Credentials include identification cards, driver's licenses, passports, and other documents. Such credentials are formed from credential or card substrates including paper substrates, plastic substrates, cards, and other materials. Such credentials generally include printed information, such as a photo, account numbers, identification numbers, and other personal information. Credentials can also include data that is encoded in a smartcard chip, a magnetic stripe, or a barcode, for example.
Credential production devices include processing devices that process credential substrates by performing at least one processing step in forming a final credential product using a processing device. Such processes generally include a printing process, a laminating or transfer process, a data reading process, a data writing process, and/or other process used to form the desired credential.
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a card rotator for use in a credential production device, a method of rotating a card substrate using the card rotator, and a credential production device comprising the card rotator. In some embodiments, the card rotator includes a card receptacle, a feed roller, and a motor. The card receptacle is configured to rotate about a pivot access that is approximately perpendicular to a plane of a card substrate supported by the card receptacle. The feed roller is configured to discharge a card substrate from the card receptacle. The feed roller has an axis of rotation that is approximately perpendicular to the pivot axis. The motor is configured to drive rotation of the card receptacle about the pivot axis relative to the axis of rotation of the feed roller.
Some embodiments of the method of rotating a card substrate utilize a card rotator that includes a card receptacle, a feed roller, and a motor. In some embodiments, the card substrate is supported in the card receptacle. The card receptacle and the card substrate are rotated about a pivot axis relative to an axis of rotation of the feed roller using the motor. The pivot axis is approximately perpendicular to the axis of rotation and a plane of the card substrate. The card substrate is discharged from the card receptacle along a processing axis using the feed roller.
Some embodiments of the credential production device include a supply of card substrates, a transport mechanism configured to feed individual substrates from the supply along a processing axis, a card processing device configured to perform a process on individual card substrates fed along the processing axis, and a card rotator. In some embodiments, the card rotator includes a card receptacle, a feed roller, and a motor. In some embodiments, the card receptacle is configured to support a card substrate and rotate about a pivot axis that is approximately perpendicular to a plane of the card substrate and the processing axis. The feed roller is configured to discharge a card substrate from the card receptacle, and has an axis of rotation that is approximately perpendicular to the pivot axis and the processing axis. The motor is configured to drive rotation of the card receptacle about the pivot axis relative to the axis of rotation of the feed roller.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in the Background.
Embodiments of the invention are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. Elements that are identified using the same or similar reference characters refer to the same or similar elements. Some elements may be referred generally by a reference number and more specifically by the reference number followed by a letter and/or other reference character. The various embodiments of the invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Specific details are given in the following description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits, systems, networks, processes, frames, supports, connectors, motors, processors, and other components may not be shown, or shown in block diagram form in order to not obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, if an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the present invention.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
As will further be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as methods, systems, devices, and/or computer program products, for example. The computer program or software aspect of the present invention may comprise computer readable instructions or code stored in a computer readable medium or memory. Execution of the program instructions by one or more processors (e.g., central processing unit) results in the one or more processors performing one or more functions or method steps described herein. Any suitable patent subject matter eligible computer readable media or memory may be utilized including, for example, hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, or magnetic storage devices. Such computer readable media or memory do not include transitory waves or signals.
The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.
In some embodiments, the device 100 includes a card rotator 102 that is configured to rotate a card substrate 104 approximately 90 degrees relative to a processing axis 106. In some embodiments, individual substrates 104 are fed along the processing axis 106 using a transport mechanism 107 that may comprise feed rollers 108, or other conventional card feeding components. In some embodiments, the device 100 includes a card supply 110, which can contain multiple substrates 104 for feeding along the processing axis 106 using the transport mechanism 107. In some embodiments, the card supply 110 may be replaced with a card input, through which individual substrates are supplied for feeding along the processing axis 106 from a user or another substrate processing module of the system 100. In some embodiments, card substrates are only fed along the processing axis 106 through the card rotator 102, but may follow a non-linear path outside the card rotator 102.
In some embodiments, the device 100 includes at least one card processing device, generally referred to as 112, such as card processing device 112A and/or card processing device 112B, as shown in
In some embodiments, the card processing device 112A is a printing device that is configured to perform a printing process. In some embodiments, the printing device includes a print head, such as a thermal print head, an ink jet print head, or other suitable print head. In some embodiments, the printing device 112A is configured to perform a direct printing process, in which an image is printed directly to a surface of the substrate 104. In some embodiments, the printing device is configured to perform a portion of a transfer printing process, during which an image is printed to a print intermediate, in accordance with conventional printing techniques.
In some embodiments, the card processing device 112B is a laminating device that is configured to apply an overlaminate to a surface of the substrate 104 using conventional techniques. In some embodiments, the overlaminate may be in the form in a patch laminate, a thin film laminate, or other conventional overlaminate. In some embodiments, the overlaminate is in the form of a print intermediate, and the laminating device 112B is configured to perform a portion of a transfer printing operation by laminating the print intermediate having an image, which has been printed to the print intermediate using the printing device 112A, to a surface of the substrate 104, in accordance with conventional transfer printing techniques.
In some embodiments, the card substrate 104 includes opposing edges 114 and opposing edges 116, as shown in
In some embodiments, the substrate 104 is a rectangular substrate, in which the length of the edges 114 is shorter than the length of the edges 116. Thus, the axis 118 of the coordinate system extends along the width of the substrate 104, the axis 120 extends along the length of the substrate 104, and the axis 112 extends along the thickness of the substrate 104.
As discussed in greater detail below, embodiments of the card substrate rotator 102 are configured to rotate the substrate 104 about a pivot axis 124 between a portrait orientation 126 and a landscape orientation 128 relative to the processing axis 106. The card substrate 104 is in the portrait orientation when the edges 114 are substantially perpendicular to the processing axis 106 and the edges 116 are substantially parallel to the processing axis 106. The card substrate 104 is in the landscape orientation when the edges 114 are substantially parallel to the processing axis 106, and the edges 116 are substantially perpendicular to the processing axis 106.
The rotation of the card substrate 104 between the portrait and landscape orientations using the card rotator 102 may be desirable for various reasons. For example, some of the processing devices 112 may be configured to process the card substrate 104 while the card substrate 104 is in the portrait orientation, while other processing devices 112 are configured to process the card substrate 104 when it is in the landscape orientation. For instance, in some embodiments, the processing device 112A is configured to process individual card substrates 104 when they are in the portrait orientation 126, while the processing device 112B is configured to process individual card substrates 104 when they are in the landscape orientation 128, as indicated in
Additionally, the card substrate 104 may be discharged from the supply 110, or received through the input with the substrates 104 oriented in either the portrait orientation or landscape orientation relative to the processing axis 106, while at least some of the processing devices require the substrate 104 to be oriented in the other of the portrait and landscape orientations for processing. Furthermore, it may be desirable to discharge the substrates 104 from the device 100 in a different orientation than the orientation in which they are processed. Other needs of the device 100 may also require an adjustment to the orientation of the card substrates 104 relative to the processing path 106 using the card rotator 102.
In some embodiments, the card rotator 102 is configured to rotate the substrate 104 about a pivot axis 124 (
In some embodiments, the card rotator 102 includes a card receptacle 130, at least one feed roller, which is generally referred to as 132, and a motor 134 (
In some embodiments, the card receptacle 130 is supported for rotation about the pivot axis 124 by a frame 140. In some embodiments, the frame 140 has a fixed orientation and position relative to the processing axis 106. In some embodiments, the frame 140 is attached to the frame or housing of the device 100. In some embodiments, the motor 134 is secured to the frame 140. In some embodiments, the frame 140 includes openings to accommodate the feed rollers 108, and the at least one feed roller 132, as shown in
The motor 134 is configured to drive rotation of the card receptacle 130 about the pivot axis 124 relative to the axis of rotation 136 of the one or more feed rollers 132. That is, the feed roller 132 does not rotate about the pivot axis 124 with rotation of the card receptacle 130. In some embodiments, the motor 134 drives rotation of a gear 141 (
Exemplary embodiments of a card rotation operation performed by the card rotator 102 will be described with reference to
In some embodiments, the card substrate 104 is fed into the card receptacle 130 in the portrait orientation 126, as shown in
Once the substrate 104 is received by the receptacle 130, the motor 134 drives rotation of the card receptacle 130 about the pivot axis 124 relative to the frame 140 and the axis of rotation 136 of the feed roller 132, as indicated by arrow 145 in
In some embodiments, the card receptacle 130 and the supported substrate 104 rotate 90 degrees relative to the axis of rotation 136 of the feed roller 132 and the frame 140, as shown in
The substrate 104 may then be discharged from the card receptacle 130 along the processing axis 106 by driving rotation of the feed roller 132 about the axis 136 using the motor 137 while the card substrate 104 is in the landscape orientation 128, as shown in
The card rotator 102 may also be used to rotate a substrate 104 from the landscape orientation (
The card receptacle 130 is then rotated about the pivot axis 124, as indicated by arrow 149 in
In some embodiments, when the card substrate 104 is in the portrait orientation 126 (
In some embodiments, during rotation of the card receptacle 130 about the pivot axis 124 relative to the axis of rotation 136 of the feed roller 132 and the frame 140 (
In some embodiments, the edges 114 and 116 of the card substrate 104 that respectively engage the stops 156 and 160 while the substrate 104 is supported by the card receptacle 130, converge at a first corner 174 of the card substrate 104, as shown in
The at least one feed roller 132 may take on many different forms. In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 includes at least one motorized feed roller that is driven by the motor 137 for rotation about the axis 136, as discussed above. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 includes a feed roller 132A that is located above the surface 158 of the card receptacle 130 and is configured to engage a top surface 166 of a card substrate 104 that is received in the card receptacle 130, as shown in
In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 of the card rotator 102 includes one or more non-motorized rolling elements that are supported by the frame 140 and/or the card receptacle 130, such as on or within the surface 158 of the card receptacle 130. In some embodiments, the rolling elements may be rollers, or rolling balls. In some embodiments, when such rolling elements are supported by the card receptacle 130, the rolling elements rotate with the card receptacle about the pivot axis 124. In one exemplary embodiment, multiple rolling balls are mounted on the surface 158. In another exemplary embodiment, the lower roller 132B (
In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 is located within a projection of the card receptacle 130 along the pivot axis 124, as shown in
In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 includes a circumferential portion 170 that contacts the substrate 104 during the rotation operation performed by the card rotator 102. In some embodiments, this circumferential portion 170 has a tapered cross section, which results in a reduced area of contact between the at least one feed roller 132 and the corresponding surface 166 or 168 of the card substrate 104 during the card rotation operation, as compared to when the at least one feed roller 132 has a flat contact surface.
In some embodiments, the lift mechanism 172 moves the at least one feed roller 132 along the axis 124 relative to the processing axis 106 and the card receptacle 130 to engage or disengage the at least one feed roller from the supported card substrate 104. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the lift mechanism 172 moves the card receptacle 130 along the axis 124 relative to the processing axis 106 and the upper roller 132A to engage or disengage the upper roller 132A from the supported card substrate 104. In such a configuration, the lower roller 132B moves with the with the card receptacle 130.
At step 182, the card receptacle 130 and the supported card substrate 104 are rotated about the pivot axis 124, as discussed above with reference to
In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 remains in contact with a surface of the card substrate 104 during the rotation operation 182. Thus, in some embodiments, a feed roller 132A engages the surface 166 of the card substrate 104, and/or a feed roller 132B engages the surface 168 of the card substrate 104 during the rotation operation 182, as shown in
At 184, the card substrate 104 is discharged from the card receptacle 130 along the processing axis 106 using the at least one feed roller 132. In some embodiments, the at least one feed roller 132 includes the feed roller 132A and/or the feed roller 132B, at least one of which is driven to rotate about its axis 136 using a motor 137 (
Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. As used herein, stated relationships, such as “perpendicular,” “orthogonal,” “parallel,” for example, including those recited with an adverb, such as “substantially” or “approximately,” are intended to include a reasonable tolerance around the stated relationship, unless specified otherwise. For example, when a component is stated as being perpendicular or parallel to another component, or approximately or substantially perpendicular or parallel to another component, it is understood that terms allow for a reasonable tolerance, such as a 1-5% offset, from the stated relationship.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection in the United States. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3758104 | Daily | Sep 1973 | A |
3847273 | Buhayar | Nov 1974 | A |
4015724 | Spencer | Apr 1977 | A |
6173828 | Leu et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
6343686 | Whiting et al. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
6811152 | Delfosse et al. | Nov 2004 | B2 |
7870824 | Helma et al. | Jan 2011 | B2 |
20070099462 | Helma et al. | May 2007 | A1 |
20080068432 | Sohn et al. | Mar 2008 | A1 |
20080124163 | Morimoto | May 2008 | A1 |
20100090395 | Lewalski et al. | Apr 2010 | A1 |
20110132722 | Depoi et al. | Jun 2011 | A1 |
20120177474 | Meier et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
637900 | Jun 1979 | CH |
10219569 | Nov 2003 | DE |
0846639 | Sep 2002 | EP |
1555892 | Dec 1966 | FR |
60258037 | Dec 1985 | JP |
Entry |
---|
Extended European Search Report for corresponding European application No. 16190161.6 dated Feb. 17, 2017. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20170087819 A1 | Mar 2017 | US |