Exposure Head And An Image Forming Apparatus Using The Exposure Head

An exposure head, comprising:

• a first imaging optical system and a second imaging optical system that are arranged in a first direction;
• a first light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the first imaging optical system;
• and
• a second light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, wherein
• an inter-optical-system distance P1 in the first direction between the first imaging optical system and the second imaging optical system satisfies the following expression:
• m1·L1+m2·L2>2P1−(m1·dp1+m2·dp2)
• where m1 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the first imaging optical system, L1 represents a width in the first direction of the first light emitting element group to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, dp1 represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the first light emitting element group to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, m2 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the second imaging optical system, L2 represents a width in the first direction of the second light emitting element group to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, and dp2 represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the second light emitting element group to be imaged by the second imaging optical system.

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• a latent image carrier;
• and
• an exposure head that forms a latent image on the latent image carrier, wherein the exposure head includes:
• a first imaging optical system and a second imaging optical system that are arranged in a first direction;
• a first light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the first imaging optical system;
• and
• a second light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, wherein
• an inter-optical-system distance P1 in the first direction between the first imaging optical system and the second imaging optical system satisfies the following expression:
• m1·L1+m2·L2>2P1−(m1·dp1+m2·dp2)
• where m1 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the first imaging optical system, L1 represents a width in the first direction of the first light emitting element group to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, dp1 represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the first light emitting element group to be imaged by the first imaging optical system, m2 represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the second imaging optical system, L2 represents a width in the first direction of the second light emitting element group to be imaged by the second imaging optical system, and dp2 represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the second light emitting element group to be imaged by the second imaging optical system.

An exposure head, comprising:

• an i-th imaging optical system and an (i+1)-th imaging optical system that are arranged in a first direction, where i is a positive integer;
• an i-th light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the i-th imaging optical system;
• and
• an (i+1)-th light emitting element group including light emitting elements that emit light to be imaged by the (i+1)-th imaging optical system, wherein
• an inter-optical-system distance P1 in the first direction between the i-th imaging optical system and the (i+1)-th imaging optical system satisfies the following expression:
• m(i)·L(i)+m(i+1)·L(i+1)>2P(i)−(m(i)·dp(i)+m(i+1)·dp(i+1))
• where m(i) represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the i-th imaging optical system, L(i) represents a width in the first direction of the i-th light emitting element group to be imaged by the i-th imaging optical system, dp(i) represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the i-th light emitting element group to be imaged by the i-th imaging optical system, m(i+1) represents an absolute value of the optical magnification of the (i+1)-th imaging optical system, L(i+1) represents a width in the first direction of the (i+1)-th light emitting element group to be imaged by the (i+1)-th imaging optical system, and dp(i+1) represents a distance between the light emitting elements in the first direction in the (i+1)-th light emitting element group to be imaged by the (i+1)-th imaging optical system.