JPS61243475A - Optical printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve economy by moving forth and back a carriage which mounts an optical system converging light from a light emitting element on the center of a photosensitive drum in parallel to the rotating shaft of a photosensitive drum. CONSTITUTION:The light emitting element 5 of a recording array head 4 is turned on selectively according to an image signal and its projection light is incident on a convex lens 8 through a rod lens array 7; and incident light is converged on the center of the drum shaft 2 of the photosensitive drum 1 through a lens 8 to illuminates the drum 1 in the direction of the normal line on its curved surface. Consequently, the part of the drum 1 irradiated with the light is discharged electrostatically and an electrostatic latent image is formed. Then, the head 4 is moved in parallel to the shaft 2 of the drum 1 to form plural arrays of electrostatic latent images on the drum 1 and perform serial records, which are developed 11. Further, recording paper 12 is conveyed from a paper feed cassette 13 by a feed roller 13 in synchronism with the dust figure on the drum 1, the image is transferred by a transfer device 15 and fixed thermally by a fixing device 16, and the recording paper is discharged 17.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical printer used as an output terminal for computers and the like.

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional optical printer will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6.

FIG. 4 shows an external view of the main parts of a conventional recording/play head. In the figure, 21 is a light emitting diode, etc. arranged in a straight line across the width direction of an A4 size recording sheet. It is an element that selectively lights up according to image information.

22 is a recording array head provided with the plurality of light emitting elements 21.

FIG. 5 shows a conventional optical printer.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a photosensitive drum, which is a recording medium having a photoconductive layer made of amorphous silicon or the like on its surface, and rotates at a constant speed in the direction indicated by the arrow around a drum shaft 2. As shown in FIG.

Around the photosensitive drum 10, a charger 3, a developer 11, a transfer device 16, a cleaning section 18, and a static eliminator 19 are arranged as shown in the figure.

The photoreceptor drum 1 is configured such that its surface is charged in a negative manner by a charger 3, and the recording array head 22 is configured such that light emitting elements 21 are arranged in the axial direction of the photoreceptor drum 1. It is located in

A rod lens array 23 is arranged in parallel with the light emitting element 21 for optically forming an image of incident light as a positive image of equal magnification.

A plurality of light emitting elements 21 are selectively turned on in accordance with image signals, and the emitted light is irradiated onto the photosensitive drum 1 via the rod lens array 23. Therefore, the portion of the photoreceptor drum 1 that is irradiated with the light is neutralized, and an electrostatic latent image is formed.

The electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor drum 1 is transferred to a developing device 1o.
The recording paper 12 is visualized by a developer called toner, and a powder image is formed. The recording paper 12 is conveyed from a paper feed cassette 13 by a feed roller 14 in synchronization with the powder image on the photoreceptor drum 1. ,
The powder image is transferred onto the recording paper 12 by the transfer device 16, and then thermally fixed by the fixing device 16, and transferred to the stuff car 1.
71C is carried out.

Further, the residual toner on the photoreceptor drum 1 after the transfer to the recording paper 12 is removed by the cleaning section 18. Reference numeral 019 is a static eliminator that removes the electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor drum 1.

The problem that the invention aims to solve
In such conventional optical printers, the light emitting elements of the recording array head are provided across the width of the recording paper, and therefore a large number of light emitting elements are required. In addition, the variation in light intensity of each light emitting element is ±2
If the number of light emitting elements is not kept below 0%, the recording quality will deteriorate, but if the number of light emitting elements is large, the yield will also decrease, and since the recording array head is extremely expensive, it is not possible to realize a low-cost optical printer. It had the following drawbacks.

The present invention aims to solve these drawbacks and provide a highly economical optical printer.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the optical printer of the present invention has a recording array head having a small number of light-emitting elements parallel to the rotational direction of the photoreceptor drum; - light emitting; Recording is carried out by mounting an optical system that converges light from the element toward the center of the photoreceptor drum on a carriage that reciprocates parallel to the rotation axis of the photoreceptor drum.

Function: The present invention allows the recording array head and the optical system to perform serial recording for each plurality of lines in the normal direction on the curved surface of the photoreceptor drum by reciprocating the carriage having the above-mentioned structure. To provide an extremely economical optical printer that can be made at a low price.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an optical printer in one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a photosensitive drum which is a recording medium having a photoconductive layer such as amorphous silicon;
The drum rotates at a constant speed in the direction of arrow A around the drum shaft 2. 3
04 is a charger that uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 1, and 04 is a light emitting element 6 composed of a plurality of light emitting diodes, etc.
This is a recording array head having a. Reference numeral 6 denotes an optical system composed of a rod lens array and a convex lens 8, the details of which are shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, a plurality of light emitting elements 6 of the recording array head 4 are arranged on a straight line parallel to the rotational direction of the photosensitive drum 10 on a surface K facing the loft lens array 6. The recording array head 4, rod lens array 7, and convex lens 8 are mounted on a carriage 9. 1o is
A carriage shaft guides the carriage 9 in a direction parallel to the drum axis 2 of the photoreceptor drum 1.
is guided by the shaft 10 and reciprocates in parallel to the drum axis 2 of the photosensitive drum 1 as shown by arrow B.

In addition, in FIG. 1, the recording array head 40 light emitting element 6
is selectively turned on according to the image signal, and the emitted light enters the convex lens surface 8 via the loft lens array 7.

The incident light is converged by the convex lens 8 toward the center of the drum shaft 2 of the photoreceptor drum 1, and is irradiated in the normal direction of the curved surface of the photoreceptor drum 1. As a result, photoreceptor drum 1
Among them, the portion irradiated with the light is charged and an electrostatic latent image is formed.

As described above, the carriage 8 shown in FIG. 2 is moved parallel to the rotating shaft 2 of the photoreceptor drum 1, and a plurality of rows of electrostatic latent images are formed on the photoreceptor drum 1, allowing serial recording.

The electrostatic latent image formed on the photosensitive drum 1 is developed by a developing device 11 using a developer called toner to form a powder image.

Further, the recording paper 12 is conveyed from the paper feed cassette 13 by the feed roller 14 in synchronization with the powder surface image on the photosensitive drum 1, and the powder image is transferred by the transfer device 16. The image is thermally fixed by the fixing device 16 and discharged to the stuff car 17 .

Further, residual toner on the photosensitive drum 1 after being transferred to the recording paper 12 is removed by the cleaning section 18. A static eliminator 19 removes an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor drum 1.

Further, although the emitted light from the plurality of light emitting elements 6 of the recording array head 4 is bent by the optical system 6 using the loft lens array '7 and the convex lens 8, another embodiment is shown in FIG. Alternatively, the same number of fiber tubes 19 as the light emitting elements 5 of the recording array head 4 can be used.

In the figure, the light emitted from a plurality of light emitting elements 6 of a recording array head 4 is transmitted through a plurality of corresponding fiber tubes 2.
incident on o. The incident light is bent by the fiber tube 20 toward the center of the drum shaft 2 of the photoreceptor drum 1, and is irradiated onto the photoreceptor drum 1, so that an electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoreceptor drum 1. It turns out.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention includes a recording array head having a small number of dots of light emitting elements and a carriage equipped with an optical system that converges light from the light emitting elements toward the center of the photoreceptor drum. By reciprocating parallel to the rotation axis of the photosensitive drum and serially recording multiple lines on the photosensitive drum on one curved surface, the recording delay head can be made inexpensive, thereby providing an extremely economical optical printer. be.

In addition, since the pitch of the light emitting part of the light emitting element is reduced by the optical system, the pitch of the image forming point on the photoreceptor drum is reduced, so the pitch of the light emitting part of the light emitting element cannot be made much smaller. Even without it, you can increase the resolution.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of its main parts, FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of another embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a conventional recording array. FIG. 6, a front view of the head, is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional optical printer. 1...Photosensitive drum, 2...Drum shaft, 3...Charger, 4...Recording array head, 6...Light emission Element, 6...Optical system, 7...Rod lens array, 8...
Convex lens, 9... Group carriage, 10... Old carriage shaft, 11... Developer, 12...
・・Recording paper, 13・・Paper feed cassette, 14・Old・・Feed roller, 16・・Transfer device, 16・・Fixer/fixer, 17・・Old・・Stuff car, 18・・・・・・
Cleaning section, 19... Static eliminator, 20...
...Fiber tube.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A rotating photoreceptor drum, a carriage that reciprocates in parallel with the rotation axis of the photoreceptor drum, and a plurality of light emitting elements arranged on the carriage in parallel to the rotational direction of the photoreceptor drum. What is claimed is: 1. An optical printer comprising: a recording array head; and an optical system that converges light emitted from light emitting elements of the recording array head toward the center of the photoreceptor drum. (2) The optical printer according to claim 1, wherein the optical system is a convex lens. (3) The optical printer according to claim 1, wherein the optical system is a fiber tube.