US3588243A - Card handling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A CARD HANDLING APPARATUS WHICH IS SO DESIGNED AS TO CARRY OUT AUTOMATICALLY A SERIES OF OPERATIONS INCLUDING THE STEP OF DELIVERING CARD DECKS LOADED IN RESPECTIVE CARD HOPPERS TO A PRESCRIBED POSITION IN A DESIRED ORDER UPON ACTUATION OF A PUSHBUTTON OR THE LIKE, THE STEP OF DISTRIBUTING THE INDIVIDUAL CARDS OF THE THUS DELIVERED CARD DECKS TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT, THE STEP OF PHOTOGRAPHING OR READING THE DISTRIBUTED CARDS AND THE STEP OF COLLECTING THE CARDS.

Description

United States Patent [72] inventors Hlrojl Osawa [51 1 Int. Cl G03b 27/62 Tokyo; [50] Field of Search 355/40- Klzuzo lshii, Hoya-shi; Yasushi Fujimura, 42, 64', 353/25-27, 107, 117; 198/209 Musashino-shi; Yosiro Nakamura, Tokyo; I Kazunori Ueda; Toshio lmai, Neyagawa- [56] Rderences C'ted shi; Sigeru Araki, Hirakata-shi; Kei Okubo, UNITED STATES PATENTS a h Tadashi Kubvw, Osaka, 3,225,649 12/1965 Timares et a1. 355/42 Japan 3,262,355 7/1966 Kleist et 211...... 355/41 [5;] a 9 1969 3,288,025 11/1966 Litz et a1 355/41 g 13:: 971 Primary Examiner-Samuel S. Matthews [731 Assignees Nippon h Kymi Assistant Examiner-Richard A. Wintercom Tokyo Japan; AnorneyStevens, Davis, Miller and Mosher Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Osaka, Japan, fractional part interest to each [32] Priority June 14, 1968 1 Japan ABSTRACT: A card handling apparatus which is so designed U as to carry out automatically a series of operations including the step of delivering card decks loaded in respective card hoppers to a prescribed position in a desired order upon ac- [54] Z L S A:.PARATUS tuation of a pushbutton or the like, the step of distributing the suns wing individual cards of the thus delivered card decks to the left [52] U.S. Cl 355/40, and right, the step of photographing or reading the distributed cards and the step of collecting the cards.

PATENTED JUN28 I971 I 3; 588,243

sum 01 0F 10 A draw K mm VFW/mum )4 NMMM 060/9 7- ///6 J. 6'16? K. M060 7? K0607!) INVENTORS ATTORNEYS PATENTEDJUN28|9H 3,588,243

SHEET UZDF 10 PATENTED JUN28 I97! SHEET 03 0F mm mm PATENIED JUN28l97l 3,588,243

' saw on HF 10 PATENTEUJuna 197i SHEET 05 0F PATENTEU JUN28 19?:

SHEET 07 0F CARD HANDLING APPARATUS There are occasions when it becomes necessary to selectively pick up a specific card from a large number of cards which have a variety of information recorded thereon and which are stored according to the classification by which they are segregated. and to return the card to the original position after the information recorded on the card has been photographed or read.

Such an operation has heretofore been performed in a relatively primitive manner by placing the cards on a rotating conveyor belt one after another, accomplishing the necessary work, such as photography, during movement of the card on the conveyor belt, and thereafter removing the cards from the conveyor belt one after another.

However, the conventional method as described above has the disadvantage that the operation of picking up a desired card from a large number of cards for necessary treatment and returning the used card to the original position are quite cumbersome, involving much wasteful labor, and requires a lengthy time. Namely, the conventional method is very unsatisfactory to meet the demand for the so-called random acess," that is, the operation of optionally withdrawing a desired card from a large number of cards stored in a card hopper.

In recent years, great importance has been attached to improvement in administrative efficiency or rationalization of data control and an apparatus has been called for, which is capable of automatically performing such operation as described above.

The present invention provides a card handling apparatus which meets the aforesaid demand and which comprises card transfer means for transferring a card deck from one of card hoppers formed on an annular stationary table into the corresponding one of card receiving frames provided on a rotary table arranged interior of said stationary table, rotary table driving means for rotating said rotary table to carry the card deck in said card receiving frame to a predetermined position, card distributing means for distributing the individual cards of said card deck to the left and right one after another from the lowermost one, card loading means for loading the card deck onto said card distributing means, card removing means for retaining the individual card distributed by said card distributing means and card collecting means for collecting the cards dropped by said card removing means to form a stack of cards.

An object of the present invention is to facilitate the operation of loading cards into card hoppers, to make it feasible to store the cards in the respective card hoppers in groups into which they are classified by the contents thereof, to make it possible to perform a series of operations on a continuous basis which operations consists of selection, withdrawal and collecting of a desired card, to improve administrative efficiency and to rationalize data control.

Another object of the invention is to stop a rotary table, rotating with card decks thereon, at a correct position smoothly in a short time without subjecting it to shock, by detecting the rotational position of said rotary table.

Still another object of the invention is to facilitate storage of cards and to positively transfer the card deck in each card hopper into the corresponding card receiving frame on the rotary table.

Still another object of the invention is to load the deck of stacked cards placed in the card receiving frame on the rotary table onto card distributing means smoothly positively without subjecting it to shock, and to enable the cards to be located accurately in a prescribed position of the card distributing means even if the individual cards rebound to some extent upon collision against a stopper plate during the aforesaid loading operation.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a simple mechanism by which the individual cards are taken out from the bottom of the card deck and distributed to the left and right alternately quickly for photography or reading of the information marked on the cards, and which is durable to withstand frequently repeated operations.

Still another object of the invention is to read optically the codes of the individual cards during movement of the cards and thereby to select a desired card.

Still another object of the invention is to hold the card in a stable manner for the photography or reading of the information marked on the card and thereafter drop the used card downwardly without causing damage to it.

A further object of the invention is to automatically control the dropping distance of the card to be always within a predetermined range in dropping the used cards and thereby to collect the cards in the form of a stack of cards accumulated in a correct sequence and position, without subjecting them to damage.

An additional object of the invention is to provide means by which the transverse position, the lateral position, the vertical position and the angle of a camera can be freely adjusted for photographing the card being held by the card removing means.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the preferred embodiment of the invention which is hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. I is a plan view showing the outline of an embodiment of the card handling apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the card handling apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of card transfer means of the apparatus taken on the line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of card loading means of the apparatus taken on the line IVIV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of card distributing means of the apparatus taken on the line V-V of FIG. I;

FIG. 6 is a side view of a mechanism for operating the card distributing means;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view, on an enlarged scale, of the essential portion of the card distributing means taken on the line IV-IV ofFIG. I;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a sliding frame member of the card distributing means;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a code reading device of the card distributing means taken on the line IXIX of FIG. 1;

FIG. I0 is a plan view of a card handled by the card handling apparatus;

FIG. 11 is a sectional front view of card removing means of the apparatus taken on the line V-V of FIG. 1;

FIG. 12 is a sectional view of the card removing apparatus taken on the line XII-XII of FIG. 1;

FIG. I3 is a perspective view of the card collecting means of the apparatus;

FIG. 14 is a side view of the card collecting means;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view ofa movable camera mount of the apparatus;

FIG. I6 is a side view of the movable camera mount shown in FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view ofa mechanism for operating a rotary table of the apparatus; and

FIGS. 18a, 18b and are diagrams respectively showing the operational characteristics of the rotary table driving mechanism shown in FIG. I7.

The present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring first to FIGS. I and 2, a card handling apparatus according to the present invention comprises a circular stationary table I, an annular stationary table 2 arranged peripherally to said stationary table I and an annular rotary table 3 interposed between said stationary tables I and 2 for rotation in the direction of arrow M or N. The rotary table 3 carries thereon a plurality of card receiving frames 4 which are arranged in an equally spaced relation circumferentially of said rotary table and each have an opening 4a. The stationary table 2 is provided thereon with card hoppers 5 which are arranged for registration with the respective card receiving frames 4 and in each of which is stored a deck of cards stacked one on another. These card hoppers 5 may be provided in a suitable number as required, though nine of these are shown in FIG. 1, and a large number of the cards to be stored in the respective card hoppers 5 are previously classified into groups as desired. Each card hopper 5 is provided therein with a card transfer lever 7 which will be described in detail hereinafter.

The card handling apparatus of the invention further comprises card loading means 8 mounted on the stationary table 1, card distributing means 9 for distributing the cards to the left and right after the card deck carried to a position C in the card receiving frame 4 has been transferred to a position D of said card distributing means by said card loading means 8, card reading means 10 for reading a code marked on each card when the cards are distributed to the left and right and pass through said card reading means, card removing means 11 provided outwardly of said respective card reading means 10 for removing and leading the used cards to the lower portion of the apparatus after photographing or code reading and card collecting means 12 for collecting the used cards including a chute 13 and an elevator 14.

The stationary table 1 is also provided thereon with movable camera mounts 15, 16 and a camera is mounted on each of said movable mounts for taking a picture of a card after said card has been distributed to the left or right by the card distributing means 9 and set in a position E or F. Reference numeral l7 designates driving means for the rotary table.

1n operation, when a card deck 6 stored, for example, in the card hopper 5 located in a position A is transferred into the confronting card receiving frame 4 in a position B by the action of the associated card transfer lever 7, the rotary table 3 starts rotating and the card deck is carried to the position C while being retained in said card receiving frame 4. In this case, the rotary table driving means 17 is so adjusted that the rotating direction of the rotary table 3 is changed depending upon the position of the card hopper 5 from which the card deck has been transferred. Namely, the rotary table 3 is rotated in the direction of arrow N when the card deck is moved out of any one of the card hoppers located on the lefthalf section of the stationary table 2 as viewed in F10. 1, and is rotated in the direction of arrow M when the card deck is moved out of any one of the card hoppers located on the righthalf section of said stationary table. Such arrangement is advantageous in shortening the time required for the card deck 6 to be carried to the card loading position C after a card transfer signal is initiated. The card deck thus carried to the position C on the rotary table 3 is pushed into the position D of the card distributing means 9 by the action of the card loading means 8, where the individual cards 6 are distributed to the left and right one after another from the lowermost one by the action of said card distributing means. In this case, the codes marked on the individual cards 6 are read by the card reading means 10 during their passage through said means, whereby the cards are identified individually, and then the cards are set in the positions E and F, and a picture of a desired card is taken by the camera mounted on the movable mount or 16 when said card has been set in said position E or F. Thereafter, the cards 6 drop onto the chute 13 of the card removing means 11 and collected on the elevator 14. When a predetermined number of cards 6 have been stacked on the elevator 14, said elevator moves downward a predetermined distance and stands still thereat until the cards are further stacked in a predetermined number.

Now, the respective means constituting the card handling apparatus of this invention will be described in further detail individually hereunder:

Details of the card transfer means is shown in FIG. 3. Namely, the card hopper 5 is composed of a pair of upright side panels 18 fixed on the stationary table 2 at an interval equal to the width of the cards 6 and a card supporting plate 19 which is inclined to facilitate loading of the card deck 6. The transfer lever 7 extends between the side panels 18 for pivotal movement. The transfer lever 7 forms an air space together with the card receiving frame 4 on the rotary table 3. The card supporting plate 19 is formed therein with a pair of elongate slots through which the forked ends 7a of said transfer lever 7 extend respectively, the length of said elongate slots coinciding with the length of stroke of said forked ends 70. A thin strip 20 of a soft material, such as synthetic resin, is attached to that side surface of each forked end 7a which is brought into contact with the card deck 6, so as not to damage the edges of the cards. The other end of the transfer lever 7 extends downwardly and is pivotally connected to a pivot shaft 21. The transfer lever 7 is provided at its lower end portion with a slot 24 and a pin 23 carried at one end of a rotary lever 22 is received in said slot 24. The rotary lever 22 is connected at the other end with the drive shaft of a motor 25 which is mounted on the underside of the stationary table 2. The electric circuit of the motor 25 is so arranged that the motor is placed in motion in response to a card transfer signal to cause the rotary lever 22 to make just a full turn and stop in the original position. in this case, the stopping position of the rotary lever 22 is so selected that the transfer lever 7 has a dead point when it is located at the outermost end of its stroke, so that the stopping position of said transfer lever 7 will not be influenced even when the stopping position of the rotary lever varies slightly.

Thus, it will be seen that when the electric signal is given to the motor circuit, with a previously classified card deck 6 placed on the card supporting plate 19, the motor starts to rotate, whereby the transfer lever 7 is pivoted in the direction of arrow R positively transferring the card deck 6 into the card receiving frame 4 on the rotary table 3 and then returned to the original position and held immovably thereat. Thereafter, the rotary table 3 and the card deck 6 is carried thereon to the position C.

When the card deck 6 has been placed in the position C, the card loading means 8 is actuated to push the card deck to the position D ofthe card distributing means 9 provided exteriorly on the rotary table 3. Details of the card loading means 8 is shown in FIG. 4. Namely, a sliding rod member 26 is radially slidably supported by two bearings 27, 27' on the stationary table 1, while a motor 28 is mounted on the underside of the stationary table 1 at a location intermediary between said two bearings by means of a bracket 29. The drive shaft of the motor 28 has a disc 30 fixedly connected therewith and a lever.

31 is fixedly secured to the peripheral portion of said disc 30 at one end thereof. The lever 31 is provided at the other end with a pin 32. On the other hand, a slide block 33 having a pin 34 is fixed to the central portion of the sliding rod member 26. The pins 32 and 34 are connected with each other by means of a link 35. A pusher 36 is connected to the forward end of the sliding rod member 26 and the position of said pusher is adjustable by a set screw 37. The pusher 36 consists ofa plurality of rods which are combined with each other by means of small diameter Crossbars 36' penetrating therethrough, said cross bars simultaneously serving as reinforcements. The pusher 36 is slightly tilted outwardly with respect to a vertical position. On the other hand, a stopper plate 38 is provided at the position D of the card distributing means 9 and the inside surface of said stopper plate 38 is sloped complementary to the inclination ofthe pusher 36.

With the arrangement described, when a starting signal is given, the motor 28 is placed in motion and after revolving the disc 30 and the lever 31, stops rotating. The stopping position of the motor drive shaft is so selected that the sliding rod member 26 is immovably held at its dead point upon completion of its retracting motion. Namely, the sliding rod member 26 makes one reciprocal movement during one complete turn of the lever 31 effected by the rotation of the motor 28, whereby the card deck 6 in the card receiving frame 4 located in the position C is pushed out of said card receiving frame and set in the position D of the card distributing means 9. In other words, the card deck 6 on the rotary table 3 is moved substantially horizontally onto a guide plate 39 of the card distributing means 9 and further moved into the position D which is slightly lower than said guide plate 39. In the position D, the individual cards 6 are distributed to the'left and right one after another from the lowermost one by the action of the card distributing means. The cards above the lowermost one drop into the distributing position under gravity in sequence upon removal of the lowermost card. The inside surface of the stopper plate 38 and the pusher 36 are inclined as described above and shown in FIG. 4 for the purpose of completely placing all the cards 6 in the position D of the card distributing means 9 even if the individual cards rebound on the inside surface of the stopper plate 38 toward the rotary table 3 upon collision thereagainst when the cards are pushed by the pusher 36.

Next, the card distributing means 9 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8 inclusive.

The card distributing means 9 includes a sliding frame member 40 of a structure as shown in FIG. 8. The sliding frame member 40 has formed in the center thereof with an opening 4| ofa size just large enough for receiving the card 6 and has arms 53 extending outwardly from the opposite ends of the opening 41. The width 1, of each notch 52 formed between the arms 53, 53 is slightly smaller than the width 1 of the card 6 and the thickness of the sliding frame member 40 is slightly smaller than the width of the card 6. Therefore, when the sliding frame member 40 is in a sliding movement, the stack of cards is supported by the arms 53 and is not allowed to drop down. The sliding frame member 40 slides to the left and right (in the directions of arrows h and g) reciprocatorily, so that the lowermost card of the card deck 6 received in the opening 41 of the sliding frame member 40 is distributed to the position F or E incident to the sliding movement of the sliding frame member in the direction of the arrow h or g.

For effecting the sliding movement of the sliding frame member 40 in the directions of arrow h and g, a special Geneva mechanism is used. Namely, as shown in FIG. 5, a rack 42 is fitted to the underside of the sliding frame member 40 and this rack is in meshing engagement with a gear 44 which is fixedly mounted on a shaft coaxially with a driven Geneva cam 43. The mechanism also comprises a driving Geneva cam 45 and two Geneva pins 47 for driving the driven Geneva cam 43. The Geneva pins 47 are provided at the opposite ends of an arm 46 which is fixedly mounted on the shaft of the driving Geneva cam 45. Further, a gear 48 is provided coaxially with the driving Geneva cam 45 and the arm 46, and is operatively connected to the drive shaft of a motor 50 through a gear 49.

A signal for displacing the card, received in the opening 41 of the sliding frame member 40, in the direction of arrow g is given as a signal to rotate the motor 50 in the direction of arrow 3', whilst a signal for displacing the card in the direction of arrow h is given as a signal to rotate the motor 50 in the direction of arrow h. When the motor 50, the driving Geneva cam 45 and the arm 46 are rotated in either direction. said driving Geneva cam 45 and said arm 46 make a half of their complete turn from the positions shown in FIG. 5 and resume their horizontal positions. Therefore, the sliding frame member 40 is moved in the direction of arrow h or g and the card receiving in the opening 41 of said sliding frame member is carried into the card removing position 11 indicated by F or E in FIG. 1. Upon completion of this, the motor 50 is immediately rotated in a reverse direction, so that the driving Geneva cam 45 and the arm 46 are rotated a half turn in an opposite direction and thus the special Geneva mechanism is returned to the position shown in FIG. 5. The motor is preferably a print motor having a light weight and small inertia.

When the card is carried by the sliding frame member 40 from the position D to the position E or F, the card passes through the code reading means 10, by which the content of the card is discriminated and a signal for effecting other operation required for the processing of the card (eg a signal for the preparation of music where such music is desired to be provided during the period of photograph of the card) is initiated.

The code reading means 10 consists of a photoelectric device as shown in FIG. 9. Namely, each card is provided with perforations 5! representing a code, whilst a holder plate 57 is provided with light emitting elements 56 arranged in a single or a plurality of rows in an equally spaced relation to said perforations SI. This holder plate 57 is fixed to a case 58 and each light emitting element 56 is connected to a power source through a terminal 59 and emitting a light at all times. Below the illuminants is provided a card mounting plate on which the card 6 is placed upon entering the code reading means 10. The card mounting plate 55 is formed therein with throughholes 550 in opposed relation to said respective light emitting elements 56 and below the card mounting plate 55 are provided a light receiving element holder 61, with light receiving elements 60 (light-electricity conversion elements) mounted therein, and a holder plate 62 having through-holes 62a formed therein, said light receiving element holder 61 and said holder plate 62 being secured with each other by means of screws. The light receiving elements 60 and the through-holes 62a are arranged in alignment with the respective light emitting elements 56 and through-holes 55a formed in the card mounting plate 55. The holder plate 62 serves to lead to the light receiving elements 60 only those of the lights emitted by the respective light emitting elements 56 which pass through the perforations 51 in the card 6 and the through holes 550 in the card mounting plate 55, and to intercept oblique lights. Therefore, at the moment when the perforations SI is the card 6 coincide with the through-holes 55a and 6211 during movement of said card on the card mounting plate 55, the card is discriminated by a signal according to the lights received by the light receiving elements 60.

The card 6 delivered to the card removing means 11 is, for example, photographed in the position E or F while being supported on the card supporting members and thereafter dropped onto the card collecting means I2. Details ofthe card removing means II is shown in FIGS. II and 12. As shown, in the position E or F the card 6 is supported by a pair of parallel card supporting members 63 and photographed by a camera, mounted on the camera mount 15 or 16, through a mirror 64 under thus supported condition, said mirror 64 being located above the card supporting members 63. The card supporting members 63 consist of an elongate rod-shaped body having three radial fine 65 circumferentially equally spaced from each other at an angle of 120. The card 6 is supported by the confronting parallel fins 65 of the respective card supporting members 63. Upon completion of the photography, the card supporting members 63 rotate 120 in the directions of arrow P and Q respectively to allow the card 6 to drop down and simultaneously support the card which follows.

A mechanism for rotating the card supporting members 63 is constructed as follows: Namely, the drive of a clutch motor 66 is transmitted to a driven Geneva cam 69 through a Geneva pin 67 and a driving Geneva cam 68 to rotate said driven Geneva cam 69 intermittently through an angle of 90 at each time. The driven Geneva cam 69 is fixedly mounted on a shaft 70 which is operatively connected with the shaft of each card supporting members 63 through intermeshing bevel gears 72 and 73, the gear ratio of which is 4/3. Therefore, when the driven Geneva cam 69 is rotated through an angle of the card supporting members 63 are rotated through an angle of respectively. The rotational force from the clutch motor 66 is interrupted by the action of a microswitch 74 on every half rotation of the driving Geneva cam 68. Transmission of the rotational force from the clutch motor 66 is resumed in response to a signal signifying the completion of photography.

Next, the card collecting means 12 will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14.

The card collecting means I2 includes a pair of upper and lower fixture 75, 75' and a threaded shaft 76 supported by said fixtures. An elevating block 77 is mounted on the threaded shaft 76 in a threadable engagement therewith and guide rods 78 loosely extend through the opposite end portions of said elevating block, with both ends thereof secured to the fixtures 75, 75. Thus, it will be seen that by the rotation of the threaded shaft 76 the elevating block 77 is moved up and down while being held against rotation. The upper and lower limits for the movement of the elevating block 77 are set by means of suitable stop devices. The threaded shaft 76 is driven from a motor 85 through intermeshing bevel gears 83, 84 by means of which the drive shaft of the motor 85 and the lower end of the threaded shaft 76 are operatively connected with each other. The elevating block 77 carries a fork 79 for supporting the cards which drop from the chute 13. The cards 6 are stacked on the fork in sequence. Arranged on both sides of the elevating block 77 are light emitting elements 80, 80' and light receiving elements 81, 81'. Further, prisms 82, 82, 82a, 82a are arranged in opposed relation to the light emitting elements 80, 80' and the light receiving elements 81, 81 respectively. The prisms 82 and 82a are located on the same level, whilst the prisms 82' and 820 are arranged on the same level which is a distance L higher than the level of said prisms 82 and 82a. The light emitting element 80, the prisms 82, 82a and the light receiving element 81 operate as a unit and the light emitted by the light emitting element 80 passes through the prisms 82, 82a and is received by the light receiving element 81, whereupon an electric signal is initiated by the light receiving element 81. On the other hand, the light emitting element 80', the prisms 82, 82a and the light receiving element 81 operate as a unit and a light emitted by the light emitting element 80 passes through the prisms 82, 82a and is received by the light receiving element 81, whereupon an electric signal is initiated by said light receiving element 81'.

The card sliding down on the chute 13 drops from the lower end of said chute in a substantially horizontal state. However, if the distance between the terminal end of the chute 13 and the fork 79 of the elevating block 77 is too large, the card may be allowed to change its position to take a vertical position or to be inverted, thus preventing the following cards to be stacked in an orderly manner. In order to avoid such undesirable phenomenon, the card collecting means 12 is designed to operate such that the card dropping distance may be maintained within a predetermined range. Namely, the fork 79 is initially held stationarily on the level of the lower light path W as shown in FIG. 14. When the top end of the card stack accumulated on the fork 79 exceeds the upper light path Y and intercepts said light path, an electric signal is initiated by the light receiving element 81 to rotate the motor 85 in a direction to move the elevating block 77 downwardly. Accordingly, the top end of the card stack is lowered and falls below the lower light path W, whereupon an electric signal is initiated by the light receiving element 81 to stop the motor 85 and the elevating block 77. Thus, it will be understood that the card receiving position of the fork 79 is always maintained within the range between the light paths W and Y or within the distance L. The same purpose may be attained with only one set of illuminant and light receiving element by reducing the height L to zero. In this case, however, the elevating block 77 is moved downward and stopped every time a new card is stacked on the card stack, which is undesirable from the standpoint of service life of the component parts.

The card 6 set in the position E or F is photographed as required by a camera mounted on the camera mount or 16. In this case, the camera must be correctly positioned so as to have the image of the card in its field of vision. In this view, the camera mounts 15, 16 are each constructed as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 so that the position and angle of the mounting surface thereof may be adjusted precisely quickly.

Namely, on the stationary table 1 are fixed three leg members 87 each having an internally threaded holes therein. Each leg member 87 has a threaded rod 88 screw-threaded into the internally threaded hole thereof and a height fixing ring 89 is threadably mounted on said threaded rod 88. A vertically movable bed 90 is mounted to the top ends of the threaded rods 88 at its flanges 86 through a ball bearing (not shown). The vertically movable bed 90 has guide surfaces 92, 93 formed on the inside wall thereof and a laterally movable bed 91 is supported on said guide surfaces 92, 93 for sliding movement in the directions of arrow G and H. A threaded rod is supported by a bracket 94 projecting from the central portion ofone sidewall of the vertically movable bed 90, with one end thereof screw-threadcd into the laterally movable bed 91, the other end of said threaded rod 95 being connected to a handle 96. By rotating the handle 96, the laterally movable bed 91 is moved in the direction of arrow 0 or H.

Two guide rods 97 and one threaded rod 98 extend between opposed vertical wings 99 of the laterally movable bed 91. The guide rods 97 are secured to the wings 99 at both ends thereof, while the threaded rod 98 has one end thereof secured to one wing 99 and the other end thereof extending outwardly through a slot 100 formed in the other wing 99 and connected to a handle 101. A transversely movable bed 102 is provided on the underside thereof with blocks 103 and 104 and supported on the laterally movable bed 91 with the guide rods 97 slidably extending through said blocks 103 and the threaded rod 98 threadably extending through said block 104. It will, therefore, be understood that by rotating the handle 101 to turn the threaded rod 98, the transversely movable bed 102 is moved in the direction of arrow J or K. The camera is mounted on the transversely movable bed 102 and the position and angle thereof can be freely adjusted by rotating the fixing ring 89, the handle 96 and the handle 101.

Finally, detail of the rotary table driving means 17 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18, The rotary stable 3 is provided along the inner peripheral edge thereof with an internal gear 105 in meshing engagement with a pinion 106. The pinion 106 is operatively connected to the drive shaft ofa motor .109 through a reduction gearing 107 and a coupling 108. The motor 109 is preferably a print motor or the like whose rotating member is light in weight and small in inertia. The internal gear 105 is also meshing with another pinion 111 which is mounted on the shaft ofa rotational position detector (selsyn generator) 110. The number of teeth of the pinion 111 is equal to the number of teeth of the internal gear 105 located within one pitch of the rotary table 3 between adjacent stopping position of said rotary table (the positions corresponding to the adjacent card hoppers 5), and the zero point of the phase of the rotational position detector 110 is made to coincide with the stopping position of the rotary table. In the rotational position detector 110, when the phase angle of the rotor with respect to the stator is 0, a voltage proportional to sin 0 is induced in the rotor and the rotational position of the rotary table 3 is detected by this induced voltage.

The system for controlling the rotation of the rotary table 3 will be further explained with reference to FIG. 18. Referring to FIG. 18a there is shown the waveform of a supply voltage impressed on the motor 109. For controlling the rotation of the rotary table, a power circuit SCR Ward-Leonard system is employed and the rotation characteristic of the motor 109 corresponds proportionally to the supply voltage charac tcristic shown in FIG. 18a.

On the other hand, FIG. 18b shows the waveform of a voltage developed in the rotational position detector 110, and the voltage of the rotational position detector 110 changes one cycle upon one complete turn of said detector. As may be ap parent from FIG. 18a, the supply voltage imposed on the motor 109, which is initially V,, drops to V at a time T before a time T at which the motor 109 is desired to be stopped. The voltage V is equal to a voltage V at a point S in the voltage characteristic of the rotational position detector 110 shown in FIG. 18b. The supply voltage acting on the motor 109 is shifted to the voltage developed in the rotational position detector 110, at the time T (the time when the voltage of the rotational position detector 110 becomes equal to the supply voltage V of the motor 109) before the time T at which the motor is desired to be stopped, whereby the voltage acting on the motor 109 is attenuated in the form of a sine curve, and the motor 109 is stopped at the time T when the voltage generated in the rotational position detector 110 becomes zero. Although the motor 109 can be brought to a halt at the time T by shifting the voltage, acting on the motor, at any point in the range [3 shown in FIG. 18b, it is desirable to shift the voltage at the point 8, so as to avoid an abrupt change in the rotational speed.

Consequently, the rotary table 3 takes a rotation characteristic as indicated by the solid line in FIG. 18c and rotates to a predetermined position smoothly and at a considerably high speed and stops the predetermined position accurately. without being subjected to a shock at the time of starting and stopping.

We claim:

I. A card handling apparatus comprising card transfer means for transferring a card deck from one of card hoppers formed on an annular stationary table into the corresponding one of card receiving frames provided on a rotary table arranged interior of said stationary table, rotary table driving means for rotating said rotary table to carry the card deck in said card receiving frame to a predetermined position, card distributing means for distributing the individual cards of said card deck to the left and right one after another from the lowermost one, card loading means for loading the card deck onto said card distributing means, card removing means for retaining the individual card distributed by said card distributing means and card collecting means for collecting the cards dropped by said card removing means to form a stack of cards.

2. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which each of said card hoppers is composed of a pair of upright side panels spaced from each other a distance equal to the width of the card and a card supporting plate having an outwardly downwardly sloped surface, and is provided with a transfer lever for transferring the card deck from the card hopper into the corresponding card receiving frame on said rotary table, said transfer lever being pivotably supported at its lower end and operated from a motor to make a reciprocatory pivotal movement between said side panels of the card hopper through a rotary lever which is connected between said transfer lever and the drive shaft of said motor and adapted to cause one reciprocatory pivotal movement of said transfer lever by its one complete turn.

3. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which said card loading means comprises a sliding rod member provided on a stationary table arranged interior of said annular rotary table, a motor for operating said sliding rod member, a link connecting said sliding rod member with said motor and by which the rotation of the motor is converted into a reciprocatory sliding movement of said sliding rod member in a radial direction of said stationary table, and a pusher connected to the forward end of said sliding rod member for pushing the card deck out of the card receiving frame on the rotary table onto said card distributing means located exteriorly of said rotary table, and said card distributing means includes a stopper plate for supporting the front face of the card deck when said card deck is pushed by said pusher, the confronting faces of said pusher and said stopper plate being tilted complementarily with the top edges thereof located outwardly of the rotary table with respect to the lower edges.

4. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim I, in which said card distributing means comprises a reciprocative sliding frame member of a thickness smaller than the thickness of the card, said sliding frame member having an opening formed centrally thereof for receiving the card and arms projecting from both sides of said opening for supporting the card deck, a rack provided on said sliding frame member and extending in the moving direction of the latter, and a Geneva mechanism engaging said rack and operated to rotate in opposite directions alternately intermittently, and said apparatus further comprises card reading means comprising a plurality of light emitting elements mounted in a holder plate and spaced from each other at a distance equal to the distance between the perforations formed in the card, a corresponding number of light receiving elements mounted in a holder plate in confronting relation to said respective illuminants and a perforated plate for sup orting the card during passage of said card between said lig t emitting elements and said light receiving elements.

5. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim I, in which said card removing means comprises a pair of paralllel card supporting members rotatably supported horizontally and each having radial fins extending longitudinally thereof and adapted to support an edge of the card, and a mechanism for intermittently rotating said card supporting members.

6. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which said card collecting means comprises an upright threaded rod, an elevating block threadably mounted on said threaded rod to be moved up and down thereby and carrying a fork for stacking dropping card thereon in a horizontal state, a pair of upright guide rods extending through said elevating block and two sets of card height detecting means each consisting of a combination of light emitting element and light receiving element, said two sets of card height detecting means being arranged in such a manner that the light path of the light emitting element of one set is located at a different level from the light path of the light emitting element of the other set.

7. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which there is provided photographing means which comprises an adjustable camera mount and a camera mounted on said camera mount for photographing a card retained by said card removing means; said movable camera mount consisting of a vertically movable bed mounted on a stationary table by means of three adjustable threaded legs, and a laterally movable bed and a transversely movable bed which are mounted on said vertically movable bed and can be moved in the respective directions individually by the rotation of a threaded rod in engagement therewith.

8. A card handling apparatus as defined in claim 1, in which said rotary table driving means comprises a coaxial gear provided on the rotary table, a motor operatively associated with said gear through a pinion and a rotational position detector so designed as to make one complete rotation incident to one pitch movement of said rotary table between adjacent stopping positions and thereby to generate a voltage proportional to sin 9 wherein 0 is the rotational angle of said rotary table, said driving means being operative in such a manner that when the rotary table has rotated to a point immediately before a prescribed stopping position, a supply voltage of said motor is reduced to the maximum voltage to be generated by said rotational position detector and when the voltage generated by the rotational position detector has exceeded the maximum voltage, the supply voltage of the motor is shifted to the voltage generated by the rotational position detector.

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