Patent ID: 7319476

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a photosensitive member; a scanning unit that exposes and scans a surface of the photosensitive member by emitting a light beam, the scanning unit including a unit frame that has a base section having an opening and an outer peripheral wall surrounding a rim of the base section; a light-emitting section disposed on the base section and emitting the light beam; a deflector disposed on the base section and deflecting the light beam emitted from the light-emitting section toward the outer peripheral wall at a position above the base section; a first reflection optical element for reflecting the light beam, which has been deflected by the deflector and travels toward the outer peripheral wall, toward a position below the base section through the opening; a second reflection optical element that is disposed at the position below the base section and guides the reflected light beam toward the photosensitive member; a pair of frames that oppose each other with the scanning unit and the photosensitive member interposed therebetween; and a rigid-body plate that bridges upper portions of the frames; wherein the unit frame is fixed to a lower portion of the rigid-body plate and the entire opening defined by the outer peripheral wall is covered with the rigid-body plate.