Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
On page 8, line 11, change “intervales” to -- intervals --.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ishida (U.S. 2023/0103182) in view of Mizutani (JP# 2020-013039) and Ishii et al. (JP# 2003-098773).
Regarding claim 1, Ishida teach an image forming apparatus 100 (Fig.1, par.43) including an image forming section Pa, Pb, Pc, or Pd; the image forming section including an image carrying member 1a, 1b, 1c, or 1d having a photosensitive layer, a charging device 2a, 2b, 2c or 2d for charging the image carrying member, a developing device 3a, 3b, 3c, or 3d having a developer carrying member for developing an electrostatic latent image on the image carrying member with toner to form a toner image; the image forming apparatus further includes an optical scanning device 5 having a plurality of light sources LD1 – LD8 (Fig.3, par. 51) for scanning the surface of the image carrying member with light to form an electrostatic latent image on the image carrying member, an intermediate transfer belt 8 for receiving toner images transferred thereto, and an image density sensor 50 for detecting the density of a toner image carried on the intermediate transfer belt 8 (par. 47), and a controller 90 that controls the image forming section and optical scanning device (par. 61). The image density sensor 50 detects the densities of an evaluation chart CT (applicant’s reference image) formed by the image forming section and the controller 90 controls the image density to an optimum level by controlling the developing voltage (applicant’s bias calibration) and a rotation angle and timing of the optical scanning unit’s laser light sources LD1 – LD8 for correction of dot displacement (par. 64-65).
As seen in Fig.8, the evaluation chart CT is shown on the intermediate transfer belt, the evaluation chart CT composed of different patterns PT1 – PT4 (par. 74). Fig. 9 shows part of the evaluation pattern PT1 which include a plurality of evaluation patches PC1 (applicant’s “dot pattern”). As seen in Fig.11, laser diode LD1 forms dots DT1, laser diode LD2 forms dots DT2, laser diode LD3 forms dots DT3 and laser diode LD4 forms dots DT4 in a repeated format in both the main scan direction (X direction) and sub-scan direction (Y direction). Thus, for dot pattern patch PC1, the number of individual (exposed) dots (16) is larger than the number of light sources LD1 – LD4 (4), the dot pattern PC1 is formed repeatedly at regular intervals in the main scan direction and sub-scan direction (refer to Fig.9), and the dots forming the dot pattern are arranged at different positions from each other in the sub scan direction so as to be displaced in units of pixels from each other. For example, in Fig.11, dot row pattern DL2 is displaced one pixel from dot row pattern DL1 in the sub-scan direction; dot row pattern DT3 is displace one pixel from dot pattern DT2 by one pixel in the sub-scan direction and two pixels in the main scan direction. See par. 78-82.
Regarding claim 2, the amount of displacement of the dots in the pattern PC1 in the sub-scan direction are evenly distributed (regular repeating pattern) in the main scan direction as seen in Fig.9; the density changes in the image dots (unevenness) occurring due to the light sources becoming displaced (see par. 4-8).
Specifically, Ishida teach all that is claimed except controlling a light exposure amount of the optical scanner so as to adjust the density of a formed halftone image and using the previously described developing roller bias control to adjust the density of a formed solid image.
Mizutani teach an image forming apparatus which corrects for density unevenness by controlling the light quantity from an optical scanner (abstract). The image forming apparatus 1 (Fig.1) includes an optical scanner 23 (Fig.2) which includes a plurality of light sources LB-1 through LB-4 (Fig.3 and 4), and an image density sensor 16 which detects the density of an image pattern chart transferred to an intermediate transfer belt 281 (Fig.8). A controller 70 will control the light quantity from the optical scanner to adjust the density of the image (see translation, at least pg. 3, par. 6; pg.4, par.2-3; pg. 5, par.4,6; pg.6, par.6-7; pg. 7, par.1-2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to additionally control the light quantity of an optical scanning unit to account for density unevenness because this is an alternative method to change the density of a formed image that is well known in the electrophotographic art and is equivalent to adjusting the bias to a developing carrying member of a developing device both for the purpose of creating a more uniform density final image.
Ishii et al. teach an image forming apparatus which keeps the image quality stable with respect to all formed image patterns. A test patch (Fig.3) is developed with toner and the density is sensed by an image density sensor 10. When a solid image is formed which has a parallel electric field inside the electrostatic image, the developing bias is controlled and when a halftone image is formed which has a peripheral electric field, a light exposure amount is controlled. See abstract, pg.2, second to last paragraph; pg.3, par. 14,16; pg.4, par.5-9. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to control the developing bias when adjusting the density of a solid toner image and to control the exposure amount when adjusting the density of a halftone toner image because image quality with respect to all image patterns can be consistent and stable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Takesue, Nakahara, Ochiai et al. and Ito et al. (JP) all teach forming a test image pattern composed of pixel dots, detecting this test image pattern and adjusting the image forming apparatus accordingly which appear relevent to the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT B BEATTY whose telephone number is (571) 272-2130. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 7 to 3.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Stephanie Bloss, can be reached on (571) 272-3555. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-2130.
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/ROBERT B BEATTY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852