Patent 7548349 was granted and assigned to RICOH COMPANY,LTD. on June, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In an image forming apparatus configured to electrostatically transfer a toner image formed on an image carrier to a recording medium with image transferring means of the present invention, pressure is applied between the image carrier and the image transferring means. Toner is provided with relatively high hardness in accordance with the pressure beforehand. Image transfer is effected by reducing a potential difference between the image carrier and the recording medium while maintaining an electric field around the toner the same.