JP2008013348A - Card feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a card supply device capable of reliably adsorbing, separating and transporting only the uppermost card of cards stacked in a card stacking unit without damaging the card.
A card stacking unit 12 provided on a base 11 for stacking cards, a card lifting / lowering unit 13 for pushing up the cards stacked from the bottom of the card stacking unit 12, and a top surface of the stacked cards. When the position detecting means 14 to detect and the position detecting means 14 detect the uppermost card, the card immediately below the uppermost card is excluded from at least the uppermost card among the cards integrated in the card stacking unit 12. Is pressed from the side surface of the card stacking unit 12 to prevent two cards from being taken out, and the two-sheet taking prevention mechanism 15 prevents two cards from being taken out. And a suction conveying means 16 for sucking and conveying the card.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a card supply device that can reliably transport a single card to a next process from a card stacking unit in which the cards are stacked in the manufacturing process of a credit card, a cash card or the like.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional card supply device. This card supply device has an opening on the upper surface of a card magazine 1 in which a large number of cards are collected and stored, and passes through an opening 1 a on the bottom surface of the card magazine 1. lifting mechanism 2 to raise the card is provided Te, on the top of the card magazine 1 are provided a spring 1b, lifting mechanism 2 is adsorbed card C ₁ of the top surface by vacuum suction mechanism 3 raises the card C At this time, the second card C ₂ may be adsorbed by the vacuum state, and is supplied from the air pipe 3a provided in the vacuum adsorbing mechanism 3 in the process of bringing the uppermost card C ₁ into contact with the spring 1b. The lower card C ₂ adsorbed on the uppermost card C ₁ is separated by the wind pressure generated by the compressed air, and the uppermost card C ₁ is conveyed to the index 4. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

  6A and 6B show another example of a conventional card supply device, and FIG. 6B is a view taken along the line AA in FIG. 6A. In this card supply device, the uppermost weight 6 of the card C accumulated in the hopper 5 is placed to press the card C, and the pickup roller 7 provided at the bottom of the hopper 5 rubs the lowermost card Cn. The separated metal roller 8 having a large coefficient of friction is used to feed one card forward, and the transport roller 9 transports the card to the next process. (For example, see Patent Document 2)

JP 2004-238171 A (all pages of the specification, all drawings) JP-A-8-251862 (all pages of the specification, drawings)

  However, the card usually has no irregularities or scratches on the front and back surfaces, and the front and back surfaces are flat. It is easy to adsorb by card, etc., and due to such properties of the cards, the cards are easy to adhere to each other, and it is difficult to reliably adsorb and separate the cards one by one and transport them to the next process. There are features. In the former card supply device, in order to improve such a problem, a method is adopted in which compressed air is discharged from the air pipe and the card adsorbed on the uppermost card is separated by wind pressure. Separation may be difficult with a thick and low flexibility card such as a plastic card of 0.5 to 1.0 mm, and there is a possibility that a card other than the uppermost surface may be adsorbed and conveyed to the next process. If a plurality of cards are transported to the inspection process, the card inspection will be hindered, and the production line must be stopped, leaving room for improvement.

  In the latter card supply device, the card is rubbed and pulled out by the pick-up roller, the cards are rubbed together, and separated by a separating metal roller with a large coefficient of friction and sent to the next process. Although the card is effective, the card has a drawback that a large friction is applied and the card surface is easily scratched, which is not necessarily preferable, and there is room for improvement.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and only the uppermost card of the cards stacked in the card stacking unit is securely sucked and separated without damaging it. It is an object of the present invention to provide a card supply device that can be transported.

The present invention achieves the above-mentioned problem, and the invention of claim 1 is provided on a base, and a card stacking unit for stacking cards;
Card elevating means for pushing up the cards accumulated from the bottom of the card accumulation unit;
Position detecting means for detecting the top surface of the integrated card;
When the position detection means detects the uppermost card, the card immediately below the uppermost card among the cards stacked in the card stacking unit is pressed and held from the side to prevent two cards from being removed. A two-sheet removal prevention mechanism,
A suction conveyance means for preventing the two-sheet removal of the card and sucking and conveying the uppermost card of the card stacking unit;
A card supply device comprising: The two-sheet pickup prevention mechanism is a holding mechanism that holds only a card immediately below the uppermost card, excluding the uppermost card, or holds a plurality of cards including the immediately lower card. The card elevating means controls the elevating shaft provided with a mounting table for stacking cards at the tip by a motor or the like, and is interlocked with the position detecting means, the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism, and the suction conveying means. Sequence control.

  In the present invention, the position detecting means includes, for example, light emitting and light receiving elements, and the light emitted from the light emitting elements is irradiated in a parallel direction to the surface of the uppermost card of the card stacking unit. The light receiving element receives the transmitted light or the reflected light, and outputs a position detection signal from the uppermost card based on the output level of the light receiving element, and based on the position detection signal, The operation is stopped and the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism is activated. Further, based on the position detection signal from the position detecting means, the card raising by the card raising / lowering means is stopped, and then the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism and the suction conveying means are sequentially operated.

  Of course, the position detection means is not limited to the light emitting and light receiving elements, and there are various means such as a micro switch for detecting the uppermost card. The card stacking unit can use a card stacking magazine mounted at a predetermined position on the base.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism is rotated by detecting the uppermost card of the card stacking unit based on a position detection signal from the position detecting unit, and the card stacking unit 3. The card according to claim 2, further comprising a card pressing unit that presses at least a side surface of the card immediately below the uppermost surface except the uppermost card and presses and holds the card against a side wall plate of the card stacking unit. It is a supply device.

In invention of Claim 1, it is provided in the base, The card | curd stacking part which accumulate | stores a card | curd,
Card elevating means penetrating through an opening provided in the base and pushing up the cards accumulated from the bottom of the card accumulation unit;
Position detecting means for detecting the top surface of the integrated card;
When the position detection means detects the uppermost card, the card immediately below the uppermost card among the cards stacked in the card stacking unit is pressed and held from the side to prevent two cards from being removed. A two-sheet removal prevention mechanism,
A suction conveyance means for preventing the two-sheet removal of the card and sucking and conveying the uppermost card of the card stacking unit;
Since the card supply device is characterized in that, even if the cards have close contact with each other, the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism presses the side surface of the card immediately below the uppermost card in the card stacking unit. There is an advantage that the uppermost card is sucked and separated by the holding and conveying means and can be reliably sucked and conveyed to the next process.

  In addition, the position detection unit includes, for example, light emitting and light receiving elements, and light emitted from the light emitting elements is irradiated in a direction parallel to the surface of the uppermost card of the card stacking unit. The reflected light is received by the light receiving element, a position detection signal is output from the uppermost card based on the output level of the light receiving element, and the operation of the card lifting / lowering means is stopped based on the position detection signal. The two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism is operated so that the light receiving element receives the transmitted light or reflected light from the side surface of the card, and the optical axis of the light emitted from the light emitting element is raised when the card is raised. When it reaches the upper surface, it outputs a position detection signal and inputs it to the control device, so that the control device stops the card lifting operation by the card lifting and lowering means based on the position detection signal, and the two-sheet pickup prevention mechanism, suction Transport means By following operation, it is possible to control so as to convey to ensure the next step of the uppermost card. The card transported by the suction transport means is transported to the next process by a transport conveyor provided adjacent to the card stacking unit.

  The card stacking unit may be a card stacking magazine that is mounted at a predetermined position on the base, and the card can be supplied by stacking the card in the card stacking magazine in advance and mounting the card at a predetermined position. It is possible to increase.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism is rotated by detecting the uppermost card of the card stacking unit based on a position detection signal from the position detecting means, 2. The card according to claim 1, further comprising a card pressing unit that presses at least a side surface of the card immediately below the uppermost surface except the uppermost card and presses and holds the card against a side wall plate of the card stacking unit. Because it is a supply device, by pushing the side of the card directly below the top surface with the card pressing part, even if the top card and the card directly below are in close contact, only the top card can be easily separated The card can be reliably separated and transported, and the situation where a plurality of cards are transported simultaneously to stop the operation of the production line can be solved.

  Embodiments of a card supply apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic front view thereof. FIG. 3A is an explanatory view showing a state where the uppermost card is sucked and conveyed while holding the card, and FIG. 3B is an explanatory view showing another embodiment. 4A to 4D are explanatory views for explaining a card transport process in the present embodiment.

First, the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Reference numeral 10 denotes a card supply device. The base 11 is provided with a card stacking unit 12 for stacking cards C. The base 11 at the bottom is provided with an opening 11a, and card raising / lowering means 13 that pushes up the card C accumulated from the bottom of the card stacking unit 12 through the opening 11a is provided. Position detecting means 14 for detecting the upper surface is provided on the side wall of the card stacking unit 12. When the position detector 14 detects the card C of the top surface, of the card C which is integrated in the card stacking unit 12, except for the card C ₁ at least the top surface, just below the top surface of the card C ₁ of the card C ₂ A two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15 is provided adjacent to the card stacking section 12 so as to be pressed from the side surface and held in the card stacking section 12 to prevent the two-sheet pickup of the card C. In a state where the preventing mechanism 15 taken two sheets to prevent two up cards C, suction conveyance device 16 for conveying by suction card C ₁ of the top surface of the card stacking unit 12 it is provided. The suction conveyance means 16 is provided with a suction portion 16a located immediately above the card stacking portion 12, and a card conveyer 17 is provided adjacent to the card stacking portion 12 so that the card is sucked and transported by the suction transport means 16. Is conveyed in the direction of arrow Z by the conveyor 17. Conveying surface of the conveyor 17 is to increase the movement amount of the vertical movement of the suction portion 16a smaller to shorten the transport time productivity as a slightly lower position than the height of the card C ₁ of the top surface.

  2 shows an example in which the suction conveying means 16 'is illustrated, but an example in which the card stacking unit 12 is disposed symmetrically with respect to the transfer conveyor 17 is shown. In this case, the card stacking unit 12 shown directly by the chain line It is possible to dramatically increase the processing capacity of the card by transporting the suction transporting means 16 'and sucking and transporting the card.

  Next, the structure of each part of this embodiment is demonstrated in detail. First, in the card stacking unit 12, a side wall plate 12 a that supports the side surface in the longitudinal direction of the card C is provided on the base 11, and a side wall plate 12 b that supports the other opposite side surface of the card C is provided on the base 11. The card C is stacked and placed on the card stacking unit 12. The card stacking unit 12 is provided at a predetermined position of the base 11, the base 11 at the bottom of the card stacking unit 12 is provided with a through hole 11a, and the lifting shaft 13b of the card lifting means 13 is inserted into the through hole 11a. ing. In FIG. 1, the illustration of the side wall plate 12a of the card stacking unit 12 on the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15 side is omitted.

  The card lifting / lowering means 13 is provided so as to be able to move up and down as indicated by an arrow U by transmitting the rotation of the motor shaft driven by a stepping motor (not shown) to the lifting shaft 13b. A mounting table 13a is provided at the tip of the elevating shaft 13b. By driving a stepping motor, the cards C accumulated on the mounting table 13a at the tip of the elevating shaft 13b are mounted and raised, and all the cards are sucked and conveyed. Then, the mounting table 13a descends and returns to a predetermined position. Incidentally, the card stacking unit 12 is not shown, but a card stacking magazine in which cards are stacked may be mounted on the card stacking unit 12, and the use of the card stacking magazine is effective in increasing production efficiency. Is.

Position detecting means 14 includes a light-emitting and light-receiving element, the card C ₁ of the uppermost surface of the optical card stacking unit 12 which is emitted from the light emitting element, as shown in the optical axis L in FIG. 1, the surface of the card C ₁ When the optical axis L passes through the upper surface of the card C ₁ , the output level of the light receiving element is lowered, so that the uppermost card C is irradiated. ₁ is detected and a position detection signal is output. The position detection signal is input to a control device (not shown). Based on the detection signal from the position detection means 14, the control device stops the raising of the card C by the card lifting / lowering means 13, and then the two-sheet pickup prevention mechanism 15 and the suction conveyance means 16 are sequentially operated to by adsorbing the card C ₁ conveyed to the next step.

The two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15 includes a card pressing portion 15c at the tip of the piston rod 15b of the pneumatic cylinder 15a. The card pressing portion 15c is pivotally fixed to the tip of the piston rod 15b and is supported by a support pin 15d. A card pressing portion 15c is rotatably provided. As the piston rod 15b rises, the card pressing portion 15c swings at its tip portion starting from the support pin 15d. Tip of the card pressing portion 15c, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), abut against the side surface of the card C ₂ just below the top surface of the card C ₁ of the card C, which is integrated in the card stacking unit 12. By the leading end of the card pressing portion 15c presses in contact with the side face of the card C _2, the card C ₂ is retained by being pressed to the side wall plate 12a of the card stacking unit 12 to the card stacking section 12. Retention of the held card C _2, in order to exceed the adhesive force between the card C ₁ and the card C _2, the suction portion 16a of the suction conveying means 16 separates the card C ₁ of the uppermost surface from the card C ₂ The card C ₁ is separated from the card C ₂ and conveyed to the next process. The two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15 has a function of preventing a plurality of cards from being attached and conveyed.

3 (a) is the tip of the card pressing portion 15c of the preventing mechanism 15 taken two excluding card C ₁ of the top surface, by pressing only the card C ₂ immediately below the uppermost surface card C ₁ is intended to hold, although those functionally sufficient, in FIG. 3 (b), the tip of the card pressing portion 15c excluding the card C ₁ of the top surface, the card C directly below the card C ₁ of the top surface ₂ is brought into contact with a plurality of cards, and the plurality of cards including the card C ₂ are pressed and held in the card stacking unit 12. As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the card pressing portion 15c has a claw-shaped tip portion with an acute angle so that the card directly under the top surface is securely pressed, so that only the top surface card is reliably sucked and conveyed. Thus, it is possible to prevent the two cards from being taken, and of course, as shown in FIG. 3B, a plurality of cards may be pressed together with the card directly below the uppermost card.

  The suction conveyance means 16 is provided with a frame 16b fixed to the base 11 and provided with a position adjusting mechanism. An arm member 16c is provided on the frame 16b. The arm member 16c extends right above the card stacking unit 12 and As shown in FIG. 2, the member 16c is provided to be slidable in the direction of the arrow X, and the arm portion 16c is provided with a suction portion 16a for sucking the card. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the suction portion 16a is provided so as to be movable up and down in the direction of the arrow Y together with the arm member 16c, and the card is sucked to the suction portion 16a by making the inside of the suction portion 16a negative pressure. To do.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 4A to 4D, the suction / conveying operation of the card according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 4A shows a state in which the card C on which the card elevating means 13 is stacked is raised and the uppermost surface of the card C on which the position detecting means 14 is detected is detected. ₁ is detected and a position detection signal is output, and the position detection signal is input to a control device (not shown). Based on this position detection signal, the control device outputs a control signal for stopping the raising operation by the card raising / lowering means 13 to stop the raising operation of the card raising / lowering means 13 and operates the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15. Then, a drive signal for preventing two cards from being taken out is output.

FIG. 4 (b), by operating the suction conveyance device 16, among the card C which is integrated in the card stacking unit 12 shows a state in which adsorbed the card C ₁ in the top surface at the suction portion 16a, a control based on the drive signal from the device, preventing mechanism 15 taken two operates and press the card pressing portion 15c is rotated, the side surface of the card C ₂ immediately below the tip of the top surface of the card C ₁ card pressing the C ₂ on the side wall portion 12a of the card stacking unit 12, holds the card _{C 2.} Subsequently, the control signal from the control unit, adsorbs card C ₁ of the top surface and the suction unit 16a is lowered at a predetermined timing.

FIG. 4 (c) shows a state in which the suction conveying means 16 raises the suction portion 16a in a state of holding the card C ₂ in the card stacking section 12, to separate the card C ₁ from the card C _2. Card C ₁ releases the holding state of the card C ₂ by preventing mechanism 15 taken two at a time separated from the card C _2. FIG. 4 (d) suction conveyance device 16 shows a state in which to raise the card C ₁ to a predetermined position, conveyed from this state to the transport conveyor moves the card C ₁ laterally. The card is transported to the next process by a transport conveyor.

  In the above-described embodiment, a pneumatic cylinder is used for the two-sheet pickup preventing mechanism 15. However, the present invention is not limited to this form, and based on the position detection signal, the electromagnetic solenoid is operated to push out the card pressing portion, You may make it hold | maintain by pressing the side surface of a card | curd with a card | curd press part. Moreover, you may comprise so that a card | curd press part may protrude and be pressed and hold | maintained from the both sides | surfaces of a card | curd, and it is not limited to this embodiment.

  As an application example of the present invention, the present invention can be used in a card supply device that can reliably separate the uppermost card from the stacked cards and transport them one by one.

It is a schematic side view which shows one Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic front view of this embodiment. (A) is explanatory drawing which shows the state which hold | maintains a card | curd and attracts and conveys the uppermost card | curd, (b) is explanatory drawing which shows other embodiment. (A)-(d) is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the conveyance process of a card | curd. It is the schematic which shows the conventional card supply apparatus. (A) is a schematic side view of the conventional card supply apparatus, (b) is the AA arrow directional view.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Base 11a Opening part 12 Card stacking part 12a, 12b Side wall board 13 Card raising / lowering means 13a Mounting stand 13b Elevating shaft 14 Position detection means 15 Two-sheet picking prevention mechanism 15a Pneumatic cylinder 15b Piston rod 15c Card pressing part 16 Adsorption conveyance means 16a Suction unit 17 Conveyor

Claims (2)

A card stacking unit provided on a base for stacking cards;
Card elevating means for pushing up the cards accumulated from the bottom of the card accumulation unit;
Position detecting means for detecting the top surface of the integrated card;
When the position detection means detects the uppermost card, the card immediately below the uppermost card among the cards stacked in the card stacking unit is pressed and held from the side to prevent two cards from being removed. A two-sheet removal prevention mechanism,
A suction conveyance means for preventing the two-sheet removal of the card and sucking and conveying the uppermost card of the card stacking unit;
A card supply device comprising:   At least the uppermost surface except the uppermost card of the card stacking unit is rotated by the detection of the uppermost card of the card stacking unit based on the position detection signal from the position detecting unit. The card supply device according to claim 1, further comprising a card pressing unit that presses a side surface of a card immediately below and presses and holds the card against a side wall plate of the card stacking unit.

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