Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Masao Hatayama

Yoshihiro Takahashi

Yukio Itami

Hidetoshi Kojima

Tomotaka Takamura

Noriyuki Kadowaki

Takao Abe

Makoto Endo

Takeshi Kikuchi

Kazuhiro Koseki

An optical deflector, a method of producing the optical deflector, an optical scanning device, and an image forming apparatus are disclosed that are able to save resources, provide high reliability at low cost, and enable stacked and relatively-offset polygon mirrors to be arranged precisely. The optical deflector includes a rotary member supported by a bearing with plural polygon mirrors fixed thereon. The polygon mirrors are stacked along a rotation axis of the rotary member, the polygon mirrors are relatively offset by a predetermined angle in a rotation plane of the rotary member, and an effective deflection area of each of the reflection surfaces of any one of the polygon mirrors is positioned away from a center of the corresponding reflection surfaces of the other one of the polygon mirrors in the direction of the rotation axis.

Optical deflector, production method thereof, optical scanning device, and image forming apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Miyagi, Japan

Masao Hatayama