Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Hideyuki Masumoto

Tatsuya Miyadera

Yoshiyuki Shimizu

Kozo Yamazaki

Takafumi Miyazaki

An image forming apparatus includes a dual purpose tray that accommodates a document and a transfer sheet, a document transport mechanism to transport the document from the dual purpose tray to an image reading position, an image reading mechanism disposed beneath the document transport mechanism, an image forming mechanism disposed beneath the image reading mechanism, a transfer sheet transport mechanism to transport the transfer sheet from a bifurcation point through the image reading mechanism, a sheet feeding path that bifurcates into a first transport path through which the document is transported to the image reading position and a second transport path through which the transfer sheet is transported through the image reading mechanism to an image forming position by switching a switching member in accordance with one of a type of a recording medium set on the dual purpose tray and an operation mode of the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus and control method therefor

An exposure unit which exposes photoconductive drums having rotary axes thereof arranged parallel to each other on a single plane by light beams, includes one or more polygon mirrors each having a plurality of reflection surfaces, where the one or more polygon mirrors rotate about a common rotary axis. Each light beam is deflected by the one or more polygon mirrors and scans the surface of a corresponding photoconductive drum. The common rotary axis is separated from the rotary axes of the photoconductive drums by identical distances along respective normals which are perpendicular to both the common rotary axis and the rotary axes of the photoconductive drums.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Hideyuki Masumoto