Pursuant to 35 USC § 119, this application claims the benefit of Japan Patent Application No. 2001-401307 filed Dec. 28, 2001.
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, such as an light emitting diode (LED) printer head, which forms an image on a photosensitive surface by forming the image of light information from an LED array having a plurality of point light sources by a lens array.
A conventional LED printer head includes an LED array having a plurality of LEDs and a lens array which forms an image on a photosensitive surface by forming the image of light information irradiated from the LED array. The lens array comprises two rows of a plurality of gradient index rod lenses. Each rod lens forms the image of light information within a limited range. The lens array forms a total image by overlapping images formed by the lenses.
As shown in
If the resolution of the lens array in an LED printer head which forms an image by causing a plurality of LEDs to emit light in various patterns differs at various locations, i.e., if the resolution of the lens array has a large variation, a linear irregularity occurs in the amount of light. The irregular amount of light results in the formation of uneven point images on the image forming surface, which makes the amount of toner adhered uneven, thereby resulting in uneven printing. A variation in the amounts of lights from the LEDs can be adjusted by compensating for the amount of light from each LED based on the light amount distribution of the surface of an image that has been measured in advance. Because a variation in the resolution of the lens array is a variation in a light amount profile (light amount distribution of a point image), however, the variation cannot be corrected by changing the brightness of the light sources. It is therefore difficult to compensate for a variation in the resolution of the lens array.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus which forms an image of an excellent quality which does not have linear irregularity.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus having a point light source array including a plurality of point light sources arranged in a line, and a lens array located to face the point light source array and including first and second rows of gradient index rod lenses. The point light sources are offset by a predetermined offset amount from the median position between the first row of rod lenses and the second row of rod lenses.
A further perspective of the present invention is a light emitting diode printer head having a first row of gradient index rod lenses, a second row of gradient index rod lenses stacked on the first row of gradient index rod lenses, and a plurality of light emitting diodes. The light emitting diodes is located to face the gradient index rod lenses and is offset by 18 micrometers to 200 micrometers from the median position between the first row of rod lenses and the second row of rod lenses.
A further perspective of the present invention is a method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus. The method includes preparing a lens array including first and second rows of gradient index rod lenses and a point light source array including an array of point light sources, which are activated in accordance with an image signal, and arranging the array of point light sources to be offset by a predetermined offset amount from the median position between an optical axis of the first row of rod lenses and an optical axis of the second row of rod lenses.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.
The features of the present invention that are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description of the presently preferred embodiments together with the accompanying drawings in which:
An LED printer 11 and an LED printer head 13 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below referring to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
Referring to
The LED array 23 is a module including an LED array chip and an IC driver chip both mounted on a substrate. In a case where the LED array 23 is for 1200 dpi (24 line pairs/mm), a plurality of LEDs are formed at a pitch of approximately 21.2 micrometers. The individual LEDs are turned on or off in accordance with an image signal.
The rod lens array 24 forms an image comprised of a plurality of point images on the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive drum 12 (the image surface in
As shown in
The LED array 23 has a plurality of LEDs laid out in a line at a predetermined pitch. The pitch is about 21.2 micrometers for the LED printer head 13 for 1200 dpi. In
The following will discuss the offset amount Y. It is preferable that the offset amount Y should be set within a range defined by an equation 1 given below.
0.5p×(X0/d)≦Y≦2.5p×(X0/d) (1)
where p is the pitch of the LEDs, X0 is the radius of the visual field of each rod lens 25 and d is the lens interval between the rod lenses 25 in each row. The term “X0/d” is called the overlapping degree that indicates the degree of overlapping of images formed by the adjoining lenses and is a parameter which represents the performance of the rod lens array.
In case of the LED printer head 13 for 1200 dpi, for example, the pitch p is 21.2 micrometers (25400 micrometers/1200 dots). In case of using the rod lens array 24 whose overlapping degree m is 1.7, therefore, the desirable offset amount Y lies in a range of about 18 micrometers to about 90 micrometers. In case of using the rod lens array 24 whose overlapping degree m is 1.9, the desirable offset amount Y lies in a range of about 20 micrometers to about 100 micrometers.
In case of the LED printer head 13 for 600 dpi, for example, the pitch p is 42.4 micrometers (25400 micrometers/600 dots). In case of using the rod lens array 24 whose overlapping degree m is 1.7, therefore, the desirable offset amount Y lies in a range of about 36 micrometers to about 180 micrometers. In case of using the rod lens array 24 whose overlapping degree m is 1.9, the desirable offset amount Y lies in a range of about 40 micrometers to about 200 micrometers.
This embodiment has the following advantages.
The row of LEDs 23a is offset by the predetermined offset amount Y from the median plane C of the rod lens array 24. This reduces a variation in the resolution of the rod lens array 24, thereby suppressing a variation in point images on the image forming surface so that a variation in the amount of toner adhered becomes smaller. It is therefore possible to realize an LED printer head which has linear irregularity reduced to thereby ensure an excellent image quality.
The reduction in a variation in resolution will be discussed by referring to
The horizontal scales in
In a case where MTFσ is originally small as in this example, the row of LEDs 23a need not be offset. Setting the offset amount Y in a range of approximately 40 micrometers to 200 micrometers can however make a variation in resolution smaller, thereby reducing linear irregularity. This can ensure a higher image quality.
It is apparent from the results shown in
It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
Although the row of LEDs 23a is offset to the right to the median plane C in
The present invention is also adaptable to a case where there are plural rows of LEDs. In case of two rows of LEDs, for example, the two rows of LEDs are offset from the median plane C by offset amounts Y1 and Y2, respectively. In this case, the rows of LEDs are offset to the same side from the median plane C.
In case of two rows of LEDs, one row of LEDs may be offset to the right to the median plane C and the other row of LEDs may be offset to the left by the same offset amount Y.
The light source array is not limited to the LED array 23. The light source array can take any form as long as it generates and kills light element by element or it passes and blocks light from an external light source pixel by pixel. The light source array is a light source, such as a light shutter array, which has a plurality of point light sources that selectively emit light in accordance with an image signal. The light shutter array includes a liquid crystal shutter array which passes and blocks light from a discharge tube pixel by pixel.
The present invention may be adapted to an optical writing head which comprises a liquid crystal shutter array and the rod lens array 24, instead of the LED printer head 13 which comprises the LED array 23 and the rod lens array 24. In this case, the printer is a liquid crystal shutter printer.
The present invention is not limited to an optical printer, such as the LED printer 11, it may be adapted to a copying machine and a complex machine equipped with a printer capability, a copying capability and a facsimile capability.
The present examples and embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalence of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2001-401307 | Dec 2001 | JP | national |
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20030122920 A1 | Jul 2003 | US |