LUBRICANT COATER, PROCESS CARTRIDGE, AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a lubricant coater capable of stably coating an image carrier with an appropriate amount of a lubricant for a long period, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus. SOLUTION: The apparatus for coating a photoreceptor 5 which rotates by carrying the toner image and on which a cleaning blade 47 is made to abut, with the lubricant, is equipped with the solid lubricant 16 prepared by forming the lubricant into a solid form, a brush roller 15 for scraping the solid lubricant by sliding and rubbing the solid lubricant while rotating and for coating the photoreceptor with the solid lubricant, and a compression spring 60 for pressing the solid lubricant to the brush. The brush roller is constituted by providing the peripheral face of a revolving support shaft with brush fibers of 5 to 15 deniers at density of 20,000 to 100,000 pieces per square inch. The force to press the solid lubricant to the brush roller is 2 to 12 N/m, the hardness of the solid lubricant is 40 to 70 N/mm3in Martense hardness at the required load time 30 seconds under the measured test force 50 mN. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI