INTERMEDIATE TRANSFER MEMBER, AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS EMPLOYING THEREOF

摘要

It is an object to provide an intermediate transfer member that maintains a good second transferability and a good cleaning property even when print is repeatedly carried out and continuously obtains a high quality tonner image without the occurrence of a non-printing portion of a character image, and an image forming method and a image forming device that use the intermediate transfer member. The intermediate transfer member is used for an image forming device provided with a means which, after the tonner image carried on a surface of a photosensitive member is first transferred to the intermediate transfer member, the tonner image is second transferred to a transfer member. The intermediate transfer member is characterized in that including an inorganic layer on the most outer surface, wherein the inorganic layer defines a contact angle of 30°-60° with respect to methylene iodide and the hardness of the inorganic layer measured by a nanoindentation method is in the range of 3 GPa-10 GPa.