Image forming apparatus

• US 20040037584A1
• Filed: 08/08/2003
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Masayoshi, Nakamori, Tomohiro, Tanaka, Yoshihiko
• Granted Patent: US 6,856,338 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/053 in main scanning direction, e.g. synchronisation of line start or picture elements in a line
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/06 using cylindrical picture-bearing surfaces , i.e. scanning a main-scanning line substantially perpendicular to the axis and lying in a curved cylindrical surface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/1135 for the main-scan only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/506 Reproducing the colour component signals picture-sequentially, e.g. with reproducing heads spaced apart from one another in the subscanning direction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0471 using dedicated detectors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04732 Detecting at infrequent intervals, e.g. once or twice per line for main-scan control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04744 by detecting the scanned beam or a reference beam
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04786 Controlling a start time, e.g. for output of a line of data H04N2201/04784 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04793 using stored control or compensation data, e.g. previously measured data

Abstract

This invention has as its object to provide an image forming apparatus in which the number of beam detectors is decreased and which is low in cost and high in the accuracy of the registration position of an image of each color as well as high in quality. To this end, The image forming apparatus is provided with a plurality of image bearing members, an optical system having a plurality of light emitting elements suitable for generating light beams for scanning the image bearing members, a single polygon mirror suitable for deflecting the light beams generated from the plurality of light emitting elements onto the image bearing members, and a beam detector corresponding to at least one of the plurality of image bearing members, and for receiving the light beams scanned by the polygon mirror and producing a first synchronizing signal for recording an image on the relevant image bearing member, a storing portion suitable for storing therein information regarding the error of each side of the polygon mirror, and a producing unit suitable for producing a second synchronizing signal for recording an image on the image bearing member not provided with the beam detector, by delaying the first synchronizing signal outputted from the beam detector, on the basis of the value of the storing portion.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus including:

a plurality of image bearing members;

an optical system having a plurality of light emitting elements suitable for generating light beams for scanning said image bearing members, a single polygon mirror suitable for deflecting the light beams generated from said plurality of light emitting elements onto said image bearing members, and a beam detector corresponding to at least one of said plurality of image bearing members, and for receiving the light beams scanned by said polygon mirror and producing a first synchronizing signal for recording an image on the relevant image bearing member;

a storing portion suitable for storing therein information regarding an error of each side of said polygon mirror; and

a producing unit suitable for producing a second synchronizing signal for recording an image on the image bearing member not provided with said beam detector, by delaying the first synchronizing signal outputted from said beam detector, on the basis of a value of said storing portion.

2. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said storing portion stores therein an amount of delay for each side of said polygon mirror.

3. An image forming apparatus according to claim 2, further including a calculating portion suitable for calculating said amount of delay by measuring an interval of the first synchronizing signal produced by said beam detector.

4. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein there exists a light beam scanned n sides before a side corresponding to the beam detector, and said calculating portion calculates said amount of delay by measuring the interval of the first synchronizing signal n sides after the first synchronizing signal.

5. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said calculating portion calculates said amount of delay by calculating a difference between the interval of the synchronizing signal on each side and a minimum value of said interval.

6. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said calculating portion executes said measuring operation a plurality of times, and calculates said amount of delay on the basis of an average value of those measurement values.

7. An image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when the difference between the maximum value and minimum value of the value calculated by said calculating portion is greater than a predetermined value, the calculation by said calculating portion is executed again.

8. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, having a plurality of said optical systems, and superimposing images of a plurality of colors one upon another to thereby form a color image.

9. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, having four said image bearing members and two said optical systems, and wherein each of said optical systems forms images of two colors.

10. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, having two said image bearing members and one said optical system, and wherein said optical system scans images of four colors.

11. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, provided with a beam detector corresponding to the image bearing member for forming a black toner image.

12. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, not provided with a beam detector corresponding to the image bearing member for forming a yellow toner image.