Patent ID: 7446794

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: plural image bearing members which are disposed in an oblique direction with respect to a horizontal direction of said image forming apparatus, said plural image bearing members including at least first, second, third and fourth image bearing members, disposed obliquely in order, wherein said first image bearing member is disposed most closely to a predetermined face of a casing of said image forming apparatus, and wherein said fourth image bearing member is disposed most remotely from said predetermined face; and a deflecting and scanning device disposed between said plural image bearing members and said predetermined face, said deflecting and scanning device for scanning plural laser beams including at least first, second, third and fourth laser beams, wherein said first laser beam reaches said first image bearing member, said second laser beam reaches said second image bearing member, said third laser beam reaches said third image bearing member, and said fourth laser beam reaches said fourth image bearing member, respectively, wherein said deflecting and scanning device comprises: a rotary polyhedral mirror which scans each of said plural image bearing members by deflecting respectively different ones of said plural laser beams toward respective ones of said plural image bearing members; a first plurality of reflecting members for reflecting corresponding ones of said plural laser beams deflected and scanned by said rotary polyhedral mirror in directions away from said plural image bearing members, and a second plurality of reflecting members for reflecting corresponding ones of said plural laser beams reflected by corresponding ones of said first plurality of reflecting members in a direction toward said plural image bearing members; a first optical path of said first laser beam emitted to said first image bearing member; a second optical path of said second laser beam emitted to said second image bearing member; a third optical path of said third laser beam emitted to said third image bearing member; a fourth optical path of said fourth laser beam emitted to said fourth image bearing member; wherein said first and second laser beams are deflected and scanned in a reverse direction of a direction in which said third and fourth laser beams are deflected and scanned, with respect to the rotary polyhedral mirror, wherein a part of said first optical path emitted from said rotary polyhedral mirror to said first reflecting member is disposed more closely to said plural image bearing members than a part of said second optical path emitted from said rotary polyhedral mirror to said first reflecting member, and wherein a part of said fourth optical path emitted from said rotary polyhedral mirror to said first reflecting member is disposed more closely to said predetermined face than a part of said third optical path emitted from said rotary polyhedral mirror to said first reflecting member.