Patent ID: 6252618
Filing Date: 2001-06-26
Classification: G03G,H04N

Abstract:
A method of aligning print images of an electrophotographic machine on a print medium, said method comprising the steps of:providing a plurality of rotating photoconductive drums in the electrophotographic machine;providing raster scan data with an electrical processor;producing a plurality of laser beams corresponding to said raster scan data;reflecting each of said laser beams off of a respective one of a plurality of reflectors, each said reflector rotating relative to said respective laser beam in synchronism with said raster scan data in both a scan direction and a process direction to thereby scan said laser beam across a respective one of said photoconductive drums to produce a scan line in a scan direction;cyclically repeating said relative rotation between said laser beams and said respective reflectors to thereby produce a plurality of substantially parallel said scan lines on each said photoconductive drum, each said scan line being displaced from an adjacent said scan line by a scan line separation distance in a process direction, said process direction being substantially perpendicular to said scan direction;applying toner to each said scan line on said photoconductive drums;providing a moving toner transfer medium contacting each said photoconductive drum at a respective toner transfer nip, a first said toner transfer nip being associated with a first said reflector, a second said toner transfer nip being associated with a second said reflector, a length of said toner transfer medium between at least said first toner transfer nip and said second toner transfer nip being a non-integer multiple of said scan line separation distance, said length of said toner transfer medium having an integer portion and a fractional portion when expressed in units of said scan line separation distance;one of temporarily increasing and temporarily decreasing a speed of said rotation of said second reflector dependent upon said fractional portion of said length;transferring said toner from said photoconductive drums to said toner transfer medium; andtransferring said toner from said toner transfer medium to the print medium.