Rotating body, transfer unit, and image forming apparatus

1. A rotating body for use in an image forming apparatus including a cleaning blade made of an elastic material and an image carrier for carrying a developer image, the rotating body having an outer surface making contact with the cleaning blade along a line of contact, the outer surface having one or more grooves slanted with respect to the line of contact by an angle of at least 15° and at most 85°, wherein:

the rotating body is an endless belt having a single layer structure made of a resin material;

the one or more grooves have a depth of at least 0.1 μm and at most 2 μm;

the one or more grooves are formed as a single continuous or discontinuous groove that winds helically around the rotating body from one edge of the rotating body to the opposite edge;

the one or more grooves are spaced at periodic intervals in a direction orthogonal to a direction in which the one or more grooves extend;

the periodic intervals are intervals of at least 0.1 μm and at most 100 μm;

the rotating body is configured to carry, on the outer surface a recording medium onto which the developer image is transferred from the image carrier while the recording medium passes between the image carrier and the outer surface;

the resin material has a Young's modulus of at least 2000 MPa; and

the outer surface has a critical surface tension of at most 42 mN/m.

2. The rotating body of claim 1 , wherein the resin material includes an electrically conductive material.

3. The rotating body of claim 2 , wherein the electrically conductive material is carbon black.

4. The rotating body of claim 1 , wherein the resin material includes polyamide-imide.

5. A transfer unit comprising:

the rotating body of claim 1 ;

a drive member for turning the rotating body;

a transfer member for transferring the developer image from the image carrier onto the recording medium carried on the rotating body; and

the cleaning blade making contact with the outer surface of the rotating body.

6. The transfer unit of claim 5 , wherein the rotating body also has an inner surface and the transfer unit also includes a driven member making contact with the inner surface of the rotating body.

7. The transfer unit of claim 6 , wherein the rotating body is entrained on the drive member and the driven member.

8. The transfer unit of claim 5 , wherein the drive member turns the rotating body in a direction essentially orthogonal to the line of contact.

9. An image forming apparatus comprising:

the transfer unit of claim 5 ; and

an image forming unit for forming the developer image on the image carrier.