Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-08
2001-09-25
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S277000, C156S378000, C156S387000, C235S375000, C235S380000, C235S435000, C235S437000, C235S489000, C700S221000, C700S225000, C700S226000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06294032
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to a method and an apparatus for bringing together and joining plastic cards, which are provided with an identification mark, and printed card carriers associated with the respective plastic cards.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, it is possible to automatically join (apply) a variable number of plastic cards, e.g. thick plastic cards, type CR-80, to card carriers by means of known systems. The card carriers having applied thereto the plastic cards are then packed into envelopes, e.g. in an enveloping station, and they are either deposited in a scale-like mode of arrangement or subjected to further treatment, such as sorting or encircling by a plastic strip.
In a known method and in a known apparatus, presorted and personalized plastic cards are applied to presorted and personalized card carriers. The term “personalized” means in this context that the plastic card and the card carrier, respectively, have already been provided with the necessary data, such as name, address etc. The card carriers can in this case be supplied from a stack of continuous sheets or from a stack of single sheets.
In
FIG. 2
, a known apparatus is shown for applying plastic cards and card carriers. The apparatus is designated generally by reference numeral
200
.
In this known apparatus, the plastic cards are contained in a turret means
202
comprising four magazines
204
. From said turret means
202
, individual plastic cards
206
are discharged and supplied to a reader
208
. The supply of the individual cards to the various stations takes place via so-called stop points
210
at which the cards stop until a signal arrives from a subsequent station, said signal indicating that said subsequent station is ready to receive the card.
In the reader
208
, an identification number (ID number) of the plastic card
206
is read. A processing means
212
detects and stores said identification number. The plastic card
206
is then guided to an application means
214
via a plurality of stop points
210
. Prior to supplying the plastic card
206
to the application means
214
, said plastic card may be provided with a gummed label at a station
216
so as to guarantee the subsequent connection to the card carrier.
The card carrier is supplied from a second direction (arrow
218
), which does not correspond to the direction in which the plastic card
206
is supplied to the application means
214
.
The card carrier is contained in a stack
220
which comprises the card carriers in a presorted form. As has been described hereinbefore, the card carriers have already been provided with the relevant data, e.g. the name and the address of the person receiving the card.
From said stack
220
, the card carrier is supplied to a reader
222
, which reads an identification number printed on said card carrier. This identification number is compared (arrow
224
) with the identification number of the card occupying the last stop point prior to the application means
214
. If the identification numbers correspond, the plastic card and the card carrier will be connected.
In this known apparatus
200
, all components are controlled by the same system clock, i.e. the number of strokes elapsing until a plastic card reaches the application means
214
after the detection of the identification number at
208
is known, so that, depending on this known transit time, the supply of the card carriers from the stack
220
and the examination of the identification numbers can be controlled such that the card carrier will arrive at the application means
214
at the same time as the plastic card
206
belonging to this card carrier.
One disadvantage of this known apparatus is to be seen in the fact that, for the purpose of associating the respective card carrier with a complementary plastic card, it is necessary that the identification number is printed on said card carrier.
In contrast to the plastic card where the identification number and additional personal data are stored e.g. in a magnetic strip, i.e. they are not easily discernable from outside, these additional personal data are visibly printed on the printed card carrier. This is disadvantageous especially with regard to the necessary data privacy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a major object of the present invention to further develop a method and an apparatus which are used for bringing together and joining plastic cards and printed card carriers in such a way that sufficient data privacy is guaranteed.
The present invention provides a method for bringing together and joining plastic cards, which are provided with an identification mark, and printed card carriers associated with the respective plastic cards, comprising the steps of:
a) providing the plastic card and the printed card carrier;
b) detecting the identification mark of said plastic card;
c) reading data from a database by means of said identification mark;
d) detecting the data on said printed card carrier prior to joining said card carrier to the plastic card;
e) determining whether the data on the card carrier detected in step d) correspond to the data read in step c); and
f) provided that the data read and the data detected correspond, bringing together and joining the plastic card and the card carrier.
The present invention provides an apparatus for bringing together and joining plastic cards, which are provided with an identification mark, and printed card carriers associated with the respective plastic cards, said apparatus comprising:
a first carrier means containing the plastic cards;
a first detection means for detecting the identification mark of the plastic card;
a database means from which data can be read by means of said identification mark;
a second carrier means containng the printed card carriers;
a second detection means for detecting data on said printed card carrier;
a processing means which determines whether the data read from the database by means of the identification mark correspond to the data detected on the card carrier; and
a bringing-together and joining means used for bringing together and joining the plastic card and the card carrier, provided that the data read from the database correspond to the data detected on the card carrier.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4384196 (1983-05-01), McCumber et al.
patent: 4429217 (1984-01-01), Hill et al.
patent: 5151582 (1992-09-01), Fuiioka
patent: 5266781 (1993-11-01), Warwick et al.
patent: 5494544 (1996-02-01), Hill et al.
patent: 0621563 (1994-10-01), None
patent: WO 93/04433 (1993-03-01), None
patent: WO 94/21460 (1994-09-01), None
EPO Search Report in German (Jun. 18, 1996,.)
Schmid Eduard
Weinmann Karlheinz
Bowe Systec AG
Crispino Richard
Lorengo J. A.
Wolf Greenfield & Sacks P.C.
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