Optical deflector, optical scanning apparatus, and image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorYukio Itami
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical deflector including a rotary member supported by a bearing shaft and rotatively driven by a motor for deflecting a plurality of laser beams separated from each other in a rotational axis direction of the rotary member is disclosed. The optical deflector includes a polygon mirror having four sides arranged about the rotational axis direction. Each of the four sides is a continuous plane having a plurality of effective reflection areas separated from each other in the rotational axis direction.
Claims21
An optical deflector, comprising:
- a rotary member fixed on a rotation shaft to be rotated;
- and
- a polygon mirror mounted on a top of the rotary member;
- wherein
- the polygon mirror is fixed to the rotary member at an outer ridge line part of the polygon mirror.
An optical scanning apparatus, comprising:
- an optical system to scan one or more scanning lines on one or more target scanning surfaces by guiding one or more beams of one or more lasers to the one or more target scanning surfaces and forming one or more beam spots on the one or more target scanning surfaces;
- and
- an optical deflector to deflect the one or more beams to the one or more target scanning surfaces, the optical deflector including:
- a rotary member fixed on a rotation shaft to be rotated;
- and
- a polygon mirror mounted on a top of the rotary member, wherein
- the polygon mirror is fixed to the rotary member at an outer ridge line part of the polygon mirror.
An image forming apparatus to form a visible image from a latent image formed on a photoconductor by scanning one or more light beams on a photosensitive surface of the photoconductor, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- an optical scanning apparatus, including:
- an optical system to scan one or more scanning lines on one or more target scanning surfaces by guiding one or more beams of one or more lasers to the one or more target scanning surfaces and forming one or more beam spots on the one or more target scanning surfaces;
- and
- an optical deflector to deflect the one or more beams to the one or more target scanning surfaces, the optical deflector including:
- a rotary member fixed on a rotation shaft to be rotated;
- and
- a polygon mirror mounted on a top of the rotary member, wherein
- the polygon mirror is fixed to the rotary member at an outer ridge line part of the polygon mirror.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.