OPTICAL SENSOR AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• Main Authors: YAGUCHI KAZUTAKA, INAO KAZUSHI, KITA HIROSHI, MUKOHARA TAKUYA, ASAMI JUNYA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 02.09.2021
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MAGNETOGRAPHY; MEASURING; PHOTOGRAPHY; PHYSICS; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; TESTING

To prevent a reduction in detection accuracy that may be caused by reflected light from a surface to be irradiated in an optical sensor, such as a toner sensor.SOLUTION: A housing has a first opening and a second opening. The first opening is provided in a first light guide path arranged between a light emitting device and a first area to be irradiated of a surface to be irradiated. The first opening is arranged such that light output from the light emitting device is directed to the first area to be irradiated. The second opening is provided in a second light guide path arranged between the first area to be irradiated and a first light receiving unit. The second opening is arranged such that irregularly reflected light from a toner image passes the second opening when the toner image passes through the first area to be irradiated, and regularly reflected light and irregularly reflected light or diffraction light from a surface of a rotating body do not pass through the second opening when the surface passes through the first area to be irradiated.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8 【課題】トナーセンサなどの光学センサにおいて被照射面からの反射光によって生じうる検知精度の低下を抑制すること。【解決手段】ハウジングは第一開口と第二開口とを有している。第一開口は、発光素子と、被照射面のうち第一被照射領域との間に配置された第一導光路に設けられている。第一開口は、発光素子から出力された光が第一被照射領域に向かうように、配置されている。第二開口は第一被照射領域と第一受光ユニットの間に配置された第二導光路に設けられている。第二開口は、第一被照射領域をトナー画像が通過しているときには当該トナー画像からの乱反射光が通過し、第一被照射領域を回転体の表面が通過しているときには当該表面からの正反射光、および、乱反射光もしくは回折光が通過しないように、配置されている。【選択図】 図８