Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroshi Nakahata

Yuta Okada

Shinichiro Hosoi

Toshiharu Mamiya

Yasuaki Otoguro

Takehiro Ishidate

Daisuke Aruga

Yasutomo Furuta

Masahiko Yokota

Tetsuya Nagase

Toshihiko Kudo

Yukihiro Fujiwara

A casing of an optical scanning apparatus includes: a mounting portion to which a sound-insulating member is mountable; a first and a second support portions supporting a reflective mirror in the casing on which the sound-insulating member is mounted and brought into contact with a back surface of the reflective mirror; and a third and a fourth support portions supporting a reflective mirror in the casing on which the sound-insulating member is not mounted and brought into contact with a back surface of the reflective mirror, wherein the first and the second support portions are positioned between the third and the fourth support portions in a longitudinal direction of the reflective mirror, and contact portions of the third and the fourth support portions protrude toward a reflective surface side of the reflective mirror to be arranged with respect to contact portions of the first and the second support portions.

Casing of optical scanning apparatus, and optical scanning apparatus

A casing of an optical scanning apparatus housing a rotary polygon mirror and an optical member: a mounting portion on which a sound insulation member separating the optical member from the rotary polygon mirror is mountable; a first support portion supporting a transparent member which covers an opening of the casing on which the sound insulation member is mounted; a second support portion supporting a transparent member which covers the opening of the casing on which the sound insulation member is not mounted and is thicker than the transparent member to be supported by the first support portion; and a bearing surface of the second support portion located on an inner side of the casing than a bearing surface of the first support portion so that light beam emission surfaces of the transparent members to be supported by the first and second support portions are on a substantially same plane.

Casing of optical scanning apparatus and optical scanning apparatus

An image forming apparatus which is configured to expose a photosensitive member to light beams emitted from a plurality of light emitting elements, generates a plurality of BD signals by a plurality of laser light beams, and controls timings at which the plurality of light emitting elements emits the light beams based on a difference between timings at which the BD signals are generated.

Image forming apparatus to emit a plurality of light beams for an exposure of a photosensitive member

During an operation of assembling a cover on an optical box, a cover-side engaging portion comes into contact with a side wall of the optical box and hence is deformed. An optical scanning apparatus is configured so that a distal end portion of a protrusion and an apex portion of a side wall of an optical box pass each other prior to a distal end portion of a cover-side engaging portion.

Optical scanning apparatus

An image forming apparatus capable of controlling an image forming position with high accuracy. The image forming apparatus has a plurality of image forming sections each including a photosensitive drum and a laser scanner. The laser scanner exposes the photosensitive drum to form an electrostatic latent image thereon. The image forming section develops the electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum to form a toner image, and the toner image is transferred onto an intermediate transfer belt. A thermistor in the laser scanner detects the internal temperature of the laser scanner. The image forming apparatus controls the image forming sections to form detection patterns on the intermediate transfer belt. An image forming position is corrected based on the temperature detected by the thermistor and a result of measurement of the detection patterns.

Image forming apparatus capable of correcting position of image to be formed

A plurality of light beams are simultaneously scanned on a surface of a photosensitive member. The surface of the photosensitive member has a curvature factor, and therefore, the light beams have different optical path lengths. Due to differences in the optical path length, a length (scanning width) of a scanning line of one light beam is different from that of another light beam. When a temperature of an optical scanning apparatus increases, the optical path length differences vary, so that differences in magnification between the beams also vary. Therefore, by obtaining correction amounts for the scanning widths depending on the temperature, the light beams are allowed to have substantially the same scanning width even when the temperature of the optical scanning apparatus varies.

Image forming apparatus including multi-beam optical scanning apparatus

A resin BD lens having a property of refracting a light beam in a direction corresponding to a main scanning direction may cause a variation in generation timing difference among a plurality of horizontal synchronization signals and accordingly degrade accuracy to correct the starting position of an electrostatic latent image. The present invention uses a glass BD lens having a property of refracting a light beam in a direction corresponding to the main scanning direction.

Light scanning apparatus and image forming apparatus including light scanning apparatus

A light scanning apparatus, including: a light source configured to emit a light beam; a beam splitter configured to split the light beam into a first and a second light beams; a rotary polygon mirror configured to deflect the first light beam to scan a photosensitive member; a motor configured to rotate the rotary polygon mirror; a first lens configured to guide the first light beam to the photosensitive member; an optical sensor configured to receive the second light beam; a second lens configured to condense the second light beam on the optical sensor; and an optical box has a wall standing from a bottom surface between a region in which the rotary polygon mirror and the motor are disposed and a region in which the second lens is disposed, and a height of the wall from the bottom surface is higher than a height of the rotary polygon mirror.

Light scanning apparatus having optical box on which a beam splitter is disposed, and image forming apparatus including the same

An optical scanning apparatus that is capable of increasing use life of a semiconductor laser by decreasing the emission time for sensors that are independently provided for synchronous control, light control, and focus control. A laser beam emitted from a light source is deflected by a deflector, and scans a photoconductor. A beam splitter arranged between the light source and the deflector separates the laser beam, which is detected by a first detection unit. A second detection unit arranged in a non-image forming area detects the deflected laser beam to detect defocus amount. A focusing unit focuses the scanning laser beam based on a detection result of the second detection unit. A control unit controls the light amount of the laser beam applied to an image forming area based on a detection result of the first detection unit at the timing when the second detection unit detects the laser beam.

Optical scanning apparatus and color image forming apparatus therewith

An image forming apparatus performs multi-color image formation using a plurality of scanning type optical devices which deflect and scan an optical beam using a rotating polygonal mirror. The image forming apparatus includes, for example, a detecting unit that detects a phase of rotating speed unevenness of rotating polygonal mirrors respectively provided in the plurality of scanning type optical devices, and an adjusting unit that adjusts, based on a phase of rotating speed unevenness detected for each rotating polygonal mirror, the rotating speed of each rotating polygonal mirror to reduce the phase differences between the phases.

Optical system, image forming apparatus, and control method thereof

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member configured to bear an image, an exposure unit configured to draw a scanning line on the image bearing member by exposing the image bearing member according to image data, and at least two detection units configured to detect an amount of deviation in exposing position due to the exposure unit. The image forming apparatus further includes a drive unit configured to drive an optical part located on an optical path extending from the exposure unit to the image bearing member to reduce the amount of deviation, a measurement unit configured to measure an amount of driving of the drive unit, an estimation unit configured to estimate a residual amount of deviation, and a modulation unit configured to modulate a writing frequency in the exposure unit based on the measured amount of driving to reduce the estimated residual amount of deviation.

Image forming apparatus

A scanning optical apparatus includes a plurality of rotatable polygonal mirrors for scanningly deflecting laser beams; a plurality of optical members provided across optical paths of the beams deflected by the rotatable polygonal mirrors; vibration detecting means for detecting vibration of at least one of the optical members during driving of the rotatable polygonal mirrors; phase control means for controlling a phase relation between the rotatable polygonal mirrors on the basis of an output of the vibration detecting means.

Scanning optical apparatus and method, and image forming apparatus

A laser beam source that emits a laser beam includes a reflecting unit that has a plurality of reflecting members and reflects the laser beam emitted from the laser beam source, a deflecting and scanning unit that deflects and scans with the laser beam reflected by the reflecting means, and an adjusting unit that moves at least part of the reflecting members, and adjusts the size of the laser beam entering the deflecting and scanning unit.

Optical device

In a scanning optical device which deflection-scans a plurality of fluxes of light by one rotary polygon mirror to form a multi-color image by irradiating beams on a plurality of photosensitive drums, respective, the fluxes of light being incident on the rotary polygon mirror have different angles with respect to a reference plane defined by a normal line of a reflecting surface of the rotary polygon mirror and a rotating direction of the rotary polygon mirror, and a flux of light deflection-scanned at the largest angle between the flux of light and the reference plane is irradiated on a photosensitive drum on which a color image having the highest brightness is formed. With this configuration, a scanning optical device in which a defective image caused by an optical facet angle error can be improved without improving the precision of parts and an image forming apparatus including the scanning optical device are provided.

Multibeam image forming apparatus

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to an image forming apparatus, which includes: a first to fourth image bearing members on which toner images of four colors of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black are formed respectively; a first rotatable polygon mirror for deflecting and scanning laser beams on the first to fourth image bearing members so as to form electrostatic latent images on the first to fourth image bearing members; a detachable fifth image bearing member on which a toner image of a color different from the four colors is formed; and a detachable optical unit including a second rotatable polygon mirror that deflects and scans a laser beam on the fifth image bearing member so as to form an electrostatic latent image on the fifth image bearing member.

Growing community of inventors

Abiko, Japan

Hiroshi Nakahata