WO1986006855A1

WO1986006855A1 - Transport apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1986006855A1
Application number: PCT/AU1986/000132
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Thomas Riedl
Original assignee: Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Limited
Priority date: 1985-05-10
Filing date: 1986-05-09
Publication date: 1986-11-20
Also published as: KR880700365A; GB2188461A; GB8700086D0

Abstract

A card reader/printer apparatus wherein the card reader (31) and printer devices (32) are positioned around the path of a rotating card transport mechanism. The card transport mechanism has a rotating drum (11) to which cards (23, 24) are adhered by means of a vacuum applied thereto through apertures (15) in the drum surface (13).

Description

Title: "TRANSPORT APPARATUS" TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to transport apparatus for data cards. While the transport apparatus is described below with reference to its application in a combined reader/printer for wagering transactions it is equally applicable to other card transporting applications. BACKGROUND ART

A large number of wagering transactions are conducted by means of cards "marked" by a customer and read by a betting terminal or the like operated by the persons or authority accepting wagers. Such terminals often both read data from the cards and print onto the cards details of the transaction. An example of a known device is the MRT-2 betting terminal sold by the applicant. In this device data cards are sequentially selected from an input hopper, moved past a reader and an impact printer, and ejected from the device via a valid card or rejected card outlet.

A disadvantage with the prior art devices for card reading and/or printing known to the inventor is that they all use a complex card transport mechanism involving a larger number of moving parts and are therefore expensive to produce. Another disadvantage of prior art devices known to the inventor is that they are often not able to process cards which have been slightly bent or damaged, for example, by an excited punter.

Accordingly there is a need for a simple and efficient transport apparatus for data cards. DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The invention provides a card reader/printer apparatus having a transport mechanism comprising a rotatable drum having a circumferential surface; a plurality of apertures in said surface; and vacuum means to selectively apply reduced pressure to said apertures to adhere a card to said transport mechanism; and at least one card reader means and printer means positioned around the rotational path of said surface.

Preferably, the apertures are arranged in a card carrying region or regions of the surface having dimensions corresponding to the dimensions of the smallest card to be transported. In this way a card adhered to a region can cover all apertures in that region and prevents another card being adhered to the surface by those apertures.

The area of the apertures preferably increases in opposite circumferential directions from the centre of the or each region. The apertures can, for example, comprise a series of holes of graduated size or tapered slots.

In the presently preferred embodiment there are two card carrying regions but equally one region or, three or even more regions can be provided.

For preference, the transport apparatus further comprises a card feeding hopper to sequentially expose cards to the card carrying regions of apertures. In an embodiment of the invention the hopper is arranged to hold a stack of cards and expose a surface of the lowermost card to the card carrying region. It is strongly preferred that the feeding hopper is able to accommodate cards of at least two different lengths. In this preferment one edge of the hopper is used to justify the leading edges of the cards.

The transport apertures also preferably includes means to selectively apply a positive pressure to the apertures to force a previously adhered card from the drum surface. In another arrangement the drum surface is provided with a groove and a mechanical finger is used to remove the cards from the drum.

In the preferred embodiment the apparatus also includes sensor means to index the rotational position of the drum. This allows the position of each card carrying region to be indexed for the purposes of selective application of reduced and positive pressure to the apertures. In addition, the indexing of the position of card carrying regions facilitates selective operation of devices such as card readers and printers positioned around the rotational path of the drum surface.

The rotatable drum can, for example, comprise two parallel spaced apart discs, the circumferential surface of each disc supporting one edge of a card. Such an embodiment provides for printing on the inner side of an adhered card by a printer located between the discs.

In the presently preferred embodiment the rotatable drum has a continuous circumferential surface sufficiently wide to completely support the data card.

Means for controlled rotation of the drum are preferably provided so that the drum can be -rotated to any desired position. For preference, the means comprise an electric step motor.

It will be apparent that in the apparatus of this invention all operations carried out in relation to a card such as reading of the card and application of printing can be achieved while the card is adhered to one point on the rotating drum_* This represents a considerable reduction in the number of moving parts and hence complexity compared to the mechanisms used in betting terminals such as the MRT-2 sold by the applicant.

A further embodiment of the invention is to provide two transport drums arranged such that a card may be transferred from one to the other by means of a mechanical finger and/or pressure assistance means. The transfer being arranged such that the card is turned over during the transfer from one drum to the other. By providing two sets of card reader/printer means, a single card can be read on one side and printed on the other or on both sides if required. Alternatively the card reader means can be associated with one drum and the card printer means with the other drum. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a reader/printer including a data card transport apparatus according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of the drum shown in the apparatus of Figure 1; and

Figure 3 is a schematic air flow circuit diagram of the apparatus of Figure 1. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Referring to Figures 1 to 3 the transport apparatus embodying the present invention forms part of a reader/printer 10. The transport apparatus comprises a rotatable drum 11 mounted on a shaft 12. Shaft 12 is supported by bearings (not illustrated) and is driven by an electric step motor (not illustrated) . The drum has a circumferential surface 13 corresponding in width to a data card and in two card carrying regions 14 of the surface 13 a series of twenty two graduated apertures 15 are provided. The surface of the drum is conductive to prevent electrostatic "clinging" of cards. Each region 14 of apertures 15 has a length corresponding to the length of the shortest data card to be transported. In this way a card adhered to a region 14 can cover all apertures 15 and prevent another card being adhered to the same region 14.

Apertures 15 in each region 14 are arranged in two lines adjacent the edge of surface 13 to firmly adhere the edges of a card. As best seen in Figure 2 the apertures 15 are graduated in size with the smallest being in the centre of region 14 and the largest toward the circu ferentially opposite ends of the regions 14. That is, the area of the apertures increases in opposite circumferential directions from the centre of each region 14. The inventor has found that this arrangement of apertures 15 facilitates rapid adhering of a card to a region 14 when reduced pressure is applied to apertures 15 particularly if the cards to be adhered are presented to the region 14 so that the plane of the card forms a tangent to surface 13 at a point close to the midpoint of region 14. If the card is presented in this manner the central apertures 15 initially adhere the card and the pressure gradient created by the flow of air to the larger apertures proportionally increases with the size of apertures 15 in each direction along the card to quickly bend the card to conform with the curved surface 13 and adhere it thereto. In addition, the increased size of apertures 15 towards the transverse borders of regions 14 provide a greater force to overcome the bending moment of the cards.

Reduced or positive pressure can be independently and selectively applied to the two regions 14 of apertures 15 by means of two chambers 16 formed within the drum 11 and the air flow circuit shown in Figure 3. Each chamber 16 communicates with the apertures 15 in one of regions 14 and is- connected via a manifold 18 schematically shown in Figure 3 to air flow control valves 19. The manifold 18 provides an air flow connection between the rotating chambers 16 and the remainder of the air flow circuit. As schematically shown in figure 3 the manifold 18 comprises two concentric tubes 20, 21 of different diameters each in communication with one of chambers 16 and each being sealed at one end. The smaller diameter tube 20 extends further than tube 21 and a series of apertures (not illustrated) are provided in an area of each tube 20, 21. Each area is encased by a separate chamber connected with the air flow circuit and felt or other suitable low friction seals (not illustrated) provide a seal and allow tubes 20, 21 to rotate within the chambers. Although it is omitted for the sake of clarity from Figure 3, shaft 12 is located within tube 20 and concentric with both tubes 20, 21.

Valves 19 are connected to sources of increased or reduced pressure as indicated by the arrows in Figure 3. These sources can comprise respective chambers (not illustrated) and fans (not illustrated) which in one case force air from and in the other force air into the chamber. The volume of each chamber is ten times the volume of the flow circuit on the other side of valves 19 to allow a rapid application of positive or reduced pressure at each region 14 of apertures 15.

The valves 19 are solenoid operated and operation of each pair of valves 19 can apply reduced pressure or positive_, pressure to the corresponding chamber 16. Alternatively each pair of valves 19 can be operated so as not to influence the pressure in chambers 16.

The transport apparatus further comprises a card feeding hopper 22 positioned directly above the surface 13 of drum 11. Hopper 22 has a rectangular horizontal cross section and is dimensioned to be 2mm wider than data cards 23, 24 and 2mm longer than the longer data cards 24. A stack of horizontally arranged cards 23, 24 is placed in hopper 22 with the edges of all cards justified against side 25 of hopper 22.

The bottom of hopper 22 opens into surface 13 and the lower edges of its walls are contoured to the curvature of surface 13 leaving a clearance gap 26 slight¬ ly greater than the thickness of a card. The lowermost card 23 in the hopper therefore rests on drum surface 13 but because the card is generally flat it cannot escape from the hopper even when drum 11 is rotating.

The hopper 22 is also provided with a card sensor comprising a light emitting diode 27 and a photo transistor 28. The sensor operates in the known manner and is actuated by a card interrupting the light beam reflected off the wall of hopper 22 to photo transistor 28.

The transport apparatus further comprises an index sensor 29 to index the rotational position of the drum. The index sensor 29 operates by reference to a shaft encoding pattern printed on the drum in the conventional manner. Sensor 29 is shown schematically in Figure 1 and can be used to read an encoding pattern printed on a cover (not illustrated) fitted to one side of the drum 11. A suitable sensor is a Hewlett Packard HEDLS 1000 sensor. In a one index sensor arrangement four separate sensors are used to index drum position to four encoding patterns or tracks. These comprise a clock track, a vernier clock track, a top reference track and a bottom reference track. These tracks are formed as concentric circles and part circles on the cover fitted to the drum.

The reader/printer 10 also comprises a card reference sensor 30, a reader module 31, printer module 32, drying duct 33, valid card outlet 34 and reject card outlet 35 all positioned around the rotational path of drum 11.

The card reference sensor 30 comprises two high resolution optical reflective sensors which detect the edge of a card by contrasting it against the surface 13 of drum 11. The sensors are Hewlett Packard HEDLS 1000 sensors. The reference sensor 30 operates with index sensor 29 to determine the position on the drum of each card.

Reader module 31 is a substantially conventional "mark sense" card reader.

The printer module 32 comprises three ink jet printers of the type manufactured by Siemens or Hewlett Packard and is mounted 2 to 3mm from the surface of a card adhered to drum surface 13. Each printer is staggered so that three lines of printing can be printed on a card.

Drying duct 33 is provided to direct warm air provided by fan 36 onto the card surface to dry the printing ink applied to the cards by printer module 32. The drying duct 33 also assists in cooling the apparatus.

Valid card outlet 34 and reject card outlet 35 selectively receive cards forced from drum surface 13 by application of positive pressure to one of the regions 14 of apertures 15.

In use, the reader/printer operates as follows. A stack of "mark sense" cards 23, 24 of mixed sizes is loaded into the hopper 22. The cards must be justified against side 25 and this is usually achieved by "tapping" on the side of the stack against a flat surface before putting the cards 23, 24 into the hopper 22.

Light emitting diode 27 and photo transistor 28 detect the presence of the cards in the manner described above and switch on the apparatus.

The drum 11 is then rotated by the electric step motor so that a region 14 of apertures 15 is located below the hopper 22 as illustrated in Figure 1. Valves 19 are then actuated to apply reduced pressure to those apertures 15 via the corresponding chambers 16 and the lowermost card 23 is rapidly adhered to the surface 13 of drum 11. Once the card 23 is adhered in this manner it can clear the edges of hopper 22 when the drum 11 is rotated. It will be noted however, that the next card 23 is not adhered to the surface 13 since all apertures 15 have been covered by the preceding card 23. In the case of a longer card 24, only the front portion of the card is adhered to the surface 13 however, this is sufficient to adequately clamp the card and the undamped trailing edge does not present any substantial difficulty. It will be further noted that the rotation of the drum tends to justify the edges of unadhered cards 23 against side 25 of hopper 22. This is highly desirable. In addition, the cards are adhered to the surface 23 so that slightly damaged and bent cards can be used in the apparatus.

Once the card 23 is adhered to surface 23 the drum 11 rotates by means of the step motor and the card passes reference sensor 30. When reference sensor 30 detects the edge of the card 23 it sets a reference point for the card in relation to the position of the drum as determined by index sensor 29. Since the card is securely adhered to the surface 13 the position of the card from this point onwards is always known to the tolerence of the apparatus, typically 0.1mm. In this way, card velocity and acceleration which must be measured in some prior art devices can be ignored and considerable difficulties of prior devices known to the . inventor thus avoided.

The step motor then steps the card past the reader module 31 and printer module 32. The card is read and details of the transaction printed onto the card in the known manner. The accurate positioning of the card greatly simplifies these functions.

On passing drying duct 33 warm air drys the ink used by printer module 32 to print details of the transaction onto the card.

After drying, the card is forced from the drum surface 13 by positive pressure being applied to the apertures 15 of the region 14 to which the card is adhered. The positive pressure is supplied by appropriate actuation of valves 19. The timing of the application of positive pressure determines whether the card is fed into valid card outlet 34 or reject card outlet 35. The validity of the card is determined from the information supplied by the reader 31 in the known manner. Outlets 34 and 35 can be arranged as stacking hoppers into which the cards are guided by appropriate guiding mechanisms (not illustrated). It will be noted that the cards are forced from the drum leading edge first since the apertures below the leading and trailing edges deliver a larger volume of air. This feature can be used to assist in the stacking of cards in the outlet hoppers.

While the foregoing describes only operation of one region 14 it will be appreciated that the other region is operated identically to pick up the next card when it reaches the correct position below hopper 22.

In some applications the longer cards 24 can cause difficulties unless the trailing edges are pressed against drum surface 13 as they pass read module 31 and printer module 32. This can be achieved for example by the use of phosphor bronze leave springs mounted at these locations. Also, any suitable known pressure roller arrangement could be used. Another manner in which the trailing edges could be clamped is by the use of appropriately placed and selectively operable additional suction apertures in the drum surface 13 which are activated by a sensing mechanism.

Claims

1. A card reader/printer apparatus having a transport mechanism comprising: a rotatable drum having a circumferential surface, a plurality of apertures in said surface, vacuum means to selectively apply reduced pressure to said apertures to adhere a card to said surface, and at least one card reader means and printer means positioned around the rotational path of said transport mechanism.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said apertures are arranged in one of more card carrying regions of said surface having dimensions corresponding to the dimensions of the smallest card to be transported such that only one card per region can be adhered to said surface.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the area of said apertures increases in opposite circumferential directions from the centre of each of said regions.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said apertures comprise a series of holes or tapered slots of graduated size.

5. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims including a card feeding hopper for sequentially exposing cards to said card carrying regions.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said hopper is arranged to hold a stack of cards and expose a surface of a lowermost card to said card carrying regions.

7. Apparatus according to claims 5 or 6 wherein said feeding hopper is adapted to accommodate cards of one or more different lengths.

8. Apparatus according to claims 5, 6 or 7 wherein one edge of said feeding hopper is used to justify the leading edges of cards held therein.

9. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims including means to selectively apply a positive pressure to said apertures to force a previously adhered card from said drum surface. ^•

10. Apparatus according to anyone of claims 1 to 8 wherein said drum surface is provided with a groove and a mechanical finger is adapted to co-operate with said groove to remove a previously adhered card from said drum surface.

11. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims including sensing means for indexing the rotational position of said drum to enable selective operation of said card reader means and printer means.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said sensing means further enables the selective application of a reduced or positive pressure to said apertures.

13. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims wherein said rotatrable drum comprises two or more parallel spaced apart discs, the circumferential surface of each disc supporting one edge of a card adhered thereto.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13 wherein said card printer means is located between said disc and adapted to print on the inner side of a card adhered thereto.

15. Apparatus according to anyone of claims 1 to 12 wherein said rotatable drum has a continuous circumferential surface sufficiently wide to completely support a card adhered thereto.

16. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims including means for controllably rotating said drum such that said drum may be rotated to any desired position.

17. Apparatus according to claim 16 wherein said means for controllably rotating said drum comprise an electric step motor.

18. Apparatus according to claim 11 wherein said sensing means comprises an optical reflective sensor adapted to sense an encoding pattern provided on said rotatable drum.

19. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims wherein said card printing means comprises one or more ink jet printer positioned adjacent the surface of a card adhered to said rotatable drum.

20. Apparatus according to claim 19 including a drying means adapted to direct warm air onto the surface of said card to dry the ink applied thereto by said ink jet printers.

21. Apparatus according to anyone of the preceding claims wherein said transport mechanism includes a further rotatable drum having a circumferential surface with a plurality of apertures therein and said vacuum means being adapted to selectively apply reduced pressure to the apertures of said further drum to adhere a card to the surface thereof.

22. Apparatus according to claim 21 including transfer means positioned between said drums for transferring a card adhered to one said drum to said further drum.

23. Apparatus according to claim 22 wherein said transfer means is adapted to invert said card during transfer from one drum to the other so that the other side of said card is presented to the circumferential surface of said further drum.

24. Apparatus according to claim 23 wherein said transfer means includes a mechanical finger to remove a card adhered to one drum and transfer it to said further drum.

25. Apparatus according to claim 24 wherein said transfer means further includes air pressure means for assisting in application of said card to said further drum surface.

26. Apparatus according to anyone of claims 21 to 25 wherein at least one card reader means or card printer means are positioned around the rotational path of each said drum.

27. A card reader/printer apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.