JPH0736242Y2 - Card detection mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of use] The present invention relates to a card detection mechanism capable of detecting the thickness of a card used in a card reader and the thickness of a bent card.

[Prior Art] In recent years, unmanned automatic cash dispensers have been advanced, and it has been required to improve the reliability of a card reader. The applicant has proposed a mechanism for detecting the thickness of a card in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-90605. The proposed mechanism detects that the credit card is normal,
A thin prepaid card is detected by the detection unit as an abnormality and recorded.
Although it is possible to prevent the card from being fed into the reading device, the thickness of the bent card cannot be accurately detected, and there is a drawback in that it is unreliable.

[Purpose of device]

The present invention has been made in view of the above drawbacks and proposes a card detection mechanism capable of detecting even a card having a curved thickness and improving reliability.

[Constitution of device]

The present invention is directed to a contact portion formed of a retractable ball that advances toward the card passage in the thickness direction of the card so as to contact the card so as to sandwich the inserted card, and a detection lever that contacts the respective contact portions and is driven thereby. And a spring for urging each detection lever in the approaching direction and a sensor for detecting a predetermined displacement of the detection lever.One of the detection levers is fixed or coupled to the other, and the other detection lever is activated. I have faced the area.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. 1 to 6, the guide frame 2 is fixed to the frame plate 1 and the card passage 2a of the card 10 is formed in the guide frame 2.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, through holes 2c and 2d are vertically formed in the upper and lower portions of the guide frame 2 on the card insertion slot 2b side, and hit portions 3 and 4 made of balls are fitted and hit. Three and four
Is provided so that it can advance and retreat from the card thickness direction. Contact surfaces 5a and 6a of detection levers 5 and 6 are respectively applied to the upper surface of the contact portion 3 and the lower surface of the contact portion 4.

One end of each of the detection levers 5 and 6 is fixed to the upper and lower surfaces of the guide frame 2 with a screw, and a pin 13 is attached to the L-shaped support plates 11 and 12.
It is pivotally supported at 14. The detection levers 5 and 6 are bent halfway as shown in FIG. 2, and the other ends 5b and 6b are connected to the frame plate 1 respectively.
The holes 1a and 1b are respectively projected to the outside of the. On the side opposite to the contact surfaces 5a and 6a of the detection levers 5 and 6, a spring hook portion 5 is provided.
C and 6c are bent and one end of the tension coil springs 15 and 16 is hooked so that the tension coil springs 15 and 16 urge the contact portions 3 and 4 toward each other.

Further, L-shaped spring hooking plates are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the guide frame 2.
17 and 18 are fixed by screws, and the other ends of the tension coil springs 15 and 16 are hooked.

The movable sensor plate 7 is provided with pins 19 and 20 on the left side of the frame plate 1 in FIG.
Is slidably supported up and down. An adjusting plate 21 to which the sensor holding member 8 is fixed is attached to the movable sensor plate 7 with screws 22.

The movable sensor plate 7 is provided with a slot 7a and a through hole 7b as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and 5. The other end 5b of the detection lever 5 protruding outside the frame plate 1 is inserted into the slot 7a. The other end 6b of the detection lever 6 is inserted into the through hole 7b. Further, a blocking portion 5d is formed so as to project downward at the other end of the detection lever 5, and the blocking portion 5d is a slit of the sensor holding member 8.
8a. A cutout 5e is formed in the shielding portion 5d.

A photo sensor or the like is housed in the sensor holding member 8. In FIG. 1, the optical path of the photo sensor is blocked by the blocking section 5d.

FIG. 6 shows a state where the card 10 is inserted into the card passage 2a. When the card 10 is inserted into the card passage 2a,
A card in which the hit part 3 and the hit part 4 made of balls are inserted.
10 is sandwiched and abuts against the card 10, and is pushed up and down respectively against the tension coil springs 15 and 16 to be expanded, and the detection lever 5 is rotated clockwise with the pin 13 as a fulcrum, and the detection lever 6 is pinned. It is rotated counterclockwise around 14 as a fulcrum. By this rotation, the other end 5b of the detection lever 5 is moved upward and the other end 6b of the detection lever 6 is moved downward.

When the other end 6b of the detection lever 6 moves downward, the movable sensor plate 7 is moved.
Is moved downward by the dimension α, and at the same time, the sensor holding member 8 is moved downward.

Further, when the other end 5b of the detection lever 5 is rotated upward by the size β, the shielding portion 5d is moved upward, so that when the card 10 has a predetermined thickness, as shown in FIG. The notch 5e is located in the optical path of the photo sensor, and the blocking of the optical path of the photo sensor by the blocking portion 5d is released.

When the thickness of the card 10 is not the predetermined thickness, the rotation amount of the detection levers 5 and 6 is small or large, and the optical path of the photo sensor is blocked by the blocking portion 5d, and the detection levers 5 and 6 are rotated by the predetermined amount. It can be detected by the sensor whether or not it is a predetermined thickness by detecting that it is not a displacement.

Further, when the card 10 is a curved card, for example, when the card 10 is curved upward, the contact portions 3 and 4 are moved upward with the card 10 sandwiched therebetween, and the thickness of the card 10 becomes a predetermined value. At this time, the notch 5e is located in the optical path of the photosensor, the blocking of the optical path of the photosensor by the blocking portion 5d is released, and the thickness of the card 10 is accurately measured. In particular, since the contact part consisting of a ball is put into contact with the card by sandwiching the inserted card, the contact part can be brought into point contact with the card, and even if the card has a complicated deformation, the thickness of the card Can be measured accurately.

As described above, it is possible to accurately detect whether or not a card with a predetermined thickness and a card with a predetermined thickness even if it is bent, so do not send a card without a predetermined thickness into the recording / reading device. Because it can be done, inconvenience such as jam does not occur.

Further, the sensor may be fixed or coupled to one of the detection levers 6 and the other detection lever 5 may be exposed to the operating range of the sensor.

[Effect of device]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, since the contact part formed of a ball contacts the card with the inserted card sandwiched between them, the contact part can be in point contact with the card, which is a curved card that is complicatedly deformed. Even if the thickness of the card is converted into the displacement of the detection lever that follows the contact part and the sensor detects a predetermined amount of displacement, the thickness of the card and the thickness of the bent card are accurately detected, and two detections are made. It is possible to provide a card detection mechanism that exhibits excellent practical effects such as improved reliability with a simple configuration in which the relative displacement of the lever is directly detected by a sensor.

[Brief description of drawings]

An embodiment of the present invention is shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional front view of the main part of a card detection mechanism, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the main part of the card detection mechanism, FIG. 3 is a side view of a card reader, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional side view of the main part of the card detection mechanism, FIG. 5 is an enlarged side view of the card detection mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a front cross-sectional view of the main part in an operating state in which the card is inserted into the card passage. 2a ... Card passage, 3, 4 ... Contact part, 5, 6 ... Detection lever, 8 ... Sensor holding member accommodating sensor, 10
...... Card, 15, 16 …… Spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Claims: 1. A contact portion formed of a retractable ball that advances into the card passage in a direction opposite to the thickness direction of the card and contacts the inserted card while sandwiching the inserted card, and abuts on each of the contact portions and is driven thereby. It consists of a detection lever, a spring that biases each detection lever in the approach direction, and a sensor that detects displacement of the detection lever by a predetermined amount.One of the detection levers is fixed or coupled to the other, and the other detection lever is connected to the sensor. Card detection mechanism facing the operating range of.