Credit card embossing system

An embosser for embossing blank cards with a line of characters extending along a line comprising:

• (a) a pair of rotatable wheels mounted on a common shaft which have a space through which a blank card to be embossed is moved by a card transporting means, one of the wheels being a punch wheel carrying male embossing elements of each of the characters of the character set to be embossed by the punch wheel which are movable from a retracted position to an embossing position and the other wheel being a die wheel carrying female embossing elements of each of the characters of the character set to be embossed by the die wheel which are movable from a retracted position to an embossing position, the pair of wheels each having embossing elements of each of the characters to be embossed which are disposed at different circumferential positions around the wheel and a space at a separate circumferential position which is the circumferential position of the wheel when a space is to be left on a blank card;
• (b) a shaft encoding means for providing a signal encoding the circumferential position of the wheels with respect to a reference position;
• (c) first and second rams which are movable from a first position to a second position, the first position of the first and second rams not causing the embossing elements of the wheels to emboss a character, the second position of the first ram extending to a position to contact one of the male embossing elements to cause the embossing of a character if the circumferential position having the space is not aligned therewith and the second position of the second ram extending to a position to contact one of the female embossing elements to cause the embossing of a character if the circumferential position having the space is not aligned therewith, the second position of the rams causing a single male-female pair of embossing elements of a character to move toward each other to emboss a blank card disposed therebetween;
• (d) first and second pivotably mounted arms, each arm having first and second ends and a pivot point between the first and second ends, the first end of the first arm engaging an end of the first ram remote from an end of the first ram which engages a male element of the punch wheel and the first end of the second arm engaging an end of the second ram remote from an end of the second ram which engages a female element of the die wheel;
• (e) third and fourth pivotably mounted arms each having a fixed pivot point, the third and fourth arms each having a cam follower mounted at a point offset from the fixed pivot point;
• (f) a rotatably driven cam having an integer number of diametrically spaced lobes which cyclically move the cam followers of the third and fourth arms to cause the third and fourth arms to pivot about the fixed pivot points, the cam having a vertical axis of rotation which is orthogonal to a direction of travel of the cards held in the card transporting means;
• (g) the third arm having means for engaging the second end of the first arm when one of the diametrically spaced lobes is engaging the cam follower of the third arm to cause the first ram to move from the first position toward the second position;
• (h) the fourth arm having means for engaging the second end of the second arm when one of the diametrically spaced lobes is engaging the cam follower of the fourth arm to cause the second ram to move from its first position toward its second position;
• and
• (i) means for rotating the cam.

An embossing system for embossing blank cards with a plurality of vertically separated horizontally disposed lines on which characters are to be embossed comprising:

• (a) a card hopper for holding blank cards to be embossed;
• (b) means for removing a single card from the card hopper and moving the card to a card insertion position located before a pickup position at which the cards are held in a fixed position;
• (c) a card transporting means for receiving blank cards at the card insertion position, moving blank cards to the pickup position and for transporting the blank cards held in a fixed position along a transport path to a plurality of embossing positions and to a position where embossing is completed, the card transporting means having a driven belt having a plurality of evenly spaced card gripping means mounted thereto for receiving successive cards at the inserting position, and during driving of the belt the individual card gripping means moving along the transport path to move cards held thereby in a straight line;
• (d) each card gripping means including a leading edge gripping means and a trailing edge gripping means which are attached to the belt at spaced apart locations, each card gripping means having a slot having an opening for receiving an edge of a card being moved by the means for removing, two opposed spaced apart sides and a surface connecting the sides, at the pickup position the surface connecting the sides of each of the card gripping means being substantially in line, a retaining means extending orthogonally outward from one of the sides of each of the card gripping means toward the other opposed spaced apart side, each retaining means being biased to a first position at which a card is held in the fixed position and movable from the first position to a second position at which a card engages the surface connecting the two sides;
• (e) means for causing the retaining means of each pair of a leading edge card gripping means and a trailing edge card gripping means to move to their second position when the pair of a leading edge card gripping means and a trailing edge gripping means are moved to the card insertion position at which the means for removing and moving a single card pushes an edge of the card into engagement with each surface connecting the two sides of each of the card gripping means of the pair of a leading edge and a trailing edge gripping means and for causing the retaining means to move to their first position when each pair of a leading edge gripping means and a trailing edge gripping means moves to the pickup position;
• (f) a plurality of embossing means located at separated embossing positions disposed along the straight line to emboss cards held by each pair of a leading edge and a trailing edge card gripping means as the cards move through the embossing positions;
• and
• (g) control means to control the means for moving, the card transporting means and the card embossing means to control the movement of cards from the hopper to the card insertion position, the movement of the card transporting means to move the cards to the embossing positions and the plurality of embossers to emboss characters on the cards as the cards are positioned at the embossing positions.

An embossing system for embossing blank cards with a plurality of vertically separated horizontally disposed lines on which characters are to be embossed comprising:

• (a) card supply means for feeding blank cards to be embossed;
• (b) card transporting means for receiving blank cards to be embossed from the card supply means and for transporting the cards received from the card supply means along a transport path to a plurality of separate embossing positions and to a position where embossing is completed;
• (c) a plurality of card embossing means each disposed at a separate one of the embossing positions along the transport path, each card embossing means being vertically positioned with respect to the transport path to emboss a different one of the horizontally disposed lines of characters on each card;
• and
• (d) control means coupled to the card supply means, the card transporting means and the plurality of card embossing means for controlling the card supply means to feed blank cards to the card transporting means, the transporting of the cards received by the card transporting means to the separate embossing positions along the transporting path and the position where embossing is completed, the plurality of card embossing means to emboss the plurality of lines on each blank card, and comparing a current longitudinal position of the cards being embossed by each of the card embossing means determined with respect to a reference point with a longitudinal position of a next character to be embossed on the cards being embossed by each of the card embossing means on each of the horizontally disposed lines to identify a longitudinal position of one or more closest next characters to be embossed on any of the horizontally disposed lines which are closest to the current longitudinal position, moving the card transporting means to the longitudinal position of the closest one or more next characters to be embossed, and activating the one or more embossers which are to emboss the closest one or more next characters to emboss the one or more closest next characters.