JPH07196236A - Print defect sorting method and sorting device for magnetic card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printing defect sorting method, by which a printing defect can be inspected and sorted without damaging any card in a short time, and a device, which can carry out this inspection at a low cost by a small structure. CONSTITUTION:Magnetic paint is applied on a sheet base material for forming a magnetic layer, and then, an original plate is produced by applying a magnetic field orientating process thereon, and subsequently, printing is carried out on the original plate. After visual inspection of a print on the original plate, a magnetic mark is magnetizedly formed in a defective printing position by means of a magnetic stamp, the original plate is cut into small pieces of cards, a magnetic pattern of the cut card C is detected by a detector 20 as the strength of magnetization, and on the basis of the detection result, the cards are sorted into defective printing cards and good printing cards. In the detector 20, a card inlet 21a and a card outlet 21b are opposedly formed in a housing 21 storing a hole element 23, and the clearance between the inlet 21a and the outlet 21b is set to be equal to the dimension of card C in the conveying direction or less, so that the card C is discharged from the card outlet 21b by force of a convey-in conveyor 14 and is transferred to a convey-out conveyor 15 so as to be conveyed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for sorting the quality of printing of a magnetic card, such as a prepaid card, at least one side of which is magnetically coated. The present invention relates to a sorting method and apparatus in which a magnetic mark is attached to a portion, and after a plurality of cards are cut, a defective printing card can be identified from a magnetic pattern of each card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Original materials such as prepaid cards described above are
After applying magnetic paint on at least one side of the base material and subjecting it to magnetic field orientation treatment, if necessary, apply thermal paint liquid for thermal printing cards, and also produce thermal destruction type cards If it is for use, it is manufactured by vapor deposition of aluminum or tin, and then it is wound on a roll or cut into a predetermined size and sent to a printing process.

[0003] In the printing process, an original is printed with a multi-sided print that is several times the size of a finished card. Mostly, an offset printing machine or the like is used. Writing etc. is printed. Then, the quality of the print is visually inspected in a multi-faced state (large size) or in small pieces cut into a card size.

In the case of inspecting a small piece cut into a card size, an operator sorts out defective cards simultaneously with the inspection. When performing an inspection in the state of multiple imposition (large format), the operator visually marks the defective surface loss location determined to be defective by visual inspection with magic ink or a seal, and the mark is attached. Separated ones (with surface loss) and those without surface loss are sent to the subsequent cutting process. In the cutting process, a card size is cut by punching or the like, and a small piece inspection is performed after cutting. In the small piece inspection, the cards with the marks are visually separated and the defective print cards are separated.

[0005]

However, according to the conventional method for sorting the quality of printing as described above, when a mark of defective printing is marked with a marker ink or the like, the mark is not cut after cutting. Since the attached cards had to be visually separated, the work load on the operator was heavy, and since the drying of the magic ink was slow, the good cards were stained and the seal was peeled off, resulting in lack of certainty.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a sorting method and a sorting apparatus which can automate the inspection and can efficiently perform the inspection and the defect sorting in a short time. .

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a method of sorting print quality of a magnetic card having a magnetic layer on at least one side of a base material and printing on at least one of the front and back sides. In the large format of the magnetic card, a magnetic mark is magnetized to a defective printing card portion using a magnet, and then the large format magnetic card is cut into a plurality of cards, and then the magnetic marks of the magnetic cards are detected. The magnetic mark detected by the magnetic flux detector and the magnetic mark detected by the magnetic flux detector are compared with pre-stored magnetic marks to judge the quality of printing of the card.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a magnetic card printing quality sorting apparatus provided with a magnetic pattern reading device in which a plurality of magnetic flux sensors are arranged in the magnetic card transport path so as to be orthogonal to the card transport direction. A judgment device which is housed in a shield case and judges pass / fail by comparing the pattern read by the magnetic pattern reading device with a pre-stored magnetic pattern, and a sorting device which sorts the magnetic cards into pass / fail by the judgment of the judgment device. And equipment.

[0009]

According to the printing quality sorting method for a magnetic card according to the present invention, the printing quality is visually inspected in a large size of the original, and if a printing defect is found, a magnetic mark is applied to the card portion by a magnet. After cutting and cutting into small pieces, the magnetic flux detector detects the magnetic mark of each magnetic card as the strength of magnetization to judge the quality of printing. That is, the pattern of magnetization of the magnetic pole of the magnetic mark is detected by the magnetic flux with a magnetic flux detector using a non-contact type element such as a Hall element or a magnetoresistive (MR) element, and the pattern of the strength of magnetization is determined to be a predetermined pattern. If they are different, it is determined that printing is defective.

Further, according to the sorting apparatus of the present invention, the cards are sorted according to the quality of printing based on the magnetic pattern read by the magnetic pattern reading apparatus, so that the sorting can be performed automatically and efficiently. .

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 6 are views showing a method of sorting good or bad of printing of a magnetic card according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an overall front view of the card sorting apparatus, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part of the card sorting apparatus. FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the same part, FIG. 4 is a front sectional view of a magnetic stamp, FIG. 5 is a graph showing a magnetic pattern (magnetization pattern) of a good magnetic card, and FIG. It is a graph which shows a pattern.

In this embodiment, a card sorting device 10
A magnetic stamp 70 is used. As shown in Figure 1,
The card sorting device 10 is provided with a supply hopper 12 on the left side of the device frame 11 in the figure and a recovery hopper 13 on the right side of the frame 11. The supply hopper 12 is detachably provided with a magazine 12a that holds a large number of cut cards C in an overlapping manner, and sends out the cards C in this magazine one by one from the upper part to a later-described feeding conveyor. Collection hopper 13
Includes a non-defective magazine 13a, a front defective magazine 13b, and a back defective magazine 13c which are detachably provided. As will be described later in detail, in the recovery hopper 13, each magazine 13a, 13b, 13c selectively communicates with the detector via the delivery conveyor, and the cards C corresponding to the detection result by the detector are sequentially stacked and accommodated. It

Further, a detector 20 is disposed at an approximately central position on the upper part of the apparatus frame 11, a feeding conveyor 14 is provided on the left side of the detector 20 in the figure, and a conveying surface height is provided on the right side of the detector 20. A delivery conveyor 15 is provided whose length is equal to the delivery conveyor 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the feeding conveyor 14 is
A pair of endless belts 1 installed between rollers (not shown)
4a is arranged so as to be able to hold the card C, and is driven by a motor or the like (not shown) to convey the card C. The feed conveyor 14 connects the supply hopper 12 and the detector 20 so that the card C can be delivered, and conveys the card C sent from the upper portion of the supply hopper 12 to the detector 20.

The feeding conveyor 14 has a 2 on the left side in FIG.
A sheet feeding sensor 79 is provided, and this sensor 79 is connected to a controller described later. The two-sheet feeding sensor 79 is composed of a transmissive sensor using ultrasonic waves, and outputs a two-sheet feeding detection signal to the controller when two or more cards C are conveyed in an overlapping state.

The delivery conveyor 15 is arranged between the detector 20 and the collection hopper 13 and conveys the card C discharged from the detector 20 to the collection hopper 13. The delivery conveyor 15 has a pair of endless belts 15a, which are laid between rollers (not shown), as in the delivery conveyor 14.
The card C is conveyed by being driven by a motor (not shown) or the like. This delivery conveyor 15
Is equipped with a sorting mechanism (not shown) which is driven and controlled by the controller, and the sorting mechanism collects the card C in any one of the magazines 13a, 13b, 13 of the collecting hopper 13.
selectively send to c. As will be described in detail later, the delivery conveyor 15 uses the non-defective card C based on the output of the controller.
To the non-defective magazine 13a, the front defective card C to the front defective magazine 13b, and the back defective card C to the back defective magazine 13c.
Send to.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 15b is a guide member, and the guide member 15b conveys the card C discharged from an outlet slit of the detector 20, which will be described later, to the belt 15.
Guidance between a.

As shown in FIG. 2, the detector 20 has a rectangular tubular housing 21, which is fixed to the apparatus frame 11. The housing 21 is provided on the wall portion of the feeding conveyor 14 side at substantially the same height as the conveying surface and the card C.
An entrance slit 21a through which the card C can pass is formed, and an exit slit 21b is formed on the wall portion on the side of the delivery conveyor 15 so that the card C can pass through at the same height position as the conveying surface. The distance (Sh in the figure) between the walls of the housing 21 having the slits 21a and 21b is sufficiently smaller than the dimension Sc of the card C in the carrying direction, and preferably the distance between the conveyors 14 and 15 (L in the figure). ) Is formed to be smaller than the dimension Sc of the card C in the transport direction.

In the housing 21, the transfer path defining member 2 is provided.
3 is provided, and a prismatic holding member 22 is suspended integrally with the transfer path defining member 23. The transfer path defining member 23 is formed with a transfer hole 23a extending between the slits 21a and 21b, and the card C is placed in the hole 23a.
Runs. The lower end surface of the holding member 22 is located above the hole 23a, and a plurality (eight in this embodiment) are provided on the lower end surface.
The Hall element 29 of is buried. As clearly shown in FIG. 3, these Hall elements 29 are arranged in two rows in a direction perpendicular to the carrying direction (arrow M) of the card C in a zigzag manner over a range equal to the widthwise dimension of the card C. These Hall elements 29 are connected to the controller 90, and the magnetic flux density emitted from the card C passing between the slits 21a and 21b is set at a plurality of points in the moving direction of the card C (see the broken line portion in FIG. 6), that is, for a predetermined time. It detects each and outputs a detection signal to the controller. The Hall element 29 described above can be replaced with a magnetoresistive element (MR element) or the like.

The controller 90 has an MPU, a memory, etc., is connected to the above-mentioned detector 20 and the sorting mechanism of the delivery conveyor 15, and is also connected to a personal computer 99. The controller 90 calculates the magnetization pattern of the card C (the pattern of the magnetization strength, the pattern of the magnetic pole strength, hereinafter referred to as the magnetic pattern) based on the output of each Hall element 29 of the detector 20, and performs the calculation. The difference from the original magnetization pattern is judged from the result, and the sorting mechanism of the delivery conveyor 15 is driven according to the result. That is, as will be described later, the controller 90 is provided in the good magazine 13a if the card C is a good product, and if the card C is bad, the bad magazine 13b.
If the backside is defective, the sorting mechanism is driven so as to be stored in the backside defective magazine 13c, and when the two-sheet feeding detection signal is input from the two-sheet feeding sensor 79, the operation of the conveyor 14 is stopped.

The personal computer 99 is integrally connected to a well-known keyboard 99a and display 99b, and is connected to a controller 90 by a cable 98. The personal computer 99 is used to display the detection content on the screen and to send the inspection content command to the controller 90.

The magnetic stamp 70, as shown in FIG.
It has a gripping case 71 that can be gripped, and this gripping case 71
Switch case 72 and magnet case 74 at the lower end of
Is provided, and a counter 73 is provided at the upper end of the grip case 71. The grip case 71 has a threaded portion 7 at the lower end.
1 a, and this screw portion 71 a is screwed into the switch case 72 and fixed to the switch case 72. Counter 7
3 displays a count of the number of stamps described later.

The switch case 72 has a guide rod 81 fixedly mounted on the inner upper surface thereof, the magnet case 74 has a guide bush 82 fixedly inserted therein through which the guide rod 81 is slidably inserted, and the guide rod 81 is provided with a spring 89. The magnet case 74 is biased by the spring 89 in a direction away from the switch case 72, guided by the guide rod 81 and the guide bush 82, and vertically displaced in the drawing. A magnet block 87 is housed in the magnet case 74, a guide rod 81 is coupled to the upper surface of the magnet block 87, and a magnet 88 is provided on the lower surface of the magnet block 87.

A micro switch 85 is provided inside the switch case 72, and the micro switch 85 detects the displacement of the magnet case 74. The micro switch 85 is connected to the counter 73 and counts the number of displacements of the magnet case 74, that is, the number of stamp operations. In this magnetic stamp 70, when the operator holds the holding case 71 and the magnet case 74 contacts the card surface, and when the holding case 71 is pushed down in this state, the magnet block 87 descends and the magnet 88 contacts the card surface. Then, a magnetic mark is formed on the card surface.

In this embodiment, as described in the above-mentioned conventional example, an original fabric is manufactured, the original fabric is printed, and then cut to produce a card C as a product. And
The raw fabric is manufactured by applying a magnetic coating to at least one surface of the substrate, for example, the back surface, to form a magnetic layer, and subjecting the magnetic layer to magnetic field orientation treatment. If necessary, the surface of this raw fabric is coated with a thermal paint or vapor deposition of tin or the like, and then wound up on a roll or cut into a predetermined size and sent to a printing process.

In the printing process, printing is performed on the original fabric with a multi-sided printing of a size many times larger than that of the finished card. At the time of this printing, most of the time, using an offset printing machine, etc.,
The color printing of the color is printed on the back side with notes such as violet. Then, after printing, the quality of printing on the front and back sides is visually inspected in a multi-faced state, that is, in a large size before cutting a small-sized card.

Then, in the inspection of the quality of printing, the stamping work by the magnetic stamp 70 is performed on the card C which is judged as the printing failure of the original fabric, and the magnetic mark is magnetized and formed on the magnetic layer. In this inspection, a stamp with one magnet attached is used if the printing on the front side is defective, and a stamp with two magnets is attached if the backside is defective. Therefore, as described later, it is determined from the magnetic pattern (magnetic pattern) of the magnetic layer whether it is a front defect, a back defect, or a front defect.

In this stamping work, only the work of bringing the magnet 88 of the magnetic stamp 70 into contact with the defective print portion of the original fabric is sufficient, and the work such as marking with magic ink or a seal is unnecessary. The work load on the worker is reduced, and the treatment of defective products is facilitated.
The number of stamps by the magnetic stamp 70 is counted by a counter, and the number of defective cards can be grasped.

Next, the raw material which has been inspected for print quality is cut into a card size in a cutting step, and the cut cards C are stacked and accommodated in the magazine 12a. Then, the magazine 12a is mounted on the supply hopper 12, and the card sorting device 10 sorts out defective cards and non-defective cards. In the card sorting apparatus 10, the cards C are fed one by one from the magazine 12a of the supply hopper 12 to the detector 20 by the feeding conveyor 14, and the inspected cards C paid out from the detector 20 are fed by the feeding conveyor 15 to the collecting hopper 13. Magazines 13a, 13b, 13c
It collects by stacking in one of.

The detector 20 detects the magnetic pattern of the card C fed in by each Hall element 29, and outputs an output signal corresponding to the magnetization intensity of the magnetic pattern to the controller 90. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, a magnetic pattern is formed on the card C by the above-described magnetic field orientation process, in which one edge side is the N pole and the other edge side is the S pole, and the magnetization intensity changes gently. 90 is stored as comparison data. Then, as shown in FIG. 6, a partial strong and weak pattern is applied and formed on the card C having a printing defect, so that the output signal of the detector 20 has a value according to the quality of the card C. The controller 90 compares the value of the output signal, the rate of change, or the like with the stored comparison data, and determines the quality. That is, one magnetic mark is given to the card C having a front surface failure, and two magnetic marks are given to the card C having a back surface failure. ) Exists, it is determined that the front and back are defective, when two local maxima exist, the back is defective, and when three local maxima exist, both front and back are defective.

Then, the controller 90 drives the sorting mechanism of the delivery conveyor 15 according to whether the card C is good or bad, and magazines 13a, 13 connected to the delivery conveyor 15.
Change b and 13c. Therefore, the card C ejected from the detector 20 is a non-defective card C in the non-defective magazine 13a, a bad card C in the non-defective magazine 13b, and a back bad card C in the back. It is selectively sent to the defective magazine 13c.

Since the detector 20 only detects the magnetic flux by the Hall element 29, the detector 20 can detect the magnetic flux in a non-contact manner, and the detection can be performed quickly in a short time, and the inspection time can be shortened. Further, since the defective card C can be processed only by applying the magnetic mark with the magnetic stamp 70, the defective product can be easily treated, for example, reproduced, and the inspection can be easily automated.

After that, the card C judged to be good in printing is conveyed to the next magnetic layer inspection step or the like, and the quality of the magnetic layer is inspected using a magnetic head or the like.

[0033]

As described above, according to the sorting method of the present invention, a magnetic mark is formed on a defective printing card portion with a magnetic stamp in a large-sized state, and this magnetic pattern is used to indicate the magnetization intensity of a Hall element or the like. Since it is configured to detect whether it is good or bad by detecting with a sensor that detects, it is possible to eliminate the work of marking defective products with magic ink or stickers, reduce the burden on the operator, and consider peeling off stickers etc. It is possible to reliably discriminate a printing defect without any problem, and it is easy to automate the inspection.

Further, according to the sorting apparatus according to the present invention, the magnetic pattern of the card is read by the reading apparatus and the judgment apparatus judges, and the judgment apparatus can sort the cards according to the quality of the printing. The effect is that sorting can be performed automatically and easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a card sorting device used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a detector of the card sorting apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a schematic bottom view of the same detector.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a magnetic stamp used in the example.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a magnetic pattern of a non-defective card in the example.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing a magnetic pattern of a defective card in the example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Card Sorting Device 11 Device Frame 12 Supply Hopper 13 Collection Hopper 14 Feeding Conveyor 15 Sending Conveyor 20 Detector (Magnetic Flux Detector) 21 Housing 21a Entrance Slit (Card Entrance) 21b Exit Slit (Card Exit) 22 Holding Member 29 Hall Element (Magnetic flux sensor) 70 Magnetic stamp 90 Controller C card

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic layer is provided on at least one surface of a substrate,
A method of sorting good or bad of a magnetic card having at least one surface printed on one side, wherein a magnetic mark is magnetized by using a magnet on a defective printing card portion in a large-sized state of the magnetic card,
Next, after cutting this large format magnetic card into a plurality of cards, the magnetic marks of these magnetic cards are detected by a magnetic flux detector, and the magnetic marks detected by the magnetic flux detector are compared with pre-stored magnetic marks. A method for sorting the quality of printing of a magnetic card, characterized in that the quality of printing of the card is determined. 2. A magnetic pattern reading device is provided in which a plurality of magnetic flux sensors are arranged in a magnetic card carrying path so as to be orthogonal to the card carrying direction, and these are housed in a magnetic shield case and read by the magnetic pattern reading device. The quality of printing of a magnetic card, comprising: a judging device for judging whether the quality is good or bad by comparing the recorded pattern with a magnetic pattern stored in advance, and a sorting device for sorting the magnetic card into good or bad according to the judgment of the judging device. Sorting device.