IMAGE FORMING DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device capable of suppressing the life shortening of light exposure means.SOLUTION: The image forming device comprises: m (m: an integer equal to or more than 3)light emitting elements opposing to a photoreceptor surface and arrayed in a main scanning direction; light quantity correcting means 324 for deriving a light quantity adjusted value so as to correct the emission light quantity of each of the m light emitting elements; drive means 226 for driving a corresponding light emitting element and controlling emission/non-emission thereof on the basis of the light quantity adjusted value of each of the m light emitting elements so as to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor surface; and selection means 325 for selecting n (n: an integer smaller than m and more than 2) light emitting elements present at the end of the main scanning direction from the m light emitting elements. The drive means drives the corresponding light emitting element to emit light forcibly so that the accumulated emission time of the n light emitting elements may be equal to a predetermined representative value. The predetermined representative value does not exceed the maximum value of the accumulated emission time of the (m-n) light emitting elements.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5 【課題】露光手段の寿命短縮を抑制可能な画像形成装置を提供する。【解決手段】画像形成装置は、感光体表面に対向し主走査方向に配列されたｍ個（ｍは３以上の整数）の発光素子と、各ｍ個の発光素子の発光光量を補正するために光量調整値を導出する光量補正手段３２４と、感光体表面に静電潜像を形成するために、各ｍ個の発光素子の光量調整値に基づき、対応する発光素子を駆動し発光／非発光を制御する駆動手段２２６と、各ｍ個の発光素子の中から、主走査方向の端部に存在するｎ個（ｎは、ｍより小さい２以上の整数）の発光素子を選択する選択手段３２５と、を備え、駆動手段は、ｎ個の発光素子の累積発光時間が所定の代表値に揃うように、対応する発光素子を駆動して強制的に発光させ、所定の代表値は、ｍ−ｎ個の発光素子の累積発光時間の中の最大値を超えない。【選択図】図５