CARD FEEDER
A card feeder has the following elements. A card hopper is disposed on a base to store cards. A conveying unit is disposed on the base. A friction element is disposed on the base and located in a path passed by the cards, and is capable of providing friction force to the cards so as to separate the cards.
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This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 102132016, filed on Sep. 5, 2013. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
FIELDThe invention relates to a card feeder, more particularly, to a card feeder applicable to a card printer.
BACKGROUNDA card printer is an electronic device capable of printing patterns on cards. In recent years, the card printer has been broadly applied to personal identification documents, such as an employee ID card and so forth. Similar to a paper feeder equipped by a paper printer, the card printer is also equipped with a card feeder for supplying the cards to a printing area. In actual practice, an entire stack of cards is usually being placed into a card hopper of the card feeder, and via a feeding mechanism of the card feeder, one card at a time is outputted to the printing area.
However, in the process of production, the cards in the entire stack of cards are not easily to be separate from each other due to static electricity or furry edges. In addition, according to usage requirements, the cards also have a variety of thickness specification. Therefore, the design of the card feeder has to consider the factors of the cards being difficult to be separated from each other and different in thicknesses, so as to ensure that the cards can be supplied normally.
US Patents relating to the card feeder are U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,758, U.S. Pat. No. 6,932,527 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,331,576.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention relates to a card feeder for storing a plurality of cards and outputting one card at a time.
The invention provides a card feeder for storing a plurality of card and outputting one card at a time. The card feeder includes the following elements. A card hopper is disposed on a base to store the stacked cards, and has an exit. A conveying unit is disposed on the base to push the cards toward the exit. A friction element disposed on the base and located on a path passed by the cards, and is capable of providing friction force to the cards so as to separate the cards.
According to the above, the invention uses the conveying unit to push the cards into motion, and uses the friction element to provide the friction force to the cards so as to separate the cards.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
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In addition, the card feeder 100 further includes a friction element 140, and the friction element 140 is disposed on the base 110 and located on the path passed by the cards C, and is capable of providing friction force to the cards C so as to separate the cards C. In the present embodiment, the friction element 140 is an elastic pad, a fixed end of the friction element 140 is fixed to the base 110, and a free end of the friction element 140 is located on the path passed by the cards C. The friction element 140 is located in front the outside of the exit 122 and is capable of contacting the cards that passed through the exit 122, and the exit 122 is located between the second feed roller 136b and the friction element 140, so that when the second feed roller 136b drives the cards C to move toward the exit 122, the friction element 140 may provide the friction force to the cards C to separate the cards C. However,
In addition, the conveying unit 130 may further include an elastomer 137 (such as a coil spring), and the elastomer 137 is disposed at the support 131 and pivoted between the gears 133b of the support 131 for providing friction force, so that the gears 133a rotating along the axis A can drive the supports 131 to rotate along the axis A, thereby enabling the second feed roller 136b to push the cards C toward the friction element 140. In the present embodiment, the support 131 has a rod portion 131a, and the elastomer 137 sleeves the rod portion 131a so that the elastomer 137 is able to provide the friction force to the gear 133b contacted by thereof in relative to the support 131.
It is worth noting that, the first feed roller 136a provides a constant driving force to the cards C, the second feed roller 136b provides a compensation driving force to the cards C, and a sum of the driving forces is greater than a separation force provided by the friction element 140, so as to ensure that the cards C can be outputted, smoothly. In addition, by driving the support 131 to rotate along the axis A so as to enable the second feed roller 136b to push the cards C toward the friction element 140, when supplying the cards C of different thicknesses, the second feed roller 136b can provide an automatic compensation of normal force in relative to the friction element 140 to the cards C.
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In summary, the invention uses the conveying unit to push the cards into motion, and uses the friction element to provide the friction force to the cards so as to separate the cards. In addition, the invention may uses the transmission mechanism, the first feed roller and the second feed roller to convert the torque generated by a single power source into the driving force of the cards. Moreover, according to the difference in the thickness of the cards, the invention may further provide the automatic compensation of the normal force to the cards via the support, the transmission mechanism, the second feed roller, the elastomer, and the same power source, so as to ensure that the cards of different thicknesses can all be separated by the friction element successfully.
It will be apparent to those skills in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A card feeder for storing a plurality of cards and outputting one card at a time, the card feeder comprising:
- a base;
- a card hopper disposed on the base to store the stacked cards, and having an exit;
- a conveying unit disposed on the base to push the cards toward the exit; and
- a friction element disposed on the base and located in a path passed by the card, and being capable of providing friction force to the cards so as to separate the cards.
2. The card feeder as recited in claim 1, wherein the conveying unit comprises:
- a support pivoted, along an axis, to the base;
- a transmission mechanism disposed on the base and the support;
- a power module coupled to the transmission mechanism so as to drive the transmission mechanism;
- a first feed roller pivoted on the base, and coupled to the power module through the transmission mechanism so as to be driven by the power module into rotation, so that the cards move toward the exit; and
- a second feed roller pivoted on the support, and coupled to the power module through the transmission mechanism so as to be driven by the power module into rotation, so that the cards move toward the exit, and the exit is located between the second feed roller and the friction element.
3. The card feeder as recited in claim 2, wherein the transmission mechanism includes a plurality of gears, the gears are sequentially and mutually engaged, and the gears comprises at least one gear pivoted on the base and at least one gear pivoted on the support.
4. The card feeder as recited in claim 3 further comprising:
- a rotating shaft axially disposed, along the axis, to the base, the support and the gear rotating along the axis, and fixedly connected to the gear rotating along the axis.
5. The card feeder as recited in claim 3, wherein the conveying unit further comprises:
- a driving shaft axially disposed on the base and coupled to the power module and the transmission mechanism.
6. The card feeder as recited in claim 3, wherein the conveying unit further comprises:
- an elastomer disposed between the support and the gear pivoted on the support so as to provide the friction force, so that the gear rotating along the axis is able to drive the support to rotate along the axis, thereby enabling the second feed roller to apply pressure on the cards towards the friction element.
7. The card feeder as recited in claim 2, wherein the power module further comprises:
- a power source;
- a deceleration mechanism coupled between the power source and the transmission mechanism, wherein torque generated by the power source is transmitted, sequentially through the deceleration mechanism and the driving shaft, to the transmission mechanism.
8. The card feeder as recited in claim 3 further comprising:
- an elastomer disposed between the base and the conveying unit, so as to enable the conveying unit to apply pressure on the cards towards the friction element.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 10, 2013
Publication Date: Mar 5, 2015
Applicant: Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Co., LTD (Taichung City)
Inventors: I-Chung Hou (Taichung City), Hsun-Hao Chan (Taichung City)
Application Number: 14/101,578
International Classification: B65H 5/06 (20060101); B65H 7/20 (20060101); B65H 3/02 (20060101);