JPH10310225A - Card alignment device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a card alignment device capable of automatically aligning randomly inserted cards one by one and supplying them toward a rear card stacker without causing a card jam. SOLUTION: This card alignment device comprises an alignment drum 6 placed in an inclined position on a part of the circumference of a bottom wall, with its card output port 6a opened; a rotating plate 7 as thick as one card, which is laid on top of the inner bottom surface of the drum 6 and which has card feed holes 7a bored separately in plural parts on its circumference, with both the track and direction of movement of the rotating plate 7 being aligned with the card output port 6a; a drive motor 8 rotating the rotating plate 7 at slow speed in a certain direction; and a card unloading chute 9 laid on the back of the alignment drum 6 and between the card output port 6a and a rear card stacker. The cards 5 randomly inserted into the alignment drum 6 are dropped one by one into the card feed holes 7a by the rotational movement of the rotating plate 6 and conveyed to the card output port 6a, from which they are supplied to the card stacker via the unloading chute 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card aligning machine for aligning randomly inserted cards one by one and supplying it to a card stacker of the card issuing machine, for example, in combination with a card issuing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of a card application system, a lift use card system at a ski resort is known. In this card system, a card issuance machine is installed at the counter of the lift ticket issuance booth at the ski resort, and a card (IC card) in which data on the number of times of use of the lift is written in exchange for the usage fee is issued (rented). The collected used cards are re-used after the data contents are rewritten by a card issuing machine.

Further, the card issuing machine is provided with a card stacker for storing a large number of cards. Conventionally, cards collected from users are arranged manually and then loaded into the card stacker. That is the current situation.

[0004]

As described above, manually arranging the collected cards requires manual and labor-intensive management of the cards. Therefore, an improvement is desired.
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and automatically arranges randomly inserted cards one by one, for example, by combining the card stacker with the above-mentioned card issuing machine, so that the card stacker in the subsequent stage can be performed without jamming the cards. It is an object of the present invention to provide a card aligning machine which can supply the card to the card.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided, in accordance with the present invention, an alignment drum having a card outlet opening at a predetermined location on the periphery of a bottom wall; The same thickness as that of a single card, which is arranged on the bottom surface and has a card carrying hole corresponding to the outer size of the card at a plurality of locations on the periphery in a distributed manner with the movement trajectory and direction aligned with the card outlet. A rotating plate, a drive motor that rotates the rotating plate slowly and in a fixed direction, and a card unloading shooter that is laid on the back side of the alignment drum and laid between the card outlet and the subsequent card stacker. Cards randomly placed in the drum are dropped one by one into a card transport hole by a rotating operation of a rotary plate, transported to a card outlet, and supplied to a card stacker via a take-out shooter from the card outlet. And things (claim 1).

[0006] As described above, when cards are randomly loaded into an alignment drum combined with a rotating plate having a card carrying hole dispersedly opened on the periphery, cards are inserted one by one into the card carrying hole with the rotation of the rotating plate. It is taken in and conveyed to the card take-out port of the alignment drum, passes through the card take-out port, falls onto the carry-out chute, slides down the chute while maintaining a predetermined orientation, and is supplied to the card stacker.

Further, according to the present invention, in the card aligning machine having the above-mentioned structure, the card fitted in a halfway state into the card transport hole of the rotary plate directly enters the card take-out opening of the aligning drum and is inserted into this portion. The following configuration is available as a means for preventing troubles that may occur. (1) The alignment drum is arranged in an inclined position so that a card is inserted into a lower part thereof, and a card take-out opening is opened at a point which is about ／ of a turn in a rotating direction of the rotating plate from the card insertion point, The abnormal transfer card, which has been transferred halfway into the card transfer hole of the rotating plate, is shaken down from the card transfer hole of the rotating plate during the rotational transfer, and the lower area in the drum along the inclined surface of the rotating plate. (Claim 2).

(2) A card rejector is provided in front of the card take-out opening of the aligning drum, and the abnormal transfer card which has been moved while being caught halfway or overlapping with the card transfer hole of the rotating plate is removed. The card ejector is prevented from being clogged (claim 3). Specifically, the card ejector is provided with a return spring with a lower edge approaching the rotating plate and suspended above the rotating plate and supported by a return spring. It comprises a moving flapper (claim 4).

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. [Embodiment 1] First, FIG.
Shown in In the figure, 1 is a card issuing machine, 2 is a card stacker incorporated in the card issuing machine 1, 3 is a card aligning machine, and 4 is a belt type hopper for supplying collected cards 5 to the card aligning machine 3. With such a configuration, when the collected cards 5 are put into the hopper 4, the cards 5 are randomly inserted into the card aligning machine 3 by belt conveyance, and are then ejected from the card aligning machine 3 one by one. The card is stacked and stored in the card stocker 2 via the unloading shooter of the card sorting machine.

Next, the structure of the card aligner 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). That is, the card aligning machine 3
Basically, it comprises an alignment drum 6, a rotary plate 7 arranged on the bottom surface of the alignment drum 6, a drive motor 8 of the rotary plate 7, and a card unloading shooter 9 laid on the back side of the alignment drum 6. ing. Here, the aligning drum 6 is a circular drum having a bottom and an open upper surface. The aligning drum 6 is disposed in an oblique posture (inclination angle θ with respect to a vertical axis), and the card 5 is put into a lower region in the drum through the belt type hopper 4. A rectangular card outlet 6a is opened at one location on the circumference of the bottom wall.

On the other hand, the rotary plate 7 is a flat disk corresponding to the inner diameter of the alignment drum 6, and has a plate thickness d (see FIG. 5B).
Is set according to the thickness of one card 5,
At a plurality of locations on the periphery of the rotating plate, card transport holes 7a of substantially the same size as the card 5 are dispersedly opened according to the movement path and direction of the card taking-out opening 6a. When the rotating plate 7 rotates clockwise (arrow P), and the upper side of the inclined drum 6 is set to “12:00” in accordance with the dial of a clock, the insertion point of the card 5 is as follows. "6
And the card outlet 6 of the alignment drum 6
a is the rotation direction of the rotating plate 7 from the card insertion point (arrow P)
It opens at the "3 o'clock" position, which is about 3/4 of the way.

The unloading shooter 9 is laid on the back side of the aligning drum 6 in cooperation with the card outlet 6a of the aligning drum 6 and the card stacker 2 described in FIG. In order to keep the card 5 sliding down the shooter in a predetermined conveying position, the path width of the shooter is
It is set according to the external size of. Next, the operation of the card aligning machine 3 having the above configuration will be described. When the collected cards 5 are continuously thrown into the alignment drum 6 of the card aligning machine 3 through the belt type hopper 4 as described in FIG. 4, the cards 5 are placed in the lower part of the inclined drum 6 as shown in FIG. It accumulates in the side area overlapping with a random posture. Here, the rotating plate 7 is moved by an arrow P by the drive motor 8.
When the card 5 is rotated at a gentle speed of about 10 times per minute in the direction, the card 5 stored in the drum is stirred and the card transport hole 7 of the rotating plate 7 that rotates here is stirred.
The cards 5 enter one by one into a. Here, the card 5 fitted in the card transport hole 7a is transported in the circumferential direction together with the rotating plate 7 and reaches the position of the card take-out port 6a after making approximately 3/4 rotation around the alignment drum 6, FIG. When the card transport hole 7a of the rotating plate 7 coincides with the card outlet 6a opened in the bottom wall of the alignment drum 6 as shown by the, the card 5 slips through the card outlet 6a and falls onto the carry-out shooter 9, The chute 9 slides down the slope and is supplied to the card stacker 2 (see FIG. 4) at the subsequent stage.

On the other hand, when the card 5 fits into the card carrying hole 7a of the rotating plate 7, the card 5 is inserted halfway into the hole, or is inserted halfway into the hole while two cards overlap. The abnormal transport card conveyed while being stuck is a rotational movement path (along the "6 o'clock" in accordance with the dial of the clock) which rises along the inclined surface of the drum before reaching the card outlet 6a of the alignment drum 6. 3 (a) to 3 (c), the card slips out of the card transport hole 7a by its own weight as shown in FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c), and the upper card in which two sheets overlap is a cutout hole. It is separated from the lower card fitted in 7a, slides down the inclined surface of the rotating plate 7, and returns to the lower side (card insertion point) in the drum. This allows
It is possible to avoid the trouble that the card 5 enters the card take-out opening 6a of the alignment drum 6 with a halfway inclined position and the card is jammed in this part.

If too many cards 5 accumulate in the aligning drum 6, the function of shaking off the cards that have entered halfway into the card transport holes 7a as described above does not work. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1B, the light emitting element 1 of the level sensor sandwiches the lower region of the alignment drum 6.
0a and the light receiving element 10b are, for example, "10:00" of the alignment drum.
When the amount of the card 5 accumulated in the lower area in the drum exceeds the detection level of the sensor, the belt type hopper 4 shown in FIG. To limit the card insertion into the aligning drum 6.

[Embodiment 2] Next, claim 3 of the present invention will be described.
An embodiment corresponding to FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, as a means for preventing the card from being clogged in the card outlet 6a of the alignment drum 6, as shown in FIGS. , A card rejector 11 is additionally provided. The card rejector 11 is bent into a "<" shape so as to surround the front of the card entry path and the inner peripheral side portion of the card outlet 6a opened in the bottom wall of the alignment drum 6, and the rotating plate 7 is rotated. The flapper 11a is suspended above and supported by the rotating plate 7a.
And is suspended and supported by a support shaft 11b protruding inward from the peripheral wall of the alignment drum 6 so that the gap g becomes smaller than the thickness of one card. The flapper 11a is biased by a spring 11c to return the flapper 11a to a position perpendicular to the rotating plate 7.

Next, the operation and function of the card rejector 11 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 (a) to 6 (c). That is, FIG.
As shown in (a), when the card 5 is carried halfway into the card transfer hole 7a of the rotary plate 7 and is halfway, the leading end of the abnormal transfer card 5 protruding from the card transfer hole 7a is removed. When the flapper 11a hits the flapper 11a of the card rejector 11, the flapper 11a is pushed by the card 5 and swings backward as shown in FIG. The received flapper 11a is inverted as shown in FIG. 6C, and the card 5 is pressed on the rotating plate 7.

As a result, the abnormally transported card 5 comes out of the card transport hole 7a, and the card outlet 6 of the alignment drum.
Therefore, the card does not fall into the path a and passes over it, thereby preventing the card from being jammed at the card outlet 6a. When the two cards 5 are inserted into the card transport hole 7a while being overlapped with each other and are carried to the position just before the card outlet 6a, the card 5 that is overlapped on the card 5 hits the front of the rejector 11. Only the lower card that has been displaced to the inner peripheral side of the card outlet 6a and has entered the card transport hole 7a passes through the card outlet 6a and is discharged to the shooter side.

As a result, similarly to the first embodiment, it is possible to prevent the card from being clogged in the card outlet 6a, cut out the cards 5 one by one from the alignment drum 6, and supply the cards 5 to the subsequent card stocker. Therefore, the reliability is further improved by additionally installing the card rejector 11 in the inclined drum of the first embodiment. Note that the card rejector 11 can be employed in a card aligning machine in which the aligning drum 6 is arranged in a horizontal posture.

[0019]

As described above, according to the card aligner of the present invention, one card randomly inserted into the aligning drum of the card aligner in combination with the card stacker incorporated in the card issuing machine or the like. The paper can be cut out one by one, arranged in a predetermined direction, and automatically supplied to a card stacker at a later stage.

Further, by adopting the constitution of claim 2 or claim 3 or 4 of the present invention, the abnormally conveyed card is shaken off just before the card without directly entering the card take-out slot. The card can be prevented from being clogged at the take-out port, thereby improving reliability.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a card aligning machine corresponding to a first embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) and (b) are a vertical sectional side view and a plan view of the card aligning machine, respectively.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a normal card alignment operation in the card alignment machine of FIG.

FIGS. 3A to 3C are explanatory diagrams of an operation of shaking off an abnormal transport card in the card aligning machine of FIG. 1, wherein FIGS.

FIG. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of a usage example in which the card alignment machine of FIG. 1 is combined with a card issuing machine and a belt type hopper.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a card rejector employed in a card alignment machine according to a second embodiment of the present invention, where (a) is a configuration perspective view,
(b) is a side view

6 (a) to 6 (c) are explanatory diagrams of an operation of removing an abnormal transport card by the card rejector of FIG. 5, in which (a) to (c) show the progress of the operation in order.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Card issuer 2 Card stacker 3 Card aligner 5 Card 6 Alignment drum 6a Card ejection slot 7 Rotating plate 7a Card transport hole 8 Drive motor 9 Card unloading shooter 11 Card rejector 11a Flapper 11b Support shaft 11c Return spring

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A card aligning machine for aligning randomly inserted cards one by one and supplying the cards to a latter-stage card stacker, wherein a card take-out opening is provided at a predetermined location on the periphery of a bottom wall in a predetermined direction. An open alignment drum, and a plurality of card transfer holes corresponding to the outer size of the card arranged at a plurality of positions on the periphery of the card so as to be arranged on the bottom surface of the drum so as to overlap with the movement trajectory and direction of the card outlet. A rotating plate, a drive motor that rotates the rotating plate in a fixed direction at a slow speed, and a card unloading shooter that is laid on the back side of the alignment drum and laid between the card outlet and the card stacker at the subsequent stage. The cards randomly placed in the aligning drum are dropped one by one into the card transport holes by the rotation of the rotating plate, transported to the card outlet, supplied from the card outlet to the card stacker via the unload chute. Card alignment device characterized by being configured to so that. 2. The card aligning machine according to claim 1, wherein the aligning drum is arranged in an inclined position so that a card is inserted into a lower portion of the aligning drum. A card sorting machine, wherein a card outlet is opened at a point where four rounds have been made. 3. The card aligning machine according to claim 1, wherein the abnormal transport card which is transported while being caught halfway into the card transport hole of the rotating plate or being overlapped with the card transport hole of the rotary drum is provided before the card take-out port of the aligning drum. A card rejector for removing a card from being clogged at a card take-out opening by removing the card; 4. A card aligning machine according to claim 3, wherein the card rejector is a swinging flapper with a return spring whose lower edge is brought close to the plate surface of the rotary plate and suspended above the rotary plate. A card alignment machine characterized by the following.