Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Jun Nagatoshi

Atsushi Sano

Mitsuhiro Ohta

Yoshihiko Tanaka

Hiroyuki Fukuhara

Hiroki Katayama

Shunsuke Tanaka

Naoki Inoue

Tetsushi Uneme

Mitsuhiro Obara

Naoki Matsushita

Akihiro Fukutomi

Chihiro Shirakawa

Taku Murotani

Daisuke Miyagawa

Yasuhiro Shimada

Suguru Miyagawa

Tetsuya Nishiguchi

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photosensitive members; a scanner unit including light sources, a rotatable polygonal mirror, and reflecting members; and a fixing portion. Parts of the laser beams emitted from the light sources are reflected by the rotatable polygonal mirror toward the fixing device side, and rest parts of the laser beams are reflected by the rotatable polygonal mirror toward a side opposite from the fixing device side. Of the parts of the laser beams reflected by the rotatable polygonal mirror toward the fixing device side, the laser beam reflected toward the reflecting member provided at a position remotest from the rotatable polygonal mirror travels downward relative to a horizontal direction. A rotational axis of the rotatable polygonal mirror is inclined relative to a vertical direction.

Image forming apparatus with laser scanning components positioned for enhanced compactness

An optical scanning device includes a casing including a bottom portion on which the deflector is disposed and a side wall stood from the bottom portion, a circuit board, a cover closing an opening, formed by the side wall, of the casing. The side wall includes first and second side walls, and the second side wall includes a through hole, and first and second side surfaces of the through hole. The cover includes a protective portion for protecting the circuit board and a restricted portion disposed in a position corresponding to the through hole and including first and second end portions. The restricted portion includes first and second insertion portions to be inserted into the through hole. A distance between the second end portion and the second side surface is smaller than a distance between the protective portion and the closest electric element.

Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus mounted with it

An optical scanning apparatus includes first and second light sources, a rotatable polygonal mirror, a motor, first and second mirrors, first and second lenses, and a casing. Within a mounting range, a top wall of an accommodating portion is provided with at least one projection projecting toward an opening of the accommodating portion. The projection extends from a first side wall to a second side wall of the accommodating portion. The top wall includes a recess formed opposite from the projection, and is free from a portion projecting toward the opening over a range from the first side wall to the second side wall, other than the projection in the mounting range. A free end portion of the projection is in a position remoter from the opening than a reflecting surface of the rotatable polygonal mirror is with respect to a rotational axis direction of the motor.

Optical scanning apparatus and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus to form a toner image on a recording material includes a photosensitive member and an optical scanning unit. The optical scanning unit includes an optical scanning unit, an optical box, a cover member, and a moving unit movable to an outside of the image forming apparatus. The optical scanning unit and the moving unit are arranged so that the moving unit and the optical scanning unit are opposed to each other when the moving unit is located in an inside of the image forming apparatus. The optical scanning unit is disposed so as to allow a user to touch the optical scanning unit through a space generated in the inside of the image forming apparatus when the moving unit is moved to the outside of the image forming apparatus. Between the optical box and the cover member, the cover member is opposed to the moving unit.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes plural photosensitive members, a scanner unit for scanning the photosensitive members, and a fixing unit for fixing toner images. The scanner unit includes a rotatable polygonal mirror for reflecting laser beams emitted in correspondence to respective photosensitive members, reflecting members for reflecting the laser beams, and a box for accommodating the polygonal mirror and the reflecting members. The box includes plural outlets for the laser beams. Of the reflecting members, first and second reflecting members reflect laser beams toward corresponding first and second outlets respectively positioned farthest from and closest to the fixing unit. A distance between the first outlet and its corresponding photosensitive member is longer than a distance between the second outlet and its corresponding photosensitive member, whereas a distance between the first reflecting member and the polygonal mirror is shorter than a distance between the second reflecting member and the polygonal mirror.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image in accordance with image information on a sheet includes a photosensitive member; a scanner unit for scanning the member with a laser beam in accordance with the information, the scanner unit including a source for emitting the beam, a deflector having a polygonal mirror for reflecting the beam to deflect it, and a sensor for receiving the beam deflected by the deflector; a controller for controlling scanning start timing of the beam in response to an output of the sensor. A reference position of scanning lines of the beam in a sub-scan direction and a center position of a receipt surface of the sensor in the direction are deviated from each other. For all scanning lines by reflecting surfaces of the rotatable polygonal mirror, only parts, in the direction, of the scanning lines pass the receipt surface of the sensor.

Optical scanning apparatus with offset beam detect sensor for scan line positioning in sub-scan direction and image forming apparatus with optical scanning apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of photosensitive members; a scanner unit which includes light sources, a rotatable polygonal mirror, and a plurality of reflecting members; a fixing unit; and a discharge tray. The scanner unit is provided between the plurality of photosensitive members and the discharge tray with respect to a vertical direction, and a rotational axis of the rotatable polygonal mirror is inclined relative to the vertical direction. Selected ones of the laser beams emitted from the light sources are reflected toward a side with the fixing unit, and remaining ones of the laser beams are reflected toward an opposite side. Of the selected ones of the laser beams, the laser beam reflected toward the reflecting member provided at a position remotest from the rotatable polygonal mirror travels downward relative to a horizontal direction.

In one embodiment, an optical scanning device includes a board and a light receiving member, the positional accuracy of which is improved. When a length in a scanning direction and a length in an intersection direction of a body portion of the light receiving member are denoted by Lxand Ly, respectively, and a length in the scanning direction and a length in the intersection direction of a through-hole formed in the board are denoted by Lxand Ly, respectively, the lengths Lx, Ly, Lx, and Lysatisfy the following formula: (Lx&#x2212;Lx)&#x3e;(Ly&#x2212;Ly).

Optical scanning device

An optical scanning apparatus according to the present invention includes a light source, and a substrate including an electric circuit for causing the light source to emit light. The number of holes in the substrate into which terminals in the light source are respectively inserted is larger than the number of the terminals, so that the substrate can also be used for another light source including a different number of terminals.

Optical scanning apparatus and optical scanning apparatus system

There is a demand for an inexpensive optical scanning apparatus. An optical scanning apparatus includes a light source configured to emit a laser light flux, a deflection unit configured to deflect the laser light flux emitted from the light source, and a light reception member configured in such a manner that the laser light flux reflected by the deflection unit is incident thereon. The light source emits the laser light flux tilted by a predetermined angle with respect to a horizontal direction toward the deflection unit. The light reception member is disposed above or below the light source, and the laser light flux reflected by the deflection unit and tilted by the predetermined angle with respect to the horizontal direction is incident on the light reception member.

An optical scanning apparatus includes a deflector for scanningly deflecting a beam; a scanning lens for imaging the beam deflected by the deflector on a surface; a casing for a light source, the deflector and the lens; and an elastic member urging the lens toward the casing along an optical axis. The lens is provided with an abutment at a beam emergent side of the lens, the abutment abutting to the casing, and is provided with a limiting portion at a side opposite from the emergent side, the limiting portion limiting movement in the opposite direction. The elastic member and the limiting portion limits the movement of the lens in the direction opposite to the direction of the lens. When the lens contacts a positioning portion of the casing, a gap is provided between the elastic member and the limiting portion with respect to the direction.

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Tokyo, Japan

Jun Nagatoshi