Ticket issuing apparatus

A ticket issuing apparatus includes a feeding path sheets of ticket paper on which magnetic stripes are formed, a feeding mechanism for feeding the ticket paper along the feeding path, a recording section provided on the feeding path for recording ticket data on the magnetic stripe of the ticket paper, a readout section provided on the feeding path for reading out the ticket data from the magnetic stripe of the ticket paper which has passed the recording section, a printing section provided on the feeding path for printing display data on the ticket paper, and a ticket evaluation section for checking the ticket data read out by the readout section. In the ticket issuing apparatus, the ticket evaluation section causes the feeding mechanism to feed the ticket paper back to the recording section when the ticket data recorded for the first time is detected to be erroneously recorded, checks the ticket data which has been recorded again and read out by the readout section, and determines the ticket paper as an ineffective ticket when the ticket data is detected to the erroneously recorded again.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to a ticket issuing apparatus, and more particularly 
to a ticket issuing apparatus for issuing tickets each having a magnetic 
stripe formed thereon. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
Recently, tickets with magnetic stripes are used in various traffic 
facilities in order to reduce the labor for the examination of tickets. 
The ticket is generally issued by preparing a paper card having a magnetic 
stripe formed on the back side thereof, for example, printing display data 
including the departure and arrival places, valid data, traffic fee and 
the like, and then recording service ticket data determined by the display 
data on the magnetic stripe. When the ticket is inserted into the ticket 
examination device provided at the ticket gate, the ticket data is read 
out from the magnetic stripe of the ticket, and it is checked based on the 
readout ticket data whether the ticket is valid or not. Further, the 
ticket can be used to count the total number of passengers. 
The conventional ticket issuing apparatus is constructed to read out the 
ticket data recorded on the magnetic stripe of the ticket and determines 
that the ticket is ineffective when the readout ticket data is detected to 
be recorded incorrectly. The ineffective ticket is temporarily stored in a 
storage provided in the ticket issuing apparatus and finally abandoned. 
With this type of ticket issuing apparatus, the rate of issuance of 
ineffective tickets with respect to the total number of ticket issuing 
operations is relatively high. The paper for the tickets may be wasted, 
causing an uneconomical result. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of this invention is to provide a ticket issuing apparatus with 
which the rate of issuance of ineffective tickets can be reduced. 
The object can be attained by a ticket issuing apparatus comprising a 
feeding path for sheets of ticket paper on which magnetic stripes are 
formed; a feeding mechanism for feeding the ticket paper along the feeding 
path; a recording section provided on the feeding path for recording 
ticket data on the magnetic stripe of the ticket paper; a readout section 
provided on the feeding path for reading out the ticket data from the 
magnetic stripe of the ticket paper which has passed the recording 
section; a printing section provided on the feeding path for printing 
display data on the ticket paper; and a ticket evaluation section for 
checking the ticket data read out by the readout section, causing the 
feeding mechanism to feed the ticket paper back to the recording section 
when the ticket data is detected to be erroneously recorded, checking the 
ticket data which has been recorded again and read out by the readout 
section, and determining the ticket paper as an ineffective ticket when 
the ticket data is detected to be erroneously recorded again. 
According to the above ticket issuing apparatus, when the initial recording 
error is detected, ticket data is recorded again by the recording section. 
When, for example, the magnetic stripe itself is damaged, ticket data 
cannot be correctly recorded on the magnetic stripe even if the recording 
operation is repeatedly effected. However, in a case where the recording 
error has occurred by chance, correct ticket data can probably be recorded 
on the magnetic stripe if the recording operation is effected again. When 
the correct data is recorded on the magnetic stripe by the re-recording 
operation, the ticket paper will not be determined as an ineffective 
ticket. Therefore, the rate of the issuance of ineffective tickets with 
respect to the total number of ticket issuing operations can be suppressed 
to a minimum.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
There will now be described a ticket issuing apparatus according to one 
embodiment of this invention with reference to FIGS. 1A to 5. 
FIGS. 1A and 1B show the front and back surfaces of a ticket which is 
issued as a boarding pass from a ticket issuing apparatus. The ticket has 
magnetic stripe 3 formed on the back surface 1b of ticket paper 1. Display 
data such as departure and arrival places, boarding date and flight number 
is printed on the front surface 1a of ticket paper 1 and service ticket 
data determined according to the display data is recorded on magnetic 
stripe 3. 
FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of the ticket issuing apparatus. In the 
ticket issuing apparatus, storage 22 for storing a plurality of sheets of 
paper 1 on each of which magnetic stripe 3 is formed is disposed in casing 
21. In storage 22, paper holding plate 22b is mounted in a casing 22a so 
as to be vertically movable. Wires 22f and 22g are connected at one end to 
paper holding plate 22b and connected at the other end to take-up roller 
22e via respective pulleys 22c and 22d. Feed-out roller 22h is disposed on 
a paper outlet port formed on casing 22a. When take-up roller 22e is 
rotated, paper holding plate 22b is lifted and sheets of paper 1 are 
extracted one by one from the top by means of feed-out roller 22h. Sheets 
of paper 1 are set in casing 22a with back surface 1b on which magnetic 
stripe 3 is formed facing upwardly. 
The extracted paper is fed to feed roller 24a via guide 23a constituting 
the feeding path. Feed roller 24a feeds the received paper to data 
recording section 25 via guide 23b. 
As shown in FIG. 2, data recording section 25 is constituted by paper 
feeding roller 25a, magnetic head 25b and paper pressing shafts 25c. While 
paper 1 is being fed by means of paper feeding roller 25a, ticket data is 
recorded on magnetic stripe 3 of paper 1 by means of magnetic head 25b. 
After ticket data has been recorded by means of data recording section 25, 
paper 1 is fed to data readout section 26 constituted by paper feeding 
roller 26a, magnetic head 26b and pressing shafts 26c. In the data readout 
section, ticket data is read out from magnetic stripe 3 by means of 
magnetic head 26b while paper 1 is being fed by paper feeding roller 26a. 
Paper 1 is further fed to printing section 27 via feed roller 24b by means 
of paper guide 23c. 
As shown in FIG. 2, printing section 27 includes thermal head 27a for 
printing display data on front surface 1a of paper 1, platen roller 27b, 
motor 27c for driving platen roller 27b, printing ribbon 27e set inside 
cassette 27d. Display data is printed on paper 1 by means of printing 
section 27, and then the paper is guided to feed-in roller 28 via feed 
roller 24c by means of guide 23d. 
Switching lever 29 is disposed on the outlet side of feed-in roller 28, and 
normal ticket stacking chamber 30 and ineffective ticket stacking chamber 
31 are disposed on both sides of switching lever 29 with the paper inlet 
ports thereof facing switching lever 29. When switching lever 29 is 
rotated in a clockwise direction, paper 1 is stacked in normal ticket 
stacking chamber 30. In contrast, when switching lever 29 is rotated in a 
counterclockwise direction, paper 1 is stacked in ineffective ticket 
stacking chamber 31. 
Guide 23e is formed between feed roller 24 and storage 22. Guide 23e is 
used to receive part of paper 1 when paper 1 is fed back from guide 23b 
while it is being held by roller 24a. Guide 23f for guiding paper 1 which 
has been inserted by hand to recording section 25 is arranged in the upper 
portion of casing 21. Switching levers 32a and 32b for determining the 
feeding direction of paper 1 are mounted on a connection portion of guides 
23a and 23e and a connection portion of guides 23c and 23f, respectively. 
Further, paper sensors 33a, 33b, 33c and 33d for sensing paper 1 are 
respectively mounted on guides 23b, 23c, 23d and 23f. 
Feed rollers 24a, 24b and paper feeding motors 25a, 25b are used as a 
feeding mechanism for feeding paper 1 along a feeding path constituted by 
guides 23a, 23b, 23c and 23e. 
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control circuit for the ticket 
issuing apparatus. The control circuit includes CPU 34, bus line 35, ROM 
37, and interface 39. CPU 34 is used to effect various processing 
operations. Central processing unit or CPU 34 is connected to interface 
39, ROM 36 and RAM 37 via bus line 35. ROM 36 is used to store the control 
program for CPU 34, and RAM 37 is used to temporarily store various 
display data and input/output data for CPU 34. Interface 39 controls the 
data transfer between CPU 34 and host computer 38. 
CPU 34 is further connected to data recording circuit 25d of data recording 
section 25, readout circuit 26d of data readout section 26, printing 
circuit 27f of printing section 27, motor driving circuit 41 of motor 40 
for driving feed rollers 24a to 24c and feed-in roller 28, storage 22, 
switching levers 29, 32a, 32b and paper sensors 33a to 33d via bus line 
35. 
As shown in FIG. 4, RAM 37 has recording data buffer R1 and printing data 
buffer R2 for storing ticket data and display data supplied from host 
computer 38, and readout data buffer R3 for storing ticket data read out 
from paper 1 by means of data readout section 27. 
In operation, sheets of paper 1 are set in storage 22, and the power source 
switch of the apparatus is turned on. Then, the control program is read 
out from ROM 36 and is executed by means of CPU 34. At this time, the 
process of issuing the ticket is effected according to the flowchart shown 
in FIG. 5. When the ticket issuance process is started, an initialization 
process is first effected. For example, in the initialization process, RAM 
3 is cleared and switching levers 32a and 32b are set so as to prevent 
paper 1 from entering guides 23e and 23f. After this, CPU 34 waits for 
data input from host computer 38 in step Pl. When it is detected in step 
P1 that ticket data and display data are input from host computer 38 via 
interface 39, the ticket data and display data are stored in recording 
data buffer R1 and printing data buffer R2 of RAM 37. 
In step P2, feed roller 24a and paper feeding rollers 25a and 26a are 
rotated at a constant speed in a clockwise direction so as to feed paper 1 
extracted from storage 22 to data recording section 25 and data readout 
section 26. Then, ticket data is transferred from recording data buffer R1 
to magnetic head 25b of data recording section 25, and recorded on 
magnetic stripe 3 of paper 1. After this, the ticket data is read out from 
magnetic stripe 3 by means of magnetic head 26b of data readout section 26 
and stored in readout data buffer R3 of RAM 37. 
In step P3, it is checked whether or not the ticket data in readout data 
buffer R3 coincides with the ticket data in recording data buffer R1. If 
the coincidence between them is detected, feed rollers 24b and 24c are 
rotated in a counterclockwise direction to feed paper 1 to printing 
section 27 in step P4. Then, in step P5, thermal head 27a of printing 
section 27 is driven to print display data transferred from printing data 
buffer R2 on front surface 1a of paper 1. In step P6, switching lever 29 
is rotated towards ineffective ticket stacking chamber 31 so as to close 
the paper inlet port of ineffective ticket stacking chamber 31 and opens 
the paper inlet port of normal ticket stacking chamber 30. Thus, correct 
ticket data may be recorded on magnetic stripe 3 and paper 1 having 
display data 2 printed on front surface 1a is stacked as a ticket in 
normal ticket stacking chamber 30. 
In a case where it is detected in step P3 that data in readout data buffer 
R3 does not coincide with data recording data buffer R1, it is determined 
that the recording operation is effected erroneously. At this time, the 
operation of magnetic head 25b and 26b is interrupted in step P7. Further, 
switching lever 32a is driven to close guide 23a. Then, paper feeding 
rollers 26a, 25a and feed roller 24a are rotated in a clockwise direction 
to more paper 1 backwards via guides 23c and 23b. At this time, the end 
portion of paper 1 is temporarily inserted into guide 23e. 
It is checked in step P8 whether position sensor 33a provided on guide 23b 
is turned off or not. Sensor 33a is turned off when paper 1 is moved back 
to a position in front of data recording section 25. When it is detected 
that sensor 33a is turned off, paper feeding rollers 26a, 25a and feed 
roller 24a are rotated in a counterclockwise direction to feed paper 1 to 
data recording section 25 and data readout section 26 again. Then, in step 
P9, data recording section 25 and data readout section 26 perform the data 
re-recording and re-readout operations with respect to magnetic stripe 3 
of the same paper. The data thus read out is stored in readout data buffer 
R3. 
In step 10, it is checked again whether or not the ticket data in readout 
data buffer R3 coincides with the ticket data in recording data buffer R1. 
If the coincidence between them is detected, it is determined that correct 
data is recorded on magnetic stripe 3, and steps P4, P5 and P6 are 
effected. 
If it is detected in step P10 that the ticket data in buffers R1 and R3 do 
not coincide with each other, it is determined that paper 1 is an 
ineffective ticket. Then, feed rollers 24b and 24c are rotated in a 
counterclockwise direction in step P11 without operating thermal head 27a 
of printing section 27. Further, switching lever 29 is rotated towards 
normal ticket stacking chamber 30 to close the paper inlet port of normal 
ticket stacking chamber 30 and open the paper inlet port of ineffective 
ticket stacking chamber 31 in step P12. In this way, sheets of paper 1 
which are determined to be ineffective tickets or incorrectly recorded 
tickets are stacked in ineffective ticket stacking chamber 31 without 
printing data on front surface 1a thereof. 
With the ticket issuing apparatus of the above construction, sheets of 
paper 1 each having magnetic stripe 3 formed on back surface 1b are set in 
storage 22 and then the ticket issuing apparatus is activated. When ticket 
data and display data are input from external host computer 38, a sheet of 
paper is extracted from storage 22 and fed along the feeding path 
constructed by the guides. Data recording section 25 records ticket data 
on magnetic stripe 3 and data readout section 26 reads out the recorded 
ticket data to check whether the readout data is correct or not. If it is 
detected that the ticket data is correct, printing section 27 prints 
display data on front surface 1a. In this case, paper 1 is stacked as a 
normal ticket in stacking chamber 30. 
Further, if the recorded ticket data is detected to be incorrect by means 
of data readout section 26, paper 1 is moved back along the feeding path 
to a position in front of data recording section 25, and the same data is 
recorded the magnetic stripe again. Then, if the ticket data recorded this 
time is detected to be correct by means of data readout section 26, 
printing section 27 prints display data on the paper, and the paper is 
stacked as a normal ticket in stacking chamber 30. 
However, if the ticket data recorded for the second time is detected to be 
incorrect, the paper is stacked as an ineffective ticket in stacking 
chamber 31 without printing display data on the paper. 
As described above, since the possibility that the correct ticket data can 
be obtained is high, that is, incorrectly recorded data can probably be 
replaced by correct data if the data recording operation is effected again 
with respect to the incorrectly recorded ticket, then the total number of 
sheets of paper which cannot be effectively used is significantly reduced. 
Thus, it becomes possible to efficiently use the ticket paper.