Patent ID: 7697182
Filing Date: 2010-04-13
Classification: B41J,G02B

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of photosensitive members, arranged so that rotating axes of the photosensitive member are parallel to one another; and a scanning optical apparatus comprising plural laser beam sources, each configured to emit a laser beam to form a latent image on a respective one of the plurality of photosensitive members; wherein the scanning optical apparatus further comprises: a first rotating polygon mirror which deflects a first laser beam and a second laser beam; a second rotating polygon mirror which deflects third laser beam and a fourth laser beam; a plurality of reflecting mirrors which lead laser beams deflected by the first and second rotating polygon mirrors to the plurality of photosensitive members, wherein the plurality of reflecting mirrors are provided corresponding to the first, second, third and fourth laser beams respectively; and an optical box in which the first and second rotating polygon mirrors and the plurality of reflecting mirrors are accommodated, wherein the second laser beam is reflected by the first rotating polygon mirror in a direction generally toward the second rotating polygon mirror, and the third laser beam is reflected by the second rotating polygon mirror in a direction generally toward the first rotating polygon mirror, wherein a rotating axis of the first rotating polygon mirror is inclined with respect to a rotating axis of the second rotating polygon mirror, and wherein the reflecting mirror that leads the second laser beam to the photosensitive member and the reflecting mirror that leads to the third laser beam to the photosensitive member are arranged so that a route of the second laser beam reflected by the first rotating polygon mirror and a route of the third laser beam reflected by the second rotating polygon mirror cross each other in the optical box.