Patent ID: 8089674

Claim:
An optical scanning apparatus comprising a plurality of imaging optical systems formed of at least one or more plastic lenses, in which optical beams emitted from a plurality of light source units are imaged on a single deflecting unit, and the optical beams deflected by the deflecting unit are imaged and scanned on a plurality of corresponding surfaces to be scanned via the respective imaging optical systems, wherein: the at least one or more plastic lenses constituting each imaging optical system are arranged on opposite sides of the deflecting unit, so that main scanning directions of the optical beams scanned by the deflecting unit become substantially parallel to each other, and the at least one or more plastic lenses in the imaging optical systems are molded by a same mold cavity; each imaging optical system has at least one or more folding mirrors; a number of the folding mirrors that fold back the optical beams having passed through the at least one or more plastic lenses is the same for each plastic lens; and the at least one or more plastic lenses include a non-transfer surface.