JPH0558346U - Erasing device for thermal printing cards - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] The thermal printing display of the thermal printing card can be erased in a short time, and the entire erasing area of the printing section can be erased uniformly without any scratch. [Structure] The tension spring 4 is configured to be swingable around a support shaft 37.
The compression spring 39 is attached to the lower surface of the swing frame 38 that is urged upward by 2.
The heating plate 40 is attached via the card, and the card locking portion 44 is provided at the rear end of the swing plate 40 so that the tip of the thermal printing card 3 sent to the print erasing position is locked by the locking portion 4.
By pressing 4, the swing frame 38 swings, and the heating plate 40
Is moved and pressure-bonded to the surface of the thermal printing card 3, and the printed display of the thermal printing portion on the card surface is erased by surface contact. The moving mechanism of the heating plate 40 may be an electric mechanism using a detection device.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial application]

 The present invention relates to a print erasing device for erasing a heat sensitive print display of a heat sensitive print card used as a prepaid card at the time of updating.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 As a paper or plastic card used as a prepaid card, it has a magnetic recording part on the back for reading and writing the remaining usable amount, that is, the card value, and a thermal printing part for displaying the card value on the front. A thermal printing card equipped with this is conventionally known.

By the way, this type of thermal printing card can be recycled for use by erasing and rewriting the thermal printing display, but the erasing for recycle rewriting is conventionally performed by a printing erasing device of the type as shown in FIG. I was going. The conventional print erasing apparatus shown in FIG. 7 includes an aluminum head 1 having an arc-shaped contact surface and urged downward by a solenoid or a spring, and a rubber pressure / drive roller 2 facing the head 1. The thermal printing card 3 is fed between the head 1 and the roller 2 in a state where the head 1 is heated to a high temperature of 65 to 95 ° C., so that the roller 2 conveys the card 3 in a pressure-bonded state. The heat of the head 1 is received in the process, and the print display of the thermal printing section is erased.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 In the above-mentioned conventional print erasing device for erasing the heat-sensitive print display of the heat-sensitive print card, since the card is erased while being conveyed by the roller, there is a problem that the erasing takes time. In particular, when erasing the entire surface of a card, it takes a considerably long time to carry a distance of one card at a low speed. In addition, in this device, the card makes line contact with the head, which may cause uneven erasing depending on the pressure bonding condition. There is also a problem that the surface of the card is easily scratched by the abrasion of.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is possible to erase the heat-sensitive print display of a heat-sensitive print card in a short time and to make the entire print area erase area uniform. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print erasing device for a thermal printing card which can be erased and can prevent scratches on the card surface during erasing.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The thermal erasing device for a thermal printing card according to the present invention includes a feeding means for feeding the thermal printing card to the printing erasing position and a surface of the printing portion of the thermal printing card sent to the printing erasing position to heat the printing portion of the printing portion. The heating plate is arranged so that it can move forward and backward with respect to the thermal printing card so as to erase the thermal printing display, and when the thermal printing card is sent to the print erasing position, the heating plate is advanced from the retracted position to print the thermal printing card. It is configured so as to include a moving mechanism for contacting the section.

[0007]

[Action]

 When the thermal printing card is set at a predetermined position, the feeding means feeds the card to the print erasing position. When the thermal printing card is sent to the printing erasing position in this way, the moving mechanism advances the heating plate from the retracted position to contact the printing portion of the thermal printing card. In this state, the heating plate comes into surface contact with the printed portion of the thermal printing card, and the printed portion is heated to erase the thermal printing display.

[0008]

【Example】

 1 to 5 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a card issuing machine having both a new card issuing function and an issued card rewriting function. FIG. 1 shows the inside of the card issuing machine of this embodiment. 2 is a plan view of the unit, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a description of the use state of the thermal printing card issued by the card issuing machine of this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a front view of the card issuing machine of this embodiment.

In the card issuing machine 10 of this embodiment, a 10,000-yen bill, a 5,000-yen bill, and a bill insertion section 11 into which a 1,000-yen bill can be inserted and a 10,000-yen and 5,000-yen bill are inserted in the front cover 10a. And three selection buttons 12a, 12b, 12c for selecting the issuance of a new card of 1,000 yen or rewriting of the card value, a new card slot 13 for issuing a new issued card, and an issued card. A renewal card insertion slot 14 for insertion for renewal is provided, and a change dispensing port 15 is also provided.

Inside the card issuing machine 10, in addition to a new issuing unit (not shown) for ejecting a new card from the card ejection slot 13, the card is inserted from the renewal card insertion slot 14. An updating unit 19 including a magnetic recording reading / writing unit 16, a print writing unit 17, and a print erasing unit 18 for updating the issued card is installed.

The updating unit 19 has a unit case 22 composed of a bottom portion 20 and a pair of side surface guide portions 21 and 21 which are provided on both side edges of the bottom portion 20 and which face upward and are parallel to each other. The unit case 22 is installed such that the front end thereof projects outward from the update card insertion opening 14 of the front cover 10a by a predetermined amount. A magnetic head 23 and a roller 24 are installed behind the update card insertion port 14. The magnetic head 23 is installed in a state in which it is biased from below by a spring or the like (not shown) in a slot 25 formed in the bottom portion 20 of the unit case 22. A roller 24 is installed on the upper surface side of the bottom portion 20 with respect to the head 23, and the magnetic recording / reading / writing unit 16 is configured by the magnetic head 23 and the roller 24. The roller 24 is controlled to rotate normally, stop, or rotate in reverse according to a card position detection signal output by a position detection sensor (not shown).

A print / write head 26 and a roller 27 are installed behind the magnetic head 23 and the roller 24, which constitute the magnetic recording read / write unit 16. The print / write head 26 and the roller 27 compose the print / write unit 17, and the print / write head 26 is arranged above the slot 28 provided in the bottom portion 20 of the unit case 22. On the other hand, the roller 27 is arranged below the unit case 22 so as to slightly look into the upper surface side of the bottom portion 20 through the slot 28. The roller 27 is also controlled to rotate in the normal direction, stop, or rotate in the reverse direction according to a detection signal from a position detection sensor (not shown).

Further, behind the print / write head 26 and the roller 27 that form the print / write unit 17, a pressing roller 29 that faces the bottom 20 of the unit case 22 from above and a pressing roller 29 that faces the pressing roller 29. A feed roller 31 is provided which is viewed from below through the slot 30 to the upper surface side of the bottom portion 20. The pressing roller 29 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 33 attached to a roller support arm 32, and the feed roller 31 is fixed to a rotation shaft 35 having a drive pulley 34, and a card position detection sensor (not shown). It is possible to rotate in the normal direction, stop, or rotate in the reverse direction via the drive belt 36 according to the output of. The thermal printing card 3 for rewriting the recycle is fed to the character erasing position (the position of the thermal printing card 3 in FIGS. 1 to 3) by the normal rotation driving of the feed roller 31 and in the stopped state as described later. After the print is erased, it is sent back to the print writing unit 17 side by the reverse driving of the roller 31.

At the print erasing position, one end of the swing frame 38 is swingably attached to a support shaft 37 provided at the rear end of the unit case 22, and a compression frame is attached to the lower surface of the swing frame 38. A print erasing unit 18 including a heating plate 40 attached via a ridge 39 is provided. The swing frame 38 and the heating plate 40 have rectangular notches 38a and 40a at their front end portions so as not to interfere with the pressing roller 33. Further, a spring hooking piece 41 is fixed to the upper surface of the swing frame 38, and the lower end of a tension spring 42 attached to a fixing portion (not shown) above is connected to the spring hooking piece 41. As a result, the swinging frame 38 is urged upward, and when the thermal printing card 3 is not in the print erasing position, the retracted position is in contact with the stopper pin 43 installed above the unit case 22 (shown in phantom in FIG. 3). Position). Further, at the rear end of the swing frame 38, there is formed a card engaging portion 44 which is bent downward in a V shape. The tip of the thermal printing card 3 sent to the vicinity of the print erasing position hits the card locking portion 44. When the thermal printing card 3 is further fed, the card locking portion 44 is pushed by the tip of the card 3 and swings from the virtual line position in FIG. 3 to the solid line position. At that time, the swing frame 38 swings toward the thermal printing card 3 sent to the erasing position, and the heating plate 40 comes into surface contact with the surface of the card 3 in a pressure-bonded state. In the case of this embodiment, the thermal printing card 3 is provided with a thermal printing portion 3a substantially in the center of the front surface, and a strip-shaped magnetic recording portion 3b in the feeding direction (the arrow direction in FIGS. 2 and 4) on the back surface. By pressing the heating plate 40 controlled to a temperature of 65 ° C to 90 ° C by the temperature control circuit 45, the thermal printing portion 3a on the surface of the card 3 is heated and the thermal printing display is erased. It

The heating plate 40 has compression springs 39 mounted around guide pins 46 fixed at four peripheral portions on the upper surface, and the tips of the guide pins 46 are supported by the swing frame 38 in a loosely fitted state. It is supposed to be. A flexible guide member 47 that covers the guide pin 46 and the compression spring 39 is attached to each mounting portion. Since the mounting portion of the heating plate 40 is configured in this manner, the surface contact with the card surface becomes uniform, and therefore the entire area of the printing portion can be uniformly erased.

The bottom portion 20 of the unit case 22 is also provided with cutout holes 48 at left and right lateral positions, which are a predetermined distance before the rear end. A stopper 49 is provided to the cutout holes 48 so as to be able to move forward and backward from below. These stoppers 49 penetrate the cutout holes 48 and project by a predetermined amount at the time of normal rewriting other than recycling, and restrict the entry of the card 3 into the erasing position.

Next, an operation of the card issuing machine 10 of this embodiment and a method of using a card newly issued or updated by the card issuing machine 10 will be described.

The card issuing machine 10 of this embodiment issues a new card and rewrites the issued card as described above. Of these, when issuing a new card, the user inserts a banknote of 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen, or 1,000 yen into the banknote insertion slot 11 of the card issuing machine 10 and then for 10,000 yen or 5,000 yen. Alternatively, when any one of the selection buttons 12a, 12b, 12c for 1,000 yen is pressed, a new thermal printing card 3 is issued from the new card slot 13. At that time, if there is change, the change is sent out from the change exit 15. Since the mechanism for issuing a new card is a well-known one, a detailed description of the structure will be omitted. If the card value of the newly issued thermal printing card 3 is 1,000 yen, for example, "1000" is printed in the upper left corner of the thermal printing portion 3a on the front surface. Further, the same amount of card value and the printed position data of the printing unit are recorded in the magnetic recording unit 3b on the back surface. When this card 3 is passed through a card reader / writer (not shown) at each place of use when purchasing a meal ticket or product, the price of the product etc. is subtracted, and the remaining amount is printed with thermal sensitivity. Go

Next, in rewriting the card value of the issued card, the user inserts the issued thermal printing card 3 into the update card insertion slot 14. In this case, if the thermal printing portion 3a of the card 3 can print up to the right end of the fourth line, there is still room for printing, and if the card 3 has a balance (for example, 550 yen), the card value is It is detected that the normal rewriting is performed. In this case, when a 1,000 yen bill is inserted into the bill insertion slot 11 of the card issuing machine 10 and the selection button 12c for 1,000 yen is pressed, the magnetic head 23 is Based on the card value of the magnetic recording unit 3b and the reading result of the printed position data, the thermal printing unit 17 prints "1550" next to the balance display "550" on the thermal printing unit 3a of the card 3, and the card of 1550 yen What has been updated to the value is taken out from the update card insertion port 14. By also passing this card 3 through a card reader / writer at each place of use when purchasing a product or the like, the price is subtracted and the remaining amount is sequentially printed with heat. Also in this case, if there is change for the inserted bill, the change will be refunded from the change outlet.

When the thermal printing portion 3 a of the thermal printing card 3 inserted from the update card insertion slot 14 has been printed up to the right end of the fourth line and there is no room for new printing (with or without the balance) No matter) or if there is room for printing but the balance display is "0", it is detected that the rewriting is based on the card value of the magnetic recording unit 3b by the magnetic head 23 and the result of reading the printed position data. In that case, when a 1,000-yen bill, for example, is inserted into the bill insertion slot 11 of the card issuing machine 10 and the selection button 12c for the 1000-yen is pressed, the card 3 is sent to the print erasing position to erase the print. In the part 18, all the printed numbers of the thermal printing part 3a are erased, and then in the print writing part 17, the amount number (when there is no remaining amount before update is displayed at the left end of the first line of the thermal printing part 3a). If this is the case, “1000”) is printed. The same applies to 10,000 yen and 5,000 yen. If, for example, a 10,000-yen bill is inserted and the selection button 12c for 1,000-yen is pressed, change will be thrown out to the change-out port 15. When a product or the like is purchased using the card 3, the card reader / writer subtracts the payment amount at each place of use, and the balance is sequentially printed with heat.

In the above-described embodiment, the swinging frame swings when the card locking portion is pushed by the tip of the card sent to the print erasing position, and the heating plate moves toward the card surface. However, the heating plate can also be moved by an electric mechanism. An embodiment in that case will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 6 shows a print erasing unit in a card issuing machine according to another embodiment of the present invention, in which 22 is a unit case similar to that of the previous embodiment, 20 is its bottom, and 21 is It is a side guide part. As shown in the figure, the mechanism of the feeding portion including the pressing roller 29 and the feeding roller 31 facing the slot 30 provided in the bottom portion 20 of the unit case 22 is the same as in the previous embodiment. The supporting shaft 33, the rotating shaft 35 of the feed roller 31 and the drive mechanism (not shown) for supporting the same are also the same. In the case of this embodiment, the heating plate 40 is connected to the electric driving part 51 through the parallel link 50 and is moved by the driving force of the motor. Further, the detection piece 52 in which only the card locking portion 44 of the swing frame 38 in the previous embodiment is formed as an independent member is provided, and the stopper 53 for defining the initial position of the detection piece 52 and the detection piece 52 are provided. A tension spring 54 for urging the piece 52 toward the stopper 53 is provided, and a detection switch 55 for detecting that the thermal printing card 3 has pressed the detection piece 52 to reach the print erasing position faces the detection piece 52. And the detection signal thereof is output to the drive unit 51. When the detection piece 52 comes into contact with the detection switch 55, the feeding of the card 3 is stopped, and at the same time, the heating plate 40 is moved from the phantom line position (retracted position) to the solid line position in the figure, and the surface of the card 3 is moved. Crimp on.

In the above embodiment, the case where the entire printing portion of the thermal printing card is erased has been described. However, information that does not need to be erased at the time of updating, such as the card issue number or the card issue date, can also be printed by thermal printing. In the case of a card to be displayed, the printing portion may be divided into an erasing area and a non-erasing area, and the heating plate may be brought into contact only with the erasing area.

Further, the above embodiment is an example applied to a card issuing machine for both issuing a new card and rewriting an issued card, but the present invention is a magnetic recording reading / writing unit, a printing writing unit and a printing unit. It can also be applied to an update-only device composed of an erasing section, or to a print-only device.

[0025]

[Effect of the device]

 The present invention is configured as described above, and the thermal printing display is erased by the heating plate coming into surface contact with the printing area of the thermal printing card, so that the printing can be erased in a short time and the printing area can be erased. Uniform printing and erasing can be performed in the entire area. Also, since the print is erased by surface contact while the card is stationary, there is no risk of scratches on the card surface due to friction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a device unit inside a card issuing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the unit in the embodiment.

3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of a usage state of the thermal printing card issued by the card issuing machine of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the card issuing machine according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a device unit inside a card issuing machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a conventional print erasing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 18 Print Erasing Section 19 Update Unit 22 Unit Case 29 Holding Roller 31 Feeding Roller 38 Swing Frame 39 Compression Spring 40 Heating Plate 44 Card Locking Section 51 Drive Section 52 Detecting Piece 55 Detection Switch

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A print erasing device for a heat sensitive print card which erases the heat sensitive print display of the heat sensitive print card by applying heat to the print portion of the heat sensitive print card, wherein the heat sensitive print card is sent to a print erase position. Means and a heating plate arranged so as to advance and retreat with respect to the thermal printing card so as to erase the thermal printing display of the printing portion by surface contact with the printing portion of the thermal printing card sent to the print erasing position, And a moving mechanism for moving the heating plate out of the retracted position to bring it into contact with the printing portion of the thermal printing card when the thermal printing card is fed to the print erasing position. Print erasing device.