Patent ID: 8081365

Claim:
An optical scanner comprising: a light source that emits a light; a frame comprising a bottom plate and two side plates, the bottom plate including an elongated opening in which the direction of elongation is in a main scanning direction; a deflecting unit, disposed on a main surface of the bottom plate, that deflects the light and scans the light in the main scanning direction; and a scanning optical system that receives the light deflected by the deflecting unit and outputs the light below the bottom plate through the opening, the scanning optical system comprising a plurality of optical elements and a plurality of support members, the support members extending up from the main surface of the bottom plate and supporting the optical elements, wherein the deflecting unit is disposed on a first side of the opening with respect to a lateral scanning direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction; the support members are disposed on a second side of the opening opposite the first side with respect to the lateral scanning direction, and are not disposed on the first side; the plurality of optical elements includes: an fθ lens that converts the light deflected and scanned by the deflecting unit into a light scanned at a constant speed over a predetermined surface, an optical face tangle error correction lens that corrects error in a scanning position of the light caused by optical face tangle error of the deflecting unit, a first reflecting mirror that reflects the light that has passed through the fθ lens along an optical path toward the optical face tangle error correction lens, and a second reflecting mirror that reflects the light that has passed through the optical face tangle error correction lens along an optical path toward the opening; a first support member included in the plurality of support members supports both the optical face tangle error correction lens and the second reflecting mirror; each end of the optical face tangle error correction lens in the main scanning direction is fixed to the first support member; and the first support member supports the optical face tangle error correction lens such that light deflected by the deflecting unit travels through a gap formed between the optical face tangle error correction lens and the bottom plate prior to being reflected by first reflecting mirror.