Card dispensing apparatus
AssigneeAsahi Seiko Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTakahito Yamamiya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A card dispensing apparatus having a compact configuration has a housing to support a stack of cards on a fixed base. Openings in the base member can permit surfaces from a conveying member to extend into the housing and contact a surface of the lowest card. The conveyer member can move horizontal to a release point and retract beneath the base member to return to an initial position. A movement unit provides a cyclic looping movement of the conveyer member into and out of the housing for transporting cards. A feed unit positioned at the dispensing point of the cards can grasp and release the cards from the card dispensing apparatus.
Claims15
A card dispensing apparatus in which a surface of the lowest card in a stack of cards is pressed toward a fixed base comprising:
- a conveying member, in contact with a card surface via an opening in the base, is moved in a predetermined direction, thereby dispensing cards, one by one in the predetermined direction, wherein the conveying member has a flat contact surface;
- and
- a movement unit advances a portion of the conveying member into the base opening from a predetermined advancing position to make a surface contact with the card surface, the movement unit linearly moves in a predetermined direction while maintaining a contact state to dispense the card, and subsequently retracts from the opening to a retracted position, and then again moves to the predetermined advancing position for a subsequent dispensing action,
- wherein the movement unit includes a reciprocating member that linearly reciprocates in the card dispensing direction and moves in a direction forming a right angle with the dispensing direction, the reciprocating member includes a first reciprocating member that linearly reciprocates in the card dispensing direction and a second reciprocating member that reciprocates in a direction forming a right angle with a moving direction of the first reciprocating member,
- wherein the second reciprocating member has an L shape, the second reciprocating member has a plurality of elongated holes extending in a direction forming a right angle with a moving direction of the first reciprocating member and is pivotally supported by the first reciprocating member, the elongated holes accommodate crank pins inserted therein, the crank pins make contact with a cam that moves, in the course of rotation, integrally with the first reciprocating member from an area near a most retracted position of the first reciprocating member to an area near a most advancing position thereof, and, with the crank pins making contact with the cam, the second reciprocating member is caused to make a pivotal movement to cause the conveying member to move in a direction away from the first reciprocating member.
A card dispensing apparatus in which a surface of the lowest card in a stack of cards is pressed toward a fixed base comprising:
- a conveying member, in contact with a card surface via an opening in the base, is moved in a predetermined direction, thereby dispensing cards, one by one in the predetermined direction, wherein the conveying member has a flat contact surface;
- and
- a movement unit advances a portion of the conveying member into the base opening from a predetermined advancing position to make a surface contact with the card surface, the movement unit linearly moves in a predetermined direction while maintaining a contact state to dispense the card, and subsequently retracts from the opening to a retracted position, and then again moves to the predetermined advancing position for a subsequent dispensing action,
- wherein the movement unit includes a pair of driver crank members, a pair of first and second reciprocating members interconnected with the pair of driver crank members for driving the conveying member upward through the opening in the base and horizontally across a plane defined by a base surface to release its card from the stack as the conveying member is moved below the base and returned horizontally to a position to repeat the cycle of operation,
- wherein the crank pins protrude from the respective pair of driver crank members each mounted at both ends of a relevant one of rotating shafts disposed so as to form a right angle with a card advancing direction, and the rotating shafts are disposed among the pair of driver crank members and are gear-connected with an output shaft of an electric motor with a rotating axis line being orthogonal to the rotating shafts.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.