| CPC G03G 15/162 (2013.01) [G03G 15/161 (2013.01)] | 12 Claims |
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1. A transfer belt, to be used in a state of being in contact with a cleaning member and an image carrier, and to which a developer image is to be transferred from the image carrier, the transfer belt comprising:
a surface layer in contact with the image carrier and the cleaning member; and
a base layer disposed at a position more apart from the image carrier and the cleaning member than from the surface layer,
wherein the surface layer is provided with grooves formed by transferring a predetermined mold shape and extending in a first direction along a moving direction of the transfer belt in an operating state, and
wherein an arithmetic average roughness Sa, as three-dimensional average roughness, of the surface layer in a predetermined region is less than or equal to 0.2 micrometers (μm),
wherein the grooves include a plurality of grooves and, in the operating state, the surface layer is provided with the plurality of grooves as aligned along a second direction perpendicularly intersecting with the first direction,
wherein a position having a maximum height between two adjacent grooves in the second direction is a mountain, a position having a minimum height between the two adjacent grooves is a valley, and a distance from the mountain to the valley is a groove depth, and
wherein an average value of groove depths that occupy a bottom 25 percent (%) in a groove depth distribution is greater than or equal to 0.2 μm.
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