Three Fuji Xerox Technology Development Engineers Win Prizes for Science and Technology From the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

TOKYO, April 28, 2010 — Three technology development engineers from Fuji Xerox Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a manufacturing affiliate of Fuji Xerox Col, Ltd., won the Prize for Science and Technology, Development Category, in the 2010 Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The engineers were highly evaluated for developing the LED (light-emitting diode) print head as well as its manufacturing technology.

LED print heads require neither a polygon mirror nor a motor to rotate the mirror, which enables a reduction in size, as well as noiseless operation. Although they offer such an advantage, conventional LED print heads faced difficulty in realizing higher image quality due to the numerous light-emitting elements, which can cause fluctuations in the amount of light, resulting in unevenness in color density.

Fuji Xerox Manufacturing, in particular its three engineers, working together with Fuji Xerox responded to these issues by developing a 1,200 dpi, high-resolution self-scanning light-emitting device (SLED^{Note 1}) along with a LED exposure control technology, DELCIS,^{Note 2} which enables precise integrated control of all the light-emitting elements by a single high-performance ASIC.^{Note 3} Furthermore, they adopted lenses with uniform optical characteristics to create a simple-structure LED print head (Figure 1), which realizes downsizing as well as high-quality images, equal or even superior to those produced via laser raster output scanner (ROS) systems.

At the same time, they achieved higher productivity and lower costs through developments of the manufacturing technologies, including high-precision forming technology, molding technology, and precision mounting technology.

These achievements resulted in higher image quality, smaller size, improved energy efficiency, and less resource demands in electrophotographic copiers and printers, leading to a dramatic change in technology trends as well as contribution to society’s energy-saving efforts.

The recipients of the Prize are Hiromu Ono, group manager of Third Manufacturing Program Management Group at Suzuka Center, Fuji Xerox Manufacturing, together with Shunsuke Ueda and Kazunori Hagi, team leaders of the Group. Suzuka Center is the manufacturing plant for LED print heads.

The Prize for Science and Technology, Development Category, of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, is awarded to those involved in groundbreaking research and development or an invention that has been put into practical use, and which contributes to the further development and improvements in society, the economy, and in people’s daily lives. This self-scanning LED print head also won the Technology Award of the Imaging Society of Japan in June 2009, in recognition of its contribution to the advancement of electrophotographic technology.

Note 1

Self-Scanning Light Emitting Device: A device that can emit light sequentially from its elements.

Note 2

Digitally Enhanced Lighting Control Imaging System: LED exposure control technology that uses proprietary SLEDs. Highly precise correction of the amount of light is achieved by ASIC's integrated control of all SLEDs, resulting in a high resolution of 1,200 x 2,400 dpi. DELCIS is a registered trademark in Japan.

Note 3

Application Specific Integrated Circuit: An integrated circuit designed for a specific use.

Products incorporating the LED print head

Fuji Xerox first incorporated this LED print head in four models of its full-color digital multifunction devices launched in November 2007 (ApeosPort-III C3300 / C2200, DocuCentre-III C3300 / C2200), and later in other key products, including color printers as well as eight models of ApeosPort-IV and DocuCentre-IV series, full-color digital multifunction devices launched in August 2009.

Fuji Xerox's LED print head features dramatically reduced size and weight compared to the conventional laser ROS system, allowing more room for the device's paper output (equal to the space of one paper tray) where a finisher capable of stapling can also be loaded (Figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 2

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