An apparatus and method for image formation with a liquid developer

摘要

Image forming apparatus which form an image on a substrate and uses a liquid developer containing toner particles and a solvent. One embodiment includes a latent image retaining body, a first developing surface facing the latent image retaining body at a first development station, a latent image forming unit, and a second developing surface facing the latent image retaining body at a second development station. The latent image retaining body has a photosensitive layer which has a dielectric constant epsilonP [C<2>/Nm<2>] and an average thickness dp [m]. The photosensitive layer retains an image developed by the first developing surface and a latent image comprising image and non-image regions formed by the latent image forming unit. The second developing surface is supplied with a developing electrical potential having an electrical potential difference DeltaV from an electrical potential of non-image region of the latent image. The plurality of toner particles of the first liquid developer has a volume density rhom[kg/m<3>], a surface density mr[kg/m<2>], a dielectric constant epsilonr [C<2>/Nm<2>], an average radius r [m], and a density of electrical charge qr[C/kg], and the image developed on the latent image retaining body by the first developing surface has an average thickness dr [m] at the second development station. The second liquid developer has an average thickness dt [m] at the second development station and a dielectric constant epsilont [C<2>/Nm<2>], wherein following equations are satisfied, 1 $\begin{array}{c}1x{10}^{-11}\left[N\right]\le \frac{4\mathrm{pi}{r}^3{\mathrm{rho}}_m{q}_r}{3}(-\frac{}{}\end{array}$