JP2763077B2 - Card carrier - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a card transport device.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a character reading head and a printing head are provided from the upstream side along a card conveying path, cards are conveyed one by one from the upstream side, character information of the card is read by the character reading head, and the reading is performed. A card transport device that prints necessary information corresponding to information on the card via a print head and discharges the printed card is used, for example, when a bank arranges various transfer papers.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, each time a printed card is ejected, conveyance of the next card is started. Therefore, only one card exists on the card transport path, and the processing efficiency is low.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a card transporting apparatus that can simultaneously perform a desired process on a plurality of cards by presenting a plurality of cards on a card transporting path and improve processing efficiency.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a card transporting apparatus capable of minimizing the influence of a transport error even if a transport error occurs in a part of a plurality of cards simultaneously present on a card transport path.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A card is transported, predetermined information is read from the card,
In a card transport device that writes the read information to the card and further transports the card, a card transport path, a card transport mechanism that transports a plurality of cards simultaneously on the card transport path, and a predetermined interval along the card transport path. A plurality of card sensors for detecting the passage of a card moving on the transfer path, and a position for storing transfer position information for each card of each card simultaneously moving on the card transfer path based on an output signal of the card sensor Information storage means,
The card transport mechanism is divided into a plurality of transport systems along the card transport path, and when a transport error occurs, an error position detecting unit that detects an error occurrence position based on information stored in the position information storage unit, and the detecting unit. And a transport system control means for stopping the card transport for the transport system on the downstream side of the error occurrence position detected by the above and for the transport system on the upstream side.

[Operation] When a transport error occurs, an error occurrence position is automatically detected based on information stored in the storage unit. Then, only the transport system upstream of this error occurrence position is stopped,
Card transport is continued in the downstream transport system. Therefore, the card that has already passed the error occurrence position is subjected to the predetermined processing, and is not affected by the error.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of the apparatus of the present embodiment, and an unprocessed card storage unit 2 for storing a plurality of unprocessed cards C is provided at an upstream end of a card transport path 1. At the downstream end, a processed card storage unit 3 for storing a plurality of processed cards C is provided.
Further, there are provided four transport motors 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d from the upstream side along the card transport path 1 and a plurality of transport rollers 5a to 5h which are rotationally driven by these transport motors 4a to 4d. As shown in FIG. 2, a card transport mechanism for simultaneously transporting a plurality of cards C one by one at a constant speed on the card transport path 1 is configured. By the way, the transport roller 5a
Functions as an unloading roller that takes out the cards C in the unprocessed card storage unit 2 one by one and sends them to the card transport path 1. Here, the transport motor 4a is connected to the transport rollers 5a and 5b.
And the transport motor 4b is driven by the transport rollers 5c and 5d.
And the transport motor 4c is driven by the transport rollers 5e and 5f.
The rotation of the roller is controlled, and the transport motor 4d
Is controlled. That is, the card transport mechanism is divided along the card transport path 1 into four independent card transport systems.

The OCR is located relatively upstream of the card transport path 1.
An (optical character reading) head 6 is provided, and a print head 7 is provided relatively downstream. OCR above
The head 6 is for optically reading character information recorded at a predetermined position of the card C conveyed on the card conveying path 1, and the read information is sent to a control unit 10 described later. On the other hand, the print head 7 prints out the print information given by the control unit 10 at a predetermined position of the card C conveyed on the card conveyance path 1.

Further, seven card sensors S1 to S7 for detecting the passage of the card C moving on the card transport path 1 are provided at predetermined intervals along the card transport path 1. FIG. 2 shows the positional relationship between the cards C1 to C6 moving on the card transport path 1 and the card sensors S1 to S7. As shown
Up to six cards C1 to C6 are present on the card transport path 1, and the cards C1 to C6 are predetermined on the sensors S1 to S7 unless a transport error such as a jam occurs. It passes sequentially at time intervals.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals 8a to 8h indicate card holding rollers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the control unit 10 of the present embodiment. That is, the control unit 10 is provided with a RAM for storing various data in the microprocessor 11 constituting the control unit main body.
(Random access memory) 12, the print head 7
The print controller 13 that outputs print data to the OCR
An OCR controller 14 for inputting a read character signal from the head 6, an input port 15 for receiving a signal from each of the card sensors S1 to S7, and a motor driver 16 for outputting a drive signal to each of the transport motors 4a to 4d are respectively connected. It is configured.

The RAM 12 is provided with a transport card management table 20 shown in FIG. In this table 20,
The card number areas A1 to A6 corresponding to the number of cards that can exist on the card transport path 1 ("6" in this embodiment) correspond to the number of card sensors S1 to S7 ("7" in this embodiment). bit _{b 11 ~b 61, b 21 ~b} 62, ...... b 17 ~b 67 are stored.

The microprocessor 11 is programmed so as to execute the main processing shown in FIG. 5 when the power is turned on. That is, first, initial processing such as initialization of the input port 15 and memory reset of the RAM 12 is performed. In this case, each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20 is reset to all "0". Next, it is determined whether the card C is stored in the unprocessed card storage unit 2 based on the output of the card sensor S1. Here, when the card is not stored, it waits until the card is stored.

When it detects that the card C is stored, the motor driver 16
To drive the transport motors 4a to 4d to start transporting the card C.

Thereafter, the input port 15 is periodically scanned to monitor the output signal of each of the card sensors S1 to S7. When any of the card sensors S1 to S7 detects the rear edge of the card C, the card C is scanned. Recognizing that the card C has passed, the corresponding bit of the transport card management table 20 is updated (position information storage means).

Here, the bit update processing of the transport card management table 20 will be specifically described. Microprocessor 11
Sets the first corresponding bit b ₁₁ of the card number area A1 when taking a posterior edge detection signal of the transfer after the start, the sensor S1. Also, setting the corresponding bit b ₁₂ in the first rear edge detection signal capturing when the area A1 of the sensor S2.
Similarly, setting the corresponding bit b ₁₇ in the first rear edge detection signal capturing when the area A1 of the sensor S7. Also, it sets the corresponding bit b ₂₁ of the card number area A2 when incorporating a second trailing edge detection signal of the sensor S1. Similarly, the corresponding bit b of the second corresponding bit b ₂₂ of the area A2 in the case of incorporating the case incorporating the trailing edge detection signal, the area in the second trailing edge detection signal of the sensor S7 A2 of sensor S2 Set ₂₇ each. Hereinafter, similarly, the corresponding bit b ₆₁ of the card number area A6 in the case of incorporating the sixth rear edge detection signal of the sensor S1, when incorporating sixth trailing edge detection signal of the sensor S2 area A6 of the corresponding hit b _62, when incorporating sixth trailing edge detection signal of the sensor S7, which respectively set the corresponding bit b ₆₇ of the area A6.

By the way, only six cards C are present on the card transport path 1 at the maximum, and when the transport of the seventh card C7 starts, the first card C1 is stored in the already processed card storage unit 3. is accommodated, each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₁₇ of the card number area A1 which corresponds to the first card C1 is all set. Therefore, when the seventh rear edge detection signal of the sensor S1 is captured, each bit b _{11 of the} area A1 is read.
Once resetting the ~b _17, sensor S1 corresponding bit b ₁₁
Will be set again. Hereinafter, similarly, when the eighth trailing edge detection signal of each of the sensors S1 to S8 is taken in, it is made to correspond to the area A2, and when the twelfth trailing edge detection signal is taken in, it is made to correspond to the area A6. Then, for each of the sensors S1 to S6
When the thirteenth trailing edge detection signal is fetched, it corresponds to area A1 again. Thus, each time the rear edge portion of the card C is detected by the card sensors S1 to S7, the corresponding bit updating process of the transport card management table 20 is performed.

On the other hand, since the positions of the sensors S1 to S7, the OCR head 6 and the print head 7 are fixed, and the card transport speed by each transport system is constant, for example, the card C whose edge is detected by the sensor S1 is The time required to reach the character reading position by the head 6 and the time required to reach the information writing position by the print head 7 are known in advance. Therefore, the microprocessor 11 sends any card C being transported.
If it is determined that the character has reached the character reading position by the OCR head 6, the OCR controller 14 is controlled to read the character information of the card C read by the OCR head 6 (OCR reading processing). If it is determined that an arbitrary card C being conveyed has reached the information writing position by the print head 7, the print controller 13 is controlled to write necessary information to the card C by the print head 6 (print processing). .

Further, the microprocessor 11 periodically performs the next error check process after the start of the transfer. That is, to be a timing error determination examines each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20 is compared with the state up to the previous. Here, as described above, since the card transport speed is constant and the mounting positions of the sensors S1 to S7 are fixed, the time from when the card C passes through any sensor to when it passes through the next sensor is set in advance. I know. Therefore, when the next bit is not set even after a certain time has passed since the hit corresponding to an arbitrary sensor is set, it can be determined that a transport error has occurred in the corresponding card. That is, it is possible to determine whether or not a transport error has occurred for each card by examining the bits b _{11 to} b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20 and comparing them with the previous state.

Then, examine each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20 if not an error occurs again. If at least one of the bits b _{11 to} b ₆₇ has been reset, the process returns to the scanning process of the input port 15 because the card C is present on the card transport path 1. In contrast, since if the bits b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ has been set all the cards C on the card conveying path 1 is no longer present, terminate the transport of the card C is stopped each conveying motor 4a~4d I do.

On the other hand, when the occurrence of a transport error is determined in the error check processing, the error processing shown in FIG. 6 is executed. First, an error occurrence location is detected based on the contents of the transport card management table 20. That is, since each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20 corresponds to each sensor S1 to S7, the error locations the mounting position of the sensor corresponding to the bit where it is determined that an error occurred.
(Error Position Detecting Means) Next, the card transport is continued as usual in the transport system downstream from the error occurrence location, but the card transport is interrupted by stopping the drive of the corresponding transport motor in the upstream transport system. (Transport system control means). Then, in this state, it waits until the error is released. If the error removal such as the removal of the card that caused the transport error is performed, the transport of the card by the transport system upstream from the location where the error occurred is restarted, and the process returns to the main processing.

In the present embodiment configured as described above, a plurality of (in this case, up to six) cards C
Are conveyed, and a character reading process by the OCR head 6 and an information writing process by the print head 7 are performed for each card C. The transport position of each card C being transported is
It is managed in real time by each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20.

Therefore, the processing efficiency can be greatly improved as compared with the conventional apparatus which can transport only one card C at a time. Moreover, since the transfer position of each card C is managed in real time by each bit b ₁₁ ~b ₆₇ of the transport card management table 20, the bit b ₁₁ of the table 20 when the transport error such as a jam occurs ~ The error occurrence position can be easily specified by analyzing _b67 . As a result, an appropriate response to a transport error can be promptly taken.

In the present embodiment, the card transport system for the card transport path 1 is divided into a plurality (in this case, "4"). Then, based on the contents of the transport card management table 20, it is periodically monitored whether or not a transport error has occurred in each card C being transported, and if a transport error is detected, the error occurrence position is automatically determined. The drive is stopped for the transport system on the upstream side from the error occurrence position,
The drive is continued for the transport system on the downstream side.

Therefore, the card C located downstream of the error occurrence position is processed irrespective of the error, so that there is an advantage that the influence of the error can be minimized.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention, such as the processing content for the card, the number of sensors, the number of cards that can be simultaneously conveyed, and the like. Of course.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention configured as described above, even if a transport error occurs in a part of a plurality of cards simultaneously present on the card transport path, the influence of the error can be reduced as much as possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the overall configuration of the apparatus, FIG. 2 is a view showing the positional relationship between a card on a card transport path and each card sensor, FIG. FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the apparatus, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transport card management table, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing main processing, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing error processing. 1 ... Card transport path, 4a-4d ... Transport motor, 5a-5h ...
... Conveyance roller, 6 ... OCR head, 7 ... Print head, 1
1 ... Microprocessor, 20 ... Conveyance card management table, C ... Card, S1-S7 ... Card sensor.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A card transporting apparatus for transporting a card, reading predetermined information from the card, writing the read information to the card, and further transporting the card, a card transport path and a plurality of cards on the card transport path simultaneously. A card transport mechanism for transporting the cards, a plurality of card sensors provided at predetermined intervals along the card transport path to detect the passage of the cards moving on the transport path, and based on output signals of these card sensors. And position information storage means for storing transfer position information for each card of each card moving simultaneously on the card transfer path, wherein the card transfer mechanism is divided into a plurality of transfer systems along the card transfer path, and An error position detection unit that detects an error occurrence position based on information stored by the position information storage unit when a transport error occurs; Ri detected for conveying system on the downstream side of the error occurrence position is continued card transfer, the card conveying apparatus characterized by comprising a conveyor system control means for stopping the card conveyance for conveyance system on the upstream side.