Card reader apparatus with replaceable card guide
AssigneeVeriFone, Inc.
InventorsHarold Chen, Noah L. Anglin, Stanley J. Hludzinski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A point of sale terminal having a reader assembly for reading a data carrier having data stored on at least one data track thereon. The terminal includes a housing defining a guide slot location for the data carrier and a transducer for detecting data stored on the data track. A removable guide element is mounted to the housing at the data carrier slot location. This guide element has a read head bracket which is snap mounted thereto. A registration arrangement permits mounting of the read head bracket in two registered positions for determining which of multiple data tracks will be read by the transducer.
Claims18
In apparatus having a reader assembly for reading a data carrier having data stored on at least one data track thereon,
- housing means defining a guide slot location for said data carrier;
- transducer means for detecting said data stored on said data track;
- guide means removably mounted to said housing means at said data carrier slot location, said guide means having at least a bottom wall portion defining a bottom guide surface of a guide slot for said data carrier and one major side wall portion defining one side guide surface of a guide slot for said data carrier and further defining an access window in said major side wall portion;
- and
- frame means for carrying said transducer means in a prearranged location thereon;
- said guide means and said frame means including:
- a cooperative registration means, including at least one pair of position registration elements formed on said first side wall member and a cooperatively engaging pair of position registration elements formed on said frame means for establishing an accurately registered mounting relationship therebetween and defining an accurate position location for said transducer means relative to said access window such that said data pickup element is accurately aligned with said data track;
- and
- at least a pair of resilient hook arms carried on said first side wall member and cooperating with a pair of hook engaging surfaces on said frame means to mount said frame means to said guide means.
In a data terminal having a card reader assembly for reading a data card having a magnetic track formed thereon and defining at least one magnetically encoded data track at a prearranged location on said magnetic track,
- a housing means defining a guide slot location for said data card and being formed by injection molding a plastic material having wear characteristics unsuitable to serving as a bottom wall of a card guide slot;
- a read head having a magnetic transducer element carried on a front face thereof for detecting magnetically encoded data on said data track;
- a card guide means removably mounted to said housing means at said guide slot location, said guide means being formed from a plastic material having substantially greater wear resistance than the plastic material forming said housing means and defining at least the bottom and one major side wall portion of a guide slot for said data card with an access window for said read head in said major side wall portion;
- and
- mounting means for mounting said read head to said card guide means at a prearranged registered location relative to said access window and with said front face thereof extending into said card guide slot, said mounting means including frame means for carrying said transducer in a prearranged location;
- said card guide means and said frame means including:
- a cooperative registration means, including at least one pair of position registration elements formed on said one major side wall portion and a cooperatively engaging pair of position registration elements formed on said frame means for establishing an accurately registered mounting relationship therebetween and defining an accurate position location for said transducer means relative to said access window such that said data pickup element is accurately aligned with said data track;
- and
- at least a pair of resilient hook arms carried on said one major side wall portion and cooperating with a pair of hook engaging surfaces on said frame means to mount said frame means to said guide means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.