JP2869770B2 - Magnetic card reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic card reader for reading and writing magnetic data written on a magnetic card, and more particularly to a structure for separating an unusable card from a normal card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, this kind of magnetic card reader is
A slit-shaped card slot provided in the front of the apparatus, a card taking-in path communicating with the card taking-in port, and a card carrying path provided with a magnetic head for reading and writing data communicating with the card taking-in path. A card return path extending from a terminal branch of the card take-in path to a card return port on the front of the apparatus, and a card take-in path and a card return path selectively opened at a terminal branch of the card take-in path. And a selector that performs the operation.

In such a configuration, a card inserted from a card insertion slot is taken into a card take-in path, sent to a card transfer path, read by a magnetic head and collated, and if it is normal, The magnetic data is rewritten again by the magnetic head in response to a data rewrite signal from the device main body in which the card reader is mounted, and thereafter, the card is returned to the card return port opened by the already-switched selector. Has been returned from. On the other hand, even when the card inserted from the card slot is unusable, it is taken into the card take-in path, sent to the card transport path and read by the magnetic head to be collated as in the case of a normal card. If it is determined that the card cannot be used, the card is immediately conveyed through the card return passage and returned from the card return slot.

[0004]

As described above, in a conventional magnetic card reader, when an unusable card such as a used card or an error card is inserted into the card reader, the card return slot is used in the same manner as a normal card. , There is a problem that the user mistakenly recognizes that the card reader is out of order. Further, there is a problem that the user repeatedly inserts the unusable card into the card slot because the normal card and the unusable card cannot be distinguished. Also, if your used card is discarded,
There was a risk of environmental problems.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned inconveniences or problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable discrimination between a used card or an unusable card such as an error card and a normal card. Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic card reader capable of recovering an unusable card and preventing unnecessary use of the unusable card.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a magnetic card reader according to the present invention comprises a card slot for inserting a card, a card transport path communicating with the card slot, and a card transport path. A magnetic head that is provided on the road and reads card data, and a magnetic head that is
Card transport that transports the card whose data has been read
A road extension, and determines the card determining means for determining whether or not disabled from data <br/> data read by the magnetic head, this
Wherein the determination of the unusable in a card determination means
The card transported to the card transport path extension is
The card sorting unit that operates after returning to the top of the card, a branch transport path that branches the card sorted by the card sorting unit from the card transport path, and a card that is ejected from the branch transport path are stored. for example Bei and a card storage case,
At the entrance of the card transport path extension,
Within the length from the magnetic head to one card
At the end of the card transport path extension.
Set the distance between the edge and the magnetic head as long as approximately one card
This is what was formed.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the unusable card is separated from the normal card and stored in the card storage case. Further, according to the present invention, the branch transport path for separating the unusable card is provided in the middle of the card transport path.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a magnetic card reader according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of the card storage case, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a main part showing the storage structure of the card storage case. In these figures, the reference numeral 2 denotes a pair of opposed flat side plates which are separated by a length substantially equal to the width of the magnetic card 1 and which will be described later. 21, the side surfaces of the card branch passage 27 are formed to restrict the movement of the magnetic card 1 in the width direction.

Reference numerals 3 and 4 denote a card slot and a card return slot formed in a slit shape. 5 is a take-up roller 6 rotatably supported by a shaft suspended between the side plates 2.
And a driving belt stretched between the driving roller 7 and the front half 5a of the driving belt, which is inclined downward by a tension roller (not shown). Reference numeral 8 denotes a return roller 9 rotatably supported by a shaft suspended between the side plates 2.
And a driven belt stretched in the horizontal direction between the driven belt 10 and the driven belt 5, and is in contact with the rear half 5 b of the driving belt 5,
A card transport path 21 is formed. 11 is a return roller 9
The pinch roller is in contact with.

Numeral 12 denotes a shaft 13 suspended between the side plates 2.
A selector swingably supported by the connecting member 1
4 is connected to the rod 16 of the solenoid 15. The upper surface 12a of the selector 12 is opposed to the front half 5a of the drive belt 5 to form a card take-in passage 18 communicating with the card slot 3, and the lower surface 12b is opposed to the driven belt 8 to return the card. A card return passage 19 communicating with the mouth 4 is formed. When the selector 12 swings about the shaft 13, the leading end selectively opens and closes the card take-in passage 18 and the card return passage 19 alternately. The selector 12 is integrally formed with a shutter portion 12 c located behind the card slot 3, and opens and closes between the card slot 3 and the card take-in passage 18 by swinging operation of the selector 12. I do. Reference numeral 17 denotes a pinch roller that contacts the take-in roller 6.

Reference numerals 22 and 23 denote a punch unit and a punch dust case provided with the card conveying path 21 interposed therebetween.
Reference numeral 24 denotes a magnetic head for reading and writing magnetic data written on the magnetic card 1 facing the card transport path 21, and based on the magnetic data read by the magnetic head 24, is provided by a card determining means (not shown). Determine unusable cards. Above the magnetic head 24, a first sensor (S1) 25 for detecting a magnetic card is provided. Behind the card transport path 21, a horizontally formed card transport path extension 26 and a forwardly curved branch transport path 27 are both provided in communication with the card transport path 21. The distance from the end of the card transfer path extension 26 to the magnetic head 24 is formed to be substantially the same as the length of one card. Reference numeral 29 denotes a distributing lever which faces the entrances of both the card transport path extension portion 26 and the branch transport path 27 and is swingably supported by a shaft 30 suspended between the side plates 2 so as to swing. Thereby, the entrances of the card transport path extension 26 and the branch transport path 27 are selectively opened and closed alternately, and the rod 32 of the distribution solenoid 31 is engaged.

Reference numeral 33 denotes a card transport drive motor which rotates in the forward and reverse directions, and rotates a pulley gear (not shown) coaxially fixed to the drive roller 7 via a belt 34 so that the drive roller 7 Transmitting rotation. Reference numeral 35 denotes a discharge roller facing the terminal end of the branch conveyance path 27, which is rotationally transmitted through the drive roller 7 and a belt (not shown), and together with the pinch roller 36 which is in contact with the discharge roller 35, stores a card that cannot be used, which will be described later. Discharge to case 40. The second sensor 38 is located at the end of the branch transport path 27 and detects an unusable card ejected from the branch transport path 27 (S2).
It is.

As shown in FIG. 2, the card storage case 40 has a U-shaped cross-section formed by a bottom plate 41, a back plate 42, and a top plate 43. An impossible card is inserted. 45 is the bottom plate 4
A pair of card flow stopper projections 46 erected upward from the front end of the reference numeral 1 are finger insertion windows formed in the upper surface plate 43, and 4.
Reference numerals 7 and 48 denote dowels projecting from front and rear sides of both sides of the upper surface plate 43. The distance between both ends of the dowels 47 and 48 is substantially equal to the distance between the both side plates 2. A space for accommodating the card storage case 40 is formed in a space 49 above the drive belt 5, and a rear end of the upper end of the both side plates 2 of the space 49 has a U-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. Are integrated with the side plate 2. In addition, a fixed piece 51 having a projection 52 formed in the upper part in the shape of a crank is fixed to the side plate 2 at the front part, and faces the fixed piece 51.
A curved portion 54 is formed at an upper portion, and a flexible movable piece 53 having a base fixed to the side plate 2 so that the curved portion 54 becomes a free end is provided. Reference numeral 55 denotes a mounting piece integrated with the side plate 2.

In such a configuration, in order to mount the card storage case 40, as shown in FIG.
The back plate 42 is then pivoted about the dowel 48 in the direction B to be inserted into the dowel 4.
When the member 7 is positioned between the protrusion 52 and the curved portion 54 and further swings downward, the movable piece 53 is elastically deformed in the C direction, and the dowel 47 is sandwiched between the protrusion 52 and the curved portion 54.
The bottom plate 41 is mounted on the mounting piece 55, and the card storage case 40 is stored in the space 49. When detaching, the dowel 47 is disengaged from the pinch between the projection 52 and the curved portion 54 by inserting a finger into the window 46 and lifting it up. Come off. As described above, since the card storage case 40 is detachable from the space 49, the case 40
When the unusable card becomes full, the card can be replaced, and the space 49 is located on the upper side, which is the open side of the side plates 2, so that the card can be easily replaced.

The card take-in path 18 is inclined downward, and the card transfer path 21 is positioned below the both side plates 2, so that an empty space is provided above the card transfer path 21 and the empty space is stored in the card storage path. Since the space 49 for accommodating the case 40 is provided, there is no need to provide a special space for the space 49, so that it is possible to prevent an increase in the size in the vertical direction. In this embodiment, the space 49 is provided on the upper side of the card transport path 21, but when the card take-in path 18 is inclined upward, it goes without saying that the space 49 may be provided on the lower side.

Next, the charge determination process and the operation of the magnetic card when a normal card is inserted and when an unusable card is inserted when the charge determination process is performed by the magnetic card reader having such a configuration will be described. 6 will be described. The solenoid 15 is in the operating state in advance, and the selector 12 is swung clockwise in FIG.
“c” opens the entrance of the card intake passage 18. In this state, when the magnetic card 1 is inserted from the card insertion slot 3 in step 101, the insertion of the card is detected by an insertion port sensor (not shown), the drive motor 33 is driven to rotate forward, and the card 1 is moved into the card take-in passage 18. Take in. When the insertion port sensor detects that the end of the card has been taken into the card take-in path 18, the operation of the solenoid 15 is released, and the selector 12 is swung counterclockwise about the shaft 13 to release the shutter. The entrance of the card taking-in passage 18 is closed by 12c to prevent the second and subsequent cards from being inserted. At the same time, as shown in FIG.
2, the entrance from the card transport path 21 to the card take-in path 18 is closed, and the entrance to the card return path 19 is opened.

Next, at the time of being transported over the magnetic head 24, in step 103, data is read. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the distribution solenoid 29 of the distribution lever 29 does not operate, and the distribution lever 29 has the branch transport path 7 closed and the card transport path extension 26 opened. Therefore, the card is transported to the card transport path extension section 26,
When the leading end has been transported to the end of the card transport path extension 26, the data reading in step 103 ends. Based on the data read result of the magnetic head 24 in step 103, the card determination means in step 104 determines whether or not the card is unusable. If the card is a normal card, value information such as balance is displayed in step 105, When the service is provided in step 106 and the service is completed in step 107, the motor 33 rotates in the reverse direction and reversely transports the card located in the card transport path extension 26 to the card transport path 21.
In step 8, the magnetic head 24 rewrites the value information such as the balance, and the punch unit 22 punches a punch hole corresponding to the rewriting of the value information.
The card is conveyed from the card conveyance passage 21 to the card return passage 19, is returned from the card return opening 4, and when the return of the card is confirmed, the solenoid 15 is activated, and the shutter 12c closes the entrance of the card take-in passage 18. Release and in step 124 the next card can be used.

If it is determined in step 104 that the card cannot be used, it is determined in step 110 whether or not the card is to be loaded. After detecting whether or not passed through (S1) 25, step 11
In step 3, the motor is reversed to extend the card transport path extension section 26.
Once in the card transport path 21,
In step 114, it is detected whether or not the front end of the card has passed (S1) 25 in (S1) 25, and when passage is confirmed, the distribution solenoid 31 is operated in step 115, and the distribution lever is moved as shown in FIG. 29 to shaft 30
At the same time, the entrance of the card transport path extension 26 is closed, and at the same time, the entrance of the branch transport path 27 is opened. Then, when the motor 33 is rotated forward in step 116, the card is separated from the card transport path 21 and transported into the branch transport path 27,
From the opening 44 of the card storage case 40 to the case 4
0 and is discharged in step 117 (S2) 38
It is determined whether or not the storage of the card is completed, and when the storage of the card is completed, the drive of the motor 33 is stopped in step 118.

As described above, the card is temporarily stored in the magnetic head 24.
Since it is returned to the upper part and then guided to the branch passage 27, the entrance of the branch transport path 27 can be provided at the same position as the entrance of the card transport path extension 26, and the branch transport path 27 is inserted into the card insertion port. Since it is curved to the side, the size does not increase in the direction of the card transport path.

Note that even if it is determined in step 104 that the card cannot be used, the card is returned from the card return port 4 in step 111 without storing the card by setting the card to be returned.

When the storage of the cards is completed in step 119, the number of stored cards in step (S2) 38 is counted in step 120, and in step 121, the number of stored cards is compared with the total number of cards that can be stored. If the card can still be stored, the subsequent card can be used in step 124. Step 12
If the result of determination 1 is that the card is full, step 12
In step 2, a card full notification is notified, and step 110 is executed.
And the subsequent unusable card is returned from the return slot 4.

If it is determined in step 116 that the card is not stored in step 117 despite the normal rotation of the motor, step 125
In step 12, it is considered that a card jam has occurred, and
The return operation is performed in step 6, and if the return is possible in step 127, the return is made from the return port 4, and if the return is not possible, the card is disabled in step 128 and the notification is made to the outside.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, a card slot for inserting a card, a card transport path communicating with the card slot, and a magnetic card provided in the card transport path for reading data from the card. A head, a card determination unit that determines whether or not the data is unusable from the read data, and a card distribution unit that is disposed behind the magnetic head and that operates by determining that the card is unusable by the card determination unit;
A branch transport path for branching the cards distributed by the card distribution section from the card transport path, and a card storage case for storing a card ejected from the branch transport path. Since it is separated and stored without being returned, it is possible to prevent useless repeated insertion of the unusable card.

According to the present invention, data is read.
Card transport path extension that transports the inserted card with a magnetic head
At the end of the card transport path extension and the magnetic head.
The distance to the card was set to the length of about one card
Thus, the card transport path can be formed to a minimum length. Also,
The operation of the card sorting section is transferred to the card transfer path extension section.
After the card has returned to the magnetic head.
The card distribution section at the entrance of the card transport path extension section.
Within the length of one card from the magnetic head
Position, so the branch transport path is located behind the card transport path.
There is no extension. For this reason, the device body
It is possible to prevent the size from increasing in the direction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of a card storage case of the magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a housing structure of a card storage case of the magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a card returning operation in the magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a storage operation of an unusable card in the magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the magnetic card reader according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Magnetic card, 2 ... Side plate, 3 ... Card slot, 4 ... Card return port, 12 ... Selector, 18 ... Card take-in path, 19 ... Card return path, 21 ... Card transport path, 24
... magnetic head, 26 ... card transport path extension, 27 ... branch transport path, 29 ... distribution lever, 31 ... distribution solenoid, 4
0 ... Card storage case.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Mineo Abe 2-3-2, Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Inside Tamura Electric Works, Ltd. (72) Norihiro Sekizawa 2-2-2, Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo No. 3 Inside Tamura Electric Works Co., Ltd. (72) Ginya Ishiguro 1-6-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Toshiho Sonehara 1-1-1, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo No. 6 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Inventor Masahito Kondo 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (72) Takato Sasaki Inventor 5--10 Minamiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo No. 27 Inside Anritsu Corporation (72) Inventor Nobuhiro Iguchi 5-10-27 Minamiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Anritsu Corporation (56) References JP 50 -90399 (JP, A) JP-A-62-66386 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06K 7/00 G11B 17/00 G11B 19/04 521

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A card slot for inserting a card, a card transport path communicating with the card slot, a magnetic head provided in the card transport path for reading card data, and a magnetic head provided behind the magnetic head. Data read
Card transport path extension for transporting the inserted card;
And determining the card determining means for determining whether or not disabled from the data read by the head, to the card conveyance path extending portion is determined in unavailable in this card determination unit
A card distributing unit that operates after the conveyed card returns to above the magnetic head, a branch conveying path that branches the card distributed by the card distributing unit from the card conveying path, e Bei a card storage case for storing a card is discharged from the branched transport path, the card sorting unit,
The magnetic head provided at the entrance of the card transport path extension
And within one card length
The end of the card transport path extension and the magnetic head
A magnetic card reader having a distance of about one card length .