Image forming device

• US 6,163,334 A
• Filed: 10/30/1998
• Issued: 12/19/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ohnishi, Kazuyuki, Yoshiura, Syoichiro, Shimazawa, Yoichi, Irie, Kazumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): FEGGINS, KRISTAL J
• Application Number:
  US09/183,022
• Time in Patent Office: 781 Days
• Field of Search: 347/234, 347/235, 347/249, 347/247, 347/143, 347/144, 347/196, 347/250, 347/248, 347/116, 347/118, 347/232, 346/106, 346/98
• US Class Current: 347/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1219 Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position, e.g. synchronisation G06K15/1223 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/129 Colour printing
• 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 1/1135 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 2201/02439 Positioning method
• 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 2201/04772 using a phase-locked loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04777 using a voltage controlled oscillator H04N2201/04772 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04794 Varying the control or compensation during the scan, e.g. using continuous feedback or from line to line

Abstract

A conventional image forming device having a plurality of image optical scanning recording sections has had a drawback of being incapable of correcting printing positions of the image optical scanning recording sections with high precision by using a small-scale circuit. In the case of an image forming device of the present invention, a variable clock generator 114 having a voltage control oscillator (VCO) 114a is provided therein as reference clock signal generating means of laser control system of each of image optical scanning recording sections (LSU) for cyan, yellow, and magenta. By so doing, during an invalid printing period prior to a valid printing period, frequencies of the reference clock signals of the LSUs for cyan, yellow, and magenta are adjusted in accordance with offsets of printing start positions of these LSUs with respect to that of the LSU for black, so that printing offsets are eliminated. As a result, the printing start positions are made to coincide with each other with high precision even with a small-scale circuit.

Claims

1. An image forming device comprising a plurality of image optical scanning recording sections, each image optical scanning recording section starting image recording by line scanning in accordance with an image signal when the number of clocks of a reference clock signal counted in synchronization with a line scanning synchronizing signal reaches a predetermined number, wherein:

at least one of said image optical scanning recording sections has frequency varying means for varying a frequency of the reference clock signal thereof,

said image forming device further comprising;

control means for controlling said frequency varying means so as to adjust the frequency of the reference clock signal based on an offset of an image recording start position of said image optical scanning recording section in a main scanning direction crossing a proceeding direction of a transfer material so that the image recording start position coincides with an image recording start position of the other image optical scanning recording section; and

wherein;

the image signal is composed of color image signals resulting on color decomposition;

the plurality of said image optical scanning recording sections correspond to the color image signals, respectively, and

pairs of said image optical scanning recording sections are formed, and said control means controls the reference clock signals so that in each pair, a reference clock signal of one image optical scanning recording section is adjusted by referring to a reference clock signal of the other image scanning recording section.

2. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal based on the offset of the image recording start position in the main scanning direction until the predetermined number of clocks of the reference clock signal are counted, and suspends the adjustment of the frequency after the predetermined number of clocks of the reference clock signal are counted, so as to cause the reference clock signal to have a predetermined frequency.

3. The image forming device as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording sections to form checked patterns, respectively, in accordance with a same reference clock signal; and

an operational section with which an operator inputs an offset in the main scanning direction between positions of the checked patterns.

4. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal based on the offset of the image recording start position in the main scanning direction, and adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal during a valid image recording period based on an offset of an image recording end position.

5. The image forming device as set forth in claim 4, further comprising:

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording sections to form checked patterns, respectively, in accordance with a same reference clock signal; and

an operational section with which an operator inputs an offset in the main scanning direction between positions of the checked patterns.

6. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said frequency varying means is provided in each of all said image optical scanning recording sections except said image optical scanning recording section used as reference.

7. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said frequency varying means includes a voltage control oscillator which varies a frequency of an oscillated signal in accordance with a voltage applied thereto.

8. The image forming device as set forth in claim 7, wherein:

said frequency varying means further includes;

a first DA converter for setting a voltage signal corresponding to a reference clock signal with a fixed frequency;

a second DA converter for setting a voltage signal corresponding to a reference clock signal with an adjusted frequency; and

a voltage selector,

wherein said voltage selector selects one from the voltage signals of the first and second DA converters in accordance with the line scanning synchronizing signal, and supplies the voltage signal thus selected to said voltage control oscillator, so that the frequency of the reference clock signal outputted by said voltage control oscillator is adjusted.

9. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal in a manner such that a recording position can be adjusted by non-integer times a pixel unit, that is, by less than one pixel unit.

10. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

offset detecting means for detecting the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction; and

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording sections to form checked patterns, respectively, in accordance with a same reference clock signal,

wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal in accordance with the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction, the offset thus detected by said offset detecting means.

11. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein:

the image signal is composed of color image signals resulting on color decomposition;

said plurality of image optical scanning recording sections correspond to the color image signals, respectively; and

said control means adjusts the reference clock signals of said image optical scanning recording sections by referring to the reference clock signal of one of said image optical scanning recording sections.

12. The image forming device as set forth in claim 8, wherein one of said plurality of image optical scanning recording sections corresponds to a black color image signal, and said control means adjusts the reference clock signals of said image optical scanning recording sections by referring to the clock signal of said one of said plurality of image optical scanning recording sections corresponding to the color black as a reference.

13. The image forming device as set forth in claim 12, further comprising:

offset detecting means for detecting the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction; and

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording section used as reference to form a first checked pattern, while causing the other image optical scanning recording section to form a second checked pattern so that the second checked pattern is offsetted in a sub scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction,

wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal of said image optical scanning recording section not used as reference, in accordance with the offset of the image recording position of the second checked pattern with respect to that of the first checked pattern detected by said offset detecting means.

14. The image forming device as set forth in claim 11, wherein said image optical scanning recording section used as reference is positioned on the most upstream side of the transfer material proceeding direction, among said image optical scanning recording sections juxtaposed in the transfer material proceeding direction.

15. The image forming device as set forth in claim 14, further comprising:

offset detecting means for detecting the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction; and

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording section used as reference to form a first checked pattern, while causing the other image optical scanning recording section to form a second checked pattern so that the second checked pattern is offsetted in a sub scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction,

wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal of said image optical scanning recording section not used as reference, in accordance with the offset of the image recording position of the second checked pattern with respect to that of the first checked pattern detected by said offset detecting means.

16. The image forming device as set forth in claim 11, further comprising:

offset detecting means for detecting the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction; and

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording section used as reference to form a first checked pattern, while causing the other image optical scanning recording section to form a second checked pattern so that the second checked pattern is offsetted in a sub scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction,

wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal of said image optical scanning recording section not used as reference, in accordance with the offset of the image recording position of the second checked pattern with respect to that of the first checked pattern detected by said offset detecting means.

17. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

offset detecting means for detecting the offset of the image recording position in the main scanning direction; and

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording section referred to by said control means to form a first checked pattern, while causing the other image optical recording section to form a second checked pattern so that the second checked pattern is offsetted in a sub scanning direction crossing the main scanning direction,

wherein said control means adjusts the frequency of the reference clock signal of said image optical scanning recording section that is not referred to by said control means to form said first checked pattern, in accordance with the offset of the image recording position of the second checked pattern with respect to that of the first checked pattern detected by said offset detecting means.

18. The image forming device as set forth in claim 7, wherein among said image optical scanning recording sections juxtaposed in the transfer material proceeding direction, pairs are formed so that regarding each pair, one positioned on the upstream side and one positioned on the downstream side are paired and a reference clock signal of one image optical scanning recording section positioned on the downstream side is adjusted by referring to a reference clock signal of the image optical scanning recording section on the upstream side.

19. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the frequency of the reference clock signal by said control means is conducted every time a power source of said image forming device is turned on.

20. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the frequency of the reference clock signal by said control means is conducted every time each image optical scanning recording section becomes capable of optical scanning with respect to each line in response to the image signal.

21. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the adjustment of the frequency of the reference clock signal by said control means is conducted immediately before a printing operation of said image forming device.

22. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

checked pattern forming means for causing said image optical scanning recording sections to form checked patterns, respectively, in accordance with a same reference clock signal; and

an operational section with which an operator inputs an offset in the main scanning direction between positions of the checked patterns.

23. The image forming device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said frequency varying means is provided in every image optical scanning recording section.

24. An image forming device comprising:

a plurality of image optical scanning recording sections, each image optical scanning recording section including;

reference clock signal generating means for generating a reference clock signal;

image signal generating means for generating an image signal in accordance with the reference clock signal; and

synchronizing signal generating means for generating a line scanning synchronizing signal for synchronization of line scanning with respect to each line,

so that each image optical scanning recording section starts image recording by line scanning in accordance with the image signal when the number of clocks of the reference clock signal counted since generation of the line scanning synchronizing signal reaches a predetermined value,

wherein;

reference clock signal generating means of at least one among said image optical scanning recording sections has frequency varying means for freely adjusting the frequency of the reference clock signal,

said image forming device further comprising;

control means for, by using said frequency varying means, adjusting the frequency of the reference clock signal so that an offset of an image recording start position of said image optical scanning recording section having said frequency varying means with respect to an image recording start position of the other image optical scanning recording section is eliminated; and

wherein;

the image signal is composed of color image signals resulting on color decomposition;

the plurality of said image optical scanning recording sections correspond to the color image signals, respectively, and

pairs of said image optical scanning recording sections are formed, and said control means controls the reference clock signals so that in each pair, a reference clock signal of one image optical scanning recording section is adjusted by referring to a reference clock signal of the other image scanning recording section.