Conveyors: power-driven – With means to facilitate working – treating – or inspecting... – Means to transfer a load back and forth between the mainline...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-03
2001-08-07
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...
Means to transfer a load back and forth between the mainline...
C198S379000, C029S837000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06269930
ABSTRACT:
The invention refers to an apparatus for personalizing identification cards with integrated circuits as per the preamble of claim
1
.
This type of apparatus is known from DE 196 44 306 Al. The personalizing station consists of a printing station which allows imprinting identification cards with integrated circuits, so-called chip cards, as per ISO7816-2. The rotor serves to turn the cards to allow printing on both sides. While printing takes only a few seconds, chip loading is more time-intensive. To make good use of the card-turning time, the above apparatus has several contacting devices installed on the rotor which allow the loading of chips at same time the cards are being turned.
To feed the cards to the individual contacting devices, the above apparatus requires a corresponding number of card transport devices on the rotor. The power supply to the motors of the card transport devices and of the contacting devices thus requires a large number of electrical lines which restrict the mobility of the rotor. The number of contacting devices is therefore limited so that the time for loading the chips is in the final analysis limited by the output speed of the cards, especially when large quantities are data need to be loaded, as for example with processor chips.
EP 0 597 135 Al describes a device for the reading and writing to magnetic cards with a rotor, along whose circumference is provided a pocket for the coding of magnetic strips, and with chip cards one more pocket with a chip reading station
The problem of the invention is to substantially increase the output speed of personalized identification chip cards in a simple manner.
This is achieved by the invention with the apparatus described in claim
1
. The subclaims describe further advantageous developments of the invention.
In the apparatus as per the invention, the contacting devices for the loading of the chips are arranged in a stationary position along the circumference of the rotor. The rotor thus forms a type of rotary disk for transporting the cards to the individual contacting devices for loading the chips.
To transport the cards from the rotor to the individual contacting devices and return them after loading from the contacting devices to the rotor, each contacting device is assigned a card transport device. It is possible to use commercially available units which draw in the chip card, load it and eject it after loading. The transport of the chip cards inside these devices can be controlled by sensors.
Due to the stationary nature of the array, the electrical lines for the power supply to the motors of the card transport devices, of the chip contacting devices and of the sensors can be laid without problem.
The card transport direction of the chip loading devices extends radially. This allows a large number of chip loading devices to be radially arranged around the rotor and permits making the loading time a corresponding multiple of the processing time of each card in subsequent personalizing stations, for example a multiple of the card printing time in the printing station or stations.
The apparatus of the invention therefore allows to load large quantities of data into memory chips, also and in particular programs into processor chips.
While the fixed chip contacting devices are arranged along the circumference of the rotor, in the apparatus of the invention the subsequent contacting device on the rotor is used for test reading the chips.
Test reading can be performed in different ways. For example the chips with the contacting devices on the rotor can be tested before being programmed by the chip contacting devices installed fixed around the rotor.
In this way, unusable cards can be determined. These may be cards, for example, with a defective chip or a card with a type of chip not compatible with the personalizing apparatus. The unusable card can be extracted using an ejection device arranged in a stationary position along the circumference of the rotor and thus be excluded from subsequent processing by the apparatus of the invention.
After the chips are loaded by the chip loading units arranged around the rotor, the test reading device at the rotor permits reading the data on the chips. The read data can then be used to verify whether the chips have been correctly loaded, in particular for the purpose of coordinating the chip data with the data from at least one other subsequent personalizing station.
The other data may, for example, be graphic and/or magnetically stored data. Thus, the subsequent personalizing station may be a printing station which imprints the card with the personal data and/or a picture of the card holder.
An embossing apparatus may be provided for imprinting alphanumeric data on the card to project from the card.
The printing station can furthermore be made up of a thermal printing head which consists of heating elements arranged in a row and running perpendicular to the card transport device and which can be individually computer-operated. The individual speed of the card transport device is provided with a step motor which moves the card along the row of heating elements at a step rate that corresponds to the number of heating elements.
The card can also be provided with a thermally sensitive layer or a colour transfer film may be provided which is moved along between the card and the thermal printer head. The thermal printer head of this type allows to imprint both numerical data and a picture of the card holder onto the card.
When the identification card contains a magnetic strip, the subsequent personalizing station may also be a coding station for programming the magnetic card.
Thus, the chip test reading device at the rotor of the apparatus of the invention serves in particular for verifying the correspondence of the personal data of the chips loaded by the chip loading devices with the card data, printed or to be printed and/or coded. The test reading apparatus needs to read only a small portion of the data on the chips to verify their correspondence with the printing and/or coding station, for example. The time needed for test reading the chips is therefore correspondingly short.
After the return transport from the chip loading devices to the rotor, the cards are turned by the rotor into the direction of the personalizing station or stations or ejection unit to be thereafter transported by the card transport apparatus on the rotor to the neighbouring personalizing station or stations or ejection unit.
The time for turning the cards is sufficient for the test reading by the chip contacting device of the rotor. The test reading does therefore not affect the output speed of the cards.
Moreover, as in the apparatus of the invention, the loading time in the chip loading devices arranged around the rotor is a multiple of the processing time of the cards in subsequent personalizing stations, for example the printing station or the magnetic card coding station, the invention makes it possible to load large quantities of data with the chip loading devices and to test read the chips. Inspite of this fact, the output speed of the cards is substantially raised, possibly in such a way that the card output speed is no longer determined by the loading of the chips but by the processing of the cards in subsequent personalizing stations, like the printing station or magnetic strip coding station.
When at least one other personalizing station is arranged after the rotor, the chip cards can be directly fed to the rotor which will then refeed them one by one, i.e. to the individual chip loading apparatuses arranged around it.
However, the subsequent personalizing station, or when there are several personalizing stations, one of these, can also be arranged before the rotor. Thus, a printing station may be provided before the rotor, for example. The rotor can then be used for turning the card by 180 degrees which allows imprinting the card by this printing station on both sides, as described in detail DE 195 14 999 C2. Another possible setup is to arrange one printing station before and one p
Bower Kenneth W
Ellis Christopher P.
Flynn, Thiel, Boutell & Tanis, L.L.P.
Kunz GmbH
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