DEVELOPING DEVICE AND DEVELOPING METHOD, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD, AND PROCESS CARTRIDGE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a developing device and a developing method that can be driven with a low voltage and obtain high development efficiency, can prevent toner from scattering, and can reproduce an image of high quality, a process cartridge equipped with the developing device and an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method of implementing the developing method. SOLUTION: The developing device which develops a latent image on a latent image carrier 10 by sticking toner T on the latent image carrier 10 is equipped with a conveyance member 1 which is arranged opposite to the latent image carrier and has a plurality of electrodes 102 for producing a traveling wave electric field moving the toner, and the electrodes of the conveyance member are applied with an (n)-phase potential (n: an integer not less than 2) producing an electric field in such a direction that the toner moves toward the latent image carrier for an image part of the latent image and moves away from the latent image carrier for a non-image part in a development area 12. Further, the weight average particle size of the toner is 2 to 5 μm. COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT