Laser beam composite apparatus
AssigneeMinolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHitoshi Kageyama, Nobuo Kanai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A laser beam composite apparatus which combines more than three beams including a first beam having a first wavelength, a second beam having a second wavelength and polarized in a predetermined direction and a third beam having a second wavelength and polarized in a direction perpendicular to said polarized direction of said second beam. The laser beam composite apparatus combines the first beam and the second beam based on difference of wavelengths thereof and further combines the third beam based on difference of polarized directions thereof.
Claims10
A laser beam composite apparatus comprising:
- first beam generating means for generating a first beam having a first wavelength;
- second beam generating means for generating a second beam having a second wavelength and polarized in a predetermined direction;
- third beam generating means for generating a third beam having the second wavelength and polarized in a direction perpendicular to the polarized direction of said second beam;
- a first dichroic mirror which reflects one of either said first beam or said second beam and transmits therethrough the other beam whereby said first dichroic mirror guides said first beam and said second beam entering from different directions in the same direction so as to form a composite beam by combining of said first and second beams;
- and
- a second dichroic mirror which reflects one of either said composite beam or said third beam and transmits therethrough the other beam whereby said second dichroic mirror guides said composite beam and said third beam entering from different directions in the same direction so as to combine said composite beam and said third beam.
A method for composing a plurality of laser beams, including the steps of:
- (a) combining a first beam having a first wavelength and a second beam having a second wavelength and polarized in a predetermined direction to form a first composite beam;
- and
- (b) combining said first composite beam combined in step (a) and a third beam having the second wavelength and polarized in a direction perpendicular to the polarized direction of said second beam by a dichroic mirror, which transmits the first composite beam and reflects the third beam, to thereby form a second composite beam.
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- first beam generating means for generating a first beam having a first wavelength;
- second beam generating means for generating a second beam having a second wavelength and polarized in a predetermined direction;
- third beam generating means for generating a third beam having the second wavelength and polarized in a direction perpendicular to said polarized direction of said second beam;
- a first dichroic mirror which reflects one of either said first beam or said second beam and transmits therethrough the other beam whereby said first dichroic mirror guides said first beam and said second beam entering from different directions in the same direction so as to form a first composite beam by combining of said first and second beams;
- and
- a second dichroic mirror which reflects one of either said first composite beam or said third beam and transmits therethrough the other beam whereby said second dichroic mirror guides said first composite beam and said third beam entering from different directions in the same direction so as to form a second composite beam by combining of said first composite beam and said third beam;
- scan means for scanning said second composite beam;
- image bearing means for bearing images to be formed by said first, second and third beams;
- and
- separate means, provided between said scan means and said image bearing means, for separating said first, second and third beams from each other and guiding the first, second and third beams to the portions of image bearing means different from each other.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.