Multi-beam pitch adjustment system and method
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsTatsuya Ito, Tomohiro Nakajima, Katsumi Yamaguchi, Akira Shimura, Masaki Narita, Shuichi Yamazaki, Satoru Ito
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Abstract
The current disclosure discloses methods of and systems for automatically adjusting or selecting a pitch between beams in a multi-beam scanning system. An array of light sources is mounted on a rotatable housing and emits light in a direction perpendicular to the rotational plane. The system or method measures a pitch on or near an intermediate image-forming surface. In response to the measured pitch, the scanning as well as sub-scanning pitch is automatically adjusted or selected by rotating a housing unit to maintain a desired pitch.
Claims74
A method of adjusting a pitch between beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, a plurality of light sources being placed in an array on a rotatable unit, comprising the steps of:
- a) emitting a plurality of substantially parallel beams from the light sources;
- b) measuring a distance between said emitted beams;
- and
- c) automatically rotating the rotatable unit about an axis in parallel to at least one of said emitted beams based upon said measured distance for adjusting the pitch substantially close to a predetermined desired pitch value.
A method of selecting a pitch between a pair of beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, a plurality of light sources each emitting at least one beam along an optical axis, comprising the steps of:
- s') selecting a pair of adjacent beams emitted by a common light source;
- t') independently selecting a desired pitch distance between said selected pair of said adjacent beams;
- and
- u') rotating said common light source about an axis in parallel to at least one of said optical axes in response to the selected pitch distance for initializing the pitch at said selected pitch distance.
A method of adjusting a pitch between a pair of beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, a plurality of light sources each emitting at least one beam, comprising the steps of:
- v') emitting a plurality of beams;
- w ') selecting a pair of adjacent beams emitted from a single one of said light sources;
- x') measuring the pitch between said emitted beams in a sub-scanning direction;
- and
- y') rotating said single light source about an axis in parallel to at least one of said emitted beams based upon the measured pitch for maintaining a predetermined desired pitch.
A system for adjusting a pitch between beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, comprising:
- a rotatable unit having a plurality of light sources placed in a single array, said light sources emitting a plurality of substantially parallel beams;
- a pitch measuring unit for measuring a pitch distance between said emitted beams, said pitch measuring unit generating a pitch signal indicative of the pitch distance;
- and
- a rotation control unit in response to the pitch signal causing said rotatable unit to rotate about an axis in parallel to at least one of the emitted beams for adjusting the pitch substantially close to a predetermined desired pitch value.
A system for selecting a pitch between a pair of beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, comprising:
- a plurality of individually rotatable light sources each emitting at least one beam, a center of said emitted beams being located along an optical axis;
- a pitch control unit for selecting a pair of adjacent beams emitted by a common light source and a desired pitch distance between said selected pair of said adjacent beams;
- and
- a rotation control unit for rotating said common light source about an axis in parallel to at least one of said optical axes in response to the selected pitch distance for initializing the pitch at said selected pitch distance.
A system for adjusting a pitch between a pair of beams on an intermediate image-forming surface, comprising:
- a plurality of individually rotatable light sources each emitting at least one beam, a center of said emitted beams being located along an optical axis;
- a pitch measuring unit for measuring a pitch between a pair of adjacent beams emitted by a common light source;
- and
- a rotation control unit for rotating said common light source about an axis in parallel to at least one of said optical axes based upon the measured pitch for adjusting said measured pitch substantially close to a predetermined desired pitch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.