JPH08227576A - Card reader and card cleaning unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily and effectively prevent sticking of dusts to a reading head in a card reader. CONSTITUTION: A slit 4a is formed in the case 4 of a card reader and a reading head 2a made integral with a card reading section 2 is provided in one side wall of this slit 4a. A shape memorizable unwoven cloth 3 is disposed in a belt in a wall section between the opening section of the slit 4a and the disposed position of the reading head 2a, that is, in a path for inserting a magnetic card 1 so as to close the vicinity of the opening section by this unwoven cloth 3 before the magnetic card 1 is housed. When information is read from a magnetic stripe 1a, the magnetic card 1 is inserted into the opening and housed. Then, the portion of a specified area size including the magnetic stripe 1a is brought to contact with the relevant spot of the nonwoven fabric 3 and dusts are eliminated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card reader for exchanging information with a card to which an information recording medium is attached, and more particularly to a mechanism for cleaning the card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a system for performing personal identification and credit processing using an IC card or a magnetic card, a card reader for reading information from an information recording medium attached to the card, such as an IC section or a magnetic stripe, is indispensable. Become. In general, this type of card reading device is applied to a slit for accommodating one end of the card, for example, a long end, for guiding the traveling of the card, and an information recording medium of the card guided to a predetermined portion of the slit. The head is in contact with the head, and the card is configured to read the content recorded on the information recording medium by moving the card along the surface of the head.

By the way, when a card to which dust is attached is used or when falling dust is present around the card reading device, the dust accumulates on the head surface and causes deterioration of the head characteristics. Therefore, as such dust removing or card cleaning means, there has been conventionally used a "magnetic head dirt prevention structure for a reader / writer device" (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-319590).
See Japanese Patent Publication No. 1), "Cleaning Device for Magnetic Card Reader" (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-118790, hereinafter, Conventional Example 2), and "Magnetic Card Reader / Writer" (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 64). -48784 gazette, the following prior art example 3) is disclosed.

In the first conventional example, a magnetic card sliding contact convex side having a length covering the entire width direction of the data recording area is arranged at a position corresponding to the data recording area of the card in the middle of the card transport path. By doing so, the contents are to remove dust adhering to the data recording area (information recording medium).
Further, in the conventional example 2, a rubber piece that contacts the magnetic stripe surface (information recording medium) is hung vertically in front of the magnetic head to remove dust, and in the conventional example 3, the magnetic pole surface of the magnetic card (information recording medium). ) Is pressure-cleaned with a cleaning material.

[0005]

According to the above-mentioned conventional examples, since the magnetic head is always in contact with the information recording medium after cleaning, it is expected that contamination of the magnetic head and accompanying head damage can be reduced. To be done. However, the card cleaning technology according to each conventional example is a method of removing dust by contacting a slidable convex piece, a rubber piece, or a cleaning material with the information recording medium while the card is running, so it is effective in preventing dirt on the head. There is a problem that the cleaning target area is large relative to the contact area of the cleaning material and the cleaning effect does not last. Further, conventionally, no measures have been taken against the falling dust around the card reading device.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for easily and effectively preventing the adhesion of dust to the head of a card reading device.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a slit for accommodating one end of a card to which an information recording medium is attached and for guiding the travel of the card.
In a card reading device having a head that comes into contact with the information recording medium of the card guided to a predetermined portion of the slit, at least one end portion of the card is provided between the opening portion of the slit and the installation portion of the head. A band-shaped dust adsorbing member having a length and extending in the traveling direction of the card is arranged, and when the one end of the card is accommodated from a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction, the information recording medium and the dust adsorbing member. It is characterized in that it is configured to come into contact with. The information recording medium may be of any kind as long as it is a recording medium that can be attached to an IC chip or a card in addition to the magnetic stripe.

The dust adsorbing member is formed of, for example, a shape memory member which is deformed according to the shape of the card during storage or running and is restored when the card is removed, such as a non-woven fabric, a brush, or a porous sponge. It is preferable that the opening of the slit is closed by the dust suction member when the card is removed.

The present invention also relates to an existing card reader,
For example, a card having a slit that accommodates one end of a card to which an information recording medium is attached and guides the traveling of the card, and a head that abuts the information recording medium of the card that is guided to a predetermined portion of the slit. There is also provided a card cleaning unit which solves the above-mentioned problems by being attached to a reading device. This card cleaning unit is provided with an auxiliary slit for guiding accommodation of the card in the slit and traveling of the card accommodated in the slit, and at least one end portion of the card is provided on an opening side wall of the auxiliary slit. A band-shaped dust adsorbing member having a length and extending in the traveling direction of the card is arranged, and when the one end of the card is accommodated from a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction, the information recording medium and the dust adsorbing member. It is configured to come into contact with. Also in this case, it is preferable that the dust suction member is formed of the shape memory member so that the opening of the auxiliary slit is closed by the dust suction member when the card is removed.

[0010]

In the card reading apparatus of the present invention, when one end of the card is inserted into the slit and accommodated, the portion of the card having a predetermined area including the information recording medium comes into contact with the dust adsorbing member. Since the dust adsorbing member has a strip shape extending in the running direction of the card and is longer than at least one end of the card,
The area where dust is removed at one time becomes larger than that in the conventional device. Therefore, the cleaning effect is increased accordingly. If the dust adsorbing member is formed of a shape memory member, for example, it will be deformed according to the shape of the card when the card is housed or when it is running, so it will not hinder the storage or running of the card, while it will be restored when the card is removed and slit Since the opening is closed, the adhesion of falling dust to the head is suppressed.

The card cleaning unit is mounted so that at least the opening of the auxiliary slit and the opening of the slit in the existing card reading device are aligned with each other. As a result, as in the case described above, when the card is stored, the portion of the card having a predetermined area including the information recording medium is cleaned.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. First, the structure of a card reader according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a usage state of this card reading device, and a cutout portion shows an internal structure of the slit 4a. In this embodiment,
The magnetic card 1 to which the magnetic stripe 1a is attached is used.

The card reader according to this embodiment has a case 4
Has a slit 4a whose upper surface (card receiving surface) and one end thereof are opened in the longitudinal direction, and a reading head 2a integrated with the card reading unit 2 is provided on one side wall of the slit 4a. The magnetic card 1 is arranged so as to come into contact with the magnetic stripe 1a when the magnetic card 1 runs. Slit 4a
In the wall portion between the opening portion of 1 and the portion where the reading head 2a is provided, that is, in the path into which the magnetic card 1 is inserted, a shape-memory dust adsorbing member, for example, a non-woven fabric 3 is provided in a strip shape.
Before the magnetic card 1 is housed, the nonwoven fabric 3 closes the vicinity of the opening. The width of the nonwoven fabric 3 is arbitrary, and the length in the lengthwise direction is at least the length in the lengthwise direction of the magnetic stripe 1a. The non-woven fabric 3 is preferably arranged on both side walls of the slit 4a so that it can be detached when dirt reaches a predetermined amount.

In use, first, the magnetic card 1 is inserted into the opening of the slit 4a and accommodated therein. At this time, the corresponding part of the non-woven fabric 3 is deformed, and the part of the magnetic card 1 having a predetermined area including the magnetic stripe 1a comes into contact with the corresponding part of the non-woven fabric 3 to remove dust. Here, the predetermined area is an area determined by the product of the insertion width l (see FIG. 1) of the magnetic card 1 and the length of the card in the longitudinal direction, and this is the clean area of the magnetic card 1.

After removing the dust, the magnetic card 1 is pulled straight in a direction perpendicular to the housing direction, that is, in the direction 4b shown by the arrow. As a result, the magnetic stripe 1a moves in parallel in the running direction and comes into contact with the reading head 2a of the card reading unit 2, and the recorded information is read at that time.

After reading the information, the magnetic card 1 is removed from one end of the case 4, as shown in FIG. Then, the non-woven fabric 3 returns to its original shape when the contact with the magnetic card 1 is released, and the opening of the slit 4a is closed again.

As described above, in this embodiment, the magnetic card 1 is used.
The strip-shaped non-woven fabric 3 is arranged near the opening of the slit 4a for accommodating the magnetic stripe 1a only when the card is accommodated.
Since the minimum area including the sticking part is cleaned, the cleaning effect can be maintained for a longer period while maintaining a certain cleaning effect. Further, since the shape-memory non-woven fabric 3 is used, the opening of the slit 4a is closed when it is not necessary to read information from the magnetic stripe 1a, so that dirt due to falling dust due to the installation environment is prevented in advance. It will be possible.

The above is an example of the case where the dust adsorbing member (nonwoven fabric 3) is provided in the card reading device itself, but if the card cleaning unit of the present invention is used, the existing card reading device is used as it is. The same effect can be expected. This card cleaning unit has an arbitrary shape and structure, but at least assists in guiding the accommodation of the magnetic card 1 in the slit 4a of the card reader and the running of the magnetic card 1 accommodated in the slit 4a. A slit is provided, and the shape-memory dust adsorbing member (nonwoven fabric 3) is arranged on the side wall of the opening of the auxiliary slit. In this case, the procedure for removing dust from the magnetic card 1 and the procedure for reading information from the magnetic stripe 1a are the same as those for the card reading apparatus according to the present embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the card reader of the present invention, when the card is stored, the cleaning target area of the card is cleaned at once by the band-shaped dust adsorbing member. The cleaning effect is higher than that of the dust removal technology described above, and the cleaning effect can be maintained for a longer period of time. Further, since the dust adsorbing member is formed of the shape memory member, the opening of the slit is closed when the card is not used, and the amount of descent dust adhering to the head is significantly reduced. As a result, wear of the head can be prevented, and the life of the card reading device becomes longer than that of the conventional product.

Further, according to the card cleaning unit of the present invention, the same effect as in the case of the card reading device of the present invention can be obtained only by mounting it on the existing card reading device.
Practicality is enhanced.

[0021]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory view of a card reading device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 magnetic card 1a magnetic stripe 2 card reading section 2a reading head 3 band-shaped non-woven fabric (shape-memory dust adsorbing member) 4 card reader case 4a slit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A slit for accommodating one end of a card to which an information recording medium is attached and for guiding the traveling of the card,
In a card reading device having a head that contacts the information recording medium of the card guided to a predetermined portion of the slit, at least one end portion of the card is provided between the opening portion of the slit and the installation portion of the head. A band-shaped dust adsorbing member having a length and extending in the traveling direction of the card is arranged, and when the one end of the card is accommodated from a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction, the information recording medium and the dust adsorbing member. A card reading device, characterized in that it is configured so as to come into contact with. 2. The dust suction member is a shape memory member that is deformed according to the shape of the card during storage or traveling and is restored when the card is removed, and the opening of the slit is removed when the card is removed. The card reading device according to claim 1, wherein the card reading device is closed by the dust suction member. 3. A slit for accommodating one end of a card to which an information recording medium is attached and for guiding the traveling of the card,
A card cleaning unit mounted on a card reader having a head that abuts an information recording medium of the card guided to a predetermined portion of the slit, the card being housed in the slit and housed in the slit. An auxiliary slit for guiding the traveling of the card, and a belt-like dust adsorbing member having a length of at least one end of the card and extending in the traveling direction of the card is provided on the side wall of the opening of the auxiliary slit. A card cleaning unit, which is arranged so that the information recording medium and the dust suction member come into contact with each other when one end of the card is accommodated in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction. 4. The dust suction member is a shape memory member that is deformed according to the state of the card during storage or traveling and is restored when the card is removed, and the opening of the auxiliary slit when the card is removed. The card cleaning unit according to claim 3, wherein the dust adsorbing member closes the card.