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US 12,510,840 B2Granted
Controlling exposure apparatus used in image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorIzuru Horiuchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An exposure head includes a substrate on which light sources are mounted, and a condensing optical system. A memory stores a profile indicating correction gains for exposure amounts. A sensor detects a temperature. A processor acquires a correction gain that corresponds to a position of a light source that reached an exposure timing, corrects, for each of the light sources, an exposure amount of the light source with the correction gain corresponding to the position of the light source, and adjusts, for each of the light sources, a reference position of the corresponding correction gain in the profile in accordance with the temperature detected by the sensor.
Claims15
An exposure apparatus comprising:
- an exposure head including:
- a substrate on which a plurality of light sources are mounted in an arrangement along an axial direction of a photosensitive member,
- a condensing optical system arranged along a lengthwise direction of the substrate and configured to condense light output from the plurality of light sources onto a circumferential surface of the photosensitive member to form a plurality of exposure spots on the circumferential surface, and
- a support member supporting the substrate and the condensing optical system;
- a memory having stored therein a profile indicating correction gains for exposure amounts, the correction gains corresponding to condensing efficiencies of the condensing optical system at a plurality of positions along the lengthwise direction;
- a sensor configured to detect a temperature correlated with a temperature of the exposure head;
- and
- at least one processor configured to perform operations, the operations including:
- acquiring, by referencing the profile, a correction gain that corresponds to a position, along the lengthwise direction of the substrate, of a light source that reached an exposure timing among the plurality of light sources;
- correcting, for each of the light sources, an exposure amount of the light source with the correction gain corresponding to the position of the light source;
- and
- adjusting, for each of the light sources, a reference position of the corresponding correction gain in the profile in accordance with the temperature detected by the sensor, wherein
- the profile includes a profile indicating the correction gains for the exposure amounts corresponding to the condensing efficiencies of the condensing optical system at the plurality of positions along the lengthwise direction at a predetermined temperature, and
- the adjusting includes:
- obtaining a difference between the predetermined temperature and the temperature detected by the sensor,
- obtaining a product for each of the light sources by multiplying the difference by a constant corresponding to the light source, and
- adjusting, for each of the light sources, the reference position of the corresponding correction gain in accordance with the corresponding product.
14 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a charger configured to uniformly charge a surface of a photosensitive member;
- an exposure device;
- the photosensitive member configured to be exposed by the exposure device such that an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive member;
- a developing unit configured to form a toner image by developing the electrostatic latent image with a toner;
- a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image from the photosensitive member to a sheet;
- and
- a fixing device configured to fix the toner image to the sheet,
- wherein the exposure device includes:
- an exposure head including:
- a substrate on which a plurality of light sources are mounted in an arrangement along an axial direction of a photosensitive member,
- a condensing optical system arranged along a lengthwise direction of the substrate and configured to condense light output from the plurality of light sources onto a circumferential surface of the photosensitive member to form a plurality of exposure spots on the circumferential surface, and
- a support member supporting the substrate and the condensing optical system;
- a memory having stored therein a profile indicating correction gains for exposure amounts, the correction gains corresponding to condensing efficiencies of the condensing optical system at a plurality of positions along the lengthwise direction;
- a sensor configured to detect a temperature correlated with a temperature of the exposure head;
- and
- at least one processor configured to perform operations, the operations including:
- acquiring, by referencing the profile, a correction gain that corresponds to a position, along the lengthwise direction of the substrate, of a light source that reached an exposure timing among the plurality of light sources;
- correcting, for each of the light sources, an exposure amount of the light source with the correction gain corresponding to the position of the light source;
- and
- adjusting, for each of the light sources, a reference position of the corresponding correction gain in the profile in accordance with the temperature detected by the sensor, wherein
- the profile includes a profile indicating the correction gains for the exposure amounts corresponding to the condensing efficiencies of the condensing optical system at the plurality of positions along the lengthwise direction at a predetermined temperature, and
- the adjusting includes:
- obtaining a difference between the predetermined temperature and the temperature detected by the sensor,
- obtaining a product for each of the light sources by multiplying the difference by a constant corresponding to the light source, and
- adjusting, for each of the light sources, the reference position of the corresponding correction gain in accordance with the corresponding product.
22 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.