Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – By means to convey sheet
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2001-08-28
Skaggs, H. Grant (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
By means to convey sheet
C271S186000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279901
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an identification inverter which will receive a card, and rotate the card about an axis lying transversely to the card and coincident with the bisecting plane of the card so that when rotated to any angular position including inversion, the plane of the card stays on the axis of rotation.
Various card “flippers” or inverters have been advanced in the art, where the plane of the card is offset from its original plane when it is inverted 180°. U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,058 discloses a device that will turn a card about an axis on the central plane of the card, but it requires at least two sets of rollers and a belt drive for the rollers.
It has been found that it is desirable in many instances to print information on both sides of an identification (ID) card, and also to provide a protective laminate over printed material, photographs, holographs and the like on both sides of the ID card. In order to print and laminate both sides efficiently, the card is inverted and then moved in reverse, back through the printer head or laminating section and then forwardly so that a separate operation is performed, such as printing or adding a laminate layer on the second side of the card. When the card inverter or flipper offsets the plane of the card, special accommodations for handling the card for the operation on the second side have to be made. With the present invention, the card plane does not shift after a full 180° inversion, so that the card can easily be fed back through a printer or laminating section for processing the second side.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a card or substrate inverter that has a plate assembly comprising a pair of guides that receive an identification card, and a drive that will grip a card and drive it along the guide and serve to hold or clamp the card when desired. The drive and clamp comprises a pair of rollers. One of the rollers is driven through a gear set supported on an input shaft that has an axis on the bisecting plane of the card. The input shaft supports the card guides and drive roller on one side of the guides. A separate guide assembly support and invertive drive is provided on the opposite side of the card guides. The separate drive is used for inverting the guides, including the card drive, about an axis that lies on the center plane of the card. The guides can be rotated 180° or a full 360°, as needed or desired. The rotation can be to any other angular position as well, if the card is diverted from its plane of travel for processing, such as associating with encoding circuitry for smart cards, magnetic encoders for encoding cards, magnetic stripes on cards, or cards that are encoded with non contact (RF) circuits.
The inverter drive is simple to operate and uses standard drive motors. The card drive rollers are rotationally driven from one side of the inverter, while the guides, which as shown comprise a pair of plates forming a plate assembly, are driven from the opposite side of the card inverter of effecting the card rotation.
The use of a pair of drive rollers, as shown, permits very precise control of the positioning of the card, and is lower cost compared to using belt drives to separate sets of rollers. The rollers of the present invention act as a clamp for holding the card as well as acting to drive or feed the card when desired.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3917256 (1975-11-01), Kubasta
patent: 5326092 (1994-07-01), Ando
patent: 5332889 (1994-07-01), Lundstrom et al.
patent: 5381209 (1995-01-01), Binder et al.
patent: 5709484 (1998-01-01), Dorner
patent: 5771058 (1998-06-01), Kobayashi
patent: 5927713 (1999-07-01), Driscoll et al.
patent: 5941522 (1999-08-01), Hagstrom et al.
patent: 5959278 (1999-09-01), Kobayashi et al.
patent: 62 631 (1892-06-01), None
patent: 431 172 (1991-06-01), None
patent: 5-159531 (1993-06-01), None
Fargo Electronics Inc.
Skaggs H. Grant
Westman Champlin & Kelly P.A.
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