US 7,126,735 B1Granted

Optical scanning apparatus

AssigneeKonica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.

InventorsHiroki Kinoshita, Makoto Ooki, Yoshiki Sugimaru

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Abstract

An optical scanning apparatus comprising a plurality of light sources, a polygon mirror for deflecting beams emitted from the light sources in a main scanning direction, lenses for imaging the deflected beams on receiving surfaces and diverting mirrors for directing the beams which passed through the lenses to the receiving surfaces. In one side of the polygon mirror, three diverting mirrors are provided in an upper optical path, and two diverting mirrors are provided in a lower optical path. In the other side of the polygon mirror, one diverting mirror is provided in a lower optical path, and two diverting mirrors are provided in an upper optical path. Thereby, bows on the receiving surfaces have the same curving direction, and color displacement can be inhibited.

Claims9

Dependent claims

An optical scanning apparatus comprising:

a plurality of light sources;
a deflector for deflecting beams emitted from the light sources in a main scanning direction;
lenses for imaging the deflected beams on receiving surfaces respectively;
and
diverting mirrors for directing the beams which passed through the lenses to the receiving surfaces respectively,
wherein:
the deflector is common to the plurality of light sources;
the lenses are located in a right side and in a left side of the deflector before the diverting mirrors, and each of the lenses has a surface which is of a shape symmetrical in a sub-scanning direction;
and
if the diverting mirrors located in an upper optical path in said left side of the deflector are A in number, if the diverting mirrors located in a lower optical path in said left side of the deflector are B in number, if the diverting mirrors located in a lower optical path in said right side of the deflector are C in number and if the diverting mirrors located in an upper optical path in said right side of the deflector are D in number, the following conditions are satisfied:
|A−B|=2×i+1
|C−D|=2×j+1
|A−D|=2×m+1
|B−C|=2×n+1
wherein, i, j, m and n are integers not less than 0.

12 more elements

An optical scanning apparatus comprising:

four light sources;
a deflector which rotates to deflect beams emitted from the four light sources in a main scanning direction;
a first optical system for imaging a first beam and a second beam of the beams deflected by the deflector on receiving surfaces;
a second optical system for imaging a third beam and a fourth beam of the beams deflected by the deflector on receiving surfaces;
and
a plurality of diverting mirrors for directing the beams which passed through the first optical system and the second optical system to the receiving surfaces,
wherein:
the first optical system has at least one lens which both the first beam and the second beam pass through and which is of a shape symmetrical in a sub-scanning direction;
the second optical system has at least one lens which both the third beam and the fourth beam pass through and which is of a shape symmetrical in the sub-scanning direction;
the first beam is incident to the deflector symmetrically with the fourth beam on a rotation axis of the deflector, and the second beam is incident to the deflector symmetrically with the third beam on the rotation axis of the deflector;
and
if the diverting mirrors located in an optical path of the first beam are A in number, if the diverting mirrors located in an optical path of the second beam are B in number, if the diverting mirrors located in an optical path of the third beam are C in number and if the diverting mirrors located in an optical path of the fourth beam are D in number, the following conditions are satisfied:
|A−B|=2×i+1
|C−D|=2×j+1
|A−D|=2×m+1
|B−C|=2×n+1
wherein, i, j, m and n are integers not less than 0.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.