WO1999051442A1

WO1999051442A1 - Card printer and laminator with shared power supply

Info

Publication number: WO1999051442A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/007064
Authority: WO
Inventors: Matthew K. Dunham; Robert E. Francis
Original assignee: Fargo Electronics, Inc.
Priority date: 1998-04-06
Filing date: 1999-03-31
Publication date: 1999-10-14

Abstract

A laminator (75) for laminating protective films (86) onto a printed plastic card (63A) has a heated roller (82) that engages the film (86) and the card (63A) to laminate the film (86) onto the card (63A) securely. A printer (30) and the laminator (75) share a common power supply (122). The laminator (75) includes a heated roller (82) that is energized only when the printer (30) that is used for printing cards (63A) prior to lamination is not energized. The shared power supply (122) can be smaller since only one of the heavy electrical loads will be powered at a time.

Description

- 1 -

CARD PRINTER AND LAMINATOR WITH SHARED POWER SUPPLY

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a card printer and laminator for cards, such as identification cards, which includes a print head, and a lamination station that has a heated roller to laminate a film onto the printed card. The power supply to the heated roller is interrupted when the print head requires power, to reduce the maximum power requirement and thus reduce the size of the power supply needed.

Lamination of a protective layer over an identification card on which information identifying the owner or holder has been printed is widely done . The cards are generally carried along a support and information is printed on the card, after which a lamination layer is placed over the card and heat laminated in place.

The power requirements for the printers and laminator are both very high, and when both are being operated at the same time, a substantial amount of power is consumed. The power supplies on prior art machines thus are large, even though the printer operates only intermittently, and the heater does not require continuous power.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a card printer that has a laminator for laminating protective coatings onto cards, such as plastic identification cards, on which information is printed. The laminating section has an electrically heated roller. The printer also is electrically powered and consumes a substantial amount of power . The power supply provided is under control of a central controller which will provide power for both of the printer head that is used for printing material onto the card and for the heaters for the laminating roller or rollers that are used for providing sufficient heat to laminate the plastic cover sheet onto the plastic card. The controller is programmed so that when the print head is to operate, the power to the laminator heater is turned off. The heater for the laminator has a closed loop control for maintaining a set temperature as well.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a typical printer assembly including a laminator station controlled in accordance with the present invention; and

Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram of the controls used with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to Figure 1, a card processor 10 includes a printer assembly indicated generally at 11 and includes a frame 12 on which all of the components are mounted. Because the card loading, printing and laminating apparatus are well known in the field, they are shown schematically with details of the actual mounting brackets, supports, and the like omitted.

The printer assembly 11 includes an input card hopper 14 comprising a support table 15 on which standard size PVC cards can be placed. A guide roller 16 holds the stack of cards in position, and a drive roller 18 is powered from a motor 20 to move the cards from the supply. The motor 20 is powered when a card is to be delivered to the printer or graphic imaging station to drive a single card up onto a planar support platform 22 and into a set of rollers 24. The roller - 3 - set 24 includes a spring loaded idler roller 25, and a drive roller 26, which is powered from a stepper motor 28. This set of rollers 24 will drive a single card into a graphic imaging station or printer indicated at 30.

The printer is a thermal dye sublimation printer that has a substantial power requirement during printing. The printer operates by printing multiple colored panels from one ribbon on a single card. The printing typically takes about 2.7 seconds for one color panel (there are five panels printed per card) and the print head is off for about 1.5 seconds between panels and about 3 seconds between cards .

The printer or imaging station 30 is the first element requiring substantial power. The printer 30 has an output roller set 32 comprising an idler roller 33 and a drive roller 34. In the printing process, the cards can be supported on a drive roller shown at 38. The stepper motor 28 may be used to drive rollers 26, 34 and 38 through suitable gears. Individual stepper motors can be used if desired on the interior of the printer. The stepper motor 28 can be driven in both directions of rotation so that the card can be moved back and forth along the support platform 22 for multiple passes for printing or other processing.

When one side of a card such as that shown at 57 has been printed or received an image, the rollers 33 and 34, comprising the roller set 32, may optionally be programmed through a suitable controller, indicated generally at 40, to drive the card 63 onto an index table assembly 42. Index table 44 has suitable drive devices for not only driving the card 63 but also rotating the index table 44 about the axis of the shaft for a drive roller 64. -4 -

The indexable table assembly 42 can be rotated so that it will invert the card 63 that has been printed on one side and move it back into the roller set 32 and into the graphic imaging station 30 to print a second side of the card 63, if desired.

The present invention may be used with auxiliary processing stations that are accessible by operation of the indexable table assembly 42, at a level that is offset from the plane of movement of the cards 63 during input and printing. This permits additional operations to be performed on the card 63, subsequent to printing, without elongating the frame 12 substantially and by utilizing the space beneath the support platform 22 for the graphic imaging station. This is shown in detail in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/854,969, filed May 13, 1997, assigned to the same assignee.

As shown schematically, a magnetic encoding station 50 is provided at a selected position, and a smart card encoding station 52 is provided to operate as the card 63 in the same card location, but offset therefrom so that the cards 63 can be selectively placed into the respective encoding stations. The card 63 is transferred to these stations for further processing using suitable drive rollers. A drive motor 55 is controlled to rotate the drive roller 64 to move a card 63 between it and a backing roller 65. Also, the drive from motor 55 can be controlled to rotate the table 44 by use of clutches and brakes that will drivably connect the table to the drive shaft for roller 64. This is also explained in U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/854,969, filed May 13, 1997, assigned to the same assignee .

Briefly, the magnetic encoding station 50 includes a drive roller 57 that is engaged by a spring - 5 - loaded idler roller 58 adjacent to a magnetic encoding head 59 that is shown schematically in line with the rollers 57 and 58. A support tray 60 is positioned so that when the index table 44 is rotated counterclockwise in the range of 330° from its solid line position, the index table surface carrying a card 63 will be substantially aligned with the surface of the support tray 60 in the magnetic encoding station 50.

The stepper motor 55 will drive the card 63 into position for processing and will drive roller 57 to remove the card 63 when it is processed.

If the cards 63 being printed are "smart" cards and include a chip for memory or the like, the card on the index table 44 will be rotated clockwise using the stepper motor 55 to the position shown in Figure 1 in dotted lines, which causes the index table to be inverted and the rollers 64 and 65 will drive the "smart" card 63 into a position adjacent to a support tray 69 carrying the "smart" card encoding station 52. A spring loaded idler roller 70 engages the roller 57, and with the motor 68 rotating in the correct direction, the card 63 will be fed over to the "smart" card 63 encoding station indicated for activating a chip, providing memory, or doing some other processing on the chip that is embedded in the "smart" card 63. When the "smart" card encoding is complete motor 68 is reversed and the rollers 57 and 70 cause the card 63 to move back and engage the index table 44 to be held by the rollers 64 and 65. After the card 63 has been printed and processed in the stations as desired, the card 63 is fed into a lamination station, which is indicated generally at 75. Lamination stations in which an overlay of a clear plastic is placed over a printed card 63 are well- known. A support plate 78 and a lower platen roller 80 are provided. A card 63A, which is to be laminated is moved along the support plate 78. The card 63A is driven by a heated laminating platen or roller 82 driven by a stepper motor 83. The heated roller 82 is controlled with a heat controller 84. An internal electric heater 82A is energized through suitable slip rings so that the roller 82 can rotate while electrically-powered heater 82A heats the roller 82. A temperature sensor 82B is included on the heater platen to maintain the roller temperature at a set point. Laminate overlay layers 86 are carried on a web 88 from a supply roller 90. The web 88 passes between the rollers 80 and 82. The position of the web is sensed through suitable optical sensors 92 as it moves toward a take-up roll 94. The optical sensors can be used to sense indicia marks on the web to determine the position of the web relative to the location of the laminate overlays 86 and the card 63A. Controller 40 is used for operating the rollers 82 through a motor 83, and the rollers 90 and 94 are also driven by suitable motors 94A and 90A, controlled by the controller 40. United States Patent Application Serial No. 08/851,637, filed May 6, 1997, owned by the same Assignee illustrates a typical lamination station.

The card 63A and a laminate overlay 86 are heated as they pass between the rollers 82 and 80 a sufficient amount so that the laminate layer 86 will bond to the facing surface of the card 63A. Controller 40 controls the power to the print station 30, as stated. In order to minimize the total power requirement, the controller 40 includes a program that prepares the printer 30, and controls power to both the printer head and the heater in the laminate roller - 7 - or platen 82, as schematically shown in Figure 2. The controller 40 is so that when the printer is set, the controller 40 will shut off power to the heater controller 84 and, thus, turn off the power to the heater 82A so that the heater for the laminator is not drawing power and all of the power from the power supply 122 can be used at the print head 30. The heater controller 84 controls the heater for the laminator section to reach a set point temperature as sensed by a temperature sensor 82A, but the printer print head has priority for power consumption. The two heavy electrical load components, the printer and the heater for the laminator will thus not be requiring power at the same time. As shown, in Figure 2 power supply 122 is used for providing power to both the printer and laminator.

The laminator roll 82 is represented in Figure

2, and it has a thermocouple sensor 82B for sensing the temperature of the roll. The thermocouple provides a signal back to the heater controller 84 that forms part of controller 40 or which can be separate module. The controller 40 is a micro controller that includes modules for providing commands to the controlled components. The heater controller 84 controls the heater 82A in response to the thermocouple input whenever the printer is not calling for power. The power supply 122 is controlled internally by control section 132 that operates the printer through the controls 124 and 126, and when the printing is done or is not operating, the control section 132 connects power to the heater controller 84.

Each panel of a dye sublimation printer, the preferred printer used, takes approximately 2.7 seconds to complete, and the power will be off for about 1.5 - 8 - seconds between panels. Whenever the printer is printing, the power to heater controller 84 is shut off, so the heater 82A will not be heated. However, when the printer is not operating, the heater controller 84 receives power from the supply 122, and then if the thermocouple indicates that the roller 82 is below the desired temperature, the heater 82A will be energized.

The controller 40 will receive a "print ready" signal represented at 124 when a card is in position in the printer and the print head is properly positioned. When that occurs, the power to the heat controller circuit 84 for heater 82A of the roller 82 is shut off by the controller 40, and power is provided to the printer 30. When a "printer done" signal, represented at 126, is provided, power is again available to heater controller 84 and may be supplied to the heater 82A. Power to the printer 30 is shut off. In this way, the capacity of the power supply can be reduced, reducing cost and weight . The use of a steel roller for the lamination roller also has advantages, particularly when the shared power arrangement is used, because it acts a heat sink and will transfer heat more quickly to the laminated plastic and the card 63 itself. When the power is off, the roller will retain heat so that lamination can take place when the power is momentarily off, if a card is in position in the laminator and the printer requires power to operate. The lamination is a rapid process and can occur in a range of 16-45 seconds. The dye sublimation printing process for all five panels of the print ribbon will be about the same time so the operations are synchronized. The heater duty cycle is about 50% to keep the desired temperature. The shared power control is usable with a wide range of printer types. The details of the laminator, feed roller and other mechanisms can be selected as desired. The shared power arrangement can be used with other types of laminator rollers, but steel rollers have the advantage mentioned above. Also, the heated steel roller can be an idler roller. It comprises a heated platen for a laminator station and other types of heated platens can be used. Also, additional drive and guide rollers can be used for handling the cards, as needed.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

- 10 -WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A card printer and laminator assembly for printing on a card and laminating an overlay on the printed card, including a printer having a thermally operated print head requiring electric power, a laminating section having an electrically heated component for applying heat to laminate a layer onto the card subsequent to printing, an electrical power supply, and a controller connected to the power supply and to both the heater and the printer, said controller interrupting power flow to the heater whenever the printer is using electrical power for printing.

2. The card printer and laminator assembly of claim 1, including a temperature sensor operably associated with the laminating section and providing a feedback signal for maintaining sensed temperature at a desired level when power is supplied by the controller to the heater.

3. The card printer and laminator assembly of claim 1, wherein said laminating section includes an electrically heated roller for laminating a layer onto a printed card.

4. The card printer and laminator assembly of claim 3, wherein said roller is a steel roller that provides a heat sink for maintaining temperatures of the roller when the printer is operating.

5. A card printer for printing information on a card and a laminator providing an overlay of protective material heat laminated to the card after printing, the laminator having a heated platen, a power supply, a dye sublimation printer having a thermal print head for printing material onto a card prior to lamination, said printer requiring electric power for heating the print head for operation, and a controller connected to the - 11 - power supply and to both the printer and the heated platen, the controller interrupting power from the power supply to the heated platen whenever the printer requires power for printing.

6. The card printer and laminator assembly of claim 5 including a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the heated platen and providing a control signal for controlling power to the heated platen when the temperature of the heated platen is less than a desired amount, and controlling such power only when the printer is not operating.

7. The card printer and laminator of claim 6 and a heater control receiving the control signal and closing a circuit between an input and an output of the heater control, the input being connected to the controller to receiver power when the controller provides such power.

8. A method of reducing power supply size in a card printer and laminator comprising the steps of providing a printer for printing cards using electrical power; providing a laminator having an electrically heated component ; providing a common power supply; and controlling connections between the power supply and the printer and heated component to provide power to the heated component only when the printer is not printing.

9. The method of claim 8 including the step of controlling the heated component temperature using a temperature sensor feedback.

10. The method of claim 8 including the step of providing a steel roller as the heated component .