Unit and image forming apparatus having a certain adhesive force property

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a toner image forming device that comprises an image carrier, and a developing device configured to develop an electrostatic charge image that is formed on a surface of the image carrier, as a toner image with a developer including a flat toner containing a flat pigment, the developer being accommodated in the developing device;
• and
• a transfer device that comprises an intermediate transfer belt onto which the toner image formed on the surface of the image carrier is primarily transferred, a primary transfer device configured to primarily transfer the toner image formed on the surface of the image carrier to a surface of the intermediate transfer belt, and a secondary transfer device configured to secondarily transfer the toner image on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt to a surface of a recording medium,
• wherein the intermediate transfer belt contains a resin, conductive carbon particles, and a surfactant, and
• the intermediate transfer belt is configured to have an adhesive force property determined as follows:
• after the flat toner adheres to an outer circumferential surface of the intermediate transfer belt in a loading amount of 3 g/cm2, under an environment with a temperature of 22° C. and a humidity of 15% when a voltage of 10 kV is applied to the outer circumferential surface, in a case where air is blown from an air blowing port having a diameter of 0.7 mm to the outer circumferential surface from a position 3 cm above an upper side of the outer circumferential surface while increasing a blowing pressure at 0.5 kPa/s, all the flat toner adhering to the outer circumferential surface is separated from the outer circumferential surface at a blowing pressure of 25 kPa or less,
• wherein the flat toner has an average circle-equivalent diameter that is larger than an average maximum thickness,
• wherein the flat pigment has an aspect ratio of an average length in a long axis direction to an average length in a thickness direction of 5 or more and 200 or less, and
• wherein the surfactant includes an oligomer having a silicone structure having a methyl group.