JPH03144529A - Exposing device for optical recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form an image with simple constitution by using an optical wave guide array obtained by arranging and integrating plural light transmissive core materials on a base material having rigidity with a clad material which covers the circumferential surface of the core material. CONSTITUTION:The optical wave guide arrays 1 and 103 provided between a light source part and a photosensitive recording medium are constituted of the base material 3 having the rigidity which is constituted by juxtaposing plural recessed grooves 2, the core material 5 having light transmissivity which is disposed along an extending direction in the recessed groove 2, and the clad materials 4 and 6 which intervene between an inner wall surface in the recessed groove 2 and the circumferential surface of the core material 5 and are formed so that it may cover the circumferential surface of the core material 5. The light emitted from the light source part 101 by the rotation of a motor 102 is made incident from the incident part 105 of the optical wave guide array 103 where the plural optical wave guides are arrayed, propagated in each optical wave guide and projected from an exiting part 106 on the other end. A photosensitive drum 104 is irradiated with the light emitted from the exiting part 106 so as to form an electrostatic latent image pattern corresponding to information which the light possesses. Thus, the number of parts of an exposing device is reduced, so that the image is formed with the simple constitution.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an exposure device for an optical recording device that forms an image based on an electrostatic latent image pattern recorded on a photoreceptor.

[Conventional technology]

A laser beam printer is an example of an optical printer that forms an electrostatic latent image pattern on a photoreceptor and forms an image based on the pattern.

As shown in FIG. 5, the exposure device of the laser beam printer converts a laser beam from a semiconductor laser 80 into a parallel beam using a collimator lens 82, and the parallel beam is incident on a polygon mirror 84 rotating at a constant speed. The incident parallel beam is deflected by a polygon mirror 84 at a constant angular velocity. The parallel beam deflected by the polygon mirror 84 is f
The light reaches the plane reflecting plate 88 via the θ lens 86, and is further irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 90, which rotates at a constant speed in the circumferential direction. The parallel beam forms an electrostatic latent image pattern while being scanned in the D direction on the photosensitive surface of the photosensitive drum 90 as the polygon mirror rotates.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above conventional optical printer, although the laser beam is deflected at a constant angular velocity, the photoreceptor drum 90
Above, it is necessary to scan at a constant speed in the D direction.

Therefore, there is a problem in that an expensive optical lens 86 is required to convert the uniform angular velocity motion of the laser beam into uniform velocity linear motion. As a way to compensate for this shortcoming,
A leading waveguide array using optical fibers as shown in FIG. 5 has been proposed.

The leading waveguide array 20 has one end lined up in a straight line to form an output section 21, and the other end arranged in a cylindrical shape to form an input section 22.

This optical waveguide array 20 is created by gluing a large number of optical fibers (for example, about 2,500 in the case of A4 size printing) into a sheet shape, and forming one end into a cylindrical shape.

However, this optical waveguide array has a problem in that it is difficult to construct an extremely large number of optical fibers in a straight line with high precision and at low cost.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an optical recording device that can form images with a simple configuration.

[Means to solve the problem]

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an exposure device for an optical recording apparatus that includes a light source section that generates recording light and performs exposure by guiding the recording light to a photosensitive recording medium that is exposed to the recording light. a rigid base material having a plurality of concave grooves arranged in parallel and extending between the part and the photosensitive recording medium; and a light-transmitting substrate disposed within the concave grooves along the extending direction thereof. An optical waveguide array including a core material and a cladding material formed to be interposed between an inner wall surface in the groove and a peripheral surface of the core material and cover the peripheral surface of the core material. Configure.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, recording light generated from a light source section is guided to a photosensitive recording medium via an optical waveguide array of an exposure device. The optical waveguide array is integrated with a plurality of optically transparent core materials arranged on a rigid base material together with a cladding material covering the surrounding surface, which effectively simplifies the configuration of the exposure device and increases strength. It also works effectively in terms of

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

First Embodiment FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an exposure device of an optical recording apparatus of the present invention.

The exposure apparatus 100 includes a light source unit 1 that generates light for exposure.
01, and a motor 10 for rotationally driving the light source section 101.
2 and an optical waveguide array 103 having a semicircular arc-shaped entrance part 105.
A photosensitive drum 104 serving as a photosensitive recording medium provided on the side of the emission section 106 of No. 3 is exposed.

The light source section 101 is configured using a semiconductor laser or the like, and is provided close to the semicircular arc-shaped entrance section 105 of the optical waveguide array 103.

The light source section 101 is provided on a rotating body attached to the rotating shaft of the motor 102 so that the light emitting surface is positioned outward. Light emitted from the light source section 101 by the rotation of the motor 102 is transmitted to an optical waveguide array 1 in which a plurality of optical waveguides are aligned in the direction of rotation facing the light emitting surface of the light source section 101.
The light is incident from the incidence section 105 of 03. The incident light propagates within each optical waveguide and is emitted from the emitting section 106 at the other end. The emission section 106 faces the circumferential surface of the photoreceptor drum 104 along the axial direction. The light emitted from the emission section 106 is irradiated onto the photoreceptor drum 104 to form an electrostatic latent image pattern corresponding to information contained in the light.

Next, a method for manufacturing a leading waveguide array will be described with reference to FIG.

The base material 3 is made of synthetic resin such as engineering plastic material having desired rigidity. For example, ABS resin or the like is used as the material.

The groove portion 2 is integrally formed on the base material 3 using a molding method such as injection molding. Since the properties of this base material 3 do not affect the properties of the optical waveguide array, it can be selected relatively freely, increasing the degree of freedom in design.

A fluororesin diluted with a solvent (for example, a refractive index of about 1.4) is coated onto the grooves 2 of the base material 3 and dried to remove the solvent, thereby forming the first cladding portion 4 .

Next, a methacrylic resin resin (for example, having a refractive index of about 1.49 after polymerization) is poured into the groove 2 and undergoes a polymerization reaction to form the core portion 5 .

After that, the same fluororesin is applied in the same manner as the first cladding part 4 so as to cover the entire surface of the first cladding part 4 and the core part 5 exposed on the upper surface, and the solvent is removed to form a second cladding part. Section 6 is formed. This avoids loss of light propagating through each optical waveguide, leakage of light between optical waveguides, interference, etc.

FIG. 3 shows a top view of the optical waveguide array and light source section of the present invention.

FIG. 3(a) shows a case where the shape of the guiding waveguide array lO3 on the side of the entrance part 105 is configured in a semicircular arc shape.
b) is a case where the shape of the incident part 105 side is configured to be circular.

By forming the shape of the input section 105 in a semicircular arc shape as shown in FIG. 3(a), the optical waveguide array 103
can be made smaller, and therefore the entire exposure apparatus can be made smaller.

When the shape of the entrance portion 105 is formed into a circular shape as shown in FIG. 3(b), exposure can be performed continuously and the exposure time can be shortened.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, by using an optical waveguide array in which optical waveguides are integrally arranged on a base material, the number of parts of an exposure device can be reduced, so that an image can be formed with a simple configuration. This has the effect that it is possible to configure an exposure device of a possible optical recording device.

Furthermore, since a material having desired rigidity can be used for the base material, strength is improved and the degree of freedom in design is increased.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an optical waveguide array of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a top view of the optical waveguide array of the present invention and a light source, and FIG. 4 is a conventional example. FIG. 5 is an external view of a conventional optical waveguide array. 1... Optical waveguide array 2... Groove section 3... Base material 4... First cladding section 5... Core section 6... Second cladding section 7... Core section 100... Exposure device 101...Light source section 102...Motor 103...Optical waveguide array 104...Photosensitive drum 105...Incidence section 6...Output section 3 Figure 20: Optical waveguide array

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an exposure device of an optical recording apparatus, which has a light source section that generates recording light, and performs exposure by guiding the recording light to a photosensitive recording medium exposed by the recording light, between the light source section and the photosensitive recording medium. a rigid base material having a plurality of grooves arranged in parallel extending in the groove; a core material having optical transparency disposed within the groove along the extending direction thereof; Exposure of an optical recording device characterized by comprising an optical waveguide array having a cladding material interposed between an inner wall surface and a peripheral surface of the core material and formed to cover the peripheral surface of the core material. Device.