JP5569680B2 - Cleaning mechanism for card reader / writer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a cleaning mechanism that is mounted on a card reader / writer and cleans a card printing surface.

  Cards used for point cards and prepaid cards magnetically record IDs, points, and electronic money information, and also visualize the magnetic information by printing the number of points and transaction history on the front and back of the card. . Normally, this printing surface is composed of a thermal layer using a heat-sensitive layer material that develops heat and a rewritable layer using leuco dye, and printing is performed by a thermal print head mounted on a card reader / writer. There is also a rewritable card in which the previous print is erased by the erase head and then printed again.

  On the other hand, the card reader / writer is a card transport mechanism that transports a card inserted from a card insertion slot, a thermal print head that is provided in the card transport path and prints on the card, and a push for moving the thermal print head up and down. It consists of a pull solenoid, cam, and spring for urging the thermal print head toward the card. The card inserted from the card insertion slot is transported in the card transport path by a transport roller driven by a motor, and the magnetic head reads and writes magnetic data to the card and prints by the thermal print head during the transport. Is done.

  By the way, if the card printing surface is contaminated with foreign matter such as dust or oil, the card reader / writer having such a printing mechanism will have poor heat transfer from the thermal print head and erasing head, and the print may be faint. There arises a problem that an erasure defect occurs and the print quality is deteriorated.

  Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a card cleaning member 21 using a felt or the like for cleaning the printing surface of the card 8 is provided immediately after the card insertion slot 24, and a movable member is provided at a position facing the card cleaning member 21. A (conveying roller) 23 is provided, a spring 22 is provided to bias the movable member 23 toward the card cleaning member 21, and the card cleaning member 21 is held between the card cleaning member 21 and the movable member 23 to hold the card cleaning member 21 in the card 8. There has been proposed one that is made to contact with the print surface and cleaned. The card cleaning member 21 is attached to the attachment 20, and the attachment 20 can be detachably attached to the main body of the card reader / writer (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent No. 3463304

  However, the conventional cleaning mechanism as described above has a problem that it is necessary to frequently replace a cleaning member that becomes dirty due to card cleaning with a new member in a relatively short period of time, and it takes time to attach and detach the attachment. It was. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a card reader / writer cleaning mechanism that can be renewed like a new one with a simple operation without removing the cleaning member from the apparatus.

Therefore, the cleaning mechanism for the card reader / writer according to the present invention includes a card transport mechanism for transporting a card inserted from the card insertion slot, a thermal print head provided in the card transport path, and a space between the card insertion slot and the thermal print head. A cleaning wiper that cleans the printing surface of the card disposed on the card, a guide roller is provided opposite to the cleaning wiper, and the cleaning wiper is elastically biased toward the printing surface of the card, and the cleaning wiper and the guide roller the cleaning mechanism of the card reader-writer which is adapted to clean the printing surface while holding the card in the, along with adhering the wiping width on the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning wiper, a plurality of recesses in the supporting Jikugaishu Provided radially, the bullet urging means of the cleaning wiper is engaged with the recess. And a tension spring having a convex portion, the first characterized by providing lockable pivotably and an arbitrary position about the shaft of said cleaning wiper. A second feature of the cleaning wiper is that the supporting shaft of the cleaning wiper is formed in a cross-shaped cross section. Furthermore, a third feature is that a bent ring portion is provided at the tip of the tension spring.

The present invention has the following excellent effects.
(1) By sliding (wiping) the card printing surface with the cleaning wiper pressed by the biasing force of the spring, dust adhering to the printing surface is surely removed, and stable printing quality can be obtained.
(2) The wiping surface can be updated like a new one with a simple operation without removing the cleaning wiper from the apparatus, and attachment replacement can be saved.
(3) The spring urging and locking of the cleaning wiper can be performed only with a tension spring, and not only can the card printing surface be pressed and the cleaning wiper fixed to the device body simply and reliably, It is economical because the number of parts can be reduced.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on examples shown in the drawings.
It is side surface sectional drawing which shows the internal structure of the card reader / writer based on this invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion surrounded by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 1. (A) is a principal part expanded sectional view which shows the structure of the bearing part of a cleaning wiper, (b) is explanatory drawing which shows typically the usage method of a cleaning wiper. It is an expanded sectional view showing an example of the conventional card cleaning mechanism.

  Hereinafter, a cleaning mechanism for a card reader / writer according to the present invention will be described with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows the internal configuration of the card reader / writer of this embodiment. This card reader / writer is an IC leuco type, and is generally printed on a card transport path 3 consisting of a base 2a and a base cover 2b assembled to the apparatus main body 1, a transport roller 4 disposed in the card transport path 3, and a card 8. When the card 8 is inserted from the card insertion slot 14 formed on the left side of the apparatus main body 1 in the drawing, the card 8 is moved along the card transport path 3. Electronic data such as point information and transaction history information, which is conveyed to the right back in the figure and stored in the IC chip of the card 8 by the IC reader / writer 6 is read and rewritten. Thereafter, the sheet is conveyed back in the left direction in the figure, printed on the printing surface by the thermal print head 5, and carried out from the card insertion slot 14. In the figure, 7 is a card dispenser.

  Between the card insertion opening 14 of the apparatus main body 1 and the thermal print head 5, a cleaning wiper 10 for cleaning the printing surface of the card 8 is detachably disposed on the apparatus main body 1. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3A, a guide roller 9 is provided below the roller-type cleaning wiper 10 at a position facing the cleaning wiper 10. The cleaning wiper 10 is elastically biased downward, that is, toward the printing surface of the card 8 by engaging a tension spring 13 with a lock recess (described later) provided on the outer periphery of the support shaft 11. At the same time, the printing surface of the card 8 is cleaned while the card 8 is sandwiched between the cleaning wiper 10 and the guide roller 9.

  A cleaning wiper 12 made of an elastic material having a rough surface such as natural leather such as chamois, artificial leather or felt is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning wiper 10, and the cleaning wiper 10 can be replaced in an interchangeable manner. ing. The support shaft 11 of the cleaning wiper 10 is rotatable and is formed in a substantially cross-shaped cross section having four lock recesses 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d. Then, a lock convex portion 13 a that is bent at the other end side of the tension spring 13 that is fixed to the apparatus main body 1 and disposed above the cleaning wiper 10 is fixed to the lock concave portions 11 a, 11 b, 11 c of the support shaft 11. 11d, the support shaft 11 of the cleaning wiper 10 is fixed in the rotational direction in a stationary state, and the wiping surface of the wiping width 12 corresponding to the lock recess 11a is fixed to the printing surface of the card 8. The bullet is energized towards.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3B, in the present embodiment, the wiping width 12 of the cleaning wiper 10 corresponds to the four lock recesses 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d of the support shaft 11, and the wiping surface 12a. , 12b, 12c and 12d. For example, when the cleaning of the card 8 causes the wiping surface 12a to become dirty and the cleaning effect is reduced, the cleaning wiper 10 is rotated 90 degrees so that the wiping surface 12b of the card 8 While moving to a position where it abuts on the printing surface, the lock convex portion 13a of the tension spring 13 is engaged with the lock concave portion 11b of the support shaft 11 and fixed. Thereby, it is possible to update to a new wiping surface without frequently replacing the entire cleaning wiper 10. Similarly, the wiping surfaces 12c and 12d can be updated sequentially. The rotating means of the cleaning wiper 10 is not particularly limited, and may be automatically performed manually or using a motor or the like.

  Further, when the entire surface of the cleaning wiper 12 of the cleaning wiper 10 is soiled or deteriorated, the cleaning wiper 10 is removed from the apparatus main body 1, and when the degree of dirt is light, the wiper width 12 is wiped with alcohol or the like. If the cleaning wiper 10 is reusable and remarkably deteriorated and cannot be reused, the cleaning wiper 10 is replaced. At that time, it can be easily replaced by simply pulling upward the ring portion 13b formed at the tip of the tension spring 13 as a clue.

  Of course, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the wiping surface of the cleaning wiper does not necessarily need to be arranged in a continuous cylindrical shape as in the above embodiment, and may be intermittent, and the number is not limited. In the case of the roller type, if a plurality of lock recesses on the support shaft are provided radially, the wiping surface of the wiping width 12 corresponding to these lock recesses also increases.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Card reader / writer main body 2a Base 2b Base cover 3 Card conveyance path 4 Conveyance roller 5 Thermal print head 6 IC read / write part 7 Card dispenser 8 Card 9 Guide roller 10 Cleaning wiper 11 Cleaning wiper spindle (rotation axis)
11a Lock recess (meshing recess)
12 Wipe width (same skin)
13 Tension pulling (spring)
13a Lock convex part (meshing convex part)
13b Tension pull ring 14 Card insertion slot

Claims (3)

A card transport mechanism for transporting a card inserted from the card insertion slot, a thermal print head provided in the card transport path, and a cleaning wiper for cleaning the printing surface of the card disposed between the card insertion slot and the thermal print head A guide roller is provided opposite to the cleaning wiper, and the cleaning wiper is elastically urged against the printing surface of the card, and the card printing surface is cleaned while the card is sandwiched between the cleaning wiper and the guide roller. the cleaning mechanism of the card reader-writer which is adapted to, the addition to attaching a wiping width on the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning wiper, its supporting Jikugaishu a plurality of recesses radially resiliently urging said cleaning wiper And a tension spring having a convex portion meshing with the concave portion, Cleaning mechanism of the card reader-writer, characterized in that arranged to be fixed rotatably and an arbitrary position about the shaft of training wiper.   2. A cleaning mechanism for a card reader / writer according to claim 1, wherein the support shaft of the cleaning wiper has a cross section formed in a cross shape.   3. The card reader / writer cleaning mechanism according to claim 1, further comprising a ring portion bent at the tip of the tension spring.

Images