Electrophotographic process and apparatus

An electrophotographic process comprising the steps of:

• pre-exposing a photosensitive member comprising a conductive substrate, and a photoconductive layer formed of an amorphous material containing silicon and a surface protective layer overlaid on the substrate,
• charging the photosensitive member,
• forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member,
• developing the latent image by reverse development, and
• cleaning the surface of the photosensitive member with a cleaning blade so provided as to come into contact with the photosensitive member,
• wherein a surface moving speed of the photosensitive member PS (mm/second) is 320 mm/second or more, and
• where a film thickness and a specific resistance of the surface protective layer are represented respectively by Ds (μm) and Rs (ohm.cm), the following conditions are satisfied:
• 1.0×109≦Rs≦1.0×1013
• Ds≦−0.136Ln(Rs)+(−0.004×PS+6)
• in which Ln represents a natural logarithm wherein, when on completion of 1,000,000-sheet copies of a sequence of solid black images having a latent image density of 100%, a dark portion potential of the photosensitive member is measured by a potential measuring method using a voltage direct-application method, the following conditions are satisfied:
• (Vd0−Vd1)/Vd0≦0.30
• where Vd0 is a potential at an initial stage and Vd1 is a potential on completion of 1,000,000-sheet copies.