JPH0442390A - Card issuing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the occurrence of trouble like leaving a card behind by handing only one reissued new card over a customer at the time of updating the card. CONSTITUTION:A card recovery box 18 and a card division mechanism 19 are equipped in addition. Here, when the updating number of cards reaches the number of limitation at the time of updating the card, the card is recovered without returning it to the customer while recognizing the card as the one already used, and instead of it, the data of the issued sum of money, totaling a remainder and a supplementary purchase sum, is written in a new card to reissue it. Namely, the customer will receive a card. Thus, the trouble of leaving the card behind occurring in the case of reissuing the regular updating card again after returning the old card already used to the customer can be surely prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a magnetic card issuing device for prepaid cards.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, cashless sales systems have become popular, targeting, for example, in-house cafeterias and in-house sales outlets, in which desired products are purchased using prepaid cards.

Such prepaid cards are purchased from card vending machines with a dedicated encoding function, and secondly, card vending machines for selling prepaid cards that have been put into practical use as well as card issuing devices built into vending machines. will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

First, FIG. 2 is an external view of the card vending machine, and the front of the main body 1 has a bill slot 2. Purchase amount selection button 3. Amount display 4. Purchase confirmation button5. It is equipped with a cancellation button, 6 card receiving lowers, etc., and a card issuing device, which will be described later, is built into the main body. Note that 8 indicates a magnetic card, and 8a indicates a band-shaped magnetic storage section attached to the card.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the conventional structure of a card issuing device incorporated into a card vending machine. That is, the card issuing device is roughly divided into a card transport mechanism 9 that communicates with the card receiving lower mentioned above, a card stacker 10 that is connected to and installed behind the card transport mechanism 9, and a card stacker 10 that is built into the card transport mechanism 9 and that handles cards. The magnetic head 11 reads/writes data, and a control section (not shown) including a data processing section. Here, the card transport mechanism 9 is provided with a card transport roller 12 along the card transport path 9a, and the card 8 is sent to the card receiving lower or reversely taken in by forward and reverse rotation of the roller. Further, the card stocker 10 stores a large number of unused new cards 8, commonly known as virgin cards, stacked therein, and dispenses the new cards 8 one by one based on a command, using a drive motor 13. Driven unloading roller 14
．． Guide roller 15. It is comprised of a gate plate 16 for cutting off the cards one by one, a weight 17, and the like.

When purchasing a new prepaid card from such a card vending machine, the customer inserts banknotes, selects the desired purchase amount using the amount selection button 3, and presses the purchase confirmation button 5. As a result, a new card is sent from the card stacker 10 to the card transport mechanism 9, where the magnetic head 11 writes monetary data corresponding to the purchase price into the magnetic storage section 8a of the card 8, and the card is sent to the card receiving lower.

In addition to the above-mentioned new card issuing function, this card issuing device also has the following card updating function. In other words, insert a currently used card with a low or zero balance into the card receiving lower of a card vending machine, and then insert banknotes to make the desired purchase amount in the same way as when purchasing a new card. When selected, the card issuing device rewrites the amount data of the card to the amount obtained by adding the additional purchase amount to the balance before updating, and returns the card to the customer again. By providing such an update function, cards can be recycled and the operating costs of the card system can be reduced.

By the way, magnetic cards have a limited durability when it comes to reading and writing data due to the update operation described above, and if the number of updates is not limited, the card may become dirty and become unable to read or write data. There is a possibility that the update will not be possible. Therefore, the number of times that the card can be updated is usually determined in advance, and each time a card is updated, it is determined whether or not the number of updates recorded on the card has reached a predetermined limit.
If the number of updates has reached the limit, regardless of whether there is a balance or not, the imported card will be changed to a used card and invalidated, and the balance before the update and the additional purchase amount will be added to the new card. I am trying to write the amount data and reissue it.

That is, in FIG. 3, data on the card balance and number of updates taken from the card receiving lower to the card transport mechanism 9 when updating the card is read by the magnetic head 11,
If the number of updates has reached the preset limit, a punch is used to punch a hole in the card to mark it as used (unusable), and the card is sent to the card receiving lower and returned to the customer. Subsequently, the new card carried out from the card stacker 10 to the card transport mechanism 9 is written with money data, which is the sum of the balance before update and the additional purchase price, and carried out to the card receiving lower.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, in the above-described card renewal issuing method, there is a risk that the following card reception trouble may occur between customers and customers.

In other words, when renewing a card that is currently in use, if the number of renewals has reached the limit, the customer will be required to renew the used old card (unusable due to the bunch holes) and add the additional purchase amount to the balance. You will receive two cards, including the reissued card. However, since the reissued card is sent to the card receiving slot later than the old card, the customer may misunderstand that the -1st I+-1 card received is the updated card, and the second card will be reissued. Sometimes the player leaves the area before the card comes out and forgets to take the legal card. Furthermore, even if the customer simply forgets to take out the card, since the customer has two cards in hand, there is a risk that the customer may mistakenly use an invalid card and a valid cart.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and is a card that avoids the above-mentioned trouble of receiving a card when renewing a card, and also allows used and invalid cards that are no longer needed to be collected without handing them over to the customer. The purpose is to provide a publishing device.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, the card issuing device of the present invention has a card transport mechanism leading to a card receiving slot, a data reading/writing means for the amount and number of updates built into the card transport mechanism, and a card stacker containing a new card. In addition, it is additionally equipped with a card sorting mechanism that switches the card delivery route between the card collection box for used cards and the card transport mechanism to either the card stacker 9 or the card collection box, and when performing a card update operation, If the number of updates for the card imported onto the aircraft has reached the specified limit,
After rewriting the balance to zero, collect the card in the card collection box, and instead write the amount data of the pre-update balance and additional purchase amount on a new card taken out from the card stacker and reissue it. This is what I did.

[Effect]

According to the card issuing device having the above configuration, if the number of updates of a card that has been imported when updating the card has reached the limit number of times, the balance of the card is rewritten to zero and the card is marked as used, and then the card is updated. Instead of returning the card to the customer, the card is collected in the in-flight card collection box, and instead the card is reissued with the issued amount (the balance before the update plus the additional purchase amount) written on the new card.

Therefore, the customer receives only one new card that has been reissued, thereby avoiding problems such as forgetting to take the card.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a card issuing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the same members corresponding to those in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals.

That is, in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 3, a card collection box 18 and a card sorting mechanism 19 are newly added.

Here, the card collection box 18 is arranged below the cart stacker 10 and is removably disposed behind the card transport mechanism 9. Further, the card sorting mechanism 19 is a swinging flapper installed between the card transport mechanism 9 and the card stacker 10 as shown in the figure, and is lightly spring-biased upward with its rear end as a swinging fulcrum. . Therefore, when the card 8 taken into the card transport mechanism 9 is sent out rearward from the card transport mechanism 9 in this state, the leading end of the card 8 hits the back surface of the flapper and falls into the card collection box 18 along the slope. On the other hand, when a new card is dispensed from the card stacker 10, the tip of the card 8 hits the upper surface of the flapper and pushes the flapper down to the position shown by the broken line. Therefore, the card 8 goes straight on the upper surface of the flapper and is delivered to the card transport mechanism 9.

When issuing a new card with this configuration, the card 8 (new card) taken out from the card stacker 10 based on a command passes through the card sorting mechanism 19 and is taken into the card transport mechanism 9, where it is magnetically The card 11 writes amount data corresponding to the purchase amount onto the card 8, and then sends it to the card receiving lower.

When updating a card that is currently in use, when the card transport mechanism 9 takes in the inserted card 8 from the card receiving lower, the magnetic head 11 first updates the balance of the amount data recorded on the card 8.

Reads the number of updates and sends the data contents to the data processing section. Note that the card balance data is temporarily stored in the storage section of the data processing section. Here, if the number of renewals of the card has not reached the limit, the amount data of the card is rewritten to the total amount obtained by adding the additional purchase amount to the balance before the update, and at the same time, the number of renewals is also rewritten ("1
''), then the card transport mechanism 9 is reversed to send the card 8 to the card receiving lower and returned to the customer.

On the other hand, if the number of times the card has been updated has reached the preset limit, the balance of the card is rewritten to zero amount data, making it a used card, and the card transport mechanism 9 sends the card backward. As a result, the card 8 is turned downward by the card sorting mechanism 19 and collected into the card collection box 18. Note that card 8 is sorting mechanism 1.
9 is detected by the card discharge sensor 20. Subsequently, an unused new card is taken out from the card stacker 10 and taken into the card transport mechanism 9 via the card sorting mechanism 19. Then, the magnetic head 11 writes the total amount data of the pre-update balance (stored in the memory) and the newly deposited additional purchase amount onto this new card, and then carries out the card 8 to the card receiving lower. do.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the card issuing device of the present invention,
When renewing a card, if the number of renewals of the card has reached the limit, the card will be treated as used and collected without being returned to the customer, and instead a new card will be issued with the balance and additional purchase amount. Write the amount data and reissue. In other words, the customer receives one card.

Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the trouble of forgetting to take out the card, which can occur when a regular renewal card is reissued after returning the used old card to the customer, as in conventional devices, and it is no longer necessary. Since the used invalid card is not returned to the customer, there are advantages such as preventing the customer from using the invalid old card and the newly reissued new card by mistake.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the structure of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an external view of a card vending machine, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a conventional card issuing device. In the figure, 7: Card receiving slot, 8: Magnetic card, 9: Forced transport mechanism, 10: Card stacker, 11: Magnetic head, 18:
Card collection box, 19: Card sorting mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A card issuing device for prepaid cards, etc., which has a new card issuing function of writing amount data corresponding to the purchase amount on a new card and issuing the new card, and a function of issuing the new card by writing amount data corresponding to the purchase amount on the new card, and For cards equipped with a card update function that rewrites the amount data on the card to the amount obtained by adding the additional purchase amount to the balance before the update and returns it, the card transport mechanism leading to the card receiving slot, the amount incorporated in the card transport mechanism, and the number of updates In addition to the card stacker that stores new cards, the card that switches the card delivery route between the card collection box for used cards and the card transport mechanism between the card stacker and the card collection box. When updating a card, if the number of updates of the card taken into the aircraft reaches a predetermined limit, the card is marked as used and collected in the card collection box. The card issuing device is characterized in that, instead, data on the sum of the pre-update balance and the additional purchase amount is written on a new card taken out from the card stacker, and the card is reissued.