Input hopper and encoding station for card printer

A card feeder assembly including;

• a hopper for storing a stack of cards to be fed;
• a card drive for urging an end card of the stack in the hopper, said card drive being driven to move cards in a first direction, the card drive forming a support plane for the end card in the stack;
• a wall of said hopper having a controllable size card outlet opening therethrough aligned with the end card in the stack of cards and through which the end card is fed when driven by the card drive;
• and
• a control gate at said outlet opening for adjustable reducing a dimension of the outlet opening in the wall related to a thickness of the cards in the stack for permitting one card to pass through the reduced dimension opening formed by the control gate;
• a table for receiving a card from the outlet opening, the table being rotatable about an axis transverse to the card, an encoding station inclined at an angle relative to the rotatable table, said encoding station having card edge guides, at least one of said card edge guides being slidably movable relative to the other, and a spring loading the at least one slidably movable card edge guide toward the other card edge guide across a selected range of movement.

A card feeder for a printer comprising a card hopper having an end wall, and a pair of side walls for defining a space in which a stack of cards is received;

• at least one of said side walls being mounted on the card feeder for slidable movement relative to the other side wall to control the distance between the side walls of the hopper, said at least one side wall having a lever spring loaded in a first direction, said lever having a brake pad thereon that engages a portion of the end wall of the hopper, said lever being movable to release the brake pad from the end wall and to permit movement of the at least one side wall relative to the other side wall, release of said lever engaging said brake to hold the at least one side wall in position;
• a card support at the bottom of said hopper including at least one drive roller for driving a bottom card of a stack of cards in the hopper in a first direction toward the end wall;
• said end wall having a card outlet opening therein through which a card driven by the at least one roller moves;
• a card handler comprising an indexing table for receiving and supporting a card from the outlet opening;
• an encoding station offset from the path of travel of the card between the hopper and the card handler, said indexing table being tiltable to align a card thereon with the encoding station and move the card to the encoding station, said encoding station being adapted to receive a card and encode information onto the card prior to printing;
• and
• a drive for said at least one roller, said support for the stack of cards being inclined relative to a plane of the card handler that receives the card from the card hopper.

A card feeder for a printer comprising a card hopper having an end wall, and a pair of side walls for defining a space in which a stack of cards is received;

• a card support at the bottom of said hopper including at least one drive roller for driving a bottom card of a stack of cards in the hopper in a first direction toward the end wall, said card support comprising a pair of card support rollers defining a plane at their peripheries for supporting a card on the plane, the plane being inclined at an angle relative to the card handler, said card support rollers forming the support plane for cards being driven at different rotational speeds through one-way clutches that permit the card support rollers to overrun a drive shaft for each of the card support rollers when cards are moved through the outlet opening;
• said end wall having a card outlet opening therein through which a card driven by the at least one roller moves;
• a card handler comprising an indexing table for receiving and supporting a card from the outlet opening;
• an encoding station offset from the path of travel of the card between the hopper and the card handler, said indexing table being tiltable to align a card thereon with the encoding station and move the card to the encoding station, said encoding station being adapted to receive a card and encode information onto the card prior to printing;
• and
• a drive for said at least one roller, said support for the stack of cards being inclined relative to a plane of the index table of the card handler that receives the card from the card hopper when in a card receiving position;
• and
• a pair of cleaning rollers to receive a card coming through the outlet opening, said cleaning rollers driving the card at a speed that is greater than the driving speed of the card support rollers.