JPH0370829B2 - - Google Patents

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, cards have been made to record the corresponding price of the card and re-encode and return the balance each time it is used, making it possible to make multiple transactions without using cash each time. Stored air cards are now being used. In the case of such a card processing device, it is necessary to write magnetic information on the magnetic stripe portion of the card and to print the usage balance each time the card is used. By the way, when printing on a card using the wire dot method, the print head wears out only when an attempt is made to actually print by impacting the card with a pin. Therefore, when accepting cards are transported and returned using the same route, even if the printing unit is placed along the route that the cards travel back and forth, if the cards are transported but not printed, the print head will wear out. No adverse effects due to wear will occur. However, when printing by thermal printing, the card is 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.

A conventional thermal dot printing head 1 also has a driver circuit 3 on one side of a dot line 2 provided on the head, as shown in a perspective view in FIG.
Therefore, in FIG. 1, when the card is conveyed to the left, the card will not get hit by the driver circuit 3, but when it is conveyed to the right, there is a risk that the card will get hit by the driver circuit 3, so it is necessary to devise a conveying route. The need arose.

Purpose 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 provide a conventional heat-sensitive head 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 on 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 cards inserted through an insertion/ejection port, performs thermal printing on the cards, and ejects the cards from the insertion/ejection port. First conveyance paths A and B that take in cards and convey them in the insertion direction and convey cards to be ejected to the insertion/ejection port, and cards arranged at the end of the first conveyance path. A second conveyance path C that forms a bypass path for at least a part of the first conveyance path and conveys the cards held in the temporary retention sections in the discharge direction. and a thermal printing head 1 disposed on the second conveyance path.

According to the present invention having such features, cards are taken in through the first conveyance path, conveyed, and held in the temporary holding section, and cards that require printing are transferred when they pass through the second conveyance path. printing at the same time. Therefore, there are no cards that simply pass the position of the thermal printing head without being printed, and wear on the thermal printing head can be reduced. Also, since cards that pass through the thermal head are always unidirectional,
Even when a normal heat-sensitive head having a convex portion in the driver circuit portion is used, the cards can be transported smoothly without the risk of being caught.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top view and a side view of a stored air card processing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that this processing device is used as a card processing section of an automatic ticket vending machine. In these figures, at the left end of the card processing device, a card insertion stand 4 is provided to protrude as shown, and an insertion/ejection port (not shown) is provided. The card inserted from card insertion stand 4 is photoelectric switch SW1.
is detected and sent to conveyance path A. Transport route A
consists of rollers 5, 6 and a conveyor belt 7 stretched thereon, and rollers 8, 9 and a conveyor belt 10 stretched thereon, and the card is conveyed between the conveyor belts 7, 10.
It is conveyed in the left-right direction while being held in between. 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, a photoelectric switch SW2 detects the rollers 16 and 17 along the card transport path B and the card reaching the rollers.
is placed. Also, on the right side is a guide 18, 1 for temporarily holding the card during transaction processing.
9 and a photoelectric switch SW3 for detecting when the card reaches the center of these guides. Here, the guides 18 and 19 constitute a temporary holding section that temporarily holds inserted cards. In addition, the conveyance path A conveys the inserted card in the insertion direction, and also conveys the card in the ejection direction.
The insertion path B is an ejection transport path, and the insertion path B is an insertion transport path that transports the card to the temporary holding section.
These constitute the first conveyance path. 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 on the right side of the temporary storage section. The feed roller 21 is driven upward via the link 23 by the energization of the feed solenoid 22, and comes into contact with the lowest card of the stacked cards and guides it toward the guide 18,
This is the one that goes out to the 19th side. The temporarily held card or the drawn-out card is applied to a conventional thermal dot printing head 1 shown in FIG. 1 via a guide 24. A platen roller 25 is arranged above the dot line of this head 1, and a guide 2 for guiding the printed card.
6 and a flapper 27 are provided. Guide 2 here
4 and 26, the thermal dot printing head 1, and the platen roller 25, the conveyance path is defined as a second conveyance path C. This conveyance path C forms a bypass path for at least a portion of the first conveyance path. 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. Signals from the photoelectric switches SW1 to SW3 and the magnetic information reading section 11 described above are applied to a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 32 via an amplifier circuit 30 and an interface circuit 31. A memory 33 is connected to the CPU 32 as a storage means for temporarily storing arithmetic processing procedures and various data. The CPU 32 controls each section according to the arithmetic processing procedure of the memory 33, and outputs the aforementioned thermal dot printing head 1, magnetic information writing section 12,
Motors 13, 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 a flowchart and a waveform diagram. FIG. 5 is a flow chart for processing an inserted card, and FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of each part. In the flowchart below, the number indicated using a leader line is CPU32
The operating steps are shown. In Fig. 5, if the card is first inserted into the card insertion stand 4 (step 40), the process proceeds to step 41 and the photoelectric switch SW is activated.
Check whether 1 is turned on. When the switch SW1 is turned on, the card has been inserted, so 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. 6B. Then, as shown in FIG. 6c, the magnetic information reading unit 11 provided on the conveyance path A reads the magnetic information on the magnetic stripe of the card (step 43), and determines whether the card is a valid card or not. . If this is not a valid card, proceed to step 45 and motor 13
is reversed and the photoelectric switch is turned on in step 46.
While checking whether SW1 is turned on,
Transport the card in the opposite direction of the arrow. 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) and the return process is completed. On the other hand, if the inserted card is a valid card in step 44, 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 the conveyance path A to the conveyance path B and its tip reaches the rollers 16 and 17, so the drive of the motor 13 is stopped as shown in FIGS. 6b and 6e.
49), then rotate the motor 28 in the normal direction (step
50) Check whether photoelectric switch SW3 is turned on. When the photoelectric switch SW3 is turned on, the motor 28 is stopped (step 51). 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 edge of the card comes into contact with the flapper 15 and the leading edge of the platen roller 25, and is pushed down and guided to the thermal dot printing head 1 through the conveyance 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 dot line 2 of the thermal dot printing head 1, so the external device Thermal printing is started for the print data given by, for example, 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 thermal printing is completed in step 56, the motor 28 is stopped (step 58), and then in step 59 the motor 13 is reversed.
In this way, the leading end of the card pushes up the flapper 27, and the card is transferred from the conveyance path C to the conveyance path A, and the card is conveyed. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 6d and c, magnetic information is written by the magnetic information writing section 12, and immediately thereafter, the magnetic information reading section 11
Read the magnetic information written by the
60, 61), check the written data. Then, in step 62, it is determined whether the writing of magnetic information is normal or not, and if it is abnormal, abnormality processing is performed and the process ends (routine 63). If the written information is normal, it is checked in step 64 whether the photoelectric switch SW1 is on.
When this 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, printing on the card is performed only when the card passes through the transport path C, so that wear on the thermal dot printing 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, it waits to see if there is a command to issue a new card, and if there is an issue signal, as shown in FIG. 8a, the payout solenoid 22 is turned on (step 71). Then, the feed roller 21 is pushed up by the link 23 and the card case 2 is pushed up.
Touch the lowest card in 0. Then, in step 72, when the motor 28 is reversed, the card is fed out from the card case 20 and the guide 18,
19 and reaches rollers 16 and 17, photoelectric switch SW2 is turned on. Then step
74 and the feeding solenoid 2 as shown in Fig. 8b.
2 is turned off, the card continues to be conveyed along the conveyance path C, and the process proceeds to step 75, where the photoelectric switch SW2 is turned off and it is checked whether the leading end of the card reaches the platen roller 25 or not. When it reaches the platen roller 25, thermal printing is performed by the thermal dot printing head 1 (step 76), as shown in FIG. 8e, as in the case described above, and the printing is awaited for completion (step 77). When the printing is completed, the card has reached the transport path A, so the motor 28 is stopped, the motor 13 is reversed (steps 78 and 79), and magnetic information is written and read as shown in Fig. 8g and h. (steps 80, 81). 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, and if it is normal, a photoelectric switch is activated.
Check if SW1 is on. When this is turned on, the card has reached the insertion stand 4 and is ready for the customer to remove it, so the motor 13 is stopped as shown in FIG. 8f (step 85) and the card is waited for removal. In this way, even when issuing a new card, the card passes through the printing conveyance path C and is subjected to printing processing.

Although this embodiment has been described with respect to a stored air 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 drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional thermal dot printing head, FIGS. 2 and 3 are top and side views of a card processing device according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing its electrical configuration. Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the processing of the inserted card, Figure 6 is a time chart showing the operation of each part, Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the operation when issuing a new card, and Figure 8 is the time chart. This is a time chart showing the operation of each part. 1...Thermal dot printing head, 2...Dot line, 3...Driver circuit, 4...Card insertion stand, 11...Magnetic information reading section, 12...Magnetic information writing section, A, B, C...Transportation Route, 20...
Card case, SW1-SW3...photoelectric switch,
32...CPU, 33...Memory.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a card processing device that performs predetermined processing and thermal printing on cards inserted through an insertion/ejection port, and ejects the cards from the insertion/ejection port, the inserted cards are taken in. first transport paths A and B that transport cards in the insertion direction and to be ejected to the insertion/ejection port; and a temporary storage area for cards arranged at the end of the first transport path. sections 18 and 19, and a second conveyance path C that forms a bypass path for at least a part of the first conveyance path and conveys the cards held in the temporary holding section in the discharge direction. , a thermal printing head 1 disposed on the second conveyance path. 2 The first transport path transports cards inserted from the end of the insertion/ejection port in the insertion direction, and transports cards ejected from the end of the second transport path in the ejection direction. and an insertion/ejection conveyance path B that conveys cards inserted from the end of the insertion/ejection conveyance path A to the temporary storage section. The card processing device according to claim 1.