Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image holding member;
• a charging unit that charges a surface of the image holding member;
• an electrostatic image forming unit that forms an electrostatic image on the charged surface of the image holding member;
• a developing unit that contains an electrostatic image developer and develops the electrostatic image on the surface of the image holding member by using the electrostatic image developer so as to form a toner image;
• a transfer unit that transfers the toner image on the surface of the image holding member onto a surface of a recording medium;
• and
• a fixing unit that fixes the toner image on the recording medium,
• wherein, the electrostatic image developer contains a toner,
• the toner contains a binder resin containing:
• i) a crystalline resin, and
• ii) an amorphous polyester resin, in which an amount of alkylene oxide adducts of bisphenol A, if present, is not more than 5 mol % relative to all alcohol constituent components of the amorphous polyester resin,
• a tetrahydrofuran-soluble component of toner particles has a weight-average molecular weight Mw in a range of 25,000 to 60,000, and a ratio Mw/Mn of the weight-average molecular weight Mw to a number-average molecular weight Mn of the tetrahydrofuran-soluble component is within a range of 5 to 10,
• a ratio of an absorbance of the toner particles at a wavenumber of 1500 cm−1 to an absorbance of the toner particles at a wavenumber of 720 cm−1 is 0.6 or less,
• a ratio of an absorbance of the toner particles at a wavenumber of 820 cm−1 to the absorbance of the toner particles at a wavenumber of 720 cm−1 is 0.4 or less, and
• the fixing unit includes:
• a heat roll that has an elastic component and is rotatable,
• an endless belt that contacts the heat roll, and
• a pressure pad that is disposed on an inner side of the endless belt and is in a non-rotatable state.