JP2731486B2 - Cleaning card - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning card for cleaning a card transport roller in a card processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a card reader for processing a card such as a prepaid card, a cleaning card for cleaning dirt on a head surface such as a magnetic head and a thermal head is used. This head cleaning card is impregnated with a cleaning liquid and is cleaned by rubbing the head surface. When attempting to clean the card transport roller using this card, the effect of cleaning the roller surface was small because the card and the roller did not rotate relative to each other. For this purpose, the card transporting roller is cleaned by wiping the roller surface with a cloth for wiping such as gauze impregnated with alcohol. As a prior art of a cleaning card, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Those described in 4081 and JP 2-199593 JP are known.

[0003] By the way, in the card reader to be used in the gaming facility, there is a tendency that dirt surface of the card is to use the intense card, for fouling is significant of the card transport rollers, before the sales start cleaning operation is mandatory Work.

[0004]

In order to clean the roller surface using gauze impregnated with alcohol, it is necessary to open the card passage of the card reader to expose the peripheral surface of the card transport roller. Is troublesome. In particular, in the card reader that stain is intense card is used, the cost of must be carried out frequent cleaning work maintenance is set to high.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning card capable of cleaning a card conveying drive roller by a simple operation.

[0006]

According to the cleaning card of the present invention, a window which is wider than the roller width and has an appropriate length is provided at a portion which comes into contact with the card transport driving roller, and an adhesive tape is provided on the back side of the card. The adhesive tape is characterized in that the adhesive surface of the adhesive tape is exposed to the card surface side.

[0007]

When the cleaning card is sent into the card passage, the card is transported by the card transport drive roller. When the window of the conveyed card corresponds to the roller,
The adhesive surface of the adhesive tape abuts on the peripheral surface of the drive roller for card transport, and adheres and removes foreign substances adhering to the peripheral surface to perform cleaning.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

1 to 3, reference numeral 1 indicates a cleaning card according to the present invention. The cleaning card 1 includes a base 11 made of paper or synthetic resin, a window 12 formed in the base, and an adhesive tape 13 adhered so as to close the window.

[0010] More specifically, the window 12 is formed at a position corresponding to a card transport drive roller 14 disposed in the card path O. The window 12 has a width larger than the width of the roller 14 and an appropriate length. This length is desirably larger than the roller circumference, but is preferably 2 /
It may be set to about 3. The driving roller 14 is driven to rotate in the direction indicated by an arrow by driving means, and a driven roller 15 is in contact with the driving roller 14.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the adhesive tape 13 comprises a base 13a made of paper and an adhesive surface 13b formed on one surface of the base. The adhesive tape 13 is attached to the back surface 1b of the card base 11 so as to close the window 12.
Therefore, the window 1 is located on the front surface 1a side of the cleaning card 1.
2, the adhesive surface 13b is exposed. The adhesive tape 13 is formed of a material thinner than the thickness of the card base 11.

The adhesive tape 13 may be based on a thin film. However, in order to cope with the size of the window 12 and the peeling and sticking at the time of replacement, the adhesive tape 13 is based on a material that is somewhat thick and strong. It is better, and it can be satisfied with a paper base.

In FIG. 2, a card path O is formed by guide side plates 16 and 17, and a plurality of card transport drive rollers 14 and a magnetic information are read or contacted with a magnetic stripe of a magnetic card. And a print head 19 for forming a visible image on the magnetic card. The magnetic head 18 is arranged so as to be deviated on the side of the card transport drive roller 14 in the card transport direction.

The card conveying drive roller 14 in the width direction of the card path O is disposed at the center in the width direction as shown in FIG. 2, or one of the guide side plates 16 as shown in FIG. In some cases. In the case where rollers are arranged in a one-sided manner as in a card path as shown in FIG. 5, the windows formed in the cleaning card 1 are the respective cleaning cards 1A, 1B and 1C shown in FIG.
Windows 12A, 12B, and 12C are formed to be offset in the width direction of the card.

The operation of cleaning the drive roller for card transport using the cleaning card 1 configured as described above will be described. In FIGS. 1 to 3, an operation unit (not shown) is operated to activate the card reader so that the card can be transported. Next, the cleaning card 1 is inserted into the card path O. At this time, the cleaning card 1 is inserted so that the front surface 1a faces the drive roller 14 side. The inserted card 1 is passed through a card path O by a driving roller 14 and a driven roller 15 pressed against the driving roller 14.
Is transported.

As shown in FIG. 3A, when the window 12 of the conveyed cleaning card 1 moves to a position corresponding to the drive roller 14, the roller has a peripheral surface which is
, And comes into contact with the adhesive surface 13 b of the adhesive tape 13, and is conveyed by the driven roller 15. Adhesive surface 13
The drive roller 14 that rotates in contact with b is cleaned of the peripheral surface by removing foreign substances adhering to the peripheral surface of the drive roller 14 with the adhesive surface adhered to the adhesive surface. That is, the card transport drive roller can be cleaned by a simple operation of merely inserting the cleaning card into the card passage.

Since the roller that comes into contact with the adhesive surface 13b is not brought into contact with the entire circumference, cleaning of the entire circumference is not completed by a single card insertion, but cleaning of the entire circumference can be performed by inserting the card a plurality of times. Even if the cleaning operation is repeated a plurality of times, it is only necessary to insert the cleaning card, so that there is no particular trouble in the operation. Alternatively, if cleaning is performed once before the start of daily work, the entire peripheral surface of the roller is cleaned in approximately one week.

When the cleaning operation of the adhesive tape 13 is repeated, the adhesive surface 13b gradually becomes dirty and the cleaning performance is reduced. This can be easily determined by observing the adhesive surface 13b of the adhesive tape. Then, the dirty adhesive tape 13 is peeled off from the base 11 of the card and discarded, and a new adhesive tape 13 is attached. If paper is used as the base 13 a of the adhesive tape 13, it can be easily peeled from the card base 11, and there is no close contact with the driven roller 15, so that trouble during transport of the cleaning card can be avoided.

The above is the card configuration for cleaning the card transport drive roller. A description will be given of the structure of a card that can simultaneously perform head cleaning of a magnetic head, a print head, and the like. As the base of the cleaning card, a non-woven fabric whose surface is not smooth is used. When a cleaning card made of non-woven fabric is inserted into the card passage, the window formed there is used to clean the peripheral surface of the drive roller with adhesive using adhesive tape, and the head surface is roughened except for the window. This is cleaned by rubbing.

The cleaning card 1A shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5 , this is suitable for a card passage structure in which a drive roller is arranged offset in the passage width direction and a magnetic head 18 is arranged on the side of the roller. This card 1A
The right half 1AR in which the window 12A is not formed in the width direction rubs the head surface of the magnetic head 18 to clean it.

The cleaning card 1B shown in FIG.
Is provided with a window 12B at the front end in the transport direction of the card,
The rear end portion 1BR has a large area. When the cleaning card 1B having such a configuration is inserted into the card passage and transported, the card cleans the peripheral surface of the drive roller 14 with the adhesive tape 13 of the window, and the rear end portion 1BR of the magnetic head 18 and the print head 19 Clean each head surface.

By the way, when performing the cleaning, if the front and back of the card are inserted by mistake, the cleaning effect cannot be expected. That is, even if the driven roller 15 is cleaned with the adhesive surface 13a of the adhesive tape 13, the card transport performance by the drive roller 14 is not improved. If the front and back sides of the cleaning card are mistaken, the adhesive surface 13a comes into contact with the magnetic head or the print head , and the adhesive adheres to the head, resulting in abnormal reading, card jam, jitter deterioration, and the like.

Therefore, means for judging the front and back of the cleaning card is taken to avoid the above-mentioned problem. The card reader is provided with a means for detecting the length of the card from the viewpoint of fraud prevention, so that a card shorter than a predetermined card length is not taken in. In FIG.
On the entrance side of the card path O, optical sensors S1 and S2 are disposed at a distance L1. The card length detection signals from the optical sensors S1 and S2 are input to a controller (not shown), and when it is determined that the card is a short card, the drive system including the drive roller 14 is reversed to insert the inserted card into the insertion slot. It is designed to be sent back. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4C, a through hole 1Ca is formed in the cleaning card 1C at a position offset in the card width direction. The through hole 1Ca has a distance L2 ( = L1).

In FIG. 5, when the cleaning card 1C is turned over and inserted into the card passage O, when the leading edge 1Cb of the card is detected by the optical sensor S2, the through hole 1C
a is detected by the optical sensor S1, the inserted card is determined to be an unauthorized card (short card), and this card is ejected. The means for detecting the card length is not limited to the through hole, and a part of the card may be formed transparent, or a part of the card may correspond to a detecting means such as a microswitch or a Hall element.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the card transport drive roller can be efficiently cleaned only by passing the cleaning card through the card passage.
According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the cleaning function is also provided to the card itself, not only the rollers but also the head surface can be rubbed and cleaned.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cleaning card according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating a positional relationship between a cleaning card and a driving roller.

FIG. 3A is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state where an adhesive tape is in contact with a driving roller.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C are plan views showing cleaning cards having different configurations.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a card passage explaining a means for detecting a card inserted upside down;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cleaning card 12 ... Window 13 ... Adhesive tape 13a ... Base 13b ... Adhesive surface 14 ... Drive roller for card conveyance

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A window which is wider than the roller width and has an appropriate length is provided at a portion which comes into contact with the card transport drive roller, an adhesive tape is attached to the back surface of the card, and an adhesive tape is attached to the front surface of the card. Cleaning card with exposed surface. 2. The cleaning card according to claim 1, wherein the base of the card is made of a nonwoven fabric, and the card itself has a cleaning function.