Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Masahiro Soeda

Yoshinori Hayashi

Tomohiro Nakajima

Seizo Suzuki

Junichi Yazawa

Tadashi Nakamura

Daisuke Ichii

Kensuke Masuda

Akira Kojima

Satoru Itoh

An oscillating mirror module as a deflecting unit is disposed so that a movable mirror faces a plane where image carriers are arranged. A plurality of light source units are disposed within a plane parallel to the plane where the image carriers are arranged so that main light fluxes of light beams emitted from the light sources form predetermined angles with each other. The oscillating mirror module includes an incidence mirror that bends a plurality of light beams emitted from the light source units to direct the light beams to the movable mirror, and a separation mirror that separates the light beams scanned by the movable mirror into two opposite directions with respect to a cross-section including a surface normal of the movable mirror and perpendicular to the rotation axis of the movable mirror. A light collecting unit collects light beams so that output optical axes of the light beams corresponding to the light source units intersect on a surface of the movable mirror of the deflecting unit.

Optical scanning device and image forming apparatus

An optical scanning device is disclosed that includes a light source unit, a light source drive unit, a deflection unit, a scanning image optical system, and a light beam detection unit. In the optical scanning device, the light source drive unit controls an amount of light emission of the light source unit, and a light emission amount control period in which the light source unit is forcibly turned OFF is set to the light source drive unit during a period from when the deflection unit deflects to an edge of a scanning angle for scanning the main scanning area to when the deflection unit deflects to a maximum deflection angle of the deflection unit within a non-image forming period.

A light-amount detecting device includes: a light source which emits a light beam; a branching optical element which divides the light beam emitted from the light source into a first light beam traveling in a predetermined direction and a second light beam traveling in a direction different to the predetermined direction; a light-condensing element which condenses the second light beam; a light-receiving element having a light-receiving surface which receives the second light beam condensed by the light-condensing element; and a detector which detects a light-amount of the second light beam received by the light-receiving element, and at least one of a direction of reflected light of the second light beam reflected from the light-receiving surface of the light-receiving element and spread of the reflected light of the second light beam reflected from the light-receiving surface of the light-receiving element is adjusted to control a light-amount of the reflected light of the second light beam returning to the light source.

Light-amount detecting device, light source device, optical scanning unit and image forming apparatus

An optical scanning apparatus including a pulse modulation mechanism, a laser light source, a light deflecting mechanism, and a scan-imaging device. The pulse modulation mechanism performs a pulse modulation to input image data to output pulse-modulated image data. The laser light source generates a laser light beam according to the pulse-modulated image data. The laser light beam has a wavelength variation smaller than 2.0 nm per one pulse of the laser light beam. The light deflecting mechanism converts the laser light beam into a scanning laser light beam. The scan-imaging device condenses the scanning laser light beam into a scanning light spot on a surface to be scanned.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Masahiro Soeda