to obtain toner particles.

Dry silica (hydrophobic treated with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane) (primary average particle size: 0.010 μm) was used for 100 parts of the obtained toner particles.
Were added and mixed with a mixer to obtain toner 7. In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity is 0.80.
Having 70.6% of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95;
The mode circularity was 0.82. 2. In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter is 12 μm.
Although there was one peak in the region larger than 0 and 10.0 μm or less, no peak was present in the region of 0.6 to 3.0 μm. Further, in the particle size distribution, the number frequency was 1.5% in a region where the equivalent circle diameter was 0.95 to less than 3.00 μm. Table 5 shows the physical properties of the obtained toner.

Image formation was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 7 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 105, and the tailing suppression was very poor. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density is 1.
10, which was a very bad result. Table 6 shows the obtained results.

(Comparative Example 2) 100 parts of styrene-butyl acrylate-divinylbenzene copolymer (in a molecular weight distribution by GPC of a THF-insoluble content of 10% and a THF-soluble content, a low molecular weight side peak is about 68,000, and a molecular weight is 5) Magnetic substance (shape: spherical, average particle size: 0.20 μm) 100 Parts-Iron complex of monoazo dye (average particle size: 1.0 µm) 2 parts-Low molecular weight polyethylene 4 parts (DSC endothermic peak 106.7 ° C, Mw / Mn = 1.08)

The above materials were mixed in a blender,
The mixture was melted and kneaded with a twin-screw extruder heated to 0 ° C., and the cooled mixture was coarsely pulverized by a hammer mill. Obtained.

Dry silica (hydrophobized with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane) (primary average particle size 0.030 μm) 1.2 parts with respect to 100 parts of the obtained toner particles.
Was added and mixed with a mixer to obtain toner 8. In the circularity distribution of the obtained toner, the average circularity is 0.85.
Having 62.4% of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95;
The mode circularity was 0.84. In the particle size distribution of the obtained toner, the circle-equivalent average diameter is 5.2 μm,
0.6 to 3.0 μm, greater than 3.0 and 10.0 μm
Each of the following regions had one peak. Further, in the particle size distribution, the equivalent circle diameter is also 0,0.
In the region from 95 to less than 3.00 μm, the number frequency was 5.3%. Table 5 shows the physical properties of Toner 8 thus obtained.
Shown in

Image formation was performed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 8 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 86, and the tailing suppression was very poor. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.4.
8 and a good result was obtained. Table 6 shows the obtained results.
Shown in

[0194]

[Table 2]

[0195]

[Table 3]

[0196]

[Table 4]

[0197]

[Table 5]

[0198]

[Table 6]

(Example 8) Styrene-butyl acrylate-maleic acid 100 parts butyl half ester copolymer (THP insoluble content: 0.5%, THF soluble content: GPC molecular weight distribution: peak molecular weight: about 45000) Magnetic material (shape: spherical, average particle size 0), 55% of components having a molecular weight of less than 50,000, 35% of components having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000, and 10% of components having a molecular weight of more than 500,000. .24 μm, silica-containing magnetite) 100 parts ・ Iron complex of monoazo dye (negative charge control agent, average particle size: 1.5 μm) 2 parts ・ Low molecular weight polyethylene 4 parts (Differential thermal analysis endothermic peak 104 ° C., Mw / Mn) : 1.08)

The above materials were mixed in a blender,
The mixture was melted and kneaded with a twin-screw extruder heated to 0 ° C., and the cooled kneaded material was coarsely pulverized with a hammer mill.
Finely pulverized at 0 ° C. The obtained finely pulverized material was subjected to 2.0 kg / c by a multi-divider classifier using the Coanda effect, in which a forced powder dispersion device using compressed air was incorporated in a powder supply section.
Supplied while forcibly dispersing with compressed air of m ² , strictly classify and average circle equivalent diameter 6.2 μm, circle equivalent diameter 0.60
As a result, 3.7% of the toner particles were occupied by particles having a size of not less than μm and less than 1.00 μm.

Further, the magnetic toner particles were subjected to a surface treatment using a surface reforming apparatus of a type in which a rotor was rotated to give a mechanical impact force. The number average circle equivalent diameter of the obtained magnetic toner is 6.4 μm, and the circle equivalent diameter is 0.60 μm or more and 1.00 μm.
The ratio of particles smaller than m is 0.7
%, And particles having a circularity a of 0.90 or more are 95.
2%, particles having a circularity a of 0.98 or less are 2 on a number basis.
It was 4.0%.

To the obtained magnetic toner particles, dry silica having a primary average particle diameter of 12 nm, which has been subjected to a hydrophobic treatment with silicone oil and hexamethyldisilazane, was added in an amount of 1.2 wt% based on the obtained magnetic toner particles, and mixed. The toner 9 was obtained by mixing with a press. Table 7 shows the physical properties of Toner 9 thus obtained.

An image was formed under the same conditions as in Example 1 except that toner 9 was used as the toner. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 0, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.51.
And good results were obtained. Table 8 shows the obtained results.

As an evaluation of transferability, a transfer bias of 10
Using a toner 9 in a laser beam printer 5Si manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Company set to μA, 23
The change in transferability at the initial stage and after the endurance of 10,000 sheets was evaluated under an environment of 65 ° C. and 65% RH. As transfer paper, 75 g / m ² plain paper was used. At this time, the transfer efficiency from the photoconductor to the paper is
92.0% at the initial stage, 91.7% after the endurance of 10,000 sheets, showing a high transfer efficiency with almost no fluctuation, and the image quality such as image density and fog is stable at a good level from the initial stage to the end of the 10,000 sheets endurance. Was.

The transferability was determined by tapping the untransferred toner and the untransferred toner on the solid black photoreceptor with a Mylar tape, peeling them off, and applying the Macbeth density of the paper pasted on paper.
The evaluation was made based on a value calculated from a numerical value obtained by subtracting the Macbeth density from the tape only.

Example 9 A toner 10 having the physical properties shown in Table 7 was obtained in the same manner as in Example 8, except that the surface treatment conditions were increased.

Except for using the toner 10 as the toner,
Image extraction was performed under the same conditions as in Example 8. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 0, and the tailing suppression was good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, the solid black image density was 1.52.
And good results were obtained. Table 8 shows the obtained results.

The transferability was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 8, and as a result, the transfer efficiency from the photosensitive member to the paper at this time fluctuated almost to 92.2% at the initial stage and 91.3% after the endurance of 10,000 sheets. The transfer efficiency was high without any problem, and the image density and the image quality of fog were stable at a good level from the initial stage to the endurance of 10,000 sheets.

(Embodiment 10) The amount of the magnetic material of the embodiment 8 was reduced to 30.
Example 8 except that the classification process was repeated twice.
The toner 11 having the physical properties shown in Table 7 in the same manner as
I got

[0210] Except for using the toner 11 as the toner,
Image extraction was performed under the same conditions as in Example 8. As a result, regarding the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 18, and the tailing suppression was somewhat good. Regarding the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, a good result was obtained with a solid black image density of 1.47. Table 8 shows the obtained results.
Shown in

The transferability was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 8. As a result, the transfer efficiency from the photoreceptor to the paper at this time fluctuated slightly to 91.0% at the initial stage and 86.7% after the endurance of 10,000 sheets. As a result, the transfer efficiency was high, and the image quality such as image density and fog was stable at a good level from the initial stage to the endurance of 10,000 sheets.

(Comparative Example 3) The amount of the magnetic substance in Example 8 was changed to 50 parts, and in the classifying step, forcible dispersion was not performed with compressed air at the time of toner supply, pulverization was not performed at a high temperature, and mechanical A toner 12 having the physical properties shown in Table 7 was obtained in the same manner as in Example 8 except that the surface treatment was not carried out by a mechanical impact force.

Except for using the toner 12 as the toner,
Image extraction was performed under the same conditions as in Example 8. As a result, as for the line tailing, the number of tails on the line was 46, and the tailing suppression was poor. With respect to the storability of the toner left under high temperature and high humidity, a poor result was obtained with a solid black image density of 1.24. Table 8 shows the obtained results.

The transferability was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 8, and as a result, the transfer efficiency from the photosensitive member to the paper at this time greatly fluctuated to 90.0% at the initial stage and 79.2% after the endurance of 10,000 sheets. However, the image density also decreased.

[0215]

[Table 7]

[0216]

[Table 8]

(Examples 11 to 13 and Comparative Example 4) Using the toners 9 to 12 used in Examples 8 to 10 and Comparative Example 3,
An unfixed image is formed using an LBP-930 (manufactured by Canon Inc .; A4 landscape, 24 sheets / min) as an image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 14, and the unfixed image is fixed using an external fixing device shown in FIG. The tailing of the line was evaluated in the same manner as in Example 1, and the image was formed under an environment of 32.5 ° C. and 80% RH. As a recording paper, 65 g / m ² paper 32.5
One which was left for one day in an environment of 80 ° C. and 80% RH was used.

<Structure of External Fixing Unit> Fixing film: polyimide film coated with fluororesin Fixing speed: 35.8 mm / sec Fixing temperature: 180 ° C. Fixing pressure: 7.5 kgf

Table 9 shows the results of the evaluation.

(Examples 14 to 16 and Comparative Example 5) In Examples 11 to 13 and Comparative Example 14, the fixing speed was 1
Example 1 except that it was changed to 00 mm / sec.
Evaluation was performed in the same manner as in Examples 1 to 13 and Comparative Example 4. Table 9 shows the evaluation results.

[0221]

[Table 9]

(Example 17) The toner used in Example 1 was used in an image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 17 to form an image in a single color mode.

In the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 17, as a primary charging roller 202, a rubber roller (a contact pressure of 50%) in which conductive carbon coated with nylon resin is dispersed.
g / cm) using, using an OPC photosensitive drum 201 as an electrostatic latent image bearing member, and -500V a dark potential V _D by laser exposure (600 dpi), the bright potential V _L -1
A 60 V digital latent image was formed. Black developer 20
4-4, a developing device 151 of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
Was attached.

The digital latent image on the OPC photosensitive drum 201 is developed with the magnetic toner of the developing device 204-4 to form a toner image, and the toner image from the OPC photosensitive drum 201 is pressed against the OPC photosensitive drum 201 by an intermediate transfer member. 20
Then, a voltage is applied to the transfer roller 207 so that +6 μA as a transfer current flows to the drum, and the transfer material 206 is pressed against the intermediate transfer body 205 by the transfer roller 207. Then, the toner image on the transfer material 206 was heat-fixed by a heat-pressure fixing device 211 to form an image.

The heat and pressure fixing device includes a fixing roller and a pressure roller having a silicone rubber as an elastic layer and a PFA (perfluoroalkoxyethylene) resin layer as a surface layer, and having a nip of 9.5 mm and a total pressure of 45 kgf.
The fixing speed is 117 mm / s
The fixing was performed at ec.

Image formation was performed at 32.5 ° C. and 80% RH. Use 65 g / m ² paper as the recording paper.
One that had been left for one day under an environment of 2.5 ° C. and 80% RH was used.

As a result, the number of tails on the line was 0, and the tailing was suppressed very well. Furthermore, even in such an image forming method in which the transfer using the intermediate transfer member is performed twice, the image characteristics such as fog suppression and density were good.

[0228]

According to the present invention, since the toner has a specific circularity distribution and a specific particle size distribution, the density of the developed toner particles is high and the tailing phenomenon can be suppressed. .

In particular, when the toner contains a wax having an endothermic peak of DSC in a specific temperature range and a specific molecular weight distribution and a binder resin having a specific molecular weight distribution in the molecular weight distribution of GPC. In this method, the toner melts instantaneously at the time of fixing by the heat fixing means, so that the tailing phenomenon can be further suppressed and the toner has excellent storage stability under high temperature and high humidity.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a particle size distribution of a toner of Example 1.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a circularity distribution of a toner according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a particle size distribution and a circularity distribution of the toner according to the first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a particle size distribution of a toner of Example 2.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a circularity distribution of a toner according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a particle size distribution and a circularity distribution of a toner according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a particle size distribution of a toner according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a circularity distribution of a toner according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a particle size distribution and a circularity distribution of a toner according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a chart showing a molecular weight distribution of a THF-soluble component of a binder resin of the toner of Example 1 by GPC measurement.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a processing apparatus system.

FIG. 12 is a schematic sectional view of the surface treatment apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 13 is a view showing an example of a mechanical pulverizer.

FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus capable of performing the image forming method of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heat transfer method capable of performing the heat transfer method of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram for applying the image forming method of the present invention to a printer of a facsimile machine.

FIG. 17 is a schematic configuration diagram of another image forming apparatus that can execute the image forming method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cylindrical casing 4 Pulley 10 Discharge port 15 Vibration feeder 19 Valve 20 Cyclone 21, 23, 26 Valve 22 Bag filter 24 Blower 28 Discharge valve control device 40 Quantitative feeder 59 Discharge on-off valve 60 Discharge port 62 Rotating disk 63 Circulation circuit 64 Raw material hopper 68 Impact chamber 77 Jacket 110 Liner 111 Input port 113 Processing area 114 Rotor 115 Rotor shaft 121 Blade 151 Developing device 153 Photoconductor drum 156 Developing sleeve 158 Elastic blade 163 Magnetic toner 171 Fixing roller 172 Pressure roller

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI G03G 9/087 G03G 15/20 102 15/08 9/08 361 507 301 15/20 101 321 102 381 15/08 507L (72) Inventor Masao Takano 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Kazuo Maruyama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP JP-A-10-39537 (JP, A) JP-A-9-68862 (JP, A) JP-A-8-137243 (JP, A) JP-A-5-197200 (JP, A) JP-A-9-43896 (JP) JP-A-6-67458 (JP, A) JP-A-9-62031 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 9/08

Claims (67)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image forming toner having toner particles containing at least a colorant, a binder resin and a wax, the toner comprising: (i) an average circularity of 0.900 or more and less than 0.965; A circularity distribution containing 20 to 60% by number of particles having a degree less than 0.95 and a mode circularity of 0.90 or more;
And (ii) having a circle-equivalent average diameter of 2.0 to 10.0 μm,
2. A region having an equivalent circle diameter of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and an equivalent circle diameter of 3.
The wax has a particle size distribution having at least one number frequency peak in a region larger than 0 μm and 10.0 μm or less, and the wax has an endothermic main peak 60 according to DSC measurement.
To 120 ° C., and the binder resin of the toner contains THF-soluble matter and 0 to 5.0.
Weight percent of the THF insolubles, and the THF solubles GP
In the molecular weight distribution by C measurement, the THF-soluble component is:
The content of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 (M1) 40乃
70% , the content (M2) of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 45%, and the molecular weight is 50.
Content of components exceeding 000 (M3) 2 to 25%
And a molecular weight distribution satisfying the following condition (1): M1 ≧ M2> M3 (1). 2. The toner has an average circularity of 0.930 or more and less than 0.960, and particles having a circularity of less than 0.95.
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter having 0 to 50% by number and a circularity distribution having a mode circularity of 0.93 or more. 3. toner. 3. The toner according to claim 2, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 2 to 50% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 3. The image forming toner according to 1 or 2. 4. The toner according to claim 1, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 5 to 40% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 3. The image forming toner according to 1 or 2. 5. The toner according to claim 1, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution according to a circle equivalent diameter containing 0 to less than 5.0% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and less than 1.00 μm. The image forming toner according to claim 1. 6. The toner is equivalent to a circle containing 90% or more of particles having a circularity of 0.90 or more and 0 to 30.0% of particles having a circularity of 0.98 or more. The image forming toner according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution according to a diameter. 7. The wax has a weight-average molecular weight (Mw) and a number-average molecular weight (Mn) ratio (Mw / Mn) of 1.0 to 2.0 in a molecular weight distribution measured by GPC. The image forming toner according to claim 1. 8. The image forming toner according to claim 1, wherein the toner has the toner particles and external additive particles. 9. The image forming toner according to claim 8, wherein the external additive particles have an inorganic fine powder. 10. The toner has at least the toner particles and inorganic fine powder, and the toner particles have an equivalent circle diameter of 0.60 μm or more and 1.00 μm.
0 to 5.0% by number of particles having a particle diameter of less than m, and has a particle size distribution according to a circle equivalent diameter having an average circle equivalent diameter of 4.0 to 10.0 μm. The image forming toner according to claim 9. 11. The toner particles according to claim 11, wherein said toner particles are produced through a kneading step, a pulverizing step and a classifying step of a toner material containing at least said colorant, said binder resin and said wax. 11. The image forming toner according to any one of 1 to 10. 12. The image forming toner according to claim 11, wherein the toner particles have been subjected to a process of reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm in a manufacturing process. 13. A process for reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm is to perform air classification by forcibly dispersing toner particles to be classified using a compressed gas in a classification step. The image forming toner according to claim 12, wherein: 14. The image forming toner according to claim 12, wherein the process of reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm is performed by repeating a toner particle classification process a plurality of times. 15. The treatment for reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm applies a mechanical impact force to the toner particles so that in the classification step, the particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm are reduced to a circle-equivalent diameter of 1 μm. The image forming toner according to claim 12, wherein the toner is attached to a surface of a particle having a size of 0.000 μm or more. 16. The toner particles have an equivalent circle diameter of 3.00 μm.
m, the circularity distribution of the particles having a circularity of 0.900
90% by number or more of the above particles and a circularity of 0.9
The image forming toner according to any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein the toner has a circularity distribution containing 0 to 30% by number of 80 or more particles. 17. The image forming toner according to claim 1, wherein the toner has magnetic toner particles containing a magnetic material as the colorant. 18. The image forming toner according to claim 17, wherein the magnetic toner particles contain the magnetic material in an amount of 30 to 200 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the binder resin. 19. A latent image forming step of forming an electrostatic latent image on an electrostatic latent image holding member; developing the electrostatic latent image held on the electrostatic latent image holding member with toner to form a toner image A developing step of forming; a transfer step of transferring the toner image to a recording material with or without an intermediate transfer member; and a fixing step of fixing the toner image transferred to the recording material to the recording material. In the image forming method, the toner has toner particles containing at least a colorant, a binder resin and a wax, and the toner has (i) an average circularity of 0.900 or more and less than 0.965 A circularity distribution containing 20 to 60% by number of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95 and a mode circularity of 0.90 or more;
And (ii) having a circle-equivalent average diameter of 2.0 to 10.0 μm,
2. A region having an equivalent circle diameter of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and an equivalent circle diameter of 3.
The wax has a particle size distribution having at least one number frequency peak in a region larger than 0 μm and not more than 10.0 μm, and the wax has an endothermic main peak 60 according to DSC measurement.
To 120 ° C., and the binder resin of the toner contains THF-soluble matter and 0 to 5.0.
Weight percent of the THF insolubles, and the THF solubles GP
In the molecular weight distribution by C measurement, the THF-soluble component is:
The content of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 (M1) 40乃
70% , the content (M2) of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 45%, and the molecular weight is 50.
Content of components exceeding 000 (M3) 2 to 25%
And a molecular weight distribution satisfying the following condition (1): M1 ≧ M2> M3 (1). 20. The toner has an average circularity of 0.930 or more and less than 0.960, contains 20 to 50% by number of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95, and has a mode circularity of 0.93 or more. 20. The image forming method according to claim 19, wherein the image forming method has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter having a circularity distribution. 21. The toner according to claim 20, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 2 to 50% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 21. The image forming method according to 19 or 20. 22. The toner according to claim 20, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 5 to 40% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 21. The image forming method according to 19 or 20. 23. The toner according to claim 2, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 0 to less than 5.0% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and less than 1.00 μm. An image forming method according to any one of claims 19 to 22. 24. The toner is equivalent to a circle containing 90% or more of particles having a circularity of 0.90 or more and 0 to 30.0% of particles having a circularity of 0.98 or more. 2. A particle size distribution according to a diameter.
24. The image forming method according to any one of 9 to 23. 25. The wax according to claim 15, wherein a weight average molecular weight (Mw) and a number average molecular weight (Mn) have a ratio (Mw / Mn) of 1.0 to 2.0 in a molecular weight distribution measured by GPC. The image forming method according to any one of claims 19 to 24. 26. The toner according to claim 19, wherein the toner has the toner particles and external additive particles.
The image forming method according to any one of the above. 27. The image forming method according to claim 26, wherein said external additive particles have an inorganic fine powder. 28. The toner has at least the toner particles and inorganic fine powder, and the toner particles have a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and 1.00 μm or more.
0 to 5.0% by number of particles having a particle diameter of less than m, and has a particle size distribution according to a circle equivalent diameter having an average circle equivalent diameter of 4.0 to 10.0 μm. The image forming method according to claim 27. 29. The toner according to claim 29, wherein the toner particles are produced through a kneading step, a pulverizing step and a classifying step of a toner material containing at least the colorant, the binder resin and the wax. 29. The image forming method according to any one of 19 to 28. 30. The image forming method according to claim 29, wherein the toner particles have been subjected to a process of reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm in a manufacturing process. 31. A process for reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm is to perform air classification by forcibly dispersing toner particles to be classified using a compressed gas in a classification process. 31. The image forming method according to claim 30, wherein: 32. The image forming method according to claim 30, wherein the process of reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm is performed by repeating a toner particle classification process a plurality of times. 33. The process of reducing particles having a circle equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm is performed by applying a mechanical impact force to toner particles so that particles having a circle equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm are reduced to a circle equivalent diameter of 1 in a classification step. 31. The image forming method according to claim 30, wherein the toner is adhered to the surface of particles having a size of 0.000 μm or more. 34. The toner particles have an equivalent circle diameter of 3.00 μm.
m, the circularity distribution of the particles having a circularity of 0.900
90% by number or more of the above particles and a circularity of 0.9
34. A circularity distribution containing 0 to 30% by number of 80 or more particles.
The image forming method according to any one of the above. 35. The image forming method according to claim 19, wherein the toner has magnetic toner particles containing a magnetic material as the colorant. 36. The image forming method according to claim 35, wherein the magnetic toner particles contain the magnetic material in an amount of 30 to 200 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the binder resin. 37. A developing section in the developing step,
The thickness of the toner layer carried on the toner carrier is smaller than the distance between the electrostatic latent image carrier and the toner carrier for carrying the toner. 37. The image forming method according to claim 19, wherein said toner layer develops an electrostatic latent image formed on said electrostatic latent image holding member in a non-contact state. 38. In the developing step, a bias voltage is applied to the toner carrier to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrostatic latent image holder.
8. The image forming method according to item 7. 39. The image forming method according to claim 19, wherein the electrostatic latent image holding member is a photoconductor for electrophotography. 40. In the fixing step, using a fixing device having a fixing roller having a heating unit and a pressure roller in pressure contact with the fixing roller, the recording material having the toner image is fixed to the fixing roller by the fixing roller. The image forming method according to any one of claims 19 to 39, wherein the toner image is heated and fixed on the recording material by passing through a pressure contact portion with a roller. 41. The image forming method according to claim 40, wherein said pressure roller has no heating means. 42. The image forming method according to claim 40, wherein the pressure roller has a heating unit. 43. In the fixing step, a fixing film for abutting on the toner image of the recording material, a heating unit for heating the fixing film, and a surface of the recording material on the toner image side being attached to the fixing film. Using a fixing device having a pressing member for pressing, the toner image is heated by a heated fixing film, and the toner image side surface of the recording material is pressed against the fixing film by the pressing member. The image forming method according to any one of claims 19 to 39, wherein the toner image is heat-fixed to the recording material. 44. The image forming apparatus according to claim 19, wherein in the transferring step, the toner image on the electrostatic latent image holding member is directly transferred to the recording material without an intermediate transfer member.
The image forming method according to any one of the above. 45. In the transfer step, the toner image on the electrostatic latent image holding member is transferred to an intermediate transfer member, and then transferred from the intermediate transfer member to the recording material. An image forming method according to any one of claims 19 to 43. 46. A heat fixing method comprising: an image forming step of forming a toner image on a recording material with a toner; and a fixing step of heating and fixing the toner image formed on the recording material to the recording material. Has toner particles containing at least a colorant, a binder resin, and a wax. The toner has (i) an average circularity of 0.900 or more and less than 0.965, and a circularity of less than 0.95. A circularity distribution containing 20 to 60% by number of particles of and having a mode circularity of 0.90 or more;
And (ii) having a circle-equivalent average diameter of 2.0 to 10.0 μm,
2. A region having an equivalent circle diameter of 0.6 to 3.0 μm and an equivalent circle diameter of 3.
The wax has a particle size distribution having at least one number frequency peak in a region larger than 0 μm and 10.0 μm or less, and the wax has an endothermic main peak 60 according to DSC measurement.
To 120 ° C., and the binder resin of the toner contains THF-soluble matter and 0 to 5.0.
Weight percent of the THF insolubles, and the THF solubles GP
In the molecular weight distribution by C measurement, the THF-soluble component is:
The content of the component having a molecular weight of less than 50,000 (M1) 40乃
70% , the content (M2) of the component having a molecular weight of 50,000 to 500,000 is 20 to 45%, and the molecular weight is 50.
Content of components exceeding 000 (M3) 2 to 25%
And a molecular weight distribution satisfying the following condition (1): M1 ≧ M2> M3 (1). 47. The toner has an average circularity of 0.930 or more and less than 0.960, contains 20 to 50% by number of particles having a circularity of less than 0.95, and has a mode circularity of 0.93 or more. 47. The heat fixing method according to claim 46, wherein the heat fixing method has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter having a circularity distribution. 48. The toner according to claim 48, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 2 to 50% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 48. The heat fixing method according to 46 or 47. 49. The toner according to claim 49, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution based on a circle equivalent diameter containing 5 to 40% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.95 μm or more and less than 3.00 μm. 49. The heat fixing method according to 46 or 48. 50. The toner according to claim 1, wherein the toner has a particle size distribution according to a circle equivalent diameter containing 0 to less than 5.0% by number of particles having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and less than 1.00 μm. The heat fixing method according to any one of claims 46 to 49. 51. The toner is equivalent to a circle containing 90% by number or more of particles having a circularity of 0.90 or more and 0 to 30.0% by number of particles having a circularity of 0.98 or more. 5. A particle size distribution according to a diameter.
50. The heat fixing method according to any one of 6 to 50. 52. The wax has a weight-average molecular weight (Mw) to number-average molecular weight (Mn) ratio (Mw / Mn) of 1.0 to 2.0 in a molecular weight distribution measured by GPC. The heat fixing method according to any one of claims 46 to 51. 53. The toner according to claim 46, wherein the toner has the toner particles and external additive particles.
The heat fixing method according to any one of the above. 54. The heat fixing method according to claim 53, wherein the external additive particles have an inorganic fine powder. 55. The toner has at least the toner particles and inorganic fine powder, and the toner particles have a circle equivalent diameter of 0.60 μm or more and 1.00 μm or more.
0 to 5.0% by number of particles having a particle diameter of less than m, and has a particle size distribution according to a circle equivalent diameter having an average circle equivalent diameter of 4.0 to 10.0 μm. 55. The heat fixing method according to claim 54. 56. The toner according to claim 56, wherein the toner particles are produced through a kneading step, a pulverizing step and a classifying step of a toner material containing at least the colorant, the binder resin and the wax. 56. The heat fixing method according to any one of items 46 to 55. 57. The heat fixing method according to claim 56, wherein the toner particles are subjected to a process of reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm in a manufacturing process. 58. A process for reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm is to perform a wind classification by forcibly dispersing toner particles to be classified using a compressed gas in a classification process. The heating and fixing method according to claim 57, wherein the heating and fixing method is performed. 59. The heat fixing method according to claim 57, wherein the process of reducing particles having a circle-equivalent diameter of less than 1.00 μm is performed by repeating a step of classifying toner particles a plurality of times. 60. The process of reducing particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm is performed by applying a mechanical impact force to the toner particles so that the particles having an equivalent circle diameter of less than 1.00 μm are reduced to a particle diameter of less than 1.00 μm in the classification step. 58. The heat fixing method according to claim 57, wherein the heat fixing is performed by adhering to a particle surface of 0.000 μm or more. 61. The toner particles have an equivalent circle diameter of 3.00 μm.
m, the circularity distribution of the particles having a circularity of 0.900
90% by number or more of the above particles and a circularity of 0.9
61. A circularity distribution containing 0 to 30% by number of 80 or more particles.
The heat fixing method according to any one of the above. 62. The heat fixing method according to claim 46, wherein the toner has magnetic toner particles containing a magnetic material as the colorant. 63. The heat fixing method according to claim 62, wherein the magnetic toner particles contain the magnetic material in an amount of 30 to 200 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the binder resin. 64. In the fixing step, using a fixing device having a fixing roller having a heating unit and a pressure roller in pressure contact with the fixing roller, the recording material having the toner image is fixed to the fixing roller by the fixing roller. 64. The heat fixing method according to claim 46, wherein the toner image is heat-fixed to the recording material by passing through a pressure contact portion with a roller. 65. The heat fixing method according to claim 64, wherein said pressure roller has no heating means. 66. The heat fixing method according to claim 64, wherein the pressure roller has a heating unit. 67. In the fixing step, a fixing film for contacting the toner image of the recording material, a heating unit for heating the fixing film, and a surface of the recording material on the side of the toner image, the fixing film being attached to the fixing film. Using a fixing device having a pressing member for pressing, the toner image is heated by a heated fixing film, and the toner image side surface of the recording material is pressed against the fixing film by the pressing member. 64. The heat fixing method according to claim 46, wherein the toner image is heat-fixed to the recording material.