JPS5930309B2 - Magnetic card processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a magnetic card processing device that magnetically records information that changes each time a transaction is made on a card, and also prints information on the card.

In addition to magnetically recording information that changes with each transaction on cards used in the store fair system and cards used in coupon tickets, the information is also synchronized so that the ticket holder can visually check the current information. A magnetic card processing device that prints on the face of a card has already been proposed. However, in this type of conventional device, the magnetic recording mechanism and the printing mechanism are provided spatially and separated, and are also functionally and spatially separated, resulting in the overall length and size of the device. Up,
This has the disadvantage that the card has to be transported over a long distance and the processing time is long. This invention was made in view of the above points,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic card processing device that is compact in size and shortens processing time.

To achieve this object, the present invention uses a discharge recording type printing head to print information on a magnetic card having a conductive film, and the first invention is a magnetic card having a conductive film. A magnetic head for reading, a magnetic head for reading, and a printing head for discharge recording are provided adjacent to each other in the card conveying direction, and the magnetic head for reading is configured to record information recorded on the magnetic film, and a magnetic head for reading and a printing head for discharge recording. A signal that is recorded and used to time the printing on the conductive film by the print head (hereinafter referred to as a print timing signal)
It is distinctive in that it is used to read In this way, there is no need to provide a special magnetic head for reading the print timing signal, so there is no need to provide a conveyance roller between the heads. Therefore, the overall length of the device is shortened accordingly, resulting in a smaller device, and furthermore, the card transport distance is shortened, so the processing time is shortened. That is, the information must be printed in a different location each time the card is used.

For this reason, it is necessary to control printing by the print head using a print timing signal such as a clock pulse recorded on a magnetic film, but if a special magnetic head is provided to read this signal, each head can be Even if they are installed close together, the distance between the heads at both ends is more than the length of one card, so a conveyance roller must be installed between them, which lengthens the entire device and increases the distance the card must be conveyed. Become. However, according to the first invention, since the reading magnetic head is shared for reading information and print timing signals,
The entire device becomes shorter and the card transport distance becomes shorter. In addition to the first invention, a second invention is such that a head holder for a magnetic head is made of a conductive material and used as a return electrode for discharge current.

That is, the discharge current flowing through the conductive film of the magnetic card is returned to the discharge power source via the head holder. In this way, there is no need to provide a special return electrode for the discharge current, so the entire device can be made smaller. Hereinafter, this invention will be explained in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

The device shown in the figure shows an example of the case where the present invention is applied to a store fair cart.

The magnetic card A used in this device has a base made of cardboard or the like, a magnetic film formed on one side, and a colored film and a conductive film formed on the other side. The magnetic film records at least the remaining amount and the number of times it has been used together with the clock pulse. The colored film has a different hue from the conductive film, and is unnecessary if the hue on the conductive film side of the base is different from that of the conductive film. This magnetic card A has drive o-ra 1, 2,
3 and pinch rollers 4, 5, and 6, the paper is conveyed from the right to the left in the figure, and then from the left to the right.

Each drive roller and pinch roller is rotatably supported via a shaft by a pair of parallel side plates 7a and 7b, and each drive roller is rotated forward and backward by a drive mechanism (not shown). . Further, each pinch roller is pressed against a corresponding drive roller by a coil spring (not shown) or the like. The distance between each drive roller is adjusted to be slightly shorter than the length of one card. 8a and 8b are a light emitting element and a light receiving element provided in the card insertion slot;
When the card is inserted between the two, the output of the light receiving element 8b at that time is supplied to the drive roller drive mechanism to rotate each drive roller in the normal direction.

Reference numerals 9a and 9b denote a light emitting element and a light receiving element, which are provided approximately the length of the magnetic card A in the card transport direction from the write head 11, which will be described later, and the leading edge of the magnetic card A reaches between them. The output of the light receiving element 9b at this time is supplied to the drive mechanism to rotate each drive roller in the reverse direction.

A read head 10, a write head 11 and a roller 12 are provided between the drive rollers 2,3.

A read head 10 and a write head 11 are fixed to the side plate 7a so as to be located on the side of the side plate 7a. Further, the roller 12 is rotatably supported by the side plate 7b, and is provided on the side plate 7b so as to be at the same position as the reading head 10 with respect to the card conveyance direction. Head pressing rollers 13 and 14 are provided between the pinch rollers 5 and 6 so as to face the reading head 10 and the writing head 11 through the card conveyance path, and rollers 12 and 14 are provided between the pinch rollers 5 and 6. A printing head 15 is provided so as to face each other.

The printing head 15 is a discharge recording type printing head having a large number of needle-like electrodes 16 at positions facing the roller 12, and is fixed to a shaft 17 rotatably supported on the side plates 7a and 7b. The upper end of the printing head 15 is connected to a solenoid mechanism 18, and the needle-like electrode 16 is brought into contact with the conductive film of the magnetic card A during printing. The needle electrode 16 is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the card conveyance direction, that is, in the width direction of the magnetic card A, and
They are individually connected to the printing circuit 23, and during printing,
A positive potential with respect to the magnetic card A is applied to a predetermined needle-like electrode. The head holding rollers 13 and 14 are bent into an L shape, and are rotatably supported at one ends of arms 19 and 20, respectively, which are rotatably supported on the side plate 7a at the bent portions.

The other ends of the arms 19 and 20 are tension coil springs 21 and 22.
The rollers 13 and 14 are brought into contact with the conductive film of the magnetic card A and are pulled to press the magnetic card A against the read head 10 and the write head 11. When the printing head 15 prints on the conductive film, the rollers 13 and 14 transfer the discharge current flowing through the conductive film to the printed circuit 23.
It is made of a conductive material and is grounded (in this example, the negative of the discharge power supply is connected to the ground via the arms 16, 17 and the side plate 7a) in order to return to the discharge power supply provided inside the (because the side is grounded). In addition, arm 16
, 17 and the side plate 7a are also made of conductive material.
24 is a reading circuit, 25 is a writing circuit, and 26 is a signal processing circuit.

In this device, when a magnetic card A is inserted, the magnetic card A is conveyed from right to left in the figure, and when it passes a reading head 10, the information recorded on the magnetic film is transferred to the reading head 10. Read by.

The read information is supplied to the signal processing circuit 26. The signal processing circuit 26 calculates a new remaining amount and number of uses based on the remaining amount and number of uses from the read information and the current amount of use supplied from an input terminal not shown.
The information to be newly recorded and the information to be printed are edited, and each piece of information is separately supplied to the write circuit 35 and the print circuit 23. During this time, the magnetic card A has its tip connected to the light emitting element 9.
a and the light receiving element 9b, thereby being transported from the left to the right in the figure.

Then, when passing through the write head 11, new information supplied from the signal processing circuit 26 to the write head 11 via the write circuit 25 is recorded on the magnetic film. The newly recorded information is read by the read head 10 along with a reclock pulse and supplied to the signal processing circuit 26. The signal processing circuit 26 determines whether the information recorded by the write head 11 is correct or not, and if it is incorrect, the magnetic card A
Rewrite the signal to.

In this operation, the magnetic card A conveyed between the drive rollers 1 and 2 is reversely conveyed until its leading edge reaches between the light emitting element 9 and the light receiving element 9b, and then conveyed from the left to the right in the figure. This is done when passing the write head 11. In this case as well, the reading head 10 reads the magnetically recorded information, and the signal processing circuit 26 determines whether the rewritten information is correct. Signal processing circuit 26 also utilizes the read clock pulses to generate timing signals.

This signal is a signal for controlling printing by the printing head 15 in order to print characters, etc. for visually checking and confirming the remaining value in a different position each time the card is used. It is generated based on the number of uses and a clock pulse supplied from the reading circuit 24, and is supplied to the printing circuit 23. That is, the clock pulses are always recorded at a fixed position at a fixed interval (fixed frequency) and have a fixed relationship with the printed fields of value information, so for example, five clock pulses are interposed between each printed field. If clock pulses are recorded as shown in the table below, the first five clock pulses are recorded corresponding to the value information printing column when not in use (when the magnetic card was released), and the next five clock pulses are recorded in the first column. will be recorded accordingly.

Therefore, for the first use, new information is printed in the first column when the 6th clock pulse is read, and for the second and third uses, the 11th and 16th clock pulses are read, respectively. Control is performed so that new information is sometimes printed in the second and third columns. The printing circuit 23 applies a positive DC voltage to the acicular electrode according to the information to be printed supplied from the signal processing circuit 26, and generates a discharge between the acicular electrode and the conductive film.

At this time, since the head pressing rollers 13 and 14 are in contact with the conductive film, they function as return path electrodes for the discharge current. The information is thus recorded and the printed magnetic card A is further conveyed to the right and returned to the insertion slot.

According to the above device, since the reading head 10 and the printing head 15 are provided at the same position in the card transport direction, the length of the device in the card transport direction is shortened, and the card transport distance is reduced. becomes shorter.

Furthermore, since the head presser is a roller, there is no risk of damaging the conductive film. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments; for example, the heads only need to be provided close to each other in the card conveyance direction, and do not need to be located at the same position. Further, one of the head pressing rollers can be used as a return path electrode for the discharge current. Further, the print timing signal may be a timing signal itself other than a clock pulse, and this print timing signal may be recorded on the magnetic film in a superimposed manner with information, or may be recorded on a separate track. may have been done. As described above, according to the present invention, the heads are provided close to each other in the card transport direction, and the reading magnetic head is used for reading information and reading signals for creating print timing signals. For,
The transport distance of the card can be shortened, and therefore the processing time can be shortened, and the device can be made smaller and less expensive.

Furthermore, according to the second aspect of the invention, since the head holder is used as a return electrode for the discharge current, the device can be made smaller and less expensive.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along a line in FIG. A is a magnetic card, 1, 2, 3 are drive rollers, 4, 5
, 6 are pinch rollers, 10 is a reading head, 11 is a writing head, 13 and 14 are head holding rollers, and 15 is a printing head.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Information can be stored on a magnetic card having a magnetic film and a conductive film.
In a magnetic card processing device, magnetic recording is performed on the magnetic film, and printing is performed using a discharge recording method on the conductive film, wherein a recording magnetic head, a reading magnetic head, and a discharge recording method are used for printing. A magnetic card processing device characterized in that heads are provided close to each other in the card transport direction, and the reading magnetic head is used to read information and print timing signals respectively recorded on the magnetic film. 2. Printing information on a magnetic card having a magnetic film on one side and a conductive film on the other side, by performing magnetic recording on the magnetic film and using a discharge recording method on the conductive film. In such a magnetic card processing device, a recording magnetic head, a reading magnetic head, and a discharge recording type print head are provided close to each other in the card conveyance direction, and the reading magnetic head is arranged to record information on the magnetic film, respectively. The magnetic head is used for reading the printed information and the print timing signal, and one or both of the head holders for the magnetic head is used as a return path electrode for a discharge current flowing from the print head to the conductive film. magnetic card processing equipment.