1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for providing cards for subsequent processing, and particularly to a method and a device for providing cards for card handling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known systems for handling cards operate such that that the card, such as a thick plastic card of the type CR-80, is automatically connected (applied) to card carriers in variable number. The card carriers provided with plastic cards are then packed into envelopes in an enveloping station or are folded and sealed and subsequently supplied to further processing. In addition, any supplements may be associated with the card carriers to be enveloped and/or folded together then.
In prior art, various methods and devices for applying plastic cards and card carriers are known. From DE 195 08 282 C1 and from DE 195 33 444 A1, methods and devices are known to combine and connect plastic cards and card carriers using a print job number. After combining and connecting, the plastic carriers are enveloped and supplied to further processing. A similar method is known from DE 197 25 579 A1, in which the combination and connection of plastic cards and card carriers is verified using a check sum. A method and a device for combining and connecting plastic cards and card carriers using a job number are known from DE 197 34 483 A1, wherein processing is performed offline.
Yet another method is known from DE 102 50 653 A1, in which a card is first provided and then card data thereof are detected, wherein the card carrier is generated based on these cards.
The above known methods are the connection of card carriers and cards, wherein the cards comprise a magnetic stripe or other storage unit which may be read out by reading means, to store specific data of the card or specific data of an owner of the card. Alternatively, it is also possible to connect cards which do not obtain personalized data, but only provide general information.
In the above methods and devices known in the art, the cards are always provided by card magazines, which contain a plurality of identical cards. Various implementations of such card magazines are known, wherein the so-called revolver magazine is to be mentioned here, among others, in which a multitude of card magazines, preferably four card magazines, are arranged rotatably, wherein the cards are always drawn from one card magazine. If a card magazine has been emptied, a rotation of the revolver magazine is caused to provide a new, filled card magazine so that the overall system may be provided with cards without major interruption. Alternatively, the various card magazines may be arranged in parallel to each other, wherein the supply of the cards first starts with a first magazine and then, after it has been emptied, a second subsequent magazine is used.
The cards drawn from such card magazines are then supplied to the applier, wherein reading of the cards is preferably performed prior to applying. In the so-called card channel between the card magazine and the applier, there are preferably provided a plurality of readers to be able to read different card types. These readers include, for example, an OCR reader, such as for the detection of a bar code, a chip reader for reading out memory or processor chips on the cards, and/or a magnetic reader for reading out magnetic stripes. In addition, any other suitable readers may be provided for the detection of information from the cards. Furthermore, other devices may be provided for handling the cards, such as turners which turn the card after drawing so that a desired face of the card has a certain orientation (for example upwards).
During operation, both the applier and the card channel receive a so-called job description in the form of a file. The applier obtains information both on the number of the cards to be applied to the carrier and their positions on the carrier. The card channel is informed about the kind of cards, i.e. the card type, among other things. For example, information regarding the card type include the specification, whether it is a thick plastic card, a thin plastic card, an embossed or an unembossed plastic card. Further, information is provided specifying whether a storage medium is arranged on the card or not, wherein, in the first case, there is further specification whether the storage medium is a chip, a contactless chip, a magnetic stripe, optically detectable information or the like.
These data thus specified in the job definition are provided to the handling system, and the handling system configures the corresponding elements for processing the corresponding cards. In this context, there is, for example, a determination in the card channel which of the readers located there have to be activated for the cards to be processed and which have to be deactivated. There is further a determination which of the additionally provided card handling devices (such as turners, etc.) are to be activated/deactivated to ensure a desired handling of the received card. This is important because readers which do not generate a signal issue an error signal so that the whole system stops. In the case that, for example, a chip card is used and is guided through a magnetic stripe reader, there is no output signal of the magnetic stripe reader so that it issues an error signal which results in stopping or delaying the overall operation. In order to avoid this, an activation/deactivation of the corresponding readers in the card channel is caused via the data specified in the job definition to thus ensure suitable processing for the cards provided in the card magazine.
In the case that all magazines in the card feeder are populated with the same cards, the various magazines may automatically be processed consecutively. The processing of cards of different types is only possible with very large effort and thus reduces the system's flexibility.
A further disadvantage is that processing jobs in which cards of a different type are processed is very complex and, in the case that the number of card changes, is not possible at all. As an example, assume the case that three cards are to be applied to a card carrier, wherein a first card comprises a chip, a second card comprises a magnetic stripe, and a third card does not comprise any storage media, for example a customer card having general customer information regarding service telephone numbers or the like. In this case, it is necessary to inform the handling device in the job definition that, for each carrier, first a chip card, then a magnetic stripe card, and then a card without storage medium are provided, wherein the cards then have to be provided in the corresponding order in the card magazine. It is again necessary to provide the system with exact information regarding the order of the different card types in advance to allow proper driving of the individual components, for example of the different readers in the card channel. This approach is also very inflexible.
The case in which different numbers of cards have to be provided for different carriers is also very difficult to handle in such known approaches, because the corresponding cards have to be arranged in the corresponding order in the card magazine, just as in the case described above, and, in addition to the job definition, each single job has to be defined exactly to allow the corresponding driving of the card reading elements in the card channel.
In cases in which it is possible that the card feeder feeds a plurality of, i.e. more than two, cards in parallel, the corresponding information for each carrier also has to be provided in the job definition so that the system can manage the corresponding activation/deactivation of the card reader in the card channel.
In summary, the disadvantage of the known prior art approaches is that they always use card feeders which are only suitable for providing cards to the handling system, but do not provide any flexibility in connection with the provision of different cards for the overall system, because the required job definition, and particularly the information regarding the card type, always have to be provided to the overall system in advance to ensure proper operation.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved card feeder allowing increased flexibility of the overall system.
In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for providing cards for processing, wherein the cards are arranged in a plurality of card magazines and may be drawn from the plurality of card magazines, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards, the method having the steps of (a) receiving information specifying the card type of the card to be drawn; (b) drawing a card from at least one card magazine; and (c) outputting the card for subsequent processing together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card to allow control of the subsequent processing based on the forwarded information; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine, and the information regarding the card type is associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is forwarded in step (b) when drawing a card from a card magazine in step (a); and wherein, in subsequent processing, the card is connected to a carrier provided to the subsequent processing and carrying information indicating the card type of the card to be connected to the carrier, wherein the method further includes the step of reading the information from the carrier.
In accordance with a second aspect, the present invention provides a method for providing cards for processing, wherein the cards are arranged in a plurality of card magazines and may be drawn from the plurality of card magazines, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards, the method having the steps of (a) drawing a card from at least one card magazine; and (b) outputting the card for subsequent processing together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card to allow control of the subsequent processing based on the forwarded information; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine, and the information regarding the card type is associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is forwarded in step (b) when drawing a card from a card magazine in step (a); and wherein cards associated with a first group and cards associated with a second group are arranged in each of the plurality of the card magazines, wherein the groups in each card magazine are separated by a separation card, wherein the steps (a) and (b) are repeated for the first group until all separation cards between the cards of the first group and the second group have been detected.
In accordance with a third aspect, the present invention provides a method for providing cards for processing, wherein the cards are arranged in a plurality of card magazines and may be drawn from the plurality of card magazines, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards, the method having the steps of (a) drawing a card from at least one card magazine; (b) reading the card drawn in step (a); (c) based on the information read from the card, accessing a database; (d) outputting the card for further processing together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card to allow control of the subsequent processing based on the forwarded information; and (e) based on the information from the database, drawing and outputting further cards; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine, and the information regarding the card type is associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is forwarded in step (b) when drawing a card from a card magazine in step (a).
In accordance with a fourth aspect, the present invention provides a device for providing cards for processing, having a plurality of card magazines for receiving cards, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards; a drawing unit for drawing a card from at least one card magazine; an output for outputting the card together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card; and a data input for receiving information specifying the card type of the cards to be drawn; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine and the information regarding the card type is associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is applied to the output when drawing a card from a card magazine; and wherein the information receivable at the data input further includes a number of the cards to be provided.
In accordance with a fifth aspect, the present invention provides a device for providing cards for processing, having a plurality of card magazines for receiving cards, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards; a drawing unit for drawing a card from at least one card magazine; and an output for outputting the card together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine and the information regarding the card type are associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is applied to the output when drawing a card from a card magazine; wherein cards associated with a first group and cards associated with a second group are arranged in each of the plurality of the card magazines, wherein the groups in each card magazine are separated by a separation card, wherein a separation card detector is provided, and wherein the drawing unit and the output are configured to draw and output the cards of the first group until all separation cards between the cards of the first group and the second group have been detected by the separation card detector.
In accordance with a sixth aspect, the present invention provides a device for providing cards for processing, having a plurality of card magazines for receiving cards, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards; a drawing unit for drawing a card from at least one card magazine; an output for outputting the card together with the information regarding the card type associated with the card; a reader for reading a drawn card; and a processor configured to access a database based on the information read from the card and to drive the drawing unit and the output for drawing and outputting further cards based on the information from the database; wherein cards of a known card type are arranged in a card magazine and the information regarding the card type is associated with the card magazine, wherein the information associated with the card magazine is applied to the output when drawing a card from a card magazine.
The present invention provides a method for providing cards for processing, wherein the cards are arranged in a plurality of card magazines and may be drawn from the plurality of card magazines, wherein information regarding the card type is associated with the cards, the method comprising:
Preferably, cards of the same card type are arranged in a card magazine, and the information regarding the card type are associated with the card magazine. When drawing a card from a card magazine, the information associated with the card magazine are then forwarded. The information regarding the card type preferably includes information regarding the card material, the embossing of the card and/or a card storage medium.
Preferably, the information regarding the card storage medium include information regarding the presence of the storage medium and regarding the type of the storage medium. This allows a suitable activation of the card readers in subsequent processing depending on the indicated storage medium type, and the activation of further handling means (for example turners) depending on the indicated card type.
According to a preferred embodiment, the cards are sequentially drawn from the card magazines and forwarded. Alternatively, there is parallel drawing of the cards, wherein cards of a first card type are arranged in a first number of card magazines and cards of a second card type are arranged in a second number of card magazines. In step (a), a card is first drawn from at least one card magazine of the first number and, in parallel, a card is drawn from at least one card magazine of the second number.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, information or data are received prior to step (a) which specify the card type of the card to be drawn, wherein these are preferably obtained by a later card carrier. In this context, it is provided that, in subsequent processing, the card is connected to a carrier which is provided to the subsequent processing and carries information indicating the card type of the card to be connected to the carrier, wherein, according to the invention, the information is read from the carrier prior to drawing the card to detect which of the cards from the plurality of card magazines is to be drawn. This information preferably further includes a number of cards to be provided.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, first a card is drawn and information are read from this card prior to step (b). Based on the thus read information and/or data, a database is accessed issuing further information based on which drawing and forwarding of further parts is performed. Preferably, the information obtained from the database are also used to generate a carrier, wherein the card and the further cards are subsequently connected to the carrier.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, cards of a first group and cards of a second group may be arranged in each of the plurality of card magazines, wherein these groups are separated only by a separating card in each of the card magazines. The cards of the first group are drawn from the magazines and forwarded until all separating cards have been detected in all magazines.
The present invention further provides a device for providing cards for processing, having
According to the invention, there is thus provided a card feeder which draws cards, preferably from up to four card magazines, in sequential, parallel or selective order and supplies them to a tunnel transport associated with the card channel. Preferably, each card magazine includes only one card type, but the different magazines may accommodate different card types.
Preferably, the card is a plastic card, such as they are used today for example for credit cards or the like. However, the present invention is not limited to such plastic cards. In fact, any card may be handled, wherein “card” in the sense of the present invention does not only mean plastic card, but also includes other cards or card-like elements. Further, the term “card” in the sense of the present invention also includes data carriers, such as mini disks or mini CDs, SIM cards, etc. For example, the cards are credit cards, health insurance cards, driving licenses and identity cards, customer cards, etc.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention are defined in the dependent claims.
In the following, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with respect to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following description of preferred embodiments, elements having like or similar effects are provided with the same or similar reference numbers in the individual drawings. Further it is to be noted at this point that, in the following description, the term “plurality” is used meaning that at least two or more of the given elements are provided.
As mentioned above, the present invention relates to a method and a device for providing cards for processing, such as credit cards or the like. However, the present invention is not limited to cards or plastic cards, but any cards may be handled, wherein “card” has the above meaning with respect to the present invention.
Preferably, the present invention is employed on cards, such as embossed CR-80 cards, unembossed CR-80 cards, or generally plastic cards with a thickness between 0.3 to 1.5 mm.
According to the present invention, as indicated in
As soon as this information is provided to the card feeder, the inventive method starts by drawing one card or several cards from the magazines in step S102, and providing them to other portions of the system for subsequent processing in step S104, wherein the respective data about the card type concerning the card are forwarded together with the card.
The advantage of this approach is evident, because it is no longer necessary to lay down all possible orders of the various consecutive work passes for large jobs in advance, but only to specify which cards from which magazines are to be connected to a carrier, irrespective of what type of card is contained. The required information for driving the card channel are transferred from the card feeder to the card channel together with the respective card. The advantage of this approach is that now increased flexibility in providing the cards for the application to a card carrier may be achieved in a simple way, because the individual cards now only have to be loaded into the magazines and the corresponding information regarding the card type contained in each of the magazines has to be provided to the overall system. Then, depending on the circumstances, the desired number of cards is drawn based on the overall control of the jobs, a changing number of cards is also readily possible, and the required driving of the card channel and the readers arranged there is performed on the basis of the card type information transferred with each card.
As is further to be seen in
Reading the individual cards in the card channel 102 serves, as mentioned, for checking whether the cards and the card carrier to be connected really match. Furthermore, the reading in the card channel 102 serves for ensuring that the present card really is the one corresponding to the order of processing as provided externally.
Preferably, the card feeder 100 includes up to four card magazines M1 to M4, wherein the filling amount per magazine depends on the card thickness and a possible card embossing. Each magazine may, for example, receive up to 500 unembossed cards with a thickness of 0.8 mm. In the magazines, the cards may lie face up or face down, wherein the setting does not have to be identical for all magazines per job. If the receptacle of the respective magazine is in the initial position, a magazine may be inserted and the card stack is, for example, moved up by a spindle which is driven via a stepper motor. When the uppermost card reaches a defined initial position, the magazine is operable. Preferably, a magazine situated in the initial position just described cannot be removed.
The card feeder 100 includes a number of vacuum suction means corresponding to the number of card magazines, which, when the system is operable, serve for drawing the uppermost card from the card magazine and transfer it to a tunnel transport. Preferably, a retaining device is provided which is arranged above the magazine to ensure separation of the individual cards.
According to a preferred embodiment, the card feeder 100 includes a sensor, preferably a capacitive sensor, for interrogating whether a drawn card has reached its target position in the tunnel transport. If there is a confirmation that the card has reached its target position, the tunnel transport is clocked once, i.e. advanced by a predetermined distance. If the interrogation has a negative result, an error is indicated.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the card feeder 100 may have three different modes of operation explained in more detail in the following.
In the first mode of operation, referred to as job definition, the drawing type and the card type per magazine is fixedly deposited in a job file provided to the card handling system.
In a second mode of operation, the offline mode of operation (fetching via the card carrier), the desired cards in type and number are selectively fetched per card carrier from the magazines via coded information on a card carrier.
In the third mode of operation, the online operation (fetching via a card), a card type/a magazine is defined as a so-called leading card. After one of the leading cards has been drawn and the coded information has been read out, the associated cards of this group are drawn. The corresponding information is determined from a customer database, for example by means of an identification reference number.
For the above-described modes of operation, the following parameters are provided to the card handling system for each stop as part of the job file. The parameters include the mode of operation, the sequence of the magazines, the magazine location, the supply order and the card type. When defining the mode of operation, the first specification is whether the cards are drawn from the magazines sequentially, in parallel with toggle operation, or in parallel without toggle operation. For the mode of operation “job definition”, these three specifications are sufficient. For the other two modes of operation offline and online, offline operation or online operation is correspondingly specified in the mode of operation.
The sequence of the magazines is selected from a provided table which will be further discussed below.
The supply order specifies whether the cards are supplied face up or face down. The card type specifies the information regarding card material, card embossing, card storage medium.
Based on
In the way described with respect to
Based on
Besides the parallel drawing operation without toggle operation, there is the parallel drawing operation with toggle operation described with respect to
The following list shows examples for the parallel drawing with toggle operation from a plurality of up to four magazines.
In the above table, bold letters denote the magazines between which the change is performed. For the first case, this means that the same card types are arranged in the magazines M1 and M2, and different card types are arranged in the magazines M3 and M4. The parallel drawing is done such that first cards are drawn from the magazines M1, M3 and M4, and, in the case that the magazine M1 is empty, there is a change to magazine M2.
The high flexibilization in processing various card types described above requires the inventive approach to accompany each card with its description at least regarding its card type for the activation and/or deactivation of the elements existing in subsequent processing units to thus avoid errors in the operation of the overall system, which would be caused, for example, when trying to read a magnetic stripe card without chip in the chip reader.
According to the invention, different card data may thus be processed in one job in a simple way, wherein the information necessary for the activation of subsequent processing modules, for example the readers in the card channel, may accompany the cards via the definition of the card type.
Based on
In order to compensate for differences in the processing between carrier and card, either a card buffer or a sheet buffer may be provided in this application to ensure that the required cards and carriers arrive at the applier at the same time.
With respect to
This implementation is chosen when additional backing up of the first reading in the card feeder is desired. This approach is not necessarily required in a bar code reading, a chip reading or a magnetic stripe reading in the card feeder, because in this reading the data are obtained with high certainty. However, the second implementation may also be used for such cards.
Furthermore,
At the beginning of the processing of the job, as mentioned, a card is drawn from the first magazine M1 and transferred to an intermediate transport via the tunnel transport. There, for example, the reading, for example a contactless chip reading, may be provided. After identifying the cards, there is a read-out from a customer database by means of an identification reference number which other cards belong to this group, and these are drawn. When the next free tunnel position reaches the first magazine, the just described process is repeated.
With respect to
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above with respect to embodiments in which certain information regarding the card types were named, it is obvious for someone skilled in the art that other information regarding the used cards may also be used in addition or alternatively.
While this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments, there are alterations, permutations, and equivalents which fall within the scope of this invention. It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations, permutations, and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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103 50 221.1 | Oct 2003 | DE | national |
This application is a continuation of copending International Application No. PCT/EP2004/011059, filed on Oct. 4, 2004, which designated the United States and was not published in English and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/EP04/11059 | Oct 2004 | US |
Child | 11167910 | Jun 2005 | US |