Toner for forming image, image forming method, and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• an electrostatic latent image bearing member;
• an electrostatic latent image forming unit configured to form an electrostatic latent image on the electrostatic latent image bearing member;
• a developing unit configured to develop the electrostatic latent image with a toner to form a visible image;
• a transfer unit configured to transfer the visible image onto a recording medium;
• and
• a fixing unit configured to fix the visible image transferred on the recording medium;
• wherein the developing unit comprises a developing sleeve which comprises a base and a coating layer on the base, and
• wherein the toner comprises:
• a crystalline resin;
• a non-crystalline resin;
• and
• a composite resin,
• wherein the crystalline resin is a crystalline polyester resin (A),
• wherein the non-crystalline resin comprises:
• a non-crystalline resin (B) containing chloroform insoluble matter;
• and a non-crystalline resin (C) having a softening temperature (T½) that is lower than that of the non-crystalline resin (B) by 25° C. or more,
• wherein an absolute value |Tgc−Tgb| of a difference between a glass transition temperature (Tgc) of the non-crystalline resin (C) and a glass transition temperature (Tgb) of the non-crystalline resin (B) is 10° C. or lower,
• wherein the composite resin is a composite resin (D) containing a condensation polymerization resin unit and an addition polymerization resin unit, and
• wherein the toner has a molecular weight distribution having a main peak in a range of 1,000 to 10,000 and a half width of 15,000 or less, where the molecular weight distribution is obtained by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble matter of the toner.

An image forming method, comprising:

• forming an electrostatic latent image on an electrostatic latent image bearing member;
• developing the electrostatic latent image with a toner to form a visible image;
• transferring the visible image onto a recording medium;
• and
• fixing the visible image transferred on the recording medium,
• wherein the toner comprises:
• a crystalline resin;
• a non-crystalline resin;
• and
• a composite resin,
• wherein the crystalline resin is a crystalline polyester resin (A),
• wherein the non-crystalline resin comprises:
• a non-crystalline resin (B) containing chloroform insoluble matter;
• and a non-crystalline resin (C) having a softening temperature (T½) that is lower than that of the non-crystalline resin (B) by 25° C. or more,
• wherein an absolute value |Tgc−Tgb| of a difference between a glass transition temperature (Tgc) of the non-crystalline resin (C) and a glass transition temperature (Tgb) of the non-crystalline resin (B) is 10° C. or lower,
• wherein the composite resin is a composite resin (D) containing a condensation polymerization resin unit and an addition polymerization resin unit, and
• wherein the toner has a molecular weight distribution having a main peak in a range of 1,000 to 10,000 and a half width of 15,000 or less, where the molecular weight distribution is obtained by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble matter of the toner.