Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Generic control system – apparatus or process – Digital positioning
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-22
2003-02-11
Picard, Leo (Department: 2125)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Generic control system, apparatus or process
Digital positioning
C700S059000, C700S114000, C700S124000, C700S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06519497
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a method for producing card-shaped data carriers and an apparatus for carrying out the method.
Card-shaped data carriers can be formed for example as magnetic stripe cards or chip cards which can be used as check cards, credit cards or electronic purses for carrying out financial transactions, can serve as identity cards for admittance or access control, etc. Such cards are normally made of plastic and/or paper or cardboard. Plastic cards are produced by laminating several layers or by injection molding or other suitable methods, depending on the desired properties and permissible production costs. For the following description a laminated chip card will be used by way of example, whereby the described methods can also be used for differently produced cards and also for different types of card.
Laminated chip cards consist of a plurality of layers: e.g. top protective layer, printed top cover layer, one or more intermediate layers, printed bottom cover layer, bottom protective layer. For producing such cards one produces the individual layers as foils with a certain sheet size. Then one prints the sheets for the top and bottom cover layers. Subsequently one superposes the different sheets and welds them together to a single sheet under pressure and heat. One punches the individual raw card bodies out of this sheet. Endless card production by roll lamination is likewise possible. The individual layers are thereby supplied in the form of long webs to a roll laminating machine, connected to a single web there and then divided into single cards.
Hitherto each single card has been subjected manually to a quality inspection after the abovementioned production steps; i.e. each card is compared manually with a reference card. If the card to be tested is within a given tolerance for given criteria, such as contrast of colors, no burr on the card edges, no scratches, no lint, etc., it is passed on for processing. If the card does not stand the test, which is subjective since performed by a human being, it ends as a reject. The accepted cards are then placed in the magazine of a singler which supplies the cards to a milling machine via a card transport device. With a pocket milling cycle one produces cavities for chip modules to be provided on the cards. Subsequently the chip modules are inserted into the card cavities and fixed in the cavities with an adhesive. This process is called implantation.
This method for producing the cavities has hitherto only been used in chip cards made of sheet material since with integral plastic cards (e.g. made of ABS) produced by injection molding it is easier and cheaper to produce the cavity during injection.
Problems arise from the fact that the abovementioned inspection, being manual, is subjective, time-consuming and involves error, since people are not always as focused as they should be, and thus too many rejected cards pass to final inspection. Further rejected cards arise from the fact that cards arriving at the milling machine in a wrong position are milled wrong. A further problem is that the pocket milling machine must be readjusted for some types of card with respect to the size and shape of the chip module.
The described problems can occur not only during production of the cavities but similarly in each production step in which changes are made on the cards or in production steps in which cards of a certain type are expected or in which the cards must have a defined state or assume a defined spatial position, and a deviation from the expected type/state/position cannot be excluded.
The problem of the invention is therefore to obtain a maximum quality standard and minimize rejects rates at reduced personnel expense in the production of card-shaped data carriers.
This problem is solved by the characterizing features of the invention described in patent claim
1
.
According to the invention, optical testing is performed before each production step in which changes are made on the cards or which is critical with respect to the spatial position or type or state of the card.
Said testing can be used especially advantageously for production steps in which the type or state or spatial position of the cards is important. One can thus firstly ensure that the production step is not performed erroneously on cards not intended for this production step. Both can lead to rejected cards and one would lose both the costs for the preceding production steps including the step in question and the material costs incurred.
Secondly, one prevents the production step from being performed on cards which do not fulfill the minimum quality requirements defined for this production step. This avoids e.g. Further production costs being incurred for a rejected card.
The stated variations of the invention can be applied both for single cards and for sheets or webs each having a plurality of cards. The specific manner of testing in each case will be described in the following with reference to some selected embodiments.
The invention will be illustrated by a pocket milling machine used for providing card bodies with cavities for receiving chip modules. The pocket milling machine is extended by an optical detecting unit, which is disposed procedurally before the pocket milling machine according to the invention and connected with a control unit which decides whether to supply the particular card to the milling machine for milling the cavity or whether to supply the milled card to further processing. There are several embodiments of the machine described by the invention. In the following, embodiments will be described in which the optical detecting unit is disposed before the pocket milling machine.
In a first embodiment the abovementioned testing is still performed manually, but not on the individual card but on the sheet, i.e. before punching. This is much faster than checking single cards. A further advantage of checking sheets is that one detects recurrent system errors, e.g. errors produced by a faulty printing roller or scratched laminating plates. The testers check the front and back of the sheet and mark the rejected cards. They mark the cards e.g. with a fluorescent ink or a felt pen or perforate them. The applied markings need not necessarily be in the visible spectral region; one can also use for example a color detectable in the infrared region or an UV-activable substance. Subsequently the cards are punched and stacked. They are then placed in a singler from which the cards are supplied singly to the pocket milling machine via a card transport device, e.g. a conveyer belt, a robot arm with a gripping system or a rotary table. Mounted before or on the pocket milling machine according to the invention is an optical detecting unit which recognizes whether a card is marked. If a fluorescent or UV-active marking is used the card is exposed to UV light. If no marking is present no fluorescent light is reflected. If the card has a fluorescent marking fluorescent light is reflected. This is registered by a detector. One proceeds similarly with markings detectable in the infrared region. If felt pen is used the optical detecting unit is a camera. One can reconstruct the original card position within a sheet, as is necessary for detecting system errors, with reference to the order of the single cards. It is likewise possible to provide the cards with a marking indicating their original position within the sheet. This marking can be for example printed, or molded during laminating by suitable design of the laminating plates. The marking is thereby either designed or disposed, e.g. in the area of the cavity, so as not to disturb the appearance of the card.
A control unit (in the simplest case a relay) connected with the optical detecting unit and with the card transport device and the milling machine decides after the optical testing on the further process of manufacture of the card:
no marking: the normal program is run through, i.e. cards stacked in magazines are inserted into singler, transport to pocket milling machine, milling cavities, fur
Blome Rainer
Grün Herbert
Waschk Volker
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
Jarrett Ryan
Picard Leo
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