JP2743484B2 - IC card reader - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC card reader, and more particularly to a lock mechanism for preventing an IC card from being removed during access.

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows an example of a conventional IC card reader. FIG. 3a is a plan view seen from above, and FIG. 3b is a sectional side view of the same.
The IC card 50 inserted from the insertion slot 41 contacts the card contact portion 43 of the sliding lever 42, and slides the sliding lever 42 urged by the coil spring 44 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. ,
The lock claw 45 connected to the sliding lever 42 is lowered. At this time, when the pin 46 on the sliding lever 42 enters the groove 48 of the latch lever 47, the return of the sliding lever 42 by the coil spring 44 is restrained, and the lock claw 45 is maintained in a lowered state. When the solenoid 49 is excited, the latch lever 47 is moved, the pin 46 is disengaged from the groove 48, and the sliding lever 42 is
Returned by 44, lock claw 45 goes up. As described above, the lock mechanism of the conventional IC card reader lowers the lock claw 45 by using the insertion force of the card 50, and releases the lock by the spring force of the spring 44 extended by the insertion force of the card 50.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention As described above, the lock mechanism of the conventional IC card reader uses the insertion force of the card 50 to operate the lock claw 45. It requires an insertion force to perform, causing the operator to feel a sudden change in the insertion force. Also, even when a magnetic card such as a credit card is inserted, when a lock for preventing card removal is not required, the lock claw 45 is mechanically lowered by inserting the card 50 so that the card cannot be removed. I will.

Means for Solving the Problems To solve the above problems, an IC card reader according to the present invention is an IC card reader having a lock mechanism for preventing a card from being taken out during access by lowering a lock claw. A single solenoid that independently performs both the locking operation and the unlocking operation of the lock claw, and the solenoid performs both the locking operation and the unlocking operation by an exciting operation.

Operation With the above configuration, the IC card reader of the present invention can lock and unlock the card without being affected by the insertion force of the card, so that the insertion force of the card can be reduced, and both operations can be performed in a single operation. Is performed by the solenoid of
There is no need to provide a special mechanism for locking, and the space for the solenoid can be reduced to one, so that space can be saved.

Further, since all of the above operations are performed by the excitation operation of the solenoid, power is required only during the operation, so that power can be saved.

Embodiment An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an IC card reader according to the present invention, in particular, an IC card reader combined with magnetism. 1A is a plan view as viewed from above, FIG. 1B is a front view thereof, and FIG. 1C is a sectional side view thereof. 2a, 2b and 2c are diagrams showing the operation of the lock mechanism of the device.

A main body 1 made of a synthetic resin provided with an insertion slot 2 for an IC card 40 in the front has a magnetic head 3, a front sensor lever 4 for detecting insertion of the card 40, and a micro switch 5 on the front right side, and a rear right side. Is provided with a microswitch 6 for detecting the end of card insertion. At the rear inside the main body 1, there is a movable element 7 which receives the card and moves in the card insertion direction, and the movable element 7 is urged by a coil spring 8 in the ejection direction of the card 40. A contact member 10 having an IC connector 9 and a rear end thereof are connected to the mover 7 via a contact member 11, and are connected to a pin 13 on the main body through a front elongated hole 12. A card holding spring 14 and a card holding body 15 are provided on the rear right side of the main body. A lock mechanism is attached to the front left side of the main body. An L-shaped lever 17, a rotating lever 18, and a latch lever 19, each of which rotates around a pin, are mounted on a chassis 16 of the lock mechanism. A coil spring 20 and a solenoid 21 are attached to one end of the L-shaped lever 17, and a small lever 22 and a guide spring 23 are pinned to the other end.
It is rotatably attached to 24. Small lever 22
Has a pin 25, and the guide spring 23 sandwiches the pin 25 and a pin 26 set under the chassis 16. The rotation lever 18 is connected to a lock claw 28 via a connection lever 27. A coil spring 29 is attached to the connection lever 27, and biases the lock claw 28 in the upward direction. A coil spring 30 is attached to the latch lever 19, and a bias is applied so that the latch claw 31 contacts the latch groove 32 of the rotating lever 18. Rotating lever
A micro switch 33 is arranged on 18 and a rotating lever
By pressing the micro switch 33, the claw portion 18 detects that the lock claw 28 has been lowered.

In such a configuration, the card 40 is inserted into the card slot 2
Insert from. The insertion of the card 40 causes the front sensor lever 4 to rotate and press the microswitch 5 to detect the insertion of the card 40. The card 40 comes into contact with the movable element 7 and
Is moved backward. With the movement of the movable element 7, the contact member 11 rotates while abutting on the hole 35 of the main body 1 to lower the rear part of the contact member 10 on the card surface, and the front part of the contact member 10 also follows the elongated hole 12. The contact pins 36 of the IC connector 9 attached to the contact member 10 are pressed down on the IC terminal surface of the card 40. Card 40
Is held by the card holder 15 near the insertion end position. When the rear end of the movable element 7 detects the end of insertion of the card 40 by pressing the microswitch 6, the solenoid 21 is excited by a signal from the computer, and the L-shaped lever 17 is pulled. In the direction of arrow A in FIG.
Is rotated, the pin 25 on the small lever 22 is guided by the guide spring 23 and moves, and contacts the pin contact portion 37 of the rotating lever 18 to rotate the rotating lever 18 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 2A. Move and lock claw
28 is lowered. As shown in FIG. 2b, the rotation of the rotation lever 18 causes the latch claw 31 of the latch lever 19 to fall into the locking portion 38 of the latch groove 32, thereby restraining the movement of the rotation lever 18. At this time, the claw part 34 of the rotating lever 18 is
Pressing 33 detects that the lock claw 28 has dropped. After the excitation of the solenoid 21 is completed, the L-shaped lever 17 is retracted by the coil spring 20 in the direction of arrow C in FIG.
The pin 25 on 22 is also returned to the original position by the guide spring 23. After reading and writing the data of the IC of the card 40, the solenoid 21 is again excited by a signal from the computer, and the L-shaped lever 17 is pulled. The pin 25 on the small lever 22 moves by being guided by the guide spring 23, contacts the pin contact portion 39 of the latch lever, rotates the latch lever 19 in the direction of the arrow D in FIG. Remove from the locking portion 38 of the groove 32. Rotating lever
18 returns to the original position by the bias of the spring 29, and the lock claw 28 is raised. When the card is pulled out, the moving element 7 becomes a coil spring 8
As a result, the contact member 10 moves up from the card surface by moving the IC connector 9 pressed against the card terminal surface.
Contact pins 36 are separated. When the trailing end of the moving element 7 is separated from the microswitch 6 and the start of ejection of the card 40 is detected, the magnetic head 3 starts reading data of the magnetic track of the card 40. When the card 40 is completely discharged, the front sensor lever 4 returns and the micro switch 5 is released.

Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the lock pawl can be raised and lowered without using the card insertion force, so that the card insertion force at the time of card insertion can be reduced. Moreover, when a magnetic card such as a credit card is inserted and a lock is not required to prevent the card from being removed, the computer does not operate the drive means, so the lock claw does not go down and the inserted card must be removed as it is. Can be operated smoothly. Further, by using the lock mechanism driven by a single solenoid according to the present embodiment, the lock mechanism can be configured to be small in size and low in cost. In addition, by having a position detection means that can detect that the lock claw is completely lowered, it is possible to prevent erroneous ejection of the card due to an incomplete lock state during access to the IC card, and configure a safe system it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 shows an embodiment of an IC card reader according to the present invention, FIG. 1a is a plan view seen from above, FIG. 1b is a front view,
FIG. 1c is a side sectional view. FIGS. 2a, 2b and 2c are plan views of essential parts showing the operation of the lock mechanism of the device. FIG. 3A is a plan view of a conventional IC card reader / writer, and FIG. 3B is a sectional side view of the same. 1 ... body, 2 ... insertion slot, 3 ... magnetic head, 4 ...
Front sensor lever, 5: Micro switch, 6: Micro switch, 7: Moving element, 9: IC connector, 10
... contact member, 11 contact member, 15 card holder, 17 L-shaped lever, 18 rotating lever,
19: Latch lever, 21: Solenoid, 22: Small lever, 23: Guide spring, 24: Pin, 27: Connection lever, 28: Locking claw, 31: Latch claw, 32: Latch groove , 33 ... micro switch, 20 ... coil spring, 29 ...
... Coil spring, 30 ... Coil spring.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An IC having a lock mechanism for preventing removal of a card during access by lowering a lock claw.
The card reader includes a single solenoid that performs both the locking operation and the unlocking operation of the lock claw independently of the insertion force of the card, and the solenoid alternately performs both the locking operation and the unlocking operation. IC card reader that performs excitation operation.