Registers – Coded record sensors – Particular sensor structure
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-05
2004-06-01
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Coded record sensors
Particular sensor structure
C235S454000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06742706
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a card reader for at least either recording or reproducing data onto or out of an information recording medium, such as a card.
By virtue of their carrying convenience, cards have long been used for many different purposes, and a wide variety of cards are available. They include, for instance, prepaid cards such as telephone cards and railway ticket cards, commuter tickets, coupon tickets, point cards, bank cards, cash cards, credit cards, driver's licenses, membership cards and ID cards.
Such a card has a memory section, typically a magnetic recording layer, an optical recording layer or an IC memory, for recording and holding such information as identifying information, account balance and earned points. Whereas information recorded on any such memory section is reproduced by a dedicated card reader, the card possessor cannot directly check the information because information recorded on a magnetic recording layer, an optical recording layer or an IC memory is invisible.
The prior art provides various ways of visually marking such otherwise invisible information. For instance, the information may be printed on the card surface by one or another of various printing means such as an ink jet, thermoelectric or laser beam printer, or write once type marking may be used, such as forming a thermosensitive color developing layer on the card surface in advance and thermally recording the information thereon. The write once type marking cannot present much information because of the limitation of the space available for marking on the card surface. In view of this limitation, more recently, rewritable marking methods have come to be used. For example, a liquid crystal marking device may be formed on the card, or a thermally reversible material permitting repeated thermal printing and erasion is used for the marking purpose. By using one or another of these marking methods, not only can invisibly recorded information be visually marked on a magnetic recording layer, an optical recording layer or an IC memory but also can new information, such as an advertisement or a promotional announcement, be additionally marked in a visual way.
Furthermore, in addition to the wide variety of the uses, information recording systems and marking methods of these cards, the materials of card substrates, the position of the memory section such as a magnetic stripe or an IC chip, and the standards on the size and thickness of the card are no less diverse. The card materials, for instance, include plastics, paper and synthetic paper such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyvinyl chloroacetate (PVCA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polycarbonate (PC) and biodegradable materials. According to JISX6301 applicable to all ID cards and JISX6303 applicable to IC cards with external terminal, the thickness is required to be 0.76 mm±0.08 mm. In a commonly known configuration, two 0.28 mm thick hard vinyl chloride sheets are stacked one over the other, and a 0.1 mm thick hard vinyl chloride sheet is stuck to each side of the paired sheets. A card of some type has an account number, expiration date and owner's name marked in an embossed way, i.e. by physically embossing parts of the card substrate to let the signs of such information show up. Besides such cards having a hard plastic as the substrate, prepaid cards, typically telephone cards, are thinner, ranging in thickness from about 0.20 to 0.28 mm.
Thus, cards have become diverse indeed. A device having functions to pick up (read) information out of, to record (write) information onto or rewrite information to be marked on such cards is a card reader.
One example of card reader according to the prior art will be cited here.
FIG. 18
is a sectional side elevation view of the conventional card reader. The following description will refer to FIG.
18
.
A rewrite card provided with a thermally reversible material or the like is used as a card
1
, and the card
1
here has a magnetic recording layer, too. A rewrite card has a configuration wherein a visible image is formed by, for instance, heating to or above a prescribed temperature, and the formed image can be made invisible by heating the card within a prescribed temperature range for a prescribed length of time.
The card
1
inserted through an inlet
2
is carried within a passage
7
, which is composed of a guide assembly
6
, by drive rollers
3
,
4
and
5
and pinch rollers
8
,
10
and
12
opposite the respective drive rollers.
Reference numeral
56
denotes a data recording/reproducing unit for recording or reproducing magnetic information onto or out of the card
1
; and
58
, a magnetic head pinch roller opposite the magnetic head
56
. A printing section
37
for printing on the card
1
is fitted to a thermal head holder
60
and rotated by a shaft
96
.
Further, an erasing section
49
for erasing information printed on the card is fitted to an erasing head holder
79
, which is linked by a shaft
97
to the thermal head holder
60
and is interlocked with a thermal head
37
.
The thermal head
37
and the erasing head
49
are so configured as to be protruded into and recessed from the passage
7
by a lifting motor
98
via a cam
99
.
When printing on or erasing from the card
1
, the thermal head
37
and the erasing head
49
are pressed and energized by springs, which are hooked onto holders, via the card
1
against a platen
31
positioned opposite the thermal head
37
and a roller
43
positioned opposite the erasing head
49
, and protruded into the passage
7
to print or erase prescribed information onto or out of the card
1
.
Upon completion of printing or erasion, the thermal head
37
and the erasing head
49
are recessed from the passage
7
by the lifting motor
98
via the cam
99
. The permissible upper limit of the pinching load of the thermal head
37
and the erasing head
49
is about 5 N because of constrains of the mechanism.
Each such card reader according to the prior art is designed or set for exclusive use with a particular card type. For instance, thinner cards of 0.20 to 0.28 mm in thickness are used with a card reader exclusively intended for them, and similarly thicker cards of 0.68 to 0.84 mm have their own card reader intended specifically for them. However, these conventional card readers involve the following problems.
As mentioned above, a great variety of cards are in use, and they differ in thickness, substrate material, the presence or absence and, if present, the position of a memory section such as a magnetic recording layer, an optical recording layer or an IC memory, and the presence or absence and, if present, the position of a marking section such as a thermosensitive color developing layer, a liquid crystal marking device or a thermally reversible material.
In a card reader exclusively intended for cards of, for instance, 0.20 to 0.28 mm in thickness, the optimal processing conditions are set for thin cards of 0.20 to 0.28 mm in thickness. More specifically, the pinching forces of the pinch rollers opposite the drive rollers on the passage, that of the magnetic head pinch roller opposite the magnetic head in the data recording/reproducing unit and those of the thermal head and the erasing head are set.
If it is tried to process a 0.68 to 0.84 mm thick card with this card reader optimally set for thinner cards of 0.20 to 0.28 mm in thickness, it is very likely for some trouble to arise in the card reader such as a fault in carriage, printing, erasion, recording or reproduction. This would be due to the difference not only in the thickness of the card but also in the flexibility or the like of the card.
Thus, the setting of the pinching force in carriage, printing, erasion and data recording/reproduction cannot be equal for a 0.68 to 0.84 mm thick card and a thinner card of 0.20 to 0.28 mm in thickness, and fine adjustment for the differences is not easy with any conventional card reader. In particular, a 0.68 to 0.84 mm thick card is less flexible than a thinner card
Arase Sinji
Kawasaki Mikio
Sakamoto Kazutaka
Ueta Hiroyuki
Frech Karl D.
Hess Daniel A.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher, LLP.
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