LUBRICANT SUPPLY DEVICE, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND PROCESS CARTRIDGE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lubricant supply device capable of preventing incorrect detection of the remaining amount of lubricant due to vibration of solid lubricant.SOLUTION: A lubricant supply device includes: solid lubricant 3b; a supply member such as an application roller 3a that comes into slide-contact with the solid lubricant 3b to scrape off the lubricant, and supplies the scraped lubricant to a lubricant supply target such as a photoreceptor 1; and remaining amount detection means that detects that the length of the solid lubricant 3b in a direction of movement while being scraped off by the supply member is decreased to a predetermined value or less, so as to detect that the remaining amount of the solid lubricant 3b is equal to or less than a predetermined amount. The lubricant supply device performs remaining amount detection during a stop period of lubricant supply operation to the lubricant supply target.