EMBOSSING AND ENCODING SYSTEM

• US 3,820,455 A
• Filed: 11/15/1971
• Issued: 06/28/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cumber R. Mc, Hencley R, Hewitt D
• Original Assignee: Cumber R. Mc, Hencley R, Hewitt D
• Inventors: HENCLEY R, Mc, Cumber R., HEWITT D
• Application Number:
  US05/198,785
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• US Class Current: 101/93
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/387 with automatic plate transport systems, e.g. for credit cards

Abstract

A machine for embossing numeric and alphabetic data on plastic cards. The embosser is selectively controlled by computer and has a single set of OCR and alphanumeric embossing fonts past which each card is indexed. As the card passes the single alphanumeric font, it is vertically oscillated and may be selectively embossed with several lines of data.

Claims

1. A system for embossing documents with characters in a specified character location format along each of a predetermined number of parallel, displaced embossing line locations afforded on each such document, and in accordance with particular character data to be embossed in each such line for each such document, comprising:

a plurality of embossing elements respectively corresponding to the characters of a specified data format and aligned in adjacent, successively displaced positions in a fixed row, means for receiving and transporting, in succession, a plurality of documents to be embossed, said receiving means defining a document transport path extending parallel to the row alignment of said embossing elements and being located to dispose documents advanced along the transport path adjacent said embossing elements for embossing thereby, means for incrementally advancing each said document received by said receiving means along said transport path of said receiving means to successive index positions, the spacing of the successive index positions corresponding to the displacement of said successive embossing elements, means for displacing said receiving means transversely of the row alignment of said embossing elements at each of said index positions, to align, in succession, each of said predetermined number of parallel displaced embossing line locations on each document in said transport path of said receiving means with said row of embossing elements, for each such index position, in succession, means for identifying the embossing elements of said row thereof, at which there is disposed a document in the transport path, for each said index position of each said document in said transport path and for identifying the character data to be embossed on each said document in accordance with the line location thereof currently aligned with said row of embossing elements, means for comparing the thus identified character data and embossing elements, and means responsive to said comparing means for actuating each such identified embossing element of said row thereof as to which a comparison is obtained, for embossing said document with said element.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said actuating means actuates each of said identified embossing elements as to which a comparison is obtained in the sequence in which the comparisons are obtained.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein:

said receiving means is of a length relative to the length of documents to be embossed, to receive in succession a plurality of documents to be simultaneously incrementally advanced along said transport path and disposed to be embossed substantially simultaneously by said embossing elements, said identifying means identifies as to each said document in said transport path of said receiving means, in accordance with the respective index positions of said documents, the embossing elements of said row at which each said document is disposed, and the character data to be embossed on each said document in accordance with the common line location of said plurality of documents currently aligned with said row of embossing elements, said comparison means compares the identified embossing elements for each of said documents in said transport path of said receiving means with the identified character data as to each of said documents, for all documents in succession, and said actuating means actuates each of the embossing elements as to which a comparison is obtained, for all said documents in the transport path of said receiving means.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said receiving means comprises a movable track defining said transport path, said track being fixed in position in the direction parallel to the row of embossing elements and mounted for movement transversely thereof, said track being of a length greater than the length of the row of embossing elements, and said displacing means is connected to said track and incrementally displaces said track at each index position of a document transported along said track, to align in succession, each of said displaced embossing line locations of each said document with said row of embossing elements.

5. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein there is further provided:

a memory for storing a code table identifying the operations capable of being performed by the system at each of the successive index positions along the transport path, a memory for storing the character data to be embossed on each document, in accordance with the line locations and the character location format for each line location to be embossed, for each of a plurality of documents, and said identifying means includes means for identifying in the code table memory, the current index position of each document in said transport path thereby to identify the embossing elements at which each said document is currently disposed, and for scanning the data memory to identify in accordance with the said identified index position of each such document and the line location of said documents aligned with said embossing elements, the specific characters to be embossed on the document.

6. A system as recited in claim 5 wherein said data memory has a capacity for storing the data for a plurality of cards at least as great as the number of cards capable of being received and transported by said receiving means along said transport path, and wherein said identifying means comprises:

means for inserting a sentinel bit into said code table and for successively advancing said bit in accordance with the entry of each successive document into the transport path of said receiving means, thereby to identify the index position of said document along said transport path with respect to the successive indexed addresses of said code table, means for scanning said code table to identify the first and each successive sentinel bit entered and advancing therethrough, for each indexing advance of a first and each successive document through said receiving and transporting means, and means responsive to the recognition of a sentinel bit in said code table for effecting a scan of said data memory in the portion thereof containing data for the document corresponding to the recognized sentinel bit, for each sentinel bit in succession.

7. A system as recited in claim 6 wherein said identifying means responds to the end of the data in memory for a given document for activating said scanning means of said code table memroy to scan for a successive sentinel bit, through the end of the code table, for each indexing position of the successive cards in said transport path of said receiving means.

8. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said plurality of embossing elements aligned in a row are provIded in a single embossing module and there is furthermore provided:

a further embossing module displaced from said first embossing module and aligned with said direction of transport of said documents along said transport path of said receiving means, such that each said document is transported past said modules in succession by said incremental advancing means to successive index positions with respect to each module, said further module including a row of plural embossing elements in adjacent, displaced positions with said row of embossing elements positioned for embossing each document in a further displaced line location on a card, and wherein said receiving means comprises;

a track associated with each such module and defining a transport path for receiving and having transported therealong a succession of documents, and said advancing means incrementally advances said succession of documents to successive index positions simultaneously and in synchronized, incremental steps along the transport paths of each of said tracks and adjacent the row of embossing elements of the respective modules.

9. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein:

said further module receives said successive cards in the transport path of the track thereof, said displacing means associated with the track of said module adapted for embossing a predetermined number of line locations of said document is operative to displace said track transversely to align each line location in succession, at each index position of said document, with the row of embossing elements, and there is further provided;

synchronization means for advancing each document from the track of said further module to said transversely displaceable track when the latter is positioned in alignment with said track of said further module for receiving said document.

10. A system as recited in claim 9 wherein there is further provided an additional track disposed in the path of travel of said documents for receiving each document from said transversely displaceable track, and wherein said synchronization means provide for advancing each card which has proceeded through the length of said transversely displaceable track to said additional track when said transversely displaceable track is aligned with said additional track.

11. A system as recited in claim 8 wherein said idenfitying means includes a code table memory having a succession of storage positions respectively corresponding to the index positions in the transport path for identifying each such index position and the system function which can be performed at each index position, including the identification of the module and the embossing element thereof associated with each such index position, a data memory including in successive storage positions thereof data identifying characters to be embossed on successive ones of a plurality of documents by said embossing modules, the data including identification of the module by which associated ones of the characters are to be embossed, and identification of each line of said predetermined number of lines of characters and the characters to be embossed in each identified line by said one module, means for entering a sentinel bit in said code table memory for each successive document received by said receiving means and successively advancing said sentinel bit to each successive storage position for each successive indexing position of each of said successive documents advanced along said transport path of said receiving means by said advancing means, means for scanning said code table memory to identify each sentinel bit therein, in succession and thereby to identify the index position and thereby the module at which the document associated with each identified sentinel bit is presented currently, means for scanning the data memory and responsive to the identification of each such sentinel bit by said code table scanning means for scanning that portion of the data memOry containing data for the document identified by the sentinel bit and including the characters to be embossed by the corresponding module on the associated line location of the card, and said comparing means compares the character data derived from said data memory with the embossing elements of the corresponding module as identified from the code table memory by said code table scanning means.

12. A system as recited in claim 11 wherein said data memory furthermore includes a line identification for each line of data to be embossed on a document by said module which provides for embossing a predetermined number of embossing line locations, and wherein said means for scanning said data memory is responsive to recognition of each successive line identification for the module which provides for embossing said predetermined number of line locations, to effect a repetitive scan of the code table memory for repetitive identification of the corresponding embossing elements, for comparison with the identified character data derived for each such line in succession from said data memory.

13. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said character data identifying means comprises:

a memory containing a plurality of successive memory address locations for storing data and a sentinel bit column having positions corresponding to each data location of the memory, a load address register, initializing means for initiating input of data to said memory and operative to insert a sentinel bit in the first position of said column corresponding to the initial memory address location, and to set said load address register to that initial memory address location, loading means operable under control of said load address register to load a block of data into said memory through a number of storage positions thereof in accordance with the amount of data in the block, control means operative to activate said load address register to insert a sentinel bit in said column at the memory address location corresponding to the end of the data block loaded into memory, said control means sequencing through the memory addresses in a continuous, circulating addressing function to recognize and cancel the sentinel bit preceding the block of data previously loaded into memory, said load address register thereupon advancing through the memory location addresses of the previously loaded block of data to the address at the end of the block as identified by the sentinel bit entered at said end of the block, said control means initiating entry of a succeeding block of data in the successive addresses of said memory from that identified by the last entered sentinel bit, for each such block of data in succession, means for reading out data from the successive address positions of said memory, and means for disabling said readout means upon detection of a sentinel bit preceding any block of data entered in memory.

14. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein said receiving and advancing means comprise:

a track defining said transport path for said documents extending in the said parallel direction, means mounting said track for reciprocating movement in said transverse direction, main drive means adapted to be driven in continuous rotation and defining the rate of movement of the document to successive index positions in accordance with each cycle of rotation thereof, a cam mounted for rotating movement and coupled to said track for displacing said track in incremental steps in the transverse direction for each completed revolution thereof, each incremental displacement of said track aligning a successive one of said line locations of a document received in said track with the row of embossing elements, means coupled to said main drive means and to said cam for rotating said cam at a rate proportionately reduced from the rate of rotation of said main drive means so as to displace said track by one said incremental step in the transverse direction fOr each cycle of rotation of said main drive means, said cam furthermore defining a first dwell period at each step of the transverse displacement of said track produced thereby, and a second dwell period at each extreme of the transverse movement, means driven by said main drive means and operative during the second dwell of said cam for incrementally advancing the document along said track in said parallel direction to a successive index position, at each extreme of the incremental displacement in the transverse direction.

15. A system as recited in claim 14 wherein said last named means comprise:

means for engaging said document in said track, means responsive to a complete cyclic input thereto for driving said engaging means to advance said document in said parallel direction to a successive index position, rotatable means for producing the cyclic input to said driving means, selectively actuatable coupling means for coupling said rotatable means to said main drive shaft to effect a complete rotation of said rotatable means, and means responsive to the rotation of said cam to a position producing either extreme of the transverse displacement of said track and to the indexing rate of said main drive shaft to actuate said coupling means, to effect a complete rotation of said rotatable means.

16. An automatic card embosser for embossing selected characters at predetermined character embossing positions in each of plural, predetermined line locations on a card comprising:

a. a module of character embossing elements aligned in a fixed row in a first direction, said elements being selectively controlled to emboss the desired characters at said predetermined positions of the predetermined line locations on the card;

b. means to incrementally advance each of a plurality of cards, in succession, to successive index positions in the said first direction thereby to present the character embossing positions of one of said line locations on a card in succession to the character embossing elements of the row thereof; and

c. means to displace each card in a second direction transverse to said first direction, at each index position of said first direction, to present to each embossing element the corresponding character embossing positions of each of said line locations of each card whereby each of the corresponding character embossing positions of each of the plurality of lines is presented to each character embossing element at each indexed embossing position of said first direction.

17. An automatic card embosser for embossing a single line of OCR type and multiple lines of AN type on each of a plurality of cards comprising:

a. an input hopper for holding blank cards;

b. an OCR module of character embossing elements aligned in a row in a first direction and including means for incrementally advancing cards to successive embossing index positions in said first direction past said row of elements;

c. an AN module of character embossing elements aligned in a row in said first direction and including means for incrementally advancing cards to successive embossing index positions in said first direction past said elements;

d. means to actuate simultaneously selected ones of the character embossing elements of either or both modules as one or more cards are advanced into an embossing index position relative to the embossing elements of either or both of said modules;

e. a card guide rail spanning at least said AN module and mounted for reciprocatory movement in a second direction transverse to said first direction whereby at each index position in said first direction of each card, as presented for embossing by said AN module, the multiple embossing lines of each said card on said guide rail are presented in succession to said row of character embossing elements;

f. means for moving said reciprocatory movable card guide rail to preselected index positions in said second direction foR presenting said multiple embossing lines, in succession, to said row of character embossing elements, and for maintaining said guide rail at each extreme of the vertical reciprocating movement for a time interval corresponding to advancing of a card between two successive index positions in said first direction;

g. a fixed entrance rail and a fixed exit rail associated with said reciprocatory movable guide rail, one extreme of the reciprocation of said guide rail being at a predetermined height corresponding to the height of said fixed entrance rail and said fixed exit rail; and

h. control means responsive to said guide rail moving means to move a card from the fixed entrance rail to the movable card rail and from the reciprocatory, movable card guide rail to the fixed exit rail when said guide rail moving means maintains said reciprocatory, movable card guide rail at the predetermined height position.