JPH085565B2 - Card presence detector - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card presence detecting device, and more particularly to a card presence detecting device for detecting a card present in a foam sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When sending credit cards, cash cards, etc. to a customer, insert a predetermined number (usually 1 to 4) of cards into two places of a foam sheet,
This form sheet is usually enclosed and mailed. A system is known that automatically inserts a card into the foam sheet. In this system, the form sheet and the card are collated before the insertion, and if they match, the insertion is performed.

[0003]

However, there is a case where the card is not properly inserted into the foam sheet or is dropped during the transportation. In this case, the required number of cards cannot be sent to the customer. In addition to such a reduction in service to customers, it often causes trouble between the issuer and the customer depending on the presence or absence of a card.
In addition, a dropped card can cause catastrophic trouble in the packaging system.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and provides a card presence detection device for accurately detecting the number of seats present in a card packing system. Further, the present invention provides a card presence detection device that accurately determines whether or not a seat is defective based on the presence / absence and / or the number of seats.

[0005]

In order to solve this problem, a card presence detecting apparatus of the present invention is a card presence detecting apparatus for detecting the presence of a card on a foam sheet. Form thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the foam sheet at a plurality of positions within one card seating position, and when the foam sheet thicknesses at the plurality of positions represent the same number of seated cards, the one card presence It is characterized by further comprising card presence recognition means for recognizing the number of cards present in the seat position.

Here, the card presence recognizing means further recognizes presence / absence of a card presence, and a signal transmitting means for transmitting a signal indicating the recognized presence / absence of a card and / or the number of cards present. Receiving means for receiving a signal indicating a desired card presence on the form sheet, comparing means for comparing the presence / absence and / or number of the recognized cards with the received information, and a card based on the comparison result. Further, a determination means for determining a seating defect is further provided. Further, the foam thickness detecting means includes a detection mechanism for detecting the foam thickness at a plurality of positions within one card seating position of the foam sheet, and the detection mechanism includes a roller running at a predetermined position on the foam sheet, An amplification mechanism for amplifying the vertical movement of the roller and a photosensor for detecting the vertical movement of the amplified roller are provided.

[0007]

[Embodiment] <Example of Configuration of Card Packing System> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a card packing system to which the card presence detection apparatus of this embodiment is applied. The entire system includes a CIF (card-in-form) controller 10 including a CPU 10a for arithmetic / control, a ROM 10b for storing a program executed by the CPU 10a, and a RAM 10c for auxiliary storage.
Controlled by. The CIF controller 10 is connected with an operation unit 12 including keys and switches, a form sheet (hereinafter referred to as a form) such as a floppy disk, and an insertion data storage unit 13 that stores management data for inserting a card as input means, and a lamp. Alternatively, a display unit 14 that displays a system status such as an error on a display is connected as an output unit. In addition, the CIF controller 10
Communicates with and controls each mechanism of the system via the interface 11.

The card supply unit 20 includes a card rack on which cards to be inserted in the form are loaded, and the card supply unit 20
Supply to the transport path one by one. The card reading unit 30 reads the identification data (name, card number, etc.) on the card,
Notify the CIF controller 10. On the other hand, the foam supply unit 40 supplies the foam in a sealed unit. The form reading unit 50 reads the identification data on the form and
Notify the IF controller 10.

The card insertion section 60 is the card reading section 3 described above.
Card identification data read by 0 and the form reading unit 5
When the form identification data read by 0 is correct, the card is inserted into a predetermined position of the form according to the instruction of the CIF controller 10. The CIF controller 10 controls the number of cards to be inserted and the like based on the management data read from the insertion data storage unit 13.

FIG. 7 shows the form 1 of this embodiment.
71 and the card insertion position and the cards 172 and 173 are shown. The card 172 has card insertion holes 172a, 17a.
2b and fixed to the foam 171. The card 173 is similarly inserted into the card insertion holes 173a and 173b. In this example, consider a system in which 0 to 2 cards are inserted in each position.

As will be described later in detail, the card presence detecting section 70 detects the presence / absence of a card on the form and the number of cards present at two places, and notifies the CIF controller 10 of it. The CIF controller 10 determines whether or not the number of detected sheets matches the number of inserted sheets, and if they do not match, it is determined that a card insertion error or a dropout in the middle, and the system is stopped to notify the operator. The foam storage section 80 is
Includes a stacker in which the form in which the card is normally seated is taken out from the transport path and stocked in an encapsulable state.

It should be noted that although FIG. 1 does not show card conveyance and form conveyance because it is complicated, this is also shown in C.
It is controlled by the IF controller 10 in synchronization with other mechanisms. <Operation Example of Card Packing System> FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the card packing system of this embodiment, which is basically stored in the ROM 10b by a control procedure executed by the CIF controller 10.

First, the system is initialized in step S21, and it is checked in step S22 whether the status of each part is normal. For example, check whether the card is set in the rack or the form is set. If not normal, an error is displayed in step S33, and error processing such as self-diagnosis or notification to the operator is performed.

If normal, the process proceeds to step S23 to read the insertion management data from the insertion data storage unit 13. Referring to the read insertion management data, step S2
In step 4, the form supply unit 40 is instructed to supply the form, and in step S25, the form identification data is read from the form reading unit 50 and the desired form is set at the insertion position. Next, in step S26, the card supply unit 2
One card is supplied to 0. Step S27
Then, the identification data of this card is read on the card transport path, and it is determined in step S28 whether or not the identification data of the form and the identification data of the card correspond.

If so, a card insertion operation is instructed to the card insertion section 60 in step S29. If they do not correspond, a mismatch between the form and the card is displayed in step S33, and error processing is performed. Although the number of cards has been described as one for simplification, steps S26 to S29 are repeated based on the insertion management data until a desired number of cards are set.

In step S30, the form is conveyed until the next form is set at the insertion position. Step S
In step 31, the card presence detecting unit 70 is instructed to transmit the detection data, and in step S32, the detection data is waited for. When the detection data is received, it is determined in step S33 whether the number of detected sheets matches the number of inserted sheets. It is determined based on the management data.

Actually, since there is another procedure from insertion to detection in order to efficiently perform the procedure such as form separation, the detection data sent will be sent to the previous form several times. May be detection data from
This is properly controlled by the CIF controller 10. If the detected number of sheets does not match the number of inserted sheets, it is determined that there is an insertion error or dropout, the system is stopped in step S33, an error is displayed, and error processing is executed. If they match, it is determined in step S34 whether or not the series of card packing is completed based on the insertion management data. If not, the process returns to step S22 to repeat the operation.

<Example of Configuration of Card Attendance Detection Unit> FIG. 3 shows a card presence detection device of this embodiment (the card presence detection unit 7 in FIG. 1).
It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of 0). The occupancy controller 71 includes a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM, controls the card occupancy detection unit 70, and sends detection data to the CIF controller 10 based on a detection data transmission command from the CIF controller 10 via the interfaces 11 and 74. To send. The card detection unit 72 includes a card number detection sensor, a card presence / absence detection sensor, a form position detection sensor, and the like, and detects the presence / absence of a card and the number of cards according to an instruction from the presence detection controller 71.

The LED display panel 73 is a monitor or a diagnostic panel of the card presence detector 70, and also includes an operation panel as described below with reference to FIG. The interface 74 is an input / output interface for signals on the card presence detector 70 side, and realizes data exchange with the interface 11 on the CIF controller 10 side. The power source 75 is the power source of the present card presence detector 70, but the power source may be shared with the system.

<Example of Operation of Card Attendance Detection Unit> FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the presence detection controller 71. First, in step S41, it is checked whether or not the form has entered the detection mechanism unit. When it is detected that the form has entered, the latching of the card presence / absence and the number of cards data is enabled in step S42. Hereinafter, in step S43, the data is latched until the foam comes out of the detection mechanism section. When the form is displayed, the process proceeds to step S44, the data latch is disabled, and the latch data is stored in step S45.

Next, in step S46, the transmission instruction of the detection data from the CIF controller 10 is waited, and when the instruction comes, the data stored in step S47 is transmitted. If the system is not stopped, the process returns to step S41 and waits for the arrival of the next form. <Structure and Operation of Card Detection Unit> FIG.
2 is a partially broken top view, FIG. 6 is a partially broken side view of the card detection unit 72, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the dimensions and positions of the foam and the card of this embodiment. The operation of detecting the presence of a card according to this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS.

Reference numerals 151 to 155 are reflection type photosensors, which sense that the tip of the foam has come to a position below the photosensor on the table 150. The form is conveyed from right to left in FIGS. The transport system is not shown. Here, the photo sensor 151 senses that the foam has reached the card detection unit 72. This sense enables subsequent data latches. Next, the time when the photo sensor 152 senses the tip of the foam is shown in FIG.
This is the first detection of the number of cards on the left side of. Hereinafter, the photo sensor 153 detects the second number of cards on the left side and the presence / absence of cards, the photo sensor 154 detects the first number of cards on the right side, and the photo sensor 155 detects the second number of cards on the right side and presence / absence of cards. It becomes timing. These positional relationships are shown in detail in FIG. In this way, regarding the number of cards, detection is performed twice, and if the detection results are different, a detection error is made.

Next, a method of detecting the number of cards and the presence / absence of cards will be described. First, in order to detect the number of cards, the upper and lower sides of the roller 160 running on the form with the shaft 159 as a fulcrum are amplified about 10 times by the rod 161, and the bent portion 161a of the L-shaped rod is installed in two layers. Photo sensor 1
This is performed depending on whether or not 62a and 62b are shut off. For example, the card thickness is 0.7 for ordinary credit cards.
mm, and becomes 7 mm when amplified about 10 times. In FIG. 6, if there is no card, light is applied to both of the two-stage photosensors 162a and 162b. If there is only one card, the portion 161a rises by about 7 mm and blocks the photo sensor below. If there are two cards, the part 161a is 1.4
Raise about mm, and both the upper and lower photo sensors are blocked. By adjusting in this way, the number of cards can be accurately detected.

The delicate upper and lower sides of the number of cards on the roller 160 are amplified by the rod 161, so that the number of cards can be accurately detected. The mechanisms 164 and 165 including the spring 165 that applies downward pressure to the ascending rod 160 are
It is set so as to eliminate a measurement error due to 0 vibration or the like, and the spring 165 is adjusted to be substantially free tension without a card.

On the other hand, the presence or absence of the card is detected by the roller 156 having the shaft 159 as a fulcrum and the rod 157 and the photosensors 158a and 158b, except that the amplification by the rod 157 is about 3.5 times. Similar to detection. Here, the reason why the amplification factor is small is that the determination as to whether or not there is a card does not require as high precision as the number of cards. FIG. 8 shows a timing chart of each output signal in the card detection unit of this embodiment. Here, the latched data is displayed on the LED display panel 73 shown in FIG.
Indicated by

The LED display algorithm is as follows (see FIG. 9). <LED1> CIF enable lamp Lights the toggle switch (enable SW) on the substrate in the ON state <LED2>, <LED3>, <LED4>, <LE
D5> 1 card detected when lit, 0 cards when unlit <LED2> lit ... 1 card detected on left side of first pocket <LED3> lit ... 1 card detected on right side of 1st pocket <LED4> lit ... 2nd pocket One is detected on the left side of <LED5> ... One is detected on the right side of the second pocket <LED6>, <LED7>, <LED10>, <L
ED11> Two cards detected in the lighting state <LED6><LED2> lighting ... Two cards are detected on the left side of the first pocket <LED7><LED3> Lighting ... Two cards are detected on the right side of the first pocket <LED10><LED4> Lighting ... 2 cards are detected on the left side of the 2nd pocket <LED11><LED5> Lighting ... 2 cards are detected on the right side of the 2nd pocket <LED8>, <LED12> Presence / absence of cards in each pocket (lit) <LED8> Lighting ... There is a card in the first pocket <LED12> lights up ... There is a card in the second pocket <LED9>, <LED13> Error display of each pocket (error by lighting) <LED14> Lights up when each sensor of SENS1 to SENS4 does not operate normally Lights up even when there is a backing sheet in the CIF module when the power is turned on <CIF reset SW > Used when clearing the CIF latch state (cleared by pressing) In FIG. 8, the signal SENS.IN becomes high between the sensing of the foam tip of the photo sensor 151 and the sensing of the foam trailing edge, and the data latch enable is enabled. Match. S
ENS1-4 correspond to the sense of the form of photosensors 152-155. Each photo sensor 152-155
A card number gate is formed for a predetermined time after the tip of the foam is sensed, and a card presence / absence gate is formed after the tips of the photosensors 153 and 155 are sensed. For example, when the gate falls, the card number sensor and the card presence / absence sensor are formed. Content is latched. In FIG. 8, the detection result when one card is placed on the left side (first pocket) and two cards are placed on the right side (first pocket) is shown as an example.

In this way, the detected card presence / absence and card number data are sent to the CIF controller 10 and used to confirm the number of cards to be inserted. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the LED display panel 73, in which signals or latch data and error data of each part as shown in FIG. 8 are displayed, and the card presence detection unit 70 is separated from the system (so-called Local. ), A detection test or adjustment of the mechanism of the detection unit is possible.

In this embodiment, the response between the devices is shown by the sequence control by the CIF controller, but the card presence detector and the CIF controller may be controlled by the interrupt process. In this case, CI
It is preferable to send the number of inserted cards from the F controller to the card presence detecting section, perform the matching in the card presence detecting section, and interrupt the CIF controller if there is a mismatch because the load on the CIF controller side can be reduced.

[0029]

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a card presence detecting device for accurately detecting the number of seats present in a card packing system. Furthermore, the present invention can provide a card presence detection apparatus that accurately determines a presence defect based on presence / absence and / or the number of seats. By applying the card presence detecting device of the present invention, it becomes possible to improve the service to the customer and prevent the fatal trouble to the packaging system caused by the dropped card.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a card packing system to which a card presence detection device of this embodiment is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the card packing system of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a card presence detection device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an operation procedure of the card presence detection device of the present embodiment.

5 is a partially cutaway top view showing the mechanism of the card detection unit of FIG. 3. FIG.

6 is a partially cutaway side view showing the mechanism of the card detection unit of FIG. 3. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a form and a seating position of a card according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing waveforms of various parts of the card detection unit shown in FIGS. 5 and 6;

9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the LED display panel of FIG.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A card presence detecting device for detecting the presence of a card on a form sheet, the form thickness detecting means detecting a form sheet thickness at a plurality of positions within one card present position of the form sheet. And a card presence recognizing unit that recognizes the number of seated cards in the one card seated position when the foam sheet thicknesses at the plurality of positions represent the same number of seated cards. Card presence detector. 2. The card presence recognizing means further recognizes presence / absence of a card presence, and a signal transmitting means for transmitting a signal indicating the presence / absence of the card presence and / or the number of cards present, and a form. Receiving means for receiving a signal indicating desired seating of a card on a seat, comparing means for comparing the received information about the presence and / or number of recognized seats with the received information, and the presence of the card based on the comparison result. The card presence detecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a determining unit that determines a seat defect. 3. The foam thickness detecting means includes a detection mechanism for detecting the foam thickness at a plurality of positions within one card seating position of the foam sheet, and the detection mechanism runs at a predetermined position on the foam sheet. 3. The card presence detecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a roller, an amplification mechanism for amplifying the vertical movement of the roller, and a photo sensor for detecting the vertical movement of the amplified roller.