DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 following title is suggested: CORRECTING LASER INTENSITY FOR IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Konishi US 2021/0116834 (Konishi).
Regarding claim 1, Konishi teaches an image forming apparatus, comprising:
an image-data acquirer (31) that acquires image data (¶0033);
a photoreceptor (1);
a charger that charges the photoreceptor (¶0052);
an exposure section (2) that forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor in a charged state;
a developer (3) that supplies a toner to the photoreceptor and forms a toner image corresponding to the electrostatic latent image;
a transferer (6) that transfers the toner image to a print sheet (¶0024);
an image former including a fixer (9) that heats and fixes the toner image to the print sheet (FIG. 1, ¶0024); and
one or more controllers (31) that control the image-data acquirer, the photoreceptor, the charger, the exposure section, the developer, the transferer and the image former (¶0033), the exposure section including:
a plurality of laser light-sources (21 for 2a-2d) that emit a plurality of laser beams;
a polygon mirror (23) that deflects the plurality of laser beams by a plurality of mirror surfaces and emits the same to a scanning region of the photoreceptor (¶0030);
a laser driver (32) that forms the electrostatic latent image by irradiating the scanning region of the photoreceptor in the charged state with the plurality of laser beams on the basis of the image data acquired by the image-data acquirer (¶0034-¶0038); and
a laser corrector (31) that corrects the laser beam (FIG. 3, ¶0041-¶0042), wherein
the one or more controllers control the exposure section such that a real latent-image line is formed by irradiating the scanning region of the photoreceptor with the plurality of laser beams in a main-scanning direction (FIG. 3), determine whether or not a virtual latent-image line is formed between two pieces of the real latent-image lines adjacent to each other in a sub-scanning direction (¶0048-¶0050), and cause the laser corrector to correct the plurality of laser beams and adjust density of the virtual latent-image line on the basis of a determination result (¶0040-¶0042).
Regarding claim 2, Konishi teaches the image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein, when a virtual latent-image line is formed, the one or more controllers determine whether or not the virtual latent-image line is formed in a region across scanning between a scanning region of the photoreceptor by the one mirror surface of the polygon mirror and a scanning region of the photoreceptor by the subsequent mirror surface (FIG. 3), and when the virtual latent-image line is formed in the region across scanning, the one or more controllers cause the laser corrector to correct the plurality of laser beams so as to lower the density of the virtual latent-image line than a case where the virtual latent-image line is formed without changing the mirror surface of the polygon mirror (¶0048-¶0050).
Regarding claim 3, Konishi teaches the image forming apparatus according to claim 2,
wherein, when the virtual latent-image line is formed in the region across scanning (FIG. 3), the one or more controllers determine whether or not the real latent-image line is formed at a real latent-image position adjacent to the virtual latent-image line, and when the real latent-image line is formed at the real latent-image position (¶0035-¶0040), cause the laser corrector to correct the plurality of laser beams so as to lower the density of the virtual latent-image line than a case where the real latent-image line is not formed at the real latent-image position (¶0035-¶0040).
Regarding claim 4, Konishi teaches the image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laser corrector adjusts the density of the virtual latent-image line by correcting at least one of a PWM DUTY ratio of the plurality of laser beams, a bias current of the plurality of laser light sources, and light amounts of the plurality of laser beams (s6).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JESSICA L ELEY whose telephone number is (571)272-9793. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM CST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Walter Jr. Lindsay can be reached on (571)272-1674. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JESSICA L ELEY/
Examiner, Art Unit 2852
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