JPH05334503A - Cleaning card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clean a driving roller for card transportation with a simple operation. CONSTITUTION:A window 12 whose width is wider than the roller and whose length is appropriate is provided for a part which is abutted on the driving roller for card transportation 14. An adhesive tape 13 is adhered to the card back side of the window 12, and the adhesive surface 13b of the adhesive tape is exposed to a card surface side 1a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning card for cleaning a card carrying roller in a card processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a card reader for processing a card such as a prepaid card, a cleaning card for cleaning dirt on the head surface such as a magnetic head or a thermal head is used. This head cleaning card is impregnated with a cleaning liquid and is cleaned by rubbing the head surface. Even if an attempt is made to clean the card transport roller using this card, the card and the roller do not rotate relative to each other, so the cleaning effect on the roller surface is small. Therefore, the card transport roller is cleaned by impregnating a cleaning cloth such as gauze with alcohol and wiping the roller surface. As a prior art of a cleaning card, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-22
Those described in JP-A-4081 and JP-A-2-199593 are known.

By the way, in a card reader used in a game facility, there is a tendency to use a card whose surface is heavily soiled, and the card carrier roller is contaminated significantly. Therefore, a cleaning operation before the start of business is an essential task. Has become.

[0004]

In order to clean the roller surface by using the gauze impregnated with alcohol, it is necessary to open the card passage of the card reader to expose the peripheral surface of the card carrying roller. Is annoying. In particular, in a card reader that uses a card that is highly contaminated, frequent cleaning work must be performed, and maintenance and inspection costs are high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning card capable of cleaning the card-conveying drive roller with a simple operation.

[0006]

In the cleaning card of the present invention, a window which is wider than the roller width and has an appropriate length is provided at a portion which comes into contact with the card transport driving roller, and an adhesive tape is provided on the back side of the card of this window. It is characterized in that it is pasted and the adhesive surface of this adhesive tape is exposed on the card surface side.

[0007]

When the cleaning card is fed into the card passage, the card is carried by the card carrying drive roller. When the window of the conveyed card corresponds to the roller,
The adhesive surface of the adhesive tape comes into contact with the peripheral surface of the card-conveying drive roller to adhere and remove foreign matter adhering to the peripheral surface for cleaning.

[0008]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the illustrated embodiments.

1 to 3, reference numeral 1 indicates a cleaning card according to the present invention. The cleaning card 1 includes a base 11 made of paper or synthetic resin, a window 12 formed in the base, and an adhesive tape 13 attached so as to close the window.

More specifically, the window 12 is formed at a position where it comes into contact with the card-conveying drive roller 14 disposed in the card passage O. The window 12 is formed to have a width larger than the width of the roller 14 and an appropriate length. This length is preferably larger than the roller circumference, but is 2 / the roller circumference.
It may be set to about 3. The drive roller 14 is rotationally driven by the drive means in the direction of the arrow, and the driven roller 15 is in contact therewith.

As shown in FIG. 3B, the adhesive tape 13 comprises a paper base 13a and an adhesive surface 13b formed on one surface of the base. The adhesive tape 13 is attached to the back surface 1b of the card base 11 so as to close the window 12.
Therefore, on the front surface 1a side of the cleaning card 1, the window 1
The adhesive surface 13b is exposed through 2. The adhesive tape 13 is made of a material thinner than the thickness of the card base 11.

The adhesive tape 13 may be made of a thin film as a base, but in order to cope with the size of the window 12 and the peeling and sticking at the time of replacement, the adhesive tape 13 is made of a material having a certain thickness and rigidity. Better, paper based can satisfy these.

In FIG. 2, a card passage O is formed by guide side plates 16 and 17, and a plurality of card conveying driving rollers 14 and a magnetic stripe of a magnetic card are contacted to read or read magnetic information. A magnetic head 18 for recording an image and a print head 19 for forming a visible image on a magnetic card are provided. The magnetic head 18 is eccentrically arranged on the side of the card-conveying drive roller 14 in the card-conveying direction.

The card-conveying drive roller 14 in the width direction of the card passage O is arranged at the central portion in the width direction as shown in FIG. 2 and as shown in FIG. In some cases, they are arranged close to each other. As shown in FIG. 5, when the rollers are arranged so as to be biased like the card passage, the window formed in the cleaning card 1 is the cleaning card 1A, 1B, 1C shown in FIG.
The windows 12A, 12B, 12C are formed so as to be offset in the width direction of the card.

The operation of cleaning the card-conveying drive roller using the cleaning card 1 constructed as described above will be described. 1 to 3, an operation unit (not shown) is operated to activate the card reader so that the card can be conveyed. Then, the cleaning card 1 is inserted into the card passage O. At this time, the cleaning card 1 is inserted so that its surface 1a faces the drive roller 14 side. The inserted card 1 is inserted into the card path O by the driving roller 14 and the driven roller 15 which is pressed against the driving roller 14.
Be transported.

As shown in FIG. 3A, when the window 12 of the cleaning card 1 to be conveyed is moved to a position corresponding to the driving roller 14, the peripheral surface of the roller is the window 12.
Then, the card comes into contact with the adhesive surface 13b of the adhesive tape 13 and the card is conveyed by the driven roller 15. Adhesive surface 13
The peripheral surface of the drive roller 14 which rotates in contact with b is cleaned by adhering the foreign matter adhering to the peripheral surface thereof to the adhesive surface and removing the foreign matter. That is, the card-conveying drive roller can be cleaned by a simple operation of inserting the cleaning card into the card passage.

Since the roller contacting the adhesive surface 13b does not contact the entire circumference, the cleaning of the entire circumference is not completed by one card insertion, but the cleaning of substantially the entire circumference can be performed by inserting the card a plurality of times. Even if the cleaning operation is repeated a plurality of times, there is no particular troublesome work because the cleaning card is simply inserted. Alternatively, if cleaning is performed once before starting work every day, the entire circumferential surface of the roller is cleaned in about a week.

When the adhesive tape 13 is repeatedly cleaned, the adhesive surface 13b is gradually soiled and the cleaning performance is deteriorated. This can be easily determined by observing the adhesive surface 13b of the adhesive tape. Then, the dirty adhesive tape 13 is peeled off from the card base 11 and discarded, and a new adhesive tape 13 is attached. If paper is used as the base 13a of the adhesive tape 13, it can be easily peeled off from the card base 11 and the contact with the driven roller 15 is lost, so that troubles during transport of the cleaning card can be avoided.

The above is the card structure for cleaning the card-conveying drive roller, but the structure of the card capable of executing head cleaning of the magnetic head, the print head, etc. will be described. As the base of the cleaning card, a non-woven fabric whose surface is not smooth is used. When a cleaning card made of non-woven fabric is inserted into the card passage, the peripheral surface of the drive roller is cleaned with adhesive tape at the window formed on this, and the head surface is cleaned with a rough surface other than the window. Clean it by rubbing.

Cleaning card 1A shown in FIG. 4 (a)
2 is suitable for a card passage structure in which the drive rollers are arranged in the passage width direction in a biased manner and the magnetic head 18 is arranged on the side of the rollers as shown in FIG. This card 1A is
The right half 1AR in which the window 12A is not formed in the width direction slides on the head surface of the magnetic head 18 to clean it.

Cleaning card 1B shown in FIG. 4 (b)
Has a window 12B at the front end of the card in the carrying direction,
A wide area is secured for the rear end portion 1BR. When the cleaning card 1B having such a structure is inserted into the card passage and conveyed, this card cleans the peripheral surface of the driving roller 14 with the adhesive tape 13 on the window, and the rear end portion 1BR is composed of the magnetic head 18 and the print head 19. Clean each head surface.

By the way, when the cleaning is executed, if the front and back of the card are inserted by mistake, the cleaning effect cannot be expected. That is, even if the driven roller 15 is cleaned by the adhesive surface 13a of the adhesive tape 13, the card transport performance by the drive roller 14 is not improved. If the cleaning card is mistaken for the front and back sides, the adhesive surface 13a comes into contact with the magnetic head or the print head, and the adhesive adheres to the head, which may cause abnormal reading, card jam, deterioration of jitter, and the like.

Therefore, a means for judging the front and back of the cleaning card is taken to avoid the occurrence of the above trouble. In order to prevent fraud, the card reader is provided with a means for detecting the length of the card so that a card shorter than a predetermined card length is not taken in. In FIG.
Optical sensors S1 and S2 are arranged at a distance L1 on the entrance side of the card passage O. Card length detection signals from the optical sensors S1 and S2 are input to a control device (not shown), and when it is determined that the card is short, the drive system including the drive roller 14 is reversed to insert the inserted card into the insertion slot. It is designed to be sent back. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4C, the cleaning card 1C has a through hole 1Ca formed at a position offset in the card width direction. The through hole 1Ca is separated from the card leading edge 1Cb by a distance L2 ( = L1).

In FIG. 5, when the cleaning card 1C is turned inside out and inserted into the card passage O, when the leading edge 1Cb of the card is detected by the optical sensor S2, the through hole 1C is formed.
Since a is detected by the optical sensor S1, it is determined that the inserted card is an unauthorized card (short card), and this card is ejected. The means for detecting the card length is not limited to the through hole, but a part of the card may be formed transparent or a part of the card may correspond to a detection means such as a microswitch or a hall element.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the card-conveying drive roller can be efficiently cleaned only by passing the cleaning card through the card passage.
According to the third aspect of the invention, the card itself is provided with a cleaning function, so that not only the roller but also the head surface can be rubbed to clean the card.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cleaning card showing an example of the invention according to claim 1. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a positional relationship between a cleaning card and a driving roller.

FIG. 3A is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a state in which the adhesive tape is in contact with the drive roller.

4A, 4B, and 4C are plan views showing cleaning cards having different configurations.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a card path illustrating a means for detecting a card inserted inside out.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Cleaning card 12 ... Window 13 ... Adhesive tape 13a ... Base 13b ... Adhesive surface 14 ... Card transport drive roller

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A window which is wider than the roller width and has an appropriate length is provided at a portion in contact with a card-conveying drive roller, an adhesive tape is attached to the card back side of this window, and an adhesive tape is attached to the card front side. Cleaning card with exposed surface. 2. The cleaning card according to claim 1, wherein the base of the adhesive tape is paper. 3. The cleaning card according to claim 1, wherein the card base is made of non-woven fabric, and the card itself has a cleaning function.