Incremental printing of symbolic information – Thermal marking apparatus or processes – Housing or mounting
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-13
2001-06-19
Tran, Huan (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Thermal marking apparatus or processes
Housing or mounting
C347S171000, C347S218000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06249303
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording device for recording or printing various information such as images and letters on a recording medium such as a card, and more particularly to a recording device having constituent components including a printer unit, which are rationally arranged to heighten the processing efficiency and have high degree of freedom in design and make the device compact.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Card recording devices such as a card printer for recording or printing various image information on a card base of plastic or the like to produce credit cards, license cards and other ID cards have become to be widely used.
In general, the recording device of this kind comprises a card supply stacker for accommodating blank cards, a processing unit including a thermal-transfer printer, and a card discharge container to which a finished card is sent out. These operation components constituting a conventional recording device are arranged along one card transfer passage which generally extends straight horizontally.
The processing unit includes not only the printer, but also a magnetic encoder for magnetically recording information on the card, a laminator for coating the recorded surface of the card, and so on. In any case, all the operation components in the conventional device are placed in a row along the card transfer passage extending straight.
There has been a need for a compact or portable recording device capable of being easily handled and effectively and securely recording desired information on a card. However, in order to make the recording device compact, the conventional device having the operation components arranged linearly on one straight card passage has had no alternative but to narrow the distance between the adjacent operation components. Particularly, there has been a tendency for the conventional device to place the card printer unit close to the card supply stacker in order to make the arrangement compact. That is, the conventional recording device is usually designed to straight feed the blank card from the card supply stacker to the printer unit via the shortest course, even if a card cleaner is present between the card supply stacker and the printer unit.
However, the thermal-transfer printer unit in the recording device of this type generally includes an ink-ribbon cartridge and a printer head, resulting in a large size, and further, the card supply stacker is made large so as to store blank cards as many as possible.
The printer unit and card supply stacker have been attempted to be made compact as a matter of course. However, the device with the compact-made printer unit and card supply stacker is low in efficiency of mass producing the recorded cards and disadvantage in use, because it cannot accommodate a sufficient length of ink ribbon and large numbers of blank cards. Thus, there has been a limit in making the components compact.
Under the aforesaid circumstances, the conventional card recording device necessarily has the whole length larger than at least the total length of the card supply stacker and the printer unit, consequently to be formed like a long square pillar and reduce the degree of freedom of design.
Accordingly, it has been attempted to arrange two horizontal card transfer passages one over another in parallel, so as to place the card printer unit on the upper one of the card transfer passages and the magnetic encoder on the lower card transfer passage, as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-131944(A). This conventional recording device has a vertical card transfer passage for transferring the card between the upper and lower card transfer passages and card turning means for delivering the card from one of the upper and lower card transfer passages to the other card transfer passage.
Although the conventional recording device having the upper and lower card transfer passages may be reduced in horizontal length (width), the volume of the device cannot be reduced on the whole, rather increased, because the vertical card transfer passage is added to the horizontal card transfer passages. The practical distance through which the card to be processed travels from the entrance (card supply stacker) to the exit (card discharge container) of the device is practically increased, thus decreasing the efficiency of processing the card.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a compact recording device having rational arrangement of the components so as to efficiently produce various ID cards.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-performance compact recording device for producing various ID cards or the like with high efficiency, having sufficient card-storage capacity, excellent card-transferring performance and high degree of freedom of design.
Another object of the invention is to provide a card recording device capable of stably, securely and efficiently recording various information on one surface or both surfaces of a card by use of a simple driving mechanism.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a card recording device having rational arrangement of a card supply unit capable of storing lots of blank cards and a printer unit for printing or recording various information on the card fed from the card supply unit and capable of further rationally assembling a card discharge unit and other processing units including a magnetic encoder into a space accommodating the card supply unit and printer unit.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a card recording device capable of dealing with a plurality of cards at one time without hindrance, thereby to mass-produce ID cards with high efficiency.
A further object of the invention is to provide a card recording device capable of truing up the cards stacked in the card supply unit by closing a lid of the card supply unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To attain the objects described above according to the present invention, there is provided a card recording device comprising a card supply unit disposed on a first card transfer passage, card recording means disposed on a second card transfer passage intersecting with the first card transfer passage, and card turning means disposed at the intersection point of the first and second card transfer passages.
The first and second card transfer passages may intersect at right angles, so as to transfer the card from the first card transfer passage to the second card transfer passage and vice versa by holding and turning the card at right angles. This arrangement of the first and second card transfer passages intersecting at right angles enables the distance between the card supply unit and the card turning means and the distance between the card turning means and the card recording means to be practically shortened, thus to make the device compact.
The card fed from the card supply unit is subjected to recording processing at the card recording means and finally discharged to a card discharge container. The card discharge container may be located at the opposite side to the card supply unit with the card turning means or at a third card transfer passage extending radially from the card turning means between the first and second card transfer passages.
The card recording means for recording information on the card may be a printer for printing letters or images on the card and/or a magnetic encoder for magnetically recording information on the card.
There may be used the printer as the first card recording means disposed on the second card transfer passage and the magnetic encoder as the second card recording means disposed on the third card transfer passage extending radially from the intersection point of the first and second card transfer passages. An IC writer, magnetic encoder or printer may be optionally used as the first or second recording unit.
The first and second card transfer passages do not always intersect at right angles and may be intersect with each other at an acute or obtuse ang
Kubota Tsuyoshi
Mochizuki Tatsuo
Nakazawa Eiji
Nisca Corporation
Pitney Hardin Kipp & Szuch LLP
Tran Huan
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