Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Motomu Fukasawa

Takayuki Sugiyama

Hiroshi Sato

Kazuo Fujibayashi

Junichi Sakamoto

Hidekazu Shimomura

Masamichi Tateoka

Mitsuharu Sawamura

Keisuke Araki

Kazuyuki Kondo

Nobuyuki Tochigi

Koji Kimura

Masahiro Shirai

Kenji Yoshinaga

Seitoku Tsukamoto

Seiji Ohta

Akimitu Hoshi

An object of the present invention is to efficiently shape a light flux emitted from a light source into a linear shape and so as to provide an optical element having high versatility that can be widely used irrespective of the original sizes and to provide an illumination apparatus having such an illumination apparatus. The optical element has a reflection surface in the form of an inner side of a curved surface that is formed by rotating a parabola about a rotation axis including the focus of the parabola or a point near the focus of the parabola.

Optical element and illumination apparatus having same

A zoom lens comprises, from the object side to the image side, a first lens group, a second lens group, and a rear group including one or more lens groups, where the first and second lens groups can move at the time of zooming, and wherein the first lens group comprises, from the object side to the image side, a first lens of negative refractive power, and a second lens of positive refractive power.

Zoom lens and imaging apparatus having the same

In an apparatus including a unit which is recoverable and reusable after use, an environmental history indicator member having a property variable according to an environmental history of use of the apparatus and arranged not to participate in any functions of the apparatus during use of the apparatus is disposed inside the unit or adjacent to the unit. By checking the state of the environmental history indicator member when the unit is recovered from the apparatus after the end of service of the apparatus, a management system for reuse is arranged to easily and efficiently decide the unit to be reusable or no longer usable.

Non-invasive environment history indicator for reusable device

A rod lens array to be used for an optical printer, including: (a) a plurality of rod lenses arranged in an array; (b) a substance filled between the plurality of rod lenses; and (c) a pair of substrates sandwiching the plurality of rod lenses and the substance, wherein each of the substrates comprises a panel member and a layer formed on the surface of the panel member bearing the rod lenses thereon, and wherein the panel member is made of a fiber-reinforced plastic material and the layer is made of a resin, and the layer eliminates undulations formed by the fibers in the panel member.

Rod lens array and printer head and optical printer using the same

A laminate-type diffractive optical element which is easily producible and which allows high optical performance to be easily achieved, and an optical system using the same, are disclosed. In the diffractive optical element formed by laminating a plurality of diffraction gratings, when the distance between the uppermost portion of one diffraction grating and the lowermost portion of the other diffraction grating in two diffraction gratings adjacent to each other along the incident direction of a light is represented by D (&mgr;m), these two diffraction gratings are arranged to satisfy the following relation: 10 &mgr;m<D<40 &mgr;m.

Diffractive optical element and image reader using the same

An LED printer head capable of reducing influence of a sub emission band by use of a rod lens array and thus prevent light of the sub emission band from reaching a development level. The LED printer head consists of an LED array of LEDs to emit light according to an image signal, which are arrayed at the resolution pitch P of not less than 600 dpi, and a multi-lens array for forming an emission image of the LED array on a photosensitive body. Each of the LEDs of the LED array has a main emission band of an emission spectrum and another sub emission band having a peak level of not less than 0.01 as a photosensitive intensity ratio R to the main emission spectrum, and a difference D between best total conjugate lengths at peak wavelengths of the main and sub emission bands by the multi-lens array is at least 0.15. Optical adjustment of the LED array and the multi-lens array is effected so that light of the main emission band is focused in a predetermined imaging relation on the predetermined photosensitive body.

LED head, image forming apparatus, and method of measuring amount of light from LED array

A rod lens array to be used for an optical printer includes a plurality of rod lenses arranged densely in an array, an opaque substance filled in the gaps separating the plurality of rod lenses, and a pair of side panels sandwiching the plurality of rod lenses and the opaque substance. The rod lens array satisfies the requirement as defined by the formula: S<(Z/L)&middot;(25.4/5P) where P is the resolution of the optical printer expressed in dpi, Z is the length of the rod lenses expressed in mm, L is the conjugate length of the rod lenses expressed in mm, and S is the flatness of the surfaces of the side panels bearing the rod lenses.

A rod lens array for optical printer head includes a plurality of rod lenses arranged cyclically in a predetermined direction. The rod lenses are fixed by filling a opaque substance into the gaps separating the respective rod lenses and sandwiching the rod lenses and the opaque substance with a pair of side panels. The side panels have a cyclical structure resulting in undulations at least on their surface facing the rod lenses, and the pitch of the beat generated by the cycle or arrangement of the plurality of rod lenses and the cyclical structure of the side panels is not greater that 0.6 mm or substantially infinite.

Rod lens array and optical printer head and optical printer using the same

An image forming apparatus which can obtain a high-quality image although the adjustment of alignment is easy or unnecessary is provided. In the apparatus, light beams emitted from light-source means, in which a plurality of light-emitting devices are arranged in a one-dimensional direction, are focused onto a surface of a recording medium by a lens array formed by arranging a plurality of condensing lenses in a scanning direction in two lines so as to staggerly and closely place lenses in one line on lenses in another line. When the radius of a field of view of a single condensing lens is represented by X.sub.0, the diameter of the condensing lens is represented by D, and a degree of overlap is represented by m=X.sub.0 /D, the lens array is formed so as to satisfy the following condition:

Image forming apparatus having a lens array

A device for illuminating an original for use in an original reading apparatus for reading an original placed on an original supporting table has a light source having a filament having its lengthwise direction disposed so as to be perpendicular to a reading line.

Device for illuminating an original

An Optical filter is provided on a light receiving surface of an image sensor. The filter has a plurality of thin layers alternately laminated. The thin layers alternately consist of a dielectric layer having a high refractive index and a metal layer and each thin layer has its stress .sigma. in a range -5 GPa.ltoreq..sigma.&lt;-0.2 GPa.

Optical filter having alternately laminated thin layers provided on a

In an image reading apparatus, a first object and a second object are adapted to be illuminated on different regions each other with a light beam from a light source by an illuminating device. A first imaging optical system is provided to image image information of the first object on a single photoelectric converting device. A second imaging optical system is provided in an optical path different from that of the first imaging optical system so as to image image information of the second object onto the photoelectric converting device. The first and second object to be illuminated, and the photoelectric converting device are relatively displaced to read the image information of the first and second objects.

Image reading apparatus for selectively illuminating a first object and

An image reading lens that is constructed of, in succession from the object side, a stop, a meniscus-shaped positive first lens having its convex surface at the image plane side, and a negative second lens having its concave surface at the image plane side. Both the lens surfaces of the first lens and at least one lens surface of the second lens are constructed of an aspherical surface. The shape of the object side aspherical surface of the first lens is formed so as to be inside a reference spherical surface.

Image reading lens

An original scanning apparatus comprising original support means on which an original is rested, elongated light source means for illuminating the original rested on the original support means, reflection means for reflecting light from the elongated light source means toward the original support means. The elongated light source means is fixed and the reflection means being shiftable, so that the original rested on the original support means is scanned by shifting the reflection means. Apparatus further includes side reflector means disposed at a longitudinal end of the elongated light source means and extending along a shifting direction of the reflection means.

Original scanning apparatus with fixed light source

An optical scanning apparatus in which a plurality of scanning light beams are deflected by a light deflector and the deflected light beams impinge onto a spherical lens having an f-.theta. characteristic at inclinations with respect to the optical axis of the lens so as to be focused on a scanning object. The apparatus is arranged to meet the following condition: ##EQU1## where, f represents the focal distance of the spherical lens (mm), .omega. represents the effective scanning rotation angle of the light deflector (deg), .DELTA.(.omega.) represents the amount of curve of the scanning line caused by the light deflecting element in the subscanning direction (mm), .rho. represents the resolution of the scan on the scanning object (lines/mm), .theta. represents the angle of inclination of any one of the light beams with respect to the optical axis of the lens within a plane which contains the optical axis of the lens and which is perpendicular to the scanning axis (deg), L represents the distance between the first reflection surface of the light deflector and the principal plane of the lens adjacent the scanning object along the optical axis (mm), and h represents the height of incidence of the any one of the light beams to the lens (mm).

Growing community of inventors

Iruma, Japan

Motomu Fukasawa