The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 12, 2012
Filed:
Nov. 01, 2007
Yoshinori Hayashi, Kanagawa, JP;
Naoto Watanabe, Kanagawa, JP;
Daisuke Ichii, Kanagawa, JP;
Nobuaki Kubo, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshinori Hayashi, Kanagawa, JP;
Naoto Watanabe, Kanagawa, JP;
Daisuke Ichii, Kanagawa, JP;
Nobuaki Kubo, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A scanning unit in an image forming apparatus includes a light source, a coupling lens, an aperture, an image forming lens, and a polygon mirror. The light source includes a plurality of surface-emitting lasers. The coupling lens, the aperture, and the image forming lens are arranged on the optical path of light beams emitted by the light source. The polygon mirror deflects light beams of an image formed by the coupling lens towards a photosensitive drum for scanning. The focal length of the image forming lens in a sub-scanning direction is set to be equal to or smaller than an optical path length between the image forming lens and the aperture.