JP5132082B2 - Card holder - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a card holding device that holds a card inserted from an insertion slot in a holding position, and particularly relates to the structure thereof.

  A wide variety of business card-sized cards with recorded information are prevalent. Some of these cards are called customer cards for commercial facilities. In the customer card, information for specifying the owner of the card, information indicating the use status of the commercial facility related to the card, and the like are recorded. In a gaming facility such as a pachinko parlor, a customer inserts his / her card into, for example, a card reader / writer attached to a gaming table. And the information memorize | stored in the card | curd is rewritten according to utilization. When the use is completed, the card is ejected from the reader / writer and returned to the customer.

  An apparatus for handling a card is described in, for example, the following patent document.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-287741

  When the card is delivered from the reader / writer, if the card is ejected by the urging force of an elastic member such as a spring, the card may jump out excessively and the customer may not receive it.

  It is an object of the present invention to prevent a card from being ejected at the moment of ejection when the card is ejected from an insertion slot.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a card holding device according to the present invention is configured such that a card is placed on a holding member urged toward an insertion port by an elastic member with respect to a card insertion direction within a plane including the card. A pair of holding pieces sandwiched from the side are provided. When the card is ejected from the insertion slot by the urging force of the elastic member, the holding piece holds the card, thereby preventing the card from jumping out with momentum.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a state in which a plurality of game machines 10 such as pachinko are arranged side by side. In an actual game facility, a larger number of game tables 10 are arranged in the horizontal direction. Adjacent to the game table 10, a game medium lending machine 12 that lends game media such as balls and medals is provided. The game medium lending machine 12 is provided with a card reader / writer 14 that reads information on a customer card and writes information on the customer card. The customer card stores information indicating how much the owner of the card has used the facility. Specifically, the amount of gaming media borrowed or points corresponding thereto are written, and this is rewritten by the reader / writer 14 each time the media is borrowed.

  FIG. 2 shows the card reader / writer 14 extracted. The case 16 of the card reader / writer 14 is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, and a case main body 18 whose one surface is open, a case lid 20 that covers one open surface of the case main body 18, and a front cover that covers a front surface that is a player side surface. 22 is included. The front cover 22 is provided with an insertion slot 24 into which a customer card 26 (see FIG. 3) is inserted. The card reader / writer 14 functions as a card holding device that holds an inserted card, and can read information stored in the card or write new information while holding the card. Further, when the customer ends the game, the card is discharged by a discharging operation such as pressing a predetermined button of the customer.

FIG. 3 shows the case body 18 with the case lid 20 and the front cover 22 removed. A customer card 26 being inserted is also shown. A concave portion is formed on the surface of the case body 18 covered with the case lid 20, and the concave portion serves as a card insertion path 28. On the bottom surface 30 of the recess forming the card insertion path 28 (hereinafter referred to as the card insertion path bottom surface), four ridges 32 are provided in the card insertion direction to guide the customer card 26 so that it can move smoothly. ing. The card insertion path bottom surface 30 has an opening 34. In the case 16 of the present embodiment, the opening 34 has a rectangular shape that is long in the card insertion direction. A holding piece 36 protrudes from the back side of the opening 34. The holding piece 36 has a substantially U-shape opened toward the insertion port 24. As will be described later, the holding piece 36 is movable along the longitudinal direction of the rectangular opening 34. When the customer card 26 is inserted, the end of the customer card 26 comes into contact with the holding piece 36, and the holding piece 36 is further removed from the thickness direction. Hold it. In this example , two holding pieces 36 are provided, but more holding pieces 36 may be provided, or one holding piece 36 may be provided.

  4 is a view of the card reader / writer 14 as seen from the back side of FIG. The left side in the figure is the front side of the game table, and therefore the customer card 26 is inserted from the left side. The holding plate 38 is disposed on the back surface of the card insertion path bottom surface 30. More specifically, the upper and lower sides of the holding plate 38 are slidably held between the back surface of the card insertion path bottom surface 30 and the support claws 40 provided on the case body 18. The holding piece 36 described above is provided on the holding plate 38, and the holding piece 36 on the other side can be seen through the opening provided in the holding plate 38 in FIG. 4. The holding plate 38 is provided on the insertion port side and biased by an elastic member which is a spring 42 in this embodiment.

Further, a latch mechanism is provided on the back side of the card reader / writer 14 to hold the holding plate 38 in the position where it is pushed inward. The latch mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 shows the position of the holding plate 38 before receiving the customer card 26 (hereinafter referred to as receiving position), and FIG. 5 shows the position of the holding plate 38 when the insertion of the card 26 is completed (hereinafter referred to as receiving position). , Indicated as a holding position). A latch lever 46 is rotatably supported on the latch shaft 44 on the insertion port side of the holding plate 38. The latch lever 46 is urged clockwise by a spring 48. When the holding plate 38 is in the receiving position due to the biasing force of the spring 48, the latch piece 52 of the latch lever 46 is in contact with the side of the engaging portion 50 of the holding plate 38. When the holding plate 38 is in the holding position, the latch piece 52 of the latch lever comes into contact with the tip of the engaging portion 50 of the holding plate. An actuator 54 such as an electromagnetic solenoid is connected to the latch lever 46, and the latch lever can be rotated against the biasing force of the spring 48 by this actuator 54. In order to define the rotation range of the latch lever 46, the lever 46 can be formed in a substantially L shape. That is, an L-shaped end 56 opposite to the side to which the actuator 54 is connected comes into contact with the contact portion 58 provided in the case main body 18, thereby defining a rotation range. When the actuator 54 operates and the latch lever 46 rotates counterclockwise when the holding plate 38 is in the holding position of FIG. The engagement is released, and the holding plate 38 is moved to the receiving position in FIG. 4 by the biasing force of the spring 42.

Next, the card holding operation of the card reader / writer 14 in the illustrated form will be described. When the customer card 26 is not inserted, the state of the card reader / writer 14 is the state shown in FIGS. That is, the holding plate 38 is in the receiving position. When the customer card 26 is inserted, first, the side portion on the back side of the card 26 is inserted into the U-shape of the holding piece 36 and comes into contact with the vertical image portion of the U-shape. At this time, the customer card 26 is sandwiched in the thickness direction by the horizontal images above and below the U-shape. As the customer card 26 continues to be inserted, the holding plate 38 moves back against the biasing force of the spring 42 and moves to the holding position in FIG. , The tip of the engaging portion 50 and the latch piece 52 engage with each other. By this engagement, the holding plate 38 is locked at the holding position. The state of the card reader / writer 14 at this time is shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the back side of the customer card 26 is sandwiched by the holding piece 36 in the card thickness direction.

  When the player attempts to take out the customer card and performs a predetermined operation, the actuator 54 operates to rotate the latch lever 46 counterclockwise. By this rotation, the latch piece 52 of the latch lever is disengaged from the tip of the engaging portion 50, the holding plate 38 is released from the locked state, and the holding plate 38 is moved to the receiving position by the biasing force of the spring 42. As the holding plate 38 moves, the customer card 26 also moves while being held between the holding pieces 36. The holding plate 38 comes into contact with the case main body 18 and stops at the receiving position. At this time, the holding plate 38 stops abruptly. However, since the holding piece 36 holds the customer card 26, the holding plate 38 does not pop out from the insertion port 24 and a part thereof is held in the card reader / writer 14. Become. The player is pulled out from the holding piece 36 by pinching and pulling out the portion protruding from the insertion slot of the customer card 26.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a main part of the card reader / writer 64 according to the embodiment of the present invention . In comparison with the card reader / writer 14 described above, there is a difference in the shape of the holding piece. That is, the holding piece 36 of the card reader / writer 14 sandwiches the customer card 26 in the thickness direction, but the holding piece 66 of the card reader / writer 64 is in the in-plane direction of the card, as shown in FIG. It is clamped from the vertical direction. Accordingly, the holding pieces 66 form a pair with the upper and lower parts, and the customer card is held between the two holding pieces. In this respect, each holding piece is different from the structure of the holding piece 36 that holds the customer card 26.

  The holding piece 66 of FIG. 7 is provided on a holding plate similar to the holding plate 38 of the card reader / writer 14, and can have a substantially L-shaped arm portion shaped along the corner portion of the customer card 26. The customer card 26 is held at the tip of the arm portion. In the embodiment having the L-shaped arm, the inserted customer card 26 abuts on the portion of the L-shaped image extending in the vertical direction in the drawing. Thereby, the force for inserting the customer card 26 into the holding plate 38 can be transmitted. By sandwiching the customer card 26 from the in-plane direction, the amount (size) of the holding piece protruding from the front surface of the card to the front side in the figure can be reduced. Thereby, the thickness of the card reader / writer, that is, the horizontal dimension when viewed from the front side of the game table can be reduced. In addition, although the holding piece 66 integrally provided the part which a card | curd contacts in the insertion direction of a customer card | curd, and the part which hold | maintains a card | curd, these parts can also be provided separately.

As described above, the card reader / writers 14 and 64 according to the above-described embodiment hold the customer card 26 by the holding pieces 36 and 66, so that the card is read by the card reader at the time of discharge by the spring biasing force. It is possible to prevent the writer 14 and 64 from jumping out and falling.

  Although the present embodiment relates to a card reader / writer provided in the game medium lending machine 12 disposed adjacent to the game table 10, the card inserted and held is held by an elastic member such as a spring. It can be applied to general card holding devices that are ejected by the urging force.

It is a figure which shows a game stand and a game media rental machine. It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the card holding apparatus (card reader / writer) with which the game media rental machine was equipped. It is a figure which shows the internal structure of a card holding apparatus. It is the figure which looked at the card holding device from the back side of Drawing 3, and is a figure showing the state where holding board 38 is in a receiving position. It is the figure which looked at the card holding device from the back side of Drawing 3, and is a figure showing the state where holding board 38 is in a holding position. It is a figure which shows the card holding apparatus of the state in which the card | curd was inserted. It is a figure which shows the card holding apparatus of this embodiment .

Explanation of symbols

  10 game machines, 12 game media lending machines, 14, 64 card reader / writer (card holding device), 16 case, 18 case body, 24 insertion slot, 26 customer card, 36, 66 holding piece, 38 holding plate, 42 spring, 46 Latch lever, 50 engaging portion, 52 latch piece.

Claims (1)

A card holding device for holding a card inserted from an insertion slot in a holding position,
Contact tip of the inserted card is brought in the vicinity of the tip, and a holding member having a pair of holding pieces for clamping the card from the side to the card insertion direction in a plane containing the card,
An elastic member for biasing the holding member toward the insertion port;
A latch piece that holds the holding member against a biasing force of the elastic member at a position where the card becomes a holding position;
Have
When the latch of the latch piece is released and the card is ejected by the biasing force of the elastic member, the holding piece maintains the state of holding the card.
Card holding device.

Images