Lexmark International, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Christopher Dane Jones

Fei Chen

Thomas Austin Fields

John Lemaster

Craig Eric Hadady

Jason Lee Rowe

Phillip Byron Wright

Philip Jerome Heink

Cyrus Bradford Clarke

Randall Lee Hudson

Kyriakos L Leontiades

William Paul Cook

Gregory Lawrence Ream

Gary Scott Overall

Nathan J Lee

Danny Wayne Peters

Shirish Padmaker Mulay

Frank P Novak

Allen P Johnson

Krishnamurthi Kannan

Vikram Sharma

Frank Edward Anderson

Benjamin Keith Newman

Roger Steven Cannon

Earl Dawson Ward, Ii

Paritosh Dinubhai Patel

Steven Alan Curry

Thomas Campbell Wade

Raymond Jay Barry

Daniel Richard Klemer

Bryan Scott Willett

Paul W Graf

Stanley Dyer

Stephen F Newton

David R Thomas

Jonathan James Hurd

Mark K DeMoor

Leo A Gladstein

William Shannon Spencer

Kevin Maichle Hargrave

Paul W Petroskey

William P Corbett

Simarpreet Singh Rattan

Jonathan Carey Frey

John C Cassani

A collimation assembly includes a body, at least four light sources, and at least four collimation lenses. The body has inner surfaces that define at least four hollow portions extending through the body between opposed first and second sides thereof, each hollow portion having opposed first and second openings at the first and second sides of the body, respectively. Each light source is disposed at the first opening of one of the at least four hollow portions and controllable to emit a light beam therethrough. Each collimation lens is disposed at the second opening of one of the at least four hollow portions to receive the light beam emitted by the light source disposed at the first opening and diverge the light beam as the light beam passes through the collimation lens. The at least four light sources and the at least four collimation lenses are supported by the body.

Collimation assembly for an imaging device

An image forming device includes a controller and a laser scanning unit. The laser scanning unit includes a light source for generating a laser beam for discharging a photoconductive member to create an electrostatic latent image. A first memory is housed on the laser scanning unit and stores data unique to the laser scanning unit and laser beam as characterized during production. A second memory in communication with the controller, and separate from the first memory, stores data characterizing a family of similar laser scanning units of a same type. The controller is configured to read both the first and second memories to generate data to compensate for energy variations along a scan path of the laser beam on the photoconductive member during use. The data substantially reduces energy variation from one scan path to a next.

Image forming device with laser scanner unit and memory therefor

A laser scanning unit for an image forming device includes a light source for emitting a laser beam, a scanning member having at least one reflective surface for scanning the laser beam onto an imaging surface across a plurality of scan lines, and driver circuitry for driving the light source to emit the laser beam. The driver circuitry has a first input for receiving a first signal indicating image information and a second input for receiving a second signal indicating shading information. The driver circuitry modulates the laser beam based on the first signal to form an image on the imaging surface corresponding to the image information and adjusts an output power of the modulated laser beam based on the second signal to substantially reduce energy variation across each scan line.

Laser scanning unit adjusting output power of modulated beam using shading information to reduce scan line energy variation

A system and method for reducing scan line jitter caused by facet cut variation in scan systems employing a plurality of laser sources and a sensor for generating the timing for the laser sources. The system includes a controller for determining a unique time delay for each facet of the rotating mirror, and controlling the laser sources so that video provided by each laser source is delayed in a scan line by the unique time delay corresponding to the facet of the rotating mirror used in creating the scan line.

Laser scan unit for an imaging device

The invention describes a method and system for correcting linearity error of an electrophotographic device with a reduced number of lenses. The method and system insert additional time-slices in the data being processed by the electrophotographic device. The additional time-slices are inserted in the data in a predefined order based on a plurality of random numbers. The insertion of additional time-slices corrects the linearity error of the electrophotographic device.

Method and system for correcting the linearity error in electrophotographic devices

A system and method for reducing scan line jitter in laser scan systems employing a rotating mirror, including a controller for determining a unique time delay for each mirror facet and controlling laser sources so that video provided by each laser source is delayed in a scan line by the unique time delay corresponding to the mirror facet used in creating the scan line. The controller computes a facet map signature vector corresponding to each mirror facet matches the signature to a previously stored signature and assigns measured distance offset data to the mirror facets based upon the matching.

System and method for reducing scan line jitter in a laser scan unit for an imaging device

Laser beam scan line nonlinearity is compensated for by providing algorithms for generating linearity profiles which are used by a corresponding registration system in an electrophotographic device to determine the placement of Pels across a scan line.

Systems for performing laser beam linearity correction and algorithms and methods for generating linearity correction tables from data stored in an optical scanner

The positioning of image data written along a laser beam scan path in the scan direction, e.g., the margin and/or line length is adjusted in a manner that compensates for changes in the laser beam scan path as a result of one or more operating conditions, such as changes in temperature. Further, the positioning of image data in the process direction may be adjusted in a manner that compensates for changes in the laser beam scan path as a result of the one or more operating conditions.

Systems and methods that compensate for scan path errors in a multi-beam electrophotographic imaging apparatus

The dynamic range of an electrophotographic device may be shifted by calibrating a laser power of a laser source to operate within a first range of power levels during a laser power adjustment operation. At least one laser control parameter is modified after calibrating the laser power so that the laser source is operable within a second range of power levels different from the first range of power levels and a beam emitted by the laser source is controlled within the second range of power levels when the beam is directed towards an image area of a photoconductive surface.

Systems and methods for adjusting the dynamic range of a scanning laser beam

Systems and methods are provided for characterizing laser beam process direction position errors in an electrophotographic device. Once the process direction position errors of a given beam laser beam system have been characterized, an image is adjusted or warped prior to being processed by the laser beam system to compensate for laser beam process direction position errors, e.g., bow and skew.

Algorithms and methods for determining laser beam process direction position errors from data stored on a printhead

An optical scanner is provided having a memory device thereon. The memory device may store operational characteristics of the optical scanner or data that characterizes laser beam scan path and/or laser power requirements by each laser of the optical scanner. The memory device may be used to store historical information such as device temperature, cycles of operation and other historical information of components within a corresponding electrophotographic device. Still further, the electrophotographic device to which the optical scanner is installed may write operational data to the memory device, for example, to store a backup of registration and other operational parameters that are typically stored by the controller of the electrophotographic device.

Memory device on optical scanner and apparatus and method for storing characterizing information on the memory device

A laser scanning unit is provided. It comprises a housing; a scanning device; a pre-scan assembly generating a light beam and directing the light beam toward the scanning device; and a post-scan optical assembly receiving a scanning beam reflected from the scanning device and causing the beam to traverse a photoconductive member along a scan path. The post-scan optical assembly comprises a sensor for detecting the beam at a start-of-scan location and an end-of-scan location along the scan path.

Laser scanning unit having a sensor for detecting both start-of-scan and end-of-scan positions of a corresponding laser beam

Growing community of inventors

Georgetown, KY, United States of America

Christopher Dane Jones