JPH05197867A - Magnetic card reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically execute the cleaning for a magnetic head. CONSTITUTION:When a magnetic card 45 is inserted, a card carrier path 13 is operated, the magnetic card 45 is passed back and forth on the surface of a magnetic head 22 and after magnetically recorded information is read, the magnetic card 45 is returned. A cleaning card 25 is held by non-end belts 27 and 28 on the extension of the card carrier path 13 so as to link this path. On the cleaning condition (such as at every prescribed time, in every prescribed reading, each time read error occurs or each time a power source is turned on), motors 19 and 33 are simultaneously activated, the cleaning card 25 is sent onto the card carrier path 13, the magnetic head 25 is cleaned by reciprocatively moving the cleaning card 25 on the surface of the magnetic head 22 while turning the motor 19 forward and backward and afterwards, the cleaning card is returned between the belts 27 and 28 by turning the motors 19 and 33 oppositely to the beginning.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention uses a prepaid type magnetic card such as a card ticket or a telephone card. When the card is inserted, the magnetic card is conveyed in a card conveying path, and a magnetic card provided in the middle of the conveyance. The present invention relates to a magnetic card reader for reading magnetically recorded information from a magnetic card with a head, writing the information to the magnetic card or changing the magnetic card as necessary, and returning the magnetic card, and particularly to cleaning the magnetic head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In this type of magnetic card reader,
By using it, sweat, hands, dust, etc. adhering to the magnetic card become stuck to the magnetic head, making it impossible to read or write correctly. In order to solve this problem, conventionally, the magnetic head is regularly cleaned with alcohol, or a cleaning card is inserted instead of the magnetic card, and the magnetic head is rubbed with the cleaning card.
Cleaning the magnetic head.

[0003]

The operator regularly cleans the magnetic head, which is troublesome to clean.
In addition, we had to be careful when it was time to clean up, and there was the problem that we might forget about it.

[0004]

According to the invention of claim 1, a cleaning card storage mechanism is connected to the card transport path, the cleaning card is stored in the cleaning card storage mechanism, and a card drive means is provided. ,
The card driving means can send the cleaning card to the card transport path or can take the cleaning card back from the card transport path.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when a predetermined cleaning condition is satisfied, the cleaning card is sent out to the card transport path, the magnetic head is cleaned, and then the cleaning card is automatically returned to the cleaning card storage mechanism. To be done.

[0006]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. A card insertion / ejection port 12 is formed in one side plate 11a of the housing 11 of the magnetic card reader, and a card conveyance path 13 that extends from that position toward the side plate 11b facing the side plate 11a and then reaches the upper plate 11c. Is provided. The card transport path 13
The other end of the card is the card ejection / insertion port 14 formed on the upper plate 11.
Is facing. The card transport path 13 is a case in which a magnetic card is sandwiched between the endless belts 15 and 16 and 17 and is transported, and the endless belt 15 is located above the card transport path 13 so that a part thereof is along the card transport path. The endless belt 16 is stretched over a plurality of rollers 18 arranged appropriately, and the endless belt 16 is arranged below the horizontal portion of the card conveying path 13 and on a plurality of rollers 30 arranged partly along the card conveying path. Stretched,
An endless belt 17 is stretched around a plurality of rollers 20 on the side plate 11b side of the rising portion of the card transport path 13. The endless belt 15 is also hung on the pulley 21 rotated by the motor 19 to rotate the endless belt 15, and the endless belts 16 and 17 are rotated accordingly. Card transport path 13
A magnetic head 22 is provided in the middle of the horizontal portion of the card, and the magnetic recording information of the magnetic card passing through the card transport path 13 can be read.

In the present invention, the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 is connected to the card transport path 13. A cleaning card 25 is stored in the cleaning card storage mechanism 24, and the cleaning card 25 can be sent to the card transport path 13 or retrieved from the card transport path 13 by the card driving means. Therefore, the cleaning card 25 is movably held by the endless belts 27 and 28 in parallel with the extension line of the horizontal portion of the card transport path 13 extending to the side plate 11b side. The endless belt 27 is stretched around a plurality of rollers 29 and a pulley 31 below the cleaning card 25, and the endless belt 28 is stretched above a plurality of rollers 32 above the cleaning card 25. The pulley 31 is rotated by the motor 33.

A guide facing the endless belt 15 at the bent portion to the rising portion of the card transport path 13 in the middle of the two endless belts 16 at the end of the horizontal portion of the card transport path 13 on the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 side. A lever 34 is provided rotatably around a shaft 35. One end of the guide lever 34 is engaged with the plunger of the plunger solenoid 36. When the solenoid 36 is not energized, the card transport path 1
The guide lever 34 guides and connects the conveyance of the magnetic card between the endless belt 16 and the endless belt 17 in FIG.

However, when the solenoid 36 is energized, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the guide lever 34 rotates counterclockwise to release the coupling action between the endless belts 16 and 17 by the guide lever 34, and from the extension of the horizontal portion of the card transport path 13 to the guide lever 34. Is removed, and thus the motor 33
To rotate the cleaning card 25 into the card transport path 1
Can be sent to 3. In this case, a pair of guide plates 38 facing each other are provided between the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 and the horizontal portion of the card transport path 13 as needed so that the cleaning card 25 can be smoothly transported to the card transport path 13.

A position sensor 39 is provided on the side plate 11b side of the card holding portion of the endless belts 27 and 28, and the position sensor 39 detects the state where the cleaning card 25 is returned from the card transport path 13 to the cleaning card storage mechanism 24. Is being done. Further, in this example, the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 is removable from the housing 11 of the magnetic card reader. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 is provided in the case 41.
A small hole in which the plunger solenoid 36 and the position sensor 39 are accommodated, and a slit 42 for inserting / removing the cleaning card 25 into / from the side plate of the case 41 on the delivery side of the cleaning card 25 and a plunger of the solenoid 36 are projected. And 43 are formed.

Because of this construction,
With the solenoid 36 deenergized, the card transport path 13 is set as a complete path, and the magnetic card inserted in the card transport path 13 is transported by the card transport path 13 and the magnetic head 22
The magnetic recording information is read by, and if necessary, written, and the magnetic card is ejected. When cleaning the magnetic head 22, the solenoid 36 is energized to drive the motor 33 and the motor 19 in an interlocking manner to feed the cleaning card 25 into the card transport path 13, and then the motor 19 is rotated forward and backward several times. The cleaning card 25 is repeatedly passed through the magnetic head 22 a plurality of times, and thereafter, the motors 19 and 33 are rotated in the opposite direction to the time of sending the cleaning card 25 back into the cleaning card storage mechanism 24.

In the above description, the present invention is applied to the magnetic card reader of the type in which a magnetic card passes, but FIG. 4 shows an example in which the present invention is applied to the magnetic card reader of the type in which the magnetic card is returned to the insertion slot. The parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. In this case, the card transport path 13 is only a horizontal portion, and it is not necessary to provide a card transport path switching mechanism between the cleaning card storage mechanism 24 and the card transport path 13. In this example, a sensor 47 (which is not shown in FIG. 1 but is actually provided in FIG. 1) for detecting that the inserted magnetic card 45 is inserted into the insertion slot 46 is also used. Sensors 47 and 48 are provided on both sides of the head 22.
Is provided so that the magnetic card 25 can be moved back and forth with respect to the magnetic head 22. The sensors 47 and 48 use the cleaning card 25 for the magnetic head 22.
On the other hand, it can also be used when reciprocating. In that respect, the sensors 47 and 48 may be provided in the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows an example of processing in the case where the magnetic head is regularly cleaned in the above description. First, it is judged whether or not it is the cleaning time, for example, 8 am (S ₁ ), and if it is not that time, the magnetic card is accepted (S ₂ ),
It is checked whether a magnetic card has been inserted (S ₃ ). If it has not been inserted, the process returns to step S ₁ , and if it has been inserted, the card transport path 13 is driven to read the magnetic recording information of the magnetic card. , In the case of a ticket card, the fare is calculated (S ₄ ), and the effective amount of the magnetic card is reduced by writing (S ₅ ) according to the result, and it is verified whether the writing was done correctly (S ₆ ). , If not done correctly,
To display error (S _7), to return the magnetic card (S _8). If it is written correctly, it will be displayed correctly (S ₉ ) and the magnetic card will be returned (S ₈ ). When the magnetic card is returned, the process returns to step S ₁ .

At 8:00 am at the cleaning time, the motors 19 and 33 are activated to send the cleaning card 25 to the card transport path 13 (S ₁₀ ), and the sensor 48 indicates that the cleaning card 25 has come to the card transport path 13. When detected (S ₁₁ ), the motor 19 is rotated in the forward and reverse directions to reciprocate the cleaning card 25 on the surface of the magnetic head 22 to perform the cleaning operation (S ₁₂ ), and when the cleaning is completed,
The motors 19 and 33 are rotated in the opposite direction to the beginning to retrieve the cleaning card 25 (S ₁₃ ). When the sensor 39 detects the cleaning card 25, the motors 19 and 33 are returned.
Stop and return to step S ₁ (S ₁₄ ).

As described above, the time for cleaning the magnetic head, that is, the cleaning condition is not limited to the case where the cleaning is performed at a fixed time every day, but may be performed every hour, or the magnetic card is inserted a predetermined number of times. The cleaning may be performed every time the power is turned on, the cleaning may be performed each time the power of the magnetic card reader is turned on, and the cleaning may be performed each time a reading error or a writing error is detected.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the cleaning card storage mechanism is provided, the operator does not need to insert the cleaning card each time cleaning is performed, but simply pushes the button. The magnetic head is automatically cleaned if a cleaning command is issued by such means as the operation is simple. Further, when the cleaning conditions set as described above are satisfied, the cleaning is automatically performed so that the operator does not have to pay attention to the cleaning time and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a normal state in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a cleaning state in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state in which a cleaning storage mechanism 24 is removed in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of operation of the device of the present invention.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic card reader for carrying an inserted magnetic card in a card carrying path and reading magnetically recorded information of the magnetic card by a magnetic head provided on the way of the card carrying path, to clean the magnetic head. A cleaning card for storing the cleaning card, and sending the cleaning card to the card transport path, and a cleaning card storage mechanism having a card driving means capable of retrieving the cleaning card from the card transport path is connected to the card transport path. A magnetic card reader characterized in that 2. When a predetermined cleaning condition is satisfied, a means for automatically sending the cleaning card to the card transport path, cleaning the magnetic head, and then returning the cleaning card to the cleaning card storage mechanism is provided. The magnetic card reader according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic card reader is provided.