JP3435587B2 - Electrophotographic toner and method for producing the same - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrophotographic toner and a method for producing the same, and more specifically, it has a high sharpness in a color image and a stable charging property in a monochrome image and can be used for a long period of time. The present invention relates to an electrophotographic toner that does not generate image defects such as fog and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A method of producing a toner for electrophotography by mixing a so-called resin and a colorant, kneading, pulverizing and classifying is a technique which has been used for a long time. On the other hand, the fine powder of toner (hereinafter referred to as raw fine powder) generated in the classification step should be removed from the toner to be a product. However, discarding this classified fine powder has a problem that the yield of the raw material of the toner is lowered and the cost of the raw material is increased.

In order to solve this problem, it has been attempted to collect and use classified fine powder as a raw material. However, when the classified fine powder itself is used as a raw material, it is a fine powder, so that the fluidity is poor, the mixability with the resin or colorant of the basic raw material is lowered, and the toner performance due to the uneven distribution of the colorant, especially the charging property Is unstable, and there is a drawback that problems such as fogging occur during use. For this purpose,
As disclosed in JP-A-266158 and JP-A-6-266157, it has been proposed to granulate and use the finely divided powder obtained by classification.

However, in this method, since the granulated fine powder has a large particle size, the mixing property of the granulated fine powder itself becomes high in fluidity, and although it is improved, the particle itself is large, so that the coloring agent of the colorant is large. The problem of ubiquity is inherent. Particularly in recent years, there is a proposal to perform color development by electrophotography, and since the dispersibility of the colorant is a factor that determines the sharpness of the color image,
Has become an important issue. Furthermore, even with monochrome images,
The particle size of the toner itself tends to be smaller in order to improve the resolution, but in the case of a toner having a small particle size, the colorant contained in the toner is particularly used when the dispersibility of the colorant is low. Distribution occurs in the existing amount, and the so-called charge distribution expands, that is, problems such as fog occur in long-term use.

As described above, there is a demand for a highly productive toner manufacturing method which is compatible with so-called small particle size and colorization.

[0006]

In contrast to the above problems, the object of the present invention is to provide high sharpness in a color image and stable chargeability in a monochrome image for a long period of time. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrophotographic toner that does not cause image defects such as fog even when it is used, and a manufacturing method thereof.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing an electrophotographic toner with high productivity.

[0008]

The present invention is achieved by the following means.

In a toner manufacturing method in which at least a resin and a colorant are mixed, kneaded, pulverized, and classified, raw fine powder having a volume average particle diameter of 1 to 6 μm produced by classification and raw fine powder are granulated. The volume average particle size obtained by
5,000 μm of granulated fine powder is mixed with resin and colorant,
A method for producing a toner, which is obtained by kneading, pulverizing, and classifying.

In a toner obtained by mixing, kneading, pulverizing, and classifying at least a resin and a colorant, a fine powder having a volume average particle size of 1 to 6 μm produced by classification and a fine powder are granulated. The volume average particle size obtained is 100 to 500.
Mix 0 μm granulated fine powder with resin and colorant, knead,
A toner obtained through a process of pulverization and classification.

The present invention will be specifically described below.

As a result of intensive studies by the present inventors, the so-called non-granulated toner fine powder (raw fine powder) has no dispersibility by itself, and the fine powder having a small particle size adheres to the resin or the like as the raw material to conceal the particles. However, it has been found that the dispersibility is increased by mixing granulated fine powder having a slightly larger particle size.

That is, by using the raw fine powder in combination with the granulated fine powder, the dispersibility of the raw fine powder was enhanced, the concealing effect was exhibited, and the effect of the present invention was surprisingly achieved.

(Structure of Toner itself and Structure of Fine Powder and Granulated Fine Powder) The structure of the toner itself contains at least a resin and a colorant.

In the present invention, the volume average particle diameter means a volume-based average particle diameter, and the volume average particle diameter of the fine powder is a laser diffraction type particle size distribution measuring apparatus "HEROS" equipped with a wet disperser. [Sympatec (manufactured by SYMPATEC)].

The volume average particle size of the granulated fine powder is Ro-
Rotate the Tap shaker (made by Iida Seisakusho) at 100 / mi
It is measured by shaking for 5 minutes under the conditions of n, tap number 60 / min, and amplitude 30 mm.

The sieve used for the measurement is a JIS standard sieve with openings of 9.52, 7.93, 6.73, 5.66, 4.7.
6, 4.00, 3.86, 2.83, 2.00, 1.6
8, 1.41, 1.19, 1.00, 0.84, 0.7
1, 0.59, 0.50, 0.42, 0.35, 0.2
97, 0.250, 0.210, 0.177, 0.14
9, 0.125, 0.105, 0.088, 0.074
The weight of the granulated fine powder remaining on the sieve was measured and converted into volume, and then the particle size distribution was determined, and the 50% particle size thereof was taken as the volume average particle size. The measurement sample is 20
0 g was used.

In the production of the toner itself, the raw material resin is mixed with a colorant and, if necessary, a charge control agent, a release agent and the like, which are kneaded, pulverized and classified. The raw fine powder having a volume average particle diameter of 1 to 6 μm of the present invention refers to a fine powder produced in order to obtain a product toner generated in the pulverization and classification steps. Since it is a so-called fine powder, it is smaller than the particle size of the toner itself, and the particle size of the toner itself is 5 to 20 μm in volume average particle size, but the fine powder is 0.7 of the volume average particle size of the toner itself. It is about 0.1 times smaller.

On the other hand, the volume average particle size is 100 to 5000 μ.
The granulated fine powder of m is prepared by crushing the above-mentioned raw fine powder which is solidified by pressure or heat, or by aggregating and solidifying only by pressure. If this particle size is large, the effect of improving the dispersibility is not exhibited, and if it is small, the fluidity itself decreases and the dispersibility cannot be improved.

The relationship between the particle size ratios of the raw fine powder and the granulated fine powder is the ratio of the volume average particle diameter, and it is preferable that raw fine powder: granulated fine powder = 1: 100 to 2000. Except for this ratio, the effect of improving the dispersion of the colorant cannot be exhibited.

Further, in relation to the particle size of the resin used as a raw material, comparing with the volume average particle size of the resin itself, the volume average particle size of the resin: the volume average particle size of the granulated fine powder = 1:
0.5 to 2.0 is preferable. If the ratio is other than this, the mixing property with the resin itself is lowered, and the effect of improving the dispersibility of the colorant is not exhibited.

The mixing ratio of raw materials such as resin and colorant and raw fine powder and granulated fine powder is not particularly limited, but when the raw material is 100, the raw material: raw fine powder: granulated fine powder = 100: 5 to 35: 5 to 3
It is 5. Further, the ratio of raw fine powder to granulated fine powder is raw fine powder: granulated fine powder = 100: 50 to 150. Outside this range, the effect of improving the dispersibility of the colorant cannot be exhibited.

The granulated fine powder is not particularly limited, but it can be obtained by applying pressure, heat or the like, or by crushing the molded product or this molded product. As a specific manufacturing apparatus, a manufacturing apparatus such as a roller compactor (Freund Sangyo Co., Ltd.) can be mentioned. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an example of such a compression granulator.

Carbon black, magnetic materials, dyes, pigments and the like can be used as colorants, and channel black, furnace black, acetylene black, thermal black, lamp black and the like can be used as carbon black.

As the magnetic substance, ferromagnetic metals such as iron, nickel and cobalt, alloys containing these metals, ferrite,
Compounds of ferromagnetic metals such as magnetite, alloys containing no ferromagnetic metals but exhibiting ferromagnetism by heat treatment, for example, alloys of the type called Heusler alloys such as manganese-copper-aluminum and manganese-copper-tin, chromium dioxide. Etc. can be used.

As the dye, C.I. I. Solvent Red 1, 49, 52, 58, 63, 111, 1
22, C.I. I. Solvent Yellow 19, 44, 7
7, ibid 79, ibid 81, ibid 82, ibid 93, ibid 98, ibid 10
3, 104, 112, 162, C.I. I. Solvent Blue 25, 36, 60, 70, 93, 9
5 and the like can be used, and a mixture thereof can also be used. As the pigment, C.I. I. Pigment Red 5,
48: 1, 53: 1, 57: 1, 122, 1
39, 144, 149, 166, 177, 1
78, ibid. 222, C.I. I. Pigment Orange 31, the same 43, C.I. I. Pigment Yellow 14, Same 17 and Same 9
3, 94, 138, C.I. I. Pigment Green 7, C.I. I. Pigment Blue 15: 3, 60 and the like, and a mixture thereof can also be used. The number average primary particle size varies depending on the type, but is generally about 10
About 200 nm is preferable.

As the releasing agent, a low molecular weight polyethylene having a number average molecular weight (the number average molecular weight indicates a polystyrene molecular weight conversion value in high temperature GPC) of 1500 to 10,000,
Polyolefin wax such as low molecular weight polypropylene having a number average molecular weight of 1500 to 10,000, low molecular weight polyethylene-polypropylene copolymer, or high melting point paraffin wax such as microwax or Fischer-Tropsch wax, or fatty acid lower alcohol ester, fatty acid higher alcohol ester, Ester waxes such as fatty acid polyhydric alcohol esters and amide waxes can be used alone or in combination.

Examples of other additives include charge control agents such as salicylic acid derivatives and azo metal complexes.

On the other hand, as the manufacturing apparatus that can be used in the present invention, the following can be listed. First, in the raw material mixing process, for example, a Henschel mixer,
Examples of the mixer include a V-type mixer and a Nauta mixer. In the kneading step, a batch type (for example, a pressure kneader, a Banbury mixer, etc.) or a continuous type kneader is used, and particularly when the continuous type is used, the present invention works effectively. In recent years, single-screw or twin-screw extruders have been the mainstream because of the advantage of continuous production of continuous kneaders. For example, KTK twin-screw extruder manufactured by Kobe Steel, TEM extruder manufactured by Toshiba Machine Co. K twin screw extruder, Ikegai Tekkosha P
A CM type extruder, Co-kneader manufactured by Buss Co., etc. are preferably used. In the crushing process, an impact crusher, an airflow crusher and the like can be mentioned. In the classifier, an inertia class elbow jet,
Examples include centrifugal classification type microplexes and DS separators. The fine powder is recovered from the inside of the process by collecting the fine powder generated in these processes, particularly in the crushing process and the classification process with a cyclone or the like, and is used as the manufacturing process shown in the present invention.

The obtained toner may be used as it is, and further, inorganic fine particles may be added to the obtained toner for the purpose of imparting fluidity or chargeability. In this case, for example, silica, titanium oxide, aluminum oxide, barium titanate, strontium titanate or the like having a number average primary particle diameter of 5 to 1000 nm is used, and these may be hydrophobized.

Further, the toner contains styrene having a number average primary particle diameter of 0.1 to 2.0 μm as a cleaning aid.
Acrylic resin fine particles and higher fatty acid metal salts such as zinc stearate may be added.

The addition amount of the inorganic fine particles is preferably 0.1 to 2.0 wt% with respect to the toner. Further, the cleaning aid is 0.01 to 1.0 wt% with respect to the colored particles.
The degree is good.

The carrier constituting the two-component developer is an uncoated carrier composed of only magnetic material particles such as iron and ferrite, a resin coated carrier in which the surface of the magnetic material particles is coated with resin, or a resin and magnetic powder. Any of the resin dispersion type carriers obtained by mixing the above may be used. The average particle size of this carrier is 30 to 1 in terms of volume average particle size.
50 μm is preferable.

When used as a magnetic one-component developer,
It is preferable that a ferromagnetic material such as magnetite having a number average primary particle diameter of 0.1 to 2.0 μm is contained as a colorant. In this case, the magnetic substance is added to the toner in an amount of 20 to 60% by weight.

Further, in the present invention, it can be used as a non-magnetic one-component toner composed of only non-magnetic toner without using a carrier.

[0036]

EXAMPLES The effects of the present invention will be illustrated by the following examples.

Example 1 Polyester resin (volume average particle diameter: 200 μm) 100 parts Carbon black (Mogal L) 10 parts Polypropylene (number average molecular weight = 2300) 2 parts or more After mixing with a V-type mixer, continuous 2 The mixture was melt-kneaded using a shaft extruder, cooled, jet mill pulverized, and air-classified to obtain colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.0 μm.
Raw fine powder generated in the production of the colored particles (volume average particle diameter = 1.2 μm) and granulated fine powder obtained by granulating the raw fine powder using the compression granulating apparatus shown in FIG. 1 (volume average particle diameter = 10
0 μm) was used to prepare a toner with the following formulation.

Polyester resin (volume average particle diameter: 200 μm) 100 parts Carbon black (Mogal L) 10 parts Polypropylene (number average molecular weight = 2300) 2 parts Raw fine powder (volume average particle diameter: 1.2 μm) 30 parts Granulated fine powder (Volume average particle size: 100 μm) After mixing 30 parts or more of the materials with a V-type mixer, melt kneading using a continuous twin-screw extruder, cooling, jet mill pulverization, and air classification to obtain a volume average particle size of 9 Colored particles of 0.0 μm were obtained.
Hydrophobic silica fine particles were added to and mixed with the colored particles in a ratio of 1.0% by weight to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 1 of the present invention".

Example 2 In Example 1, the polyester resin was used with a volume average particle size of 1
000 μm, and the particle size of granulated fine powder is 200
Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.1 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particle size was changed to 0 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 2 of the present invention".

Example 3 In Example 1, the polyester resin was used in a volume average particle size of 1
The average particle size of the fine powder is 6.2 μm, and the particle size of the granulated fine powder is 60 μm.
Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.3 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particles were changed to 0 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as “Toner 3 of the present invention”.

Example 4 In Example 1, the polyester resin was used in a volume average particle size of 2
The average particle size of the raw fine powder is 6.2 μm in volume average particle size, and the particle size of the granulated fine powder is 50 μm.
Colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particle size was changed to 00 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 4 of the present invention".

Example 5 In Example 1, the volume average particle size of polyester resin is 2
The particle size of the fine powder is 500 μm, the volume average particle size is 3.4 μm, and the particle size of the granulated fine powder is 50 μm.
Colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particle size was changed to 00 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 5 of the present invention".

Example 6 Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the particle size of the granulated fine powder was changed to 100 μm, and hydrophobic silica was used as an example. The toner of the present invention was obtained by adding and mixing in the same manner as in 1. This is "Toner of the present invention 6".
And

Example 7 In Example 1, the polyester resin was used in a volume average particle size of 1
000 μm, and the particle size of granulated fine powder is 2000 μm
Except that the volume average particle size was changed to 9.2μ.
m colored particles were obtained, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as “Toner 7 of the present invention”.

Example 8 In Example 1, the polyester resin was used with a volume average particle size of 1
000 μm, the particle size of the raw fine powder is 6.1 μm in volume average particle size, and the particle size of the granulated fine powder is 61 μm.
Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particles were changed to 0 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 8 of the present invention".

Example 9 In Example 1, C.I.
I. Pigment Yellow 17 is changed to 5 parts, the volume average particle size of the polyester resin is 1000 μm, the particle size of the raw fine powder is 3.4 μm in volume average, and the particle size of the granulated fine powder is 2100 μm. Colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm are obtained in the same manner except that the colored particles are
Hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain the toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 9 of the present invention".

Example 10 In Example 1, C.I.
I. Pigment Red 122 is changed to 5 parts, the volume average particle diameter of the polyester resin is 1000 μm, the particle diameter of the raw fine powder is 3.4 μm in volume average, and the particle diameter of the granulated fine powder is 2100 μm. Colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm are obtained in the same manner except that the colored particles are
Hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain the toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 10 of the present invention".

Example 11 In Example 1, C.I.
I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 was changed to 5 parts, the volume average particle diameter of the polyester resin was 1000 μm, the particle diameter of the raw fine powder was 3.4 μm in terms of the volume average particle diameter, and the particle diameter of the granulated fine powder was changed. Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner except that the particle size was changed to 2100 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner of the present invention. This is designated as "Toner 11 of the present invention".

Comparative Example 1 Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.3 μm were obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the granulated fine powder was not used, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1. A comparative toner was obtained. This is designated as “Comparative Toner 1”.

Comparative Example 2 Colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.3 μm were obtained in the same manner as in Example 1 except that fine powder was not used, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1, A comparative toner was obtained. This is designated as “Comparative Toner 2”.

Comparative Example 3 In Example 1, the particle size of the raw fine powder was 0.
The volume average particle size is 9.2 μm in the same manner except that the particle size of the granulated fine powder is changed to 6000 μm.
And colored hydrophobic particles were added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a comparative toner. This is designated as “Comparative Toner 3”.

Comparative Example 4 In Example 1, the particle size of the raw fine powder was 6.
9 μm, and further, except that the particle size of the granulated fine powder was changed to 70 μm, colored particles having a volume average particle size of 9.2 μm were obtained in the same manner, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1, A comparative toner was obtained. This is "Comparative Toner 4".
And

Comparative Example 5 In Comparative Example 1, C.I.
I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 was changed to 5 parts to obtain colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm in the same manner, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a comparative toner. . This is designated as “Comparative Toner 5”.

Comparative Example 6 In Comparative Example 2, C.I.
I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 was changed to 5 parts to obtain colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm in the same manner, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a comparative toner. . This is designated as “Comparative Toner 6”.

Comparative Example 7 In Comparative Example 3, C.I.
I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 was changed to 5 parts to obtain colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a toner for comparison. . This is designated as “Comparative Toner 7”.

Comparative Example 8 In Comparative Example 4, C.I.
I. Pigment Blue 15: 3 was changed to 5 parts to obtain colored particles having a volume average particle diameter of 9.2 μm in the same manner, and hydrophobic silica was added and mixed in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a comparative toner. . This is designated as “comparative toner 8”.

(Evaluation Test) The toners obtained in the above Examples and Comparative Examples and the carrier were mixed at a toner concentration of 7% by weight to prepare a developer. The carrier used had a spherical ferrite particle surface with a thickness of 1. Styrene / methyl methacrylate copolymer resin.
A coating carrier having a resin coating layer of 0 μm and a weight average particle diameter of 40 μm.

A copying machine 3035 (manufactured by Konica Corporation) was modified and used as an evaluation machine. Below are the details of the modification related to the fixing conditions. A solid unfixed area of 5 cm square is formed only on the leading end side of the OHP sheet by using each of the above-mentioned two-component developers, and then the unfixed toner image is used to fix the fixing temperature at 180 ° C. Fix with, OHP
The transparency was measured. In addition, OHP transparency is a color toner, "invention toner 9" to "invention toner 11",
It was carried out for "Comparative Toner 5" to "Comparative Toner 8".

The fixing device has a cylindrical iron roller having a heater with a diameter of 30 mmφ, the surface of which is coated with a tetrafluoroethylene-perfluoroalkyl vinyl ether copolymer, in the central portion as an upper roller. Diameter 3 composed of silicone rubber coated with fluoroethylene-perfluoroalkyl ether copolymer
It has a lower roller of 0 mmφ. Linear pressure is 0.8kg
/ Cm and the width of the nip was 4.3 mm. Using this fixing device, the linear velocity of printing is 250 mm / sec.
Set to. As a cleaning mechanism of the fixing device, a pad impregnated with silicone oil was attached and used.
The surface temperature of the fixing device was 180 ° C.

The transparency of the OHP image was measured using a "Hitachi 330 type self-recording spectrophotometer" (manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd.) with an OHP sheet bearing no toner as a reference.
The visible spectral transmittance of the solid toner image in the HP image was measured, and the difference between the spectral transmittances of 650 nm and 450 nm for the yellow toner and 650 nm and 550 n for the magenta toner.
difference in spectral transmittance of m, 500 nm and 6 for cyan toner
The difference in spectral transmittance at 00 nm was calculated and used as a measure of transparency. If the transparency is 70% or more, there is no practical problem.

Further, using the above-mentioned evaluation machine, 20,000 sheets were printed in a high temperature and high humidity environment (35 ° C./85% RH). The printing method uses a pixel ratio of 2%, and
It was carried out by intermittent printing one by one. Fog is the relative reflection density when the density of the paper is set to zero by using a Macbeth densitometer (RD-918). In addition, visually determine the image quality of the characters,
The sharpness around the characters was judged. The case where the toner was observed to be scattered around the character was determined as “x”, the state where the toner was partially scattered was observed as “Δ”, and the state without scattering was determined as “◯”. The level for practical use is "△" or higher.

Further, the dispersibility of the colorant was evaluated. For the evaluation, the kneading plate before crushing was made into a thin piece by a microtome, and a photograph magnified 5000 times by a transmission electron microscope was used to evaluate the presence or absence of an aggregate of the colorant. A state in which there are few aggregates of the colorant and the particles are uniformly dispersed is shown as A, a state in which some aggregates are confirmed is shown as B, and a state in which many aggregates are observed is shown as C. The practical level is B rank or higher.

Table 1 shows the above evaluation results.

[0064]

[Table 1]

From the results shown in Table 1, it can be seen that in all the examples according to the present invention, the dispersibility of the colorant, the fog after printing 20,000 sheets, the image quality, etc. are all superior to the data of the comparative examples.

[0066]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION It is possible to provide a toner having a high sharpness in a color image, a stable charging property in a monochrome image, and the generation of image defects such as fog over a long period of time, and a manufacturing method thereof.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a compression granulator.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 hopper 2 screws 3 coupling 4 scrapers 5 lift berths 6 oil pan 7 cover 8 adjustment bolts 9 Coupling stop bolt 10 Scraper stop bolt 11 Screw stop bolt 12 knob screws

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03G 9/08

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A toner production method comprising mixing, kneading, pulverizing and classifying at least a resin and a colorant, and producing a toner fine powder having a volume average particle size of 1 to 6 μm and a toner fine powder produced by classification. Volume average particle size obtained by granulating is 1
A method for producing a toner, which comprises: mixing a granulated fine powder having a particle size of 0 to 5000 μm with a resin and a colorant, kneading, pulverizing, and classifying. 2. A toner obtained by mixing, kneading, pulverizing and classifying at least a resin and a colorant, and granulating the toner fine powder having a volume average particle size of 1 to 6 μm and the toner fine powder by classification. The volume average particle size obtained by
A toner obtained by the steps of mixing a granulated fine powder of 0 to 5000 μm with a resin and a colorant, and kneading, pulverizing, and classifying.