Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Takanobu Fujioka

Takashi Mama

Kenichirou Asada

Shinji Kobayashi

Kan Tomita

Yoshiki Yoshida

Yuji Yasuda

Yoshio Kaneko

Fumihiro Miyagawa

Hidetoshi Kanai

Hiroyuki Kawamoto

Norifumi Ito

Mitsuo Hasebe

Setsuo Soga

Akio Katsumata

Yasumori Nagahara

Wataru Nara

Kouichi Kamon

Yoshiaki Kanmoto

Kiyoto Nagasawa

Masaaki Kogure

Kenichiro Asada

An image forming apparatus having deflection scanning type and line type exposing devices and first and second developing devices arranged around a photoconductive element, so that parts around the photoconductive element are arranged with ease to promote the miniaturization of the apparatus. The exposing devices are selected based on the principle that the image quality is enhanced for an image of particular color and is lowered for an image of another color expected to be printed less frequently. Specifically, the deflection scanning type exposing device forms the image of the particular color, and the line type exposing device which has an inherently long optical path and simple structure forms the image of another color. Fans are provided to produce cooling air flow to the line type exposing device and to draw out toner dirt and ozone produced by the charger associated therewith. The line type exposing device and the associated charger are electrically insulated from each other and mounted in a common casing. Cleaning elements are provided to clean the charger and the line type exposing device during withdrawal of these elements from the photoconductive element.

Compact BI-color electrophotographic image forming apparatus

A bicolor image forming apparatus having first and second exposing means and first and second developing means arranged around a photoconductive element. The first and second developing means are implemented as a deflection scanning type and a line type, respectively. Parts around a photoconductive element are arranged with ease to promote the miniaturization of the apparatus. This stems from the principle that the image quality may be enhanced for an image of particular color and lowered for an image of another color expected to be printed less frequently. Specifically, the apparatus has deflection scanning type exposing means for forming the image of particular color, and line type exposing means which has an inherently long optical path and simple structure for forming the image of another color.

Bicolor image forming apparatus for forming a bicolor image on a

In a folding-order image forming apparatus, image data provided by reading an original image are stored to a page memory. When a copy is made in an electrostatic photographic process in accordance with the image data, the read image data are processed to divide the original image into a plurality of divisional images. Required images with respect to the divisional images are rotated, rearranged and outputted by the operation of a page memory control circuit in accordance with a divisional number of a recording image, etc. Thus, the images are formed in an opening shape by folding or cutting a sheet of recording paper along a divisional boundary of images thereon. The image forming apparatus generally has an image signal memory for storing a digital image signal, a memory region controller for controlling an operation of the image signal memory in a memory region thereof and an image rotational processor for rotating an image by judging the necessity of rotational processing of an image every memory region of the image signal memory.

Folding-order image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a fixing speed setting unit for selectively setting the fixing speed in accordance with a desired mode of operation, a fixing unit for fixing a reproduced image of an original formed on a image forming medium at a variable fixing speed in accordance with the fixing speed setting unit, and a scanning unit provided with opto-electrical elements arranged in one line extended laterally to a predetermined scanning direction for optically receving an image of the original through the opto-electrical elements. The opto-electrical elements are carrying out a scanning operation in the predetermined scanning direction with varied scanning speed by changing a sweep spacing of an image data with averaging every N line of the image data in accordance with the operation mode with using every N-1 lines of the image data to reproduce the image of the original on the image forming medium.

Image reproducing apparatus

A multi-beam detecting apparatus adapted to an optical system in which a recording medium is scanned by a plurality of light beams emitted from respective light sources, includes a photodetector, a light interrupting member, and a control circuit. The photodetector produces detection signals when the corresponding light beams come to a predetermined position. The light interrupting member is interposed between the light sources and the light detecting member, and has transparent portions related to the respective light beams. A controlling circuit controls ON/OFF states of the light source in accordance with the respective detection signals related to the corresponding light beams passing through the respective transparent portions in the light interrupting member.

Light beam scanning apparatus

An electrophotographic copier, facsimile machine, laser printer or similar image forming apparatus for reproducing an image on a paper sheet by transforming an image signal representative of the image into an image forming signal by pulse width modulation, causing a spot beam in the form of a laser beam which is modulated by the image forming signal to scan a photoconductive element to form an electrostatic latent image thereon, developing the latent image to render it visible, and transferring the visible image to a paper sheet. The laser beam output, the set pulse widths of the image forming signal (beam turn-on times) and the bias voltage for development are changed in association with the deterioration of the laser beam power and the sensitivity of the photoconductive element.

Image forming apparatus

An imaging system includes a plurality of semiconductor lasers for emitting a plurality of laser beams for use in forming an image on a photosensitive member. A laser driver circuit is provided for each of the plurality of lasers, and a plurality of photodectors are also provided, each detecting the light intensity of the corresponding one of the laser beams emitted from the lasers. A light intensity stabilizing control circuit is provided to stabilize the light intensity of each of the plurality of laser beams using one of the detected light intensities as a reference and adjusting the light intensity of each of the other beams such that a difference between the reference and the light intensity of each of the other beams is within a predetermined range.

Imaging using collectively controlled multiple beams

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Chofu, Japan

Takanobu Fujioka