JPS6037086A - Processing device of card or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce an abrasion of a head, and to realize its long life by separating at least a part of an inserting path and a carrying path, and placing a heat sensible printing head for executing a heat sensible printing to a card, etc., on the separated carrying path. CONSTITUTION:A card is inserted from a card inserting base 4, the card is carried along a carrying path A by rotating forward a motor, and magnetic information of the card is read from a magnetic information reading part 11. In case that its card is not effective, the card is carried to the inserting base 4 by rotating reversely the motor 13, and a return processing is executed. In case that the card is effective, when a photoelectric switch SW2 becomes on, the card advances to a carrying path B, and when the motor 13 stops, a motor 28 rotates forward, and when a switch SW3 becomes on, the motor 28 stops. At this time, the transaction comes to end, and when a return command of the card is given to a CPU and the motor 28 rotates reversely, the card passes through a carrying path C, is led to a sensible heat dot printing head 1, brought to sensible heat printing, and thereafter, sent to the inserting base 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card processing device that performs thermal printing on externally inserted cards, newly issued cards, and the like.

Conventional technology and its problems In recent years, it has been possible to record the corresponding price of the card on the card and re-encode the balance each time it is used and return it, making it possible to make multiple transactions without using cash each time. Stored fair cards are now used. In such a card processing device, if magnetic information is written on the magnetic stripe of the card, it is necessary to print the used balance every time the card is used. By the way, printing on the card is done using the wire tod method. In some cases, the print head wears out only when the pin is impacted on the card to actually print.Therefore, if an accepted card is sent back by 1Bt using the same route,
Even if the printing unit is placed on the path where the card travels back and forth, unless the card is conveyed and printed, the printing will not wear out and no adverse effects due to wear will occur. However, if printing is performed using a thermal printing method, the card will be worn out each time it passes through the print head. Therefore, if the reciprocating path is the same, there is a problem that the print head is likely to wear out.

Further, the conventional thermal dot printing head 1 has a driver circuit 3 on one side of a tontoline 2 provided on the head, as shown in a diagonal diagram in FIG.

Therefore, when the card is conveyed to the left in FIG. 1, the card will not get caught in the driver circuit 3.
When conveying in the right direction, there is a risk of getting caught in the driver circuit 3, so it is necessary to devise a conveyance route.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of card processing devices, and it is an object of the present invention to solve the problem of card processing devices as shown in FIG. It is an object of the present invention to provide a card processing device which can print on cards using a thermal head, and which can reduce wear of the head and extend its life.

Structure and Effects of the Invention The present invention is a card processing device that performs predetermined processing on inserted cards and performs thermal printing, in which at least a part of the card insertion path and the card ejection path are separated, The present invention is characterized in that a printing head for performing thermal printing on the cards is arranged on each of the separated transport paths.

According to the present invention having such characteristics, since the cards pass through the thermal head only when the cards are transported in one direction, the wear of the thermal head is reduced. In addition, since cards always pass through the thermal head in one direction, there is no risk of the cards getting caught even when using a normal thermal bed with a convex part on the driver circuit, and the cards can be transported smoothly. It becomes possible to do so.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top view and a side view of a stored fair card processing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that this processing device is used as a car 1 processing section of an automatic ticket vending machine. In these figures, a card insertion stand 4 is provided protruding from the left end of the card processing device as shown. A card inserted from the cart insertion stand 4 is detected by the photoelectric switch sw1 and sent to the conveyance path A. 1B feeding path A includes rollers 5 and 6 and a conveyor belt 7 stretched thereon,
It consists of a roller 8.9 and a conveyor belt 10 stretched over the roller 8.9, and the card is conveyed in the left-right direction while being sandwiched and held between the conveyor belts 7,10. A magnetic information reading section 11 that reads data on the magnetic stripe section of the card, and a magnetic information writing section 12 that writes data on the magnetic stripe section are provided in the middle of the transport path A. This conveyance path A is driven by a motor 13, and on the right side of the roller 6 there is provided a conveyance path B consisting of a guide plate 14 and a flapper 15 for guiding the card in the right direction. Further, along the card conveyance path B, the roller 16
,1? A photoelectric switch SW2 is arranged to detect when the card reaches the roller. Also, on the right side is a guide 1 that holds the card temporarily during transaction processing.
8 and 19, and a photoelectric switch SW3 for detecting when the card reaches the center of these guides.

On the right side of the card holding section, a card case 20 holding a large number of newly issued cards and a feed roller 21 for feeding cards from the card case 20 are provided. The feeding roller 21 is the feeding solenoid 2.
2 is driven upward via a link 23, and comes into contact with the lowest card of the stacked cards to feed it toward the guides 18 and 19. The temporarily held card or the unrolled cart is applied via a guide 24 to a conventional thermal dot printing head 1 shown in FIG. A platen roller 25 is arranged above the tontoline of the head 1, and a guide 26 and a flapper 27 for guiding the printed card are provided. Here, the kites 24, 26 and the thermal dot printing head 1. Let C be the conveyance path formed by the platen roller 25. In this way, the card path consists of a transport path A that takes in the inserted card, a transport path B that subsequently sends the card to the temporary holding section, and a transport path C that prints on the card when it is issued or returned. ing. It is assumed that rollers 16, 17, 21 and 25 are driven by a motor 28.

Next, a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the card processing device will be explained with reference to FIG. 4. The photoelectric switch SW mentioned above
The signals from I to SW3 and the magnetic information reading section 11 are given to a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 32 via an amplifier circuit 30 and an interface circuit 31. CPU3
A memory 33 is connected to 2 as a storage means for temporarily storing arithmetic processing procedures and various data. The CPU 32 controls each part according to the arithmetic processing procedure of the memory 33, and uses an interface circuit 34 as an output means.
The aforementioned thermal dot printing head 1 is connected via the drive circuit 35.
．． Magnetic information writing section 12 motors 13 and 28 and solenoid 21 are connected. Further, the CPU 32 is connected to an external interface circuit 36 for exchanging data with external devices (not shown) such as a ticket issuing processing section and a money processing section.

Next, the operation of the card processing device of this embodiment will be explained with reference to flowcharts and waveform diagrams.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for processing an inserted card, and FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of each part. In the flowcharts below, numbers indicated using lead lines indicate operation steps of the CPU 32.

In FIG. 5, if a card is first inserted from the card insertion stand 4 (step 40), the process proceeds to step 41 and it is checked whether the photoelectric switch SW1 is turned on. When this switch SWI is turned on, it means that a card has been inserted, and the process proceeds to step 42, where the motor 13 is rotated in the normal direction to convey the card along the conveyance path A in the direction of the arrow as shown in FIG. 6 fb). Then, the magnetic information reading unit 11 provided on the transport path A reads the magnetic information on the magnetic stripe of the card as shown in FIG. 6 (C1) (step 43).
) to determine whether the card is a valid card. If the card is not valid, the process proceeds to step 45, where the motor 13 is reversed, and the card is transported in the direction opposite to the arrow while checking whether the photoelectric switch sW1 is turned on at step 46. When this is turned on, the tip of the card has reached the insertion table 4 and the card can be removed, so the motor 13 is stopped (
Step 47) End the return process. Meanwhile step 44
If the inserted card is a valid card, the process advances to step 48 to check whether the photoelectric switch SW2 is turned on. When this is turned on, the inserted card advances from conveyance path A to conveyance path B, and its tip reaches rollers 16 and 17, as shown in Fig. 6 (bl,
(Step 49 to stop driving the motor 13 as shown in el), and then rotate the motor 28 forward (Step 5).
0) Check whether the photoelectric switch SW3 is turned on or not. When the photoelectric switch SW3 turns on, the motor 28
(step 52). In this way, the card is held between the guides 18 and 19 while waiting for the transaction to be completed. When the transaction is completed, an instruction to return the card is given from the external device to the CPU 32 via the external interface circuit 36 as shown in FIG. Then, the leading end of the card comes into contact with the leading ends of the flapper 15 and the platen roller 25, and is pushed down and guided to the thermal dot printing head 1 through the transport path C. Then, in step 55, it is checked whether the photoelectric switch SW2 is turned off, and if it is turned off, the leading edge of the card has reached the tolerance line 2 of the thermal dot printing mode 1, as shown in FIG.
i) Print data given from an external device as shown in
For example, thermal printing is started for the amount of money deducted from the new card as a result of the transaction, etc. (step 56). It is assumed that the number of printed lines on the card is read from magnetic information.

When the thermal printing is completed in step 57, the motor 28 is stopped (step 58), and then step 59).
At this point, the motor 13 is reversely rotated. If this happens, the leading edge of the card will push up the flapper 27, and the card will be transported from the transport path C to the transport path A. then the 6th
As shown in Figures (dl, (el), the magnetic information writing unit 1
2, the magnetic information is read from the magnetic information reading section 11 (steps 60 and 61), and the written data is checked.

Then, in step 62, it is determined whether the writing of the magnetic information is normal, and if it is abnormal, abnormality processing is performed and the process ends (routine 63).If the written information is normal, it is determined in step 64 whether the photoelectric switch SWI is on or not. If it is turned on, the motor 13 is stopped (step 65). This allows the customer to remove the card from the insertion base 4. The card thus inserted is transported, held, and printed via transport paths A, B, and C. Here, since the card is printed only when passing through the IM feeding path C, wear on the thermal dot print head 1 is reduced.

Next, the operation when issuing a new card will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 7 and the time chart of FIG. 8. First, in step 70 of FIG. 7, we wait to see if there is a command to issue a new card.
If there is an issue signal as shown in al, the feeding solenoid 2
2 is turned on (step 71). Then link 2
3, the feeding roller 21 is pushed up and comes into contact with the lowest card in the card case 20. Then, in step 72, when the motor 28 is reversed, the card is fed out from the card case 20, passes between the guides 18 and 19, reaches the rollers 16 and 17, and turns on the photoelectric switch SW2. Then, as shown in step 74 and FIG. It is checked whether or not it reaches the platen roller 25. When it reaches the platen roller 25, thermal printing is performed by the thermal dot print head 1 (step 76) as shown in FIG. Car 1' is on transport route A
8 (g), the motor 28 is stopped and the motor 3 is reversed (steps 78 and 79).

(Writing and reading of magnetic information is performed as shown in hl (step 80.81). Then, as a result of reading, it is checked whether the written magnetic information is normal or not.
If it is not normal, abnormality processing is performed in routine 83,
If it is normal, check whether the photoelectric switch SWI is on. When this is turned on, the card has reached the insertion stand 4 and can be removed by the customer, so the motor 13 is stopped as shown in Fig. 8ff) (step 8).
5) Wait for the card to be removed. In this way, even when a new card is issued, the card is passed through the printing conveyance path C and the printing process is performed on the card.

Although this embodiment has been described with respect to a stored fair card processing apparatus, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to various apparatuses that perform thermal printing on cards.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional thermal dot printing head, not showing it, Figs. 2 and 3 are top and side views of the card processing device according to the present invention, and Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing its electrical configuration. , Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing of the inserted card, Fig. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of each part, and Fig. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing of the inserted card.
The figure is in the flowchart showing the operation when issuing a new card.
1-1 FIG. 8 is a time chart 1 showing the operation of each part at that time. 1-----1 heat-sensitive printing head 2-----Tonneau 1-line 3--------Driver circuit 4--
- Cart insertion stand L L------Magnetic information reading section 12-9-Magnetic information writing section A, B, C----1
Transfer route 20--Card case SWI~5
W3---Ikkoden Suisochi 32-・-CPU 33
------Memory patent applicant Japanese National Railways Tateishi Electric Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Kanki Okamoto (1 person) Figure 6 (a) Switch + SWI □ 1 Figure 8 (i) Switch + SW1

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a card processing device that performs predetermined processing on inserted cards and performs thermal printing, at least a portion of the card insertion path and ejection path are separated;
A card processing device characterized in that a thermal printing head for performing thermal printing on the cards is disposed on one of the separated transport paths. (2) The card processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the thermal printing head is provided on a card ejection route.