JP2774848B2 - Card feeding device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card supply device, and more particularly, to a device for supplying cards one by one from a cartridge storing a flexible card.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a card supply apparatus for supplying single-sheet cards formed of plastic, paper, or the like, for example, a mechanism shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 is generally well known.

The card supply device shown in FIG. 9 pushes out the rear end of the lowermost card H1 of the plurality of cards stacked and stored in the box-shaped cartridge 120 with the plate-shaped jig 130 and sends out the same. It has become.

On the other hand, the card supply device shown in FIG. 10 is adapted to send out the lowermost card H1 by the frictional force of the rotating roller 230 provided at the bottom of the cartridge 220.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, the card supply device shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 has the following problems. That is, unless the accuracy of the jig pushing mechanism, the outlet of the cartridge bottom and the thickness of the card is extremely high, the card H1 cannot be stably and reliably sent out (normally, the opening of the cartridge corresponds to one card. Is slightly wider than the thickness of the jig and smaller than the thickness of two cards.
It is processed slightly smaller than the thickness of one card).

Since the cartridge is usually manufactured by plastic molding, the dimensional accuracy is poor. For this reason, secondary processing for the purpose of improving dimensional accuracy is separately required, and productivity is lacking.

In the case of the mechanism shown in FIG. 10, if the balance between the frictional force generated by the rotation mechanism of the roller 230 and the card surface and the vertical load due to the weight of the card in the cartridge is not ensured, the card H1 can be sent out normally. Can not.

The so-called double insertion may occur due to static electricity generated between the lowermost card (sending target card) and the card located on the upper surface of the lowermost card.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a card supply device capable of reliably sending out stable cards one by one.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention provides a cartridge (20) for stacking and storing a plurality of flexible cards (H), and a card (H) provided at the bottom of the cartridge (20). The cartridge (20) includes a card outlet (P) for sending out the card (H), and a card outlet (P) for sending out the card (H). ), A bar-shaped locking portion (25) provided at a substantially central portion of the card sending mechanism (40).
Is a pair of rotating rollers that are in contact with the lowermost card (H1) whose roller axis direction is set substantially parallel to the sending direction of the lowermost card (H1) stored in the cartridge (20). (41a, 41b), and the rotating rollers (41a, 41b)
Is rotated inward of the lowermost card (H1) to advance the lowermost card (H1) while curving it downward, and to move over the locking portion (25) to cause the cartridge ( 20) A card supply device to be sent out.

[Action]

According to the present invention, for example, a set of two spirally-protruded rotary rollers is attached to the lowermost card (delivery target card) in the cartridge in a roller axis direction substantially parallel to the delivery direction. By setting and rotating the card inward, the lowermost card is positively separated from the card located on the upper surface of the lowermost card and sent out.

That is, the card is curved downward and advances in the sending direction by the spiral projection of the rotating roller, so that only one card at the lowermost position gets over the tip projection as the locking portion and is sent out.

Therefore, as the card at the bottom position is sent, the card located thereabove is not sent out by the influence of static electricity or the frictional force due to the weight of the card in the cartridge. Only sent out.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the card supply device 1 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the card H as a work object has a single-wafer shape, and is made of paper or a plastic material such as vinyl chloride or polyethylene terephthalate. Further, the recording medium includes a medium coated with a magnetic material, a mark, or the like.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the card supply device 1 before assembling. The device 1 includes a cartridge 20 for storing a card (not shown) and a cartridge 20 for storing the card.
And a weight 3 inserted as needed to press the card stored in the cartridge 20 downward.

The cartridge 20 has a card slot E and a notch.
The cartridge 20 has a box shape having 24a and 24b, and a card outlet P is opened at the bottom of the front surface 21a of the cartridge 20. Further, on the lower surface of the front portion 21a, a tip projection 25 as a bar-shaped locking portion for locking the card H as a work target so as not to come out except when necessary is fixed. 1 and 3). This tip projection 25
As shown in FIG. 3 or 4, the card H has a curved portion 25a at its lowermost portion, so that the card H can be sent out smoothly.

The bottom of such a box-shaped cartridge 20 is notched with a predetermined area (not shown) and is open,
A rotating roller of a card sending mechanism 40, which will be described later, is provided at the opening, and the rotating roller and the card H1 at the lowest position in the cartridge 20 (where the number following H is the position from the lowest position. , And a simple card H means a comprehensive card).

The card supply mechanism 40 provided at the bottom of such a box-shaped cartridge 20 advances the lowermost card H1 in the cartridge 20 while curving it downward as shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. A pair of rod-shaped rotating rollers 41a,
It has 41b.

Both ends of these rotating rollers 41a and 41b are supported by bearings (not shown), and worms 43a and 43b are provided on one end side, respectively. This warm 4
The worm wheels 3a and 43b are meshed with worm wheels 44a and 44b fixed to a drive shaft 45 substantially orthogonal to the rotating rollers 41a and 41b. Then, by driving a motor 48 connected via gears 46 and 47 provided at one end of the drive shaft 45, the rotating rollers 41a and 41b respectively rotate the card H1 inward so as to curve the card H1 inward. To each other (FIG. 6).

Rotary roller provided in such a card supply mechanism 40
As shown in FIG. 5, spiral projections 42a and 42 are provided on the outer peripheral surfaces of the spirals 41a and 41b so as to send out the card H1 in the sending-out direction (direction (a)) with the rotation of the rotating rollers 41a and 41b.
b is formed.

The material of the rotating rollers 41a and 41b and the shape of the spiral projections 42a and 42b on their surfaces are appropriately selected depending on the card material, but usually a material having a high frictional force such as rubber is selected.

Next, the operation of the card supply device 1 described above will be described.

Of the plurality of flexible cards H stacked and stored in the cartridge 20, the lowermost card H1 is in contact with the rotating rollers 41a and 41b of the card sending mechanism.

Then, when sending out the card H1, by driving the drive system including the motor 48, the rotating rollers 41a, 41b
Respectively rotate toward the inside of the card, and the frictional force between the surface of the rotating rollers 41a and 41b and the card H1 causes the card H1 to rotate.
Are shown in FIG. 5 from both ends of the card H1 (c),
(D) While receiving force in the direction, the spiral projections 42a,
The force is also applied to the card H1 in the forward direction (a) by the card 42b.

Accordingly, the card H1 is curved downward ((b) direction) and moves forward as shown in FIG. As a result, the leading end of the card H1 in the forward direction gets over the rod-shaped leading protrusion 25 as shown in FIG.

Next, the card H2 is set at the lowermost position, and the same operation as described above is performed again to send out the card H2.

Next, an application example in which the card supply device 1 of the present invention is applied to a card issuing machine such as a card-type insurance policy will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 7, the card issuing machine 10 includes the above-described card supply device 1 and a pair of rotating belts 60a and 60b connected to the card supply device 1, and the cards are mounted on these belts 60a and 60b. A card transport mechanism 60 for nipping and transporting; a dot impact printer 70 connected to the card transport mechanism 60 for printing the surface of the transported card; and a pair of rotating devices for discharging the printed card. And a card transport mechanism 80 having moving rotating belts 80a and 80b. The card supply device 1 is usually provided with a limit switch LS for confirming the remaining amount of cards in the cartridge 20. Further, the card supply mechanism 60, the dot impact printer 70 and the card At the positions, photoelectric sensors P1, P2, and P3 are installed, respectively.

The process of processing a card-type insurance policy using such a card issuing machine 10 will be sequentially described below. In this description, reference is also made to the block diagram of the card issuing machine shown in FIG.

(1) The card of the card-type insurance policy is supplied into the cartridge 20 with the printed side of the card facing up. Next, the weight 3 is placed on the stacked cards (FIG. 1). In this case, the card H has a matte surface on one side, and is designed to be machine-printable by a dot impact printer.

(2) The cartridge 20 is loaded into the card supply device 40.

(3) The print data is input using the keyboard 90 shown in FIG.

(4) Input a ticketing start instruction from the keyboard 90.

(5) The remaining card amount in the cartridge 20 is checked by the limit switch LS. If there is a remaining amount, the card supply device 40 starts operating and the lowermost card H1 in the cartridge 20 is sent out. The transmitted operation is as described above.

(6) The lowermost card H1 is placed in the cartridge 20 by the photoelectric sensor P1 installed near the lower outlet of the cartridge 20.
When it is confirmed that the card has been sent from 20, the card transport mechanism
60 starts operation and the card H1 on the conveyor (rotating belt)
Is transferred and transported to the print stage 71 of the dot impact printer 70.

(7) Print stage section 71 of dot impact printer 70
When the arrival of the card H1 is confirmed by the photoelectric sensor P2 installed in the printer, the card transport mechanism 60 stops operating, and the dot impact printer 70 starts data printing.

(8) Upon completion of printing, the card transport mechanism 80 starts operating, transports the card H1 to the exit, and stops after confirming the arrival by the photoelectric sensor P3.

The above operations are sequentially performed, and the card is appropriately transported.

In addition, the card supply device of the present invention can be applied to various other applications such as a prepaid card vending machine, a commuter ticket issuing machine, and a business card printing machine, and is not limited to the above-mentioned application examples.

〔The invention's effect〕

Since the card supply device of the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects that cannot be achieved by the conventional card supply device.

That is, since the lowermost card is advanced while being bent downward by a pair of rotating rollers that are in contact with the lowermost card whose roller axis direction is set substantially parallel to the sending direction of the lowermost card, static electricity is generated. , And a single card can be reliably and stably sent out without being affected by the sending operation due to the load of the card in the cartridge.

Further, when the cartridge having the cartridge bottom opening is manufactured by plastic molding, there is an effect that the molding accuracy is eased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view before assembling a card supply apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a card to be worked by the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a state in which cards are stacked in a cartridge. FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional enlarged view of a portion A in FIG. 3, FIGS. 5 and 6 are a plan view and a front view of a card feeding mechanism constituting a card supply device, respectively, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a card issuing machine in which the card supplying device of the present invention is incorporated and applied to a card issuing machine. FIGS. 9 and 10 show the sending operation of the conventional card supplying device. It is a schematic side view shown. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Card supply device, 3 ... Weight, 20 ... Cartridge, 25 ... Tip protrusion, 40 ... Card sending mechanism, 41a, 41
b ... Rotating roller, P ... Sending port.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A cartridge for accommodating a plurality of flexible cards in a stack, provided at the bottom of the cartridge,
In a card supply device provided with a card sending mechanism for separating and sending out the cards one by one, the cartridge comprises a sending port for sending a card, and a rod-shaped engaging portion provided at a substantially central portion of the sending port. The card sending mechanism has a pair of rotating rollers that contact the lowermost card whose roller axis direction is set substantially parallel to the sending direction of the lowermost card stored in the cartridge. And
By rotating the rotating roller inward of the card at the lowermost position, the card at the lowermost position is moved forward while curving downward, and the card is moved over the locking portion to allow the cartridge (20) to move over.
A card supply device to be sent out.