Virtual multihopper card feeder

• US 6,446,832 B1
• Filed: 03/27/1998
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Datacard Corp. (Entrust Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Datacard Corp. (Entrust Corp.)
• Inventors: Rust, Jeffrey J., Wooldridge, Cory Dean, Mattila, Gary Paul, Holec, Henry V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ellis, Christopher P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACKEY, PATRICK HEWEY
• Application Number:
  US09/049,250
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 221/88, 221/7, 221/9, 221/13, 221/67, 221/79, 221/80, 221/81, 221/87, 235/475, 235/479, 235/379, 235/380, 235/381
• US Class Current: 221/88
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 13/14 Card magazines, e.g. pocket, hopper

Abstract

An improved card feeding apparatus and associated method for feeding plastic cards to a printer. The apparatus can be used in any system where plastic cards are fed into a printer, but has particular use in a self-service, automated card issuance kiosk. The apparatus includes a support structure, and a card cassette is mounted on the support structure for holding a plurality of cards. The card cassette is moveable relative to the support structure, with the card cassette defining a discrete position for each card. A card picker is mounted on the support structure, with the card picker being capable of picking any one of the plurality of cards from the card cassette. Since each card has a discrete position within the card cassette, the card cassette can be moved past the card picker and any one of the cards within the card cassette can be picked by the card picker, and subsequently fed to a printer to personalize the card.

Claims

1. A multihopper card feeder, comprising:

a support structure,

a carriage movably mounted on said support structure;

a card cassette detachably mounted on said carriage for holding a plurality of cards, said card cassette being moveable relative to said support structure, said card cassette defining a discrete position for each card of the plurality of cards, and said card cassette includes first and second members spaced apart from each other, each of said first and second members including a plurality of spaced grooves defined therein, said grooves being sized to receive first and second edges of the cards herein, the grooves in said first member being aligned with the grooves in said second member, and each said discrete position being defined by a respective pair of the aligned grooves, and said card cassette further includes a discharge side through which he cards are discharged from said card cassette;

at least one divider removably disposed within a pair of the aligned grooves of the first and second members to thereby divide the card cassette into a plurality of sections; and

a card picker mounted on said support structure, said card picker capable of picking any one of the plurality of cards from said card cassette, and said card picker is disposed on the side of the card cassette opposite the discharge side.

2. The multihopper card feeder according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said dividers are disposed within respective pairs of the aligned grooves.

3. An apparatus for holding a plurality of cards and feeding the cards to a printer, comprising:

a support structure connected to the printer;

a card cassette mounted on said support structure, said card cassette being moveable relative to said support structure, said card cassette defining a discrete position for each card of the plurality of cards, and said card cassette includes a first set of spaced grooves and a second set of spaced grooves separated from the first set, the grooves of said first set being aligned with the grooves of said second set, and the grooves of said first and second sets being sized so as to slideably receive opposite edges of the cards therein;

at least one divider for dividing the cards into different groups, said divider being removably disposed within a pair of the aligned grooves of the first and second set;

a mechanism mounted on the cassette controlling ingress of cards to and egress of cards from the cassette;

a card picker mounted on said support structure for picking any one of the plurality of cards from said card cassette; and

feed rollers engageable with each card picked by said card picker for feeding each picked card to tile printer, said feed rollers and said card picker are disposed on opposite sides of the card cassette.

4. A process for feeding cards into a printer, comprising:

loading a plurality of the cards into a cassette, with each card having a discrete position;

loading the cassette into the printer;

mapping out the position of each card in the cassette to thereby create an inventory map;

picking a selected one of the plurality of cards from the cassette; and

feeding the picked card to the printer.

5. The process according to claim 4, wherein the step of loading a plurality of cards comprises loading different types of cards into the cassette.

6. The process according to claim 4, wherein the cassette includes a plurality of slots, and the step of loading comprises loading the plurality of cards into the slots.

7. The process according to claim 6, wherein the step of mapping out the position comprises scanning all the slots.

8. The process according to claim 4, further comprising updating the inventory map.