JP3044186U - Rewrite type point card system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] It is possible to extend the life of a rewritable card that can be rewritten by heat, and to apply it to a purchasing point card system that is widely used as a customer guidance system in shopping centers and shopping centers. To provide a possible rewrite type point card system. A magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer are sequentially laminated on a card substrate. In a point card system that uses a configured storage medium card and displays points according to the purchase price on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head, when points are updated, additional points are added without erasing existing marks. The mark corresponding to is additionally printed on the surface of the card.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

[Technical field to which the invention belongs]

 The present invention relates to a rewrite type loyalty card system, which is capable of significantly extending the life of a rewritable card that can be rewritten by heat, and is widely used as a customer guidance system for shopping streets and shopping centers. An object of the present invention is to provide a rewritable point card system that can be suitably used for existing purchasing point card systems.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 In recent years, researches using reversible materials such as electrochromic materials, photochromic materials, and thermochromic materials as recording materials have been actively conducted. Among them, the thermoreversible recording material, which can form and erase images only by heat, is easy to use because of its easy handling, low cost, and development of hardware such as thermal head. Therefore, it is becoming popular as a rewritable card recording medium. In such a rewritable card that is rewritable by heat, when rewriting the information displayed on the card surface to new information, as a general rule, all the existing information is once erased and then the new information is displayed. Information is being rewritten. That is, for example, when the information of "1" is printed on the card now, when the information of "3" is newly added to make the information of "4", the information of "1" is first erased, and then the information of "1" is deleted. The so-called “erasing method” is newly adopted in which information “4” is newly printed.

However, in this erasing method, a thermal load is repeatedly applied to the entire area of the card every time the information is updated, which is the biggest drawback of the thermal rewrite type card (writing / erasing). There is a problem that performance deterioration is likely to occur due to repetition. This problem is particularly noticeable when the number of input information is small each time, and the number of rewrites is inevitably large. Therefore, the purchase point widely used as a customer guidance system in shopping districts and shopping centers. I couldn't get it into the card system as it was. In other words, a general purchasing point card system presents points by printing them on the card according to the purchase amount of the customer, and when a certain number of points are accumulated, they are exchanged for rewards such as gifts and vouchers according to the accumulated points. However, in shopping centers with many small-priced items, the number of points is frequently rewritten, making it unsuitable for a rewritable card system that has a short cycle life and is completely erased.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and can extend the life of a rewritable card that can be rewritten by heat, and is widely used as a customer guidance system in shopping streets, shopping centers, and the like. The solution problem is to provide a rewritable point card system that can be applied to existing purchasing point card systems.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and in the invention according to claim 1, a heat generated by dispersing an organic low-molecular substance in a magnetic recording layer and a polymer on a card substrate. A recording medium card composed of a recording layer made of a plastic material and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer is sequentially stacked, and points according to the purchase amount are marked on the card surface with a thermal head. The rewritable point card characterized in that when the points are updated, the marks corresponding to the additional points are additionally printed on the surface of the card when the points are updated. The system.

According to the second aspect of the invention, a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a recording layer are protected on a card substrate. This is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking the above protective layers, and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. , The marks corresponding to the additional points are additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the existing marks, and when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, all marks are erased and the number of the above marks reaches a certain number. The rewritable point card system is characterized by being configured to print a mark indicating that it has been written.

In the invention according to claim 3, a magnetic recording layer on a card substrate, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular substance is dispersed in a polymer, and the recording layer are protected. This is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking the above protective layers, and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. , The marks corresponding to the additional points were additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the existing marks, and when the number of marks on the card surface reached a certain number, all the marks were erased and the marks were printed. A rewrite type point card system characterized in that a mark indicating that a certain number of marks has been reached is printed on the card surface at a position different from the position. Was.

In the invention according to claim 4, a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a recording layer are protected on a card substrate. This is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking the above protective layers, and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. , Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface without erasing existing marks, all marks are erased when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, and the accumulated points before erasure are displayed. The rewrite type point card system is characterized in that it is configured to print the mark.

[0009]

[Embodiment of the invention]

 An embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The rewrite type point card system according to the present invention comprises a magnetic reader / writer (1) with a printing function installed in a member store such as a shopping district or a shopping center, and a storage medium card (2) given to a customer. To be done. A magnetic reader / writer (1) with a printing function according to the illustrated example includes an input means (3) for inputting a purchase amount of a customer, a thermal head (4) for printing a mark on a storage medium card, and a storage medium card. A heat roller (5) for erasing the printed marks, a magnetic head (6) for rewriting the magnetic data stored in the magnetic storage section of the storage medium card, and the operation control of the entire device It is composed of a CPU (7), a ROM (8) in which a calculation program is stored, and a RAM (9) for temporarily storing the calculation result.

In the present invention, a rewritable card capable of rewriting an image by heat is used as the storage medium card (2). FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an example of an embodiment of the storage medium card (2). The storage medium card (2) includes a magnetic recording layer (11), a recording layer (12) made of a thermoplastic material, and a protective layer (13) for protecting the recording layer (12) on a card substrate (10). ) Are sequentially laminated. The thermoplastic material constituting the recording layer (12) is a material in which the transparent state and the cloudy state are reversibly changed by heat energy, and the organic low molecular weight substance (12b) is dispersed in the high molecular weight substance (12a). It is configured by

As the polymer substance (12a), polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol copolymer, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-maleic acid copolymer, Vinyl chloride-acrylate copolymer, polyvinylidene chloride, vinylidene chloride-vinyl chloride copolymer, vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile copolymer, polyester, polyamide, polyacrylate or polymethacrylate or acrylate-methacrylate copolymer, silicone resin, etc. The thermoplastic resin of is used.

Further, as the organic low molecular weight substance (12b), higher fatty acids such as lauric acid, dodecanoic acid, myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, pegenoic acid, nonadecanoic acid, arachidic acid and oleic acid, Esters of higher fatty acids such as metal stearate, tetradecyl stearate, octadecyl stearate, octadecyl laurate, tetradecyl palmitate and docosyl pehenate are used.

The recording layer (12) is prepared by applying a solution of an organic low molecular weight substance typified by higher fatty acid in a solvent on a transparent film such as a polyester film and drying by heating. The organic low-molecular weight substance is deposited during heating and drying, and the organic low-molecular weight substance is dispersed in the resin in the form of particles.

Here, the reversible change of the transparent state and the cloudy state due to the thermal energy of the thermoreversible material will be described with reference to FIG. It is assumed that the thermoreversible material is turbid at room temperature (temperature T1) or lower. When this is heated, as shown by the solid line, the transmittance starts to increase from the temperature T1 and reaches the maximum transparent state at the temperature T2. And even if this is cooled to room temperature, the transparent state is maintained. This is a process in which the organic low molecular weight substance changes from a cloudy polycrystal to a semi-molten state in the process of increasing the temperature from T1 to T2, and the crystal grows to a transparent single crystal when cooled to room temperature again. This is because.

Next, as indicated by a broken line, when this transparent thermoreversible material is reheated to a temperature of T3 or higher, it becomes an intermediate state between the maximum transparent state and the maximum cloudy state. When it is cooled to room temperature, it returns to the original cloudy state. This is because the organic low molecular weight substance is completely melted at a temperature of T3 or higher, and then solidified by cooling and polycrystal is precipitated. In the storage medium card (2) according to the present invention, heat is applied to the recording layer (12) by the thermal head (4) to create the cloudy state in the above description, thereby displaying marks such as pictures and characters on the card. (Printing) is performed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention using the above card will be described with reference to the card front views of FIGS. 4 to 11. First, when a customer makes a purchase at a store, the store issues a storage medium card on which points corresponding to the purchase amount are printed. This card is issued by inserting the storage medium card (2) into the magnetic reader / writer (1) with a printing function, inputting the purchase amount with the input means (3), and using the calculation program stored in the ROM (8). Based on this, the purchase amount entered is converted into points, the conversion result is temporarily stored in RAM (9), and the thermal head (4) is driven to print the mark according to the purchasing point on the card and the magnetic head. By (6), the purchase points are stored in the magnetic storage unit of the card. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the card surface when the storage medium card (2) is issued. In the illustrated example, a mark (21) for 3 points is printed.

Next, when the customer newly purchases 10 points by using the card shown in FIG. 4, the existing 3 points mark is not erased and the new 10 points mark is thermal. Printing is performed on the card surface by the head (4). FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a card on which a mark for 10 points is newly printed and a mark for a total of 13 points is printed.

As described above, every time the point is updated, the existing mark is not erased, and the mark is printed for the new point. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which a mark is additionally printed on the card of FIG. 5 and a mark of 95 points is printed on the surface of the card. Then, when the customer newly purchases 10 points using the card shown in FIG. 6, all the marks printed on the surface of the card are once erased by the heat roller (5), and then as shown in FIG. The mark (22) indicating the achievement of 100 points is printed at a position different from the printing position of the mark (21) and the mark (21) for 5 points is printed.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which the card surface is filled with marks. 100 marks (21) indicating 1 point and 10 marks (22) indicating achievement of 100 points, 1100 in total. A mark for points is printed.

As described above, each time the points are updated, the existing marks are not erased, and only the new marks are printed, thereby minimizing the repeated heat load on the card. This makes it possible to significantly extend the life of the card. In other words, in the conventional erase-based system, for example, when 100 points were obtained by gaining 1 point each, it was necessary to repeat erase / write 99 times, whereas in the system according to the present invention, Erasing is not performed until a certain number of points are reached, so if you configure to erase every 100 points as in the above example, even if you gain 100 points and gain 100 points, you can only erase once. It will not be done.

In the above example, the mark is erased every 100 points, but the number of points to erase the mark may be appropriately set according to the number of marks to be displayed on the card surface. Also, prepare three or more types of marks so that, for example, when the number of marks for 100 points reaches 10 in the above example, the marks are once erased and the marks for 1000 points are printed so that one card can be used for a longer period of time. It may be configured to be used.

FIG. 9 to FIG. 11 are views showing an example in which the mark to be printed on the storage medium card (2) is not a pattern but a character. In this case as well, as in the above example, each time points are updated, the existing marks (characters) are not erased, and the characters representing new points are printed. A configuration for printing both total points is shown. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a state in which the accumulated points have become 2195 points as a result of the points being updated 13 times in total. In addition, the triangular mark in the figure is a mark indicating that points are exchanged for prizes.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which the card of FIG. 9 is used to perform point updating four more times and the card is full of printing. As shown in Fig. 10, when the card is full of prints and then you make a new purchase and win points, all the prints are once erased as shown in Fig. 11, and when the card is full. Accumulated points and new points will be printed.

It should be noted that, in the above description, only the purchase points obtained are printed on the surface of the card, but the purchase points are updated in the magnetic storage portion of the card by the magnetic head (6) at the same time as printing. It goes without saying that it will be remembered.

[0025]

[Effect of the invention]

 As described above, the invention according to claim 1 provides a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and the recording layer on a card substrate. A point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking protective layers for protection and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of the card with a mark using a thermal head. The rewrite type point card system is characterized in that the mark corresponding to the additional point is additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the existing mark when updating the. Play. In other words, it is not necessary to repeat erasing / writing to the card every time points are updated as in the conventional case, so it is possible to greatly extend the life of the storage medium card and guide customers to shopping malls and shopping centers. The system is suitable for use as a purchasing point card system that is widely used as a system.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a recording layer for protecting the recording layer are provided on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking protective layers and displays points according to the purchase price on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. The marks corresponding to the additional points are additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the marks, and all marks are erased when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number. Since it is a rewrite type point card system characterized by being configured to print the mark shown, it is easy to recognize the current accumulated points, and one card You can display a large number of points with the command.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a recording layer for protecting the recording layer are provided on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking protective layers and displays points according to the purchase price on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the marks, and all marks are erased when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, and the position where the mark was printed is It is a rewrite type point card system characterized in that a mark indicating that a certain number of marks has been reached is printed on the surface of the card at another position. Therefore, it is extremely easy to recognize the current accumulated points, and a large number of points can be displayed with one card.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a recording layer for protecting the recording layer are provided on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card that is constructed by sequentially stacking protective layers and displays points according to the purchase price on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head. Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface without erasing the marks, and all marks are erased when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, and a mark indicating the accumulated points before erasing is printed. Since it is a rewrite type point card system characterized by being configured as described above, it is possible to display a large number of points with one card. The number of times the card can be used repeatedly can be greatly increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of an embodiment of a storage medium card used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a printing mechanism of a storage medium card used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a card front view showing an embodiment of a rewrite type point card system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Storage Medium Card 21 Mark 22 Mark 10 Card Base Material 11 Magnetic Recording Layer 12 Recording Layer 12a Polymeric Material 12b Organic Low Molecular Weight Material 13 Protective Layer

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] July 23, 1997

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims for utility model registration

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Utility model registration claims]

Claims (4)

[Utility model registration claims] 1. A magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer are sequentially laminated on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card configured as described above and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head, and does not erase the existing mark when updating the points. A rewrite type point card system characterized in that a mark corresponding to an additional point is additionally printed on the surface of the card. 2. A magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer are sequentially laminated on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card configured as described above and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head, and does not erase the existing mark when updating the points. Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface, and when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, all marks are erased and a mark indicating that the number of marks has reached a certain number is printed. A rewritable point card system characterized by being configured into. 3. A magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer are sequentially laminated on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card configured as described above and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head, and does not erase the existing mark when updating the points. Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface, and when the number of marks on the card surface reaches a certain number, all marks are erased and the card surface at a position different from the position where the marks were printed. A rewrite type point card system, which is configured to print a mark indicating that a certain number of marks have been reached. 4. A magnetic recording layer, a recording layer made of a thermoplastic material in which an organic low molecular weight substance is dispersed in a polymer, and a protective layer for protecting the recording layer are sequentially laminated on a card substrate. It is a point card system that uses a storage medium card configured as described above and displays points according to the purchase amount on the surface of this card with a mark using a thermal head, and does not erase the existing mark when updating the points. Marks corresponding to additional points are additionally printed on the card surface, and when all marks on the card surface reach a certain number, all marks are erased and a mark indicating the accumulated points before erasing is printed. Rewrite type point card system characterized by.