JPH04368894A - Non-contact recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a reutilizable non-contact recording medium by making printing rewritable without making an expensive non-contact recording body having a non-contact recording means built therein non-printable or ineffective. CONSTITUTION:In a non-contact recording medium wherein a visible data recording area 41 is formed to the surface of a recording medium having a non-contact recording means 40 built therein, the visible data recording area 41 is formed from a rewritable heat-reversible material and, by errasing the recording area 41 under heating by a heater or a thermal head, the rewriting printing of visible data on the recording area 41 is made possible to achieve the reutilization of an expensive non-contact recording medium.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a non-contact recording medium, which is used as an ID card for entering and exiting the gates of various departments within a company.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the above-mentioned non-contact recording medium has included a non-contact recording means shown in FIG. 7 built into the card. That is, the receiving circuit 1 receives a modulated wave transmitted wirelessly from a destination, and the demodulating circuit 2 separates and extracts a signal wave, that is, data from the received modulated wave, and inputs it to the control circuit 3. The control circuit 3 is composed of, for example, a CPU,
It drives and controls each circuit, and also writes input data to the memory circuit 4 and reads already stored data. The data generation circuit 5 generates a signal wave of data edited for transmission, the modulation circuit 6 modulates the signal wave on the carrier wave from the carrier generation circuit 7, and the transmission circuit 8 wirelessly transmits the modulated wave. do. In order to enable these operations, the configuration includes a power supply circuit 9 using a battery or the like.

[0003] Cards with built-in contactless recording means can send and receive data, so they can be used, for example, in ID cards used within companies, cash cards and credit cards used in financial institutions, and robots used in production plants. The scope of its use is expanding to include program cards for machine tools, etc., and commuter passes used for station duties.

[0004] However, in any field of use, when it is necessary to show card update information to the user as visible information, for example, the expiration date for an ID card, the balance, the amount of credit provided for a financial term card, etc. This information must be printed on the card, such as the program name in the case of a program card and the validity period and travel section in the case of a commuter pass.

[0005] When the above-mentioned visible information is sequentially updated and printed, the printing area is limited by the size of the card and cannot take up a sufficient amount of space. card is invalidated and has to be replaced even though the contactless recording means is still available, rendering expensive cards with built-in contactless recording means unprintable and invalidated. is a problem with very poor economic efficiency.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention aims to provide a non-contact recording medium that can be reused by making printing rewritable. .

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention is a non-contact recording medium in which a visible information recording area for recording visible information is formed on the surface of the recording medium incorporating a non-contact recording means, comprising:
The non-contact recording medium is characterized in that the visible information recording area is made of a rewritable thermoreversible material.

[0008]

[Operation] The non-contact recording medium of the present invention makes it possible to print and rewrite visible information in the recording area by heating and erasing the recording area formed of a thermoreversible material using a heater or a thermal head.

[0009]

As a result of the above, according to the present invention, even if the entire visible information recording area of a non-contact recording medium is printed, it can be erased and reprinted.
It becomes possible to reuse expensive non-contact recording media and obtain effective economic efficiency.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The drawing shows a card with a built-in non-contact recording means and its printing device. In FIG. 1, the non-contact recording means built in card A has the same structure as that explained in FIG. 7, and therefore its explanation will be omitted.

In the figure, a card insertion slot 11 is formed on one side of an exterior body 10, and a card ejection slot 12 is formed on the other side, these are connected by a conveyance path, and a feed roller is installed along the lower side of this conveyance path. 13, 14, 15, and a platen 16 are provided, and these rollers 13 to 15 and the platen 16 are driven and controlled by a motor 18 via a belt 17.

Presser rollers 19, 20, 21 are provided opposite to the above-mentioned feed rollers 13, 14, 15, and a thermal head 22 is provided opposite to the platen 16. A heater 23 that applies a high temperature T3 to the recording area of the card A is disposed between the feed rollers 13 and 14, and the above-mentioned thermal head 22
applies medium temperature T2 to the card A recording area and executes printing processing. In addition, in the figure, 24, 25, 26, and 27 are photoelectric sensors that detect the conveyance position of the card.

FIG. 2 shows a control circuit block of the printing apparatus, in which the control section 30 includes a CPU 31 and a ROM 32 as a storage section.
, and a RAM 33, and the control unit 30 controls the motor 18 and the thermal head 22 via the first interface 34.
, the heater 23 is connected, and the second interface 3
Each photoelectric sensor 24 to 27 is connected via 5, and further,
Via the third interface 36, it is connected to a control unit of a card processing device in which this printing device is installed.

FIG. 3 shows the aforementioned card A.
has a built-in non-contact recording means 40, and a visible information recording area 41 is set on its surface. Note that the non-contact recording means 40 has the same configuration as shown in FIG. 7, so its explanation will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 4, the above-mentioned recording area 41 is formed by forming a recording layer 43 on a medium substrate 42 using a thermoreversible material, and an overcoat layer made of a transparent resin to protect this recording layer 43. 44 is formed. The above-mentioned thermoreversible material uses a material in which a resin and an organic low-molecular substance are dissolved in a solvent, and can change between a transparent state and a cloudy state depending on the size of the crystals in the particles of the organic low-molecular substance. .

FIG. 5 shows the thermoreversible properties of the thermoreversible material constituting the recording layer 43 described above. Assuming that the thermoreversible material is initially cloudy at room temperature, if it is heated, the temperature at room temperature T
Transparency begins to change from 1, reaches maximum transparency at medium temperature T2,
The transparent state is maintained even if it is cooled to room temperature. Further, when heated to a high temperature T3 or higher, the state becomes an intermediate state between the maximum transparent state and the maximum cloudy state, and when it is cooled to room temperature T1, the original maximum cloudy state returns. Therefore, the heater 23
When high temperature T3 is applied to the recording layer 43, the recording layer 43 made of a thermoreversible material becomes cloudy and the printed information is erased. Furthermore, when medium temperature T2 is applied to this cloudy state using the thermal head 22, the recording layer 43 made of thermoreversible material becomes transparent.
Information can be printed. However, it is also possible to set the print settings in the opposite way.

The operation of the printing apparatus for card A configured as described above will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the card A inserted into the card insertion slot 11 is detected by the first photoelectric sensor 24 (step n1)
, the motor 18 drives each of the feed rollers 13 to 15 and the platen 16 in the taking direction (step n2), and when the taken card A is detected by the second photoelectric sensor 25 (step n3), the heater 23 is driven (step n4)
, the recording area 41 of the card A is heated at a high temperature T3 to turn the recording area 41 into a cloudy state and erase the previous information.

Next, the card A is connected to the third photoelectric sensor 26
When detected (step n5), the operation of the heater 23 described above is stopped (step n6), and the thermal head 22 is operated to print the information pattern transparently at medium temperature T2 (step n7). . Thereafter, when the fourth photoelectric sensor 27 detects the card A (step n8), the operation of the thermal head 22 stops (step n9), and further, when the fourth photoelectric sensor 27 detects the passage of the card A, the thermal head 22 stops operating (step n9). (Step n10), the motor 18 stops (
Step n11), the print processing operation ends.

According to the embodiment described above, since the visible information recording area 41 is rewritable, it can be erased and reprinted, so that the card A, which is an expensive non-contact recording medium, can be printed. This eliminates the need to replace the card A, making it possible to reuse the card A, resulting in effective economic efficiency.

[0020] In the correspondence between the structure of the present invention and the embodiments described above, the non-contact recording medium of the present invention is opposed to the card A incorporating the non-contact recording means 40 of the embodiment. It is not limited to only the configuration.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram of a printing device.

FIG. 2 is a control circuit block diagram of the printing device.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the card.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the recording area portion of the card.

FIG. 5 is a characteristic diagram of a thermoreversible material.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of printing operation.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a non-contact recording means.

[Explanation of symbols]

A...Card 40...Non-contact recording means 41... Recording area

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A non-contact recording medium having a built-in non-contact recording means and having a visible information recording area for recording visible information formed on the surface of the recording medium, wherein the visible information recording area is made of a rewritable thermoreversible material. A non-contact recording medium formed.