MICR character coating system

This magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) character coating system makes use of the application of an inexpensive lubricant that is selectively applied to the document, solely in the area where the MICR characters are printed. The lubricant of choice used in this apparatus is sodium stearate (soap). The lubricating apparatus includes a pair of rollers, between which the printed documents are fed. One of the rollers is a drive roller that advances the documents. Opposite of and spring loaded against the drive roller is a free running lubricating roller that is manufactured from a solid lubricant, which lubricating roller is of length equal to the length of the MICR character field that is printed on the document. In the printing of the document, a sensor mark is printed on the document and is used to indicate the beginning of the MICR character field. A sensor circuit detects the presence of the sensor mark and activates a solenoid to stop the lubricating roller from rotating as the document is fed past the lubricating roller. This causes the documents to be dragged across the lubricating roller, thereby applying a thin film of lubricant from the lubricating roller solely to the area of the document that contains the printed MICR characters. Thus, this MICR character printing apparatus both applies a lubricant only to the MICR character field on the printed surface of the document without coating the entire document and uses an inexpensive lubricant to extend the useful life of the printed MICR characters.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) 
character printing apparatus and, in particular, to apparatus for coating 
the printed characters with a lubricant to extend the useful life of the 
printed MICR characters. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
It is a problem in the field of printing systems to print wear resistant 
MICR characters on a document. Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) 
printing apparatus make use of a magnetically sensible toner to imprint 
machine readable indicia on documents. The toner is applied to the 
document in a standard electrophotographic printing process to generate 
the MICR characters on the document. 
The MICR characters typically are fused to the surface of the documents by 
the use of a pair of rollers. The fusing roller is heated internally by a 
halogen lamp while the pressure roller has a silicone rubber surface. By 
"wringing" the paper between these two rollers, the toner is bonded or 
fused to the paper. Alternatively, a "cold" fusing system can be used 
which chemically melts the toner on the paper. In this system, the printed 
MICR characters do not go through pressure rollers. The fused MICR 
characters therefore stand higher on the document and are more susceptible 
to wear. 
It is a problem in existing MICR printer apparatus systems that the 
magnetic read heads cause smearing of the MICR characters when the 
document has been read in magnetic readers a number of times. The 
character smearing causes errors in the machine reading of the MICR 
characters and necessitates manual intervention to read the MICR 
characters on the document. 
Typical documents using printed MICR characters are negotiable checks, 
billions of which are processed daily. Each check has a line of MICR 
characters printed on the bottom of the check to identify the originator, 
home bank, amount of the check, etc. The check is returned to its home 
bank once it is cashed by processing it through the Federal Reserve System 
clearinghouses. There the check is read by passing it through a magnetic 
reader that deciphers the data contained in the line of MICR characters. 
Each check is read at least four times by a magnetic reader and sometimes 
over twenty times before returning to its home bank. The magnetic reading 
process is abrasive and can be destructive to the line of printed MICR 
characters, causing read errors. 
One existing solution to this problem is illustrated in the Troy.RTM. 308 
Financial Document Printer that treats each finished document with a 
coating that prevents the MICR toner from smearing. The coating is applied 
all over the entire document to provide a lubricating agent on the surface 
of the document to minimize smearing of the printed and fused MICR 
characters. A problem with such an arrangement is that the coating used in 
this printer is an expensive lubricant in the form of a powder and 
brushing it on the entire document causes the use of far more lubricant 
than is required to protect the MICR characters. Lubricating the entire 
document surface also renders future writing or printing on the document 
surface difficult. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The above described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in 
the field by the MICR character coating system of this invention. This 
MICR character coating system makes use of the application of an 
inexpensive lubricant that is selectively applied to the document, solely 
in the area where the MICR characters are printed. The lubricant of choice 
used in this apparatus is sodium stearate (soap). 
The lubricating apparatus includes a pair of rollers, between which the 
printed documents are fed. One of the rollers is a drive roller that 
advances the documents. Opposite of and spring loaded against the drive 
roller is a free running lubricating roller that is manufactured from a 
solid lubricant, which lubricating roller is of length equal to the length 
of the MICR character field that is printed on the document. In the 
printing of the document, a sensor mark is printed on the document and is 
used to indicate the beginning of the MICR character field. A sensor 
circuit detects the presence of the sensor mark and activates a solenoid 
to stop the lubricating roller from rotating as the document is fed past 
the lubricating roller. This causes the document to be dragged across the 
lubricating roller, thereby applying a thin film of lubricant from the 
lubricating roller solely to the area of the document that contains the 
printed MICR characters. Thus, this MICR character printing apparatus both 
applies a lubricant only to the MICR character field on the printed 
surface of the document without coating the entire document and uses an 
inexpensive lubricant to extend the useful life of the printed MICR 
characters.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
It is a problem in the field of printing systems to print wear resistant 
MICR characters on a document. Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) 
printing apparatus make use of a magnetically sensible toner to imprint 
machine readable indicia on documents. The toner is applied to the 
document in a standard electrophotographic printing process to generate 
the MICR characters on the document. The MICR characters typically are 
fused to the surface of the documents by the use of a pair of rollers. The 
fusing roller is heated internally by a halogen lamp while the pressure 
roller has a silicone rubber surface. By "wringing" the paper between 
these two rollers, the toner is bonded or fused to the paper. 
It is a problem in existing MICR printer apparatus systems that the 
magnetic read heads cause smearing of the MICR characters when the 
document has been read in magnetic readers a number of times. The 
character smearing causes errors in the machine reading of the MICR 
characters and necessitates manual intervention to read the MICR 
characters printed on the document. One existing solution to this problem 
is illustrated in the Troy.RTM. 308 Financial Document Printer that treats 
each finished document with a coating that prevents the MICR toner from 
smearing. This coating is applied all over the entire document to provide 
a lubricating agent on the surface of the document to minimize smearing of 
the printed and fused MICR characters A problem with such an arrangement 
is that the coating used in this printer is an expensive lubricant in the 
form of a powder and brushing it on the entire document causes the use of 
far more lubricant than is required to protect the MICR characters. 
Lubricating the entire document surface also renders future writing or 
printing on the document surface difficult. 
The MICR character coating system of this invention makes use of the 
application of an inexpensive lubricant that is selectively applied to the 
document, solely in the area where the MICR characters are printed. The 
lubricant of choice used in this apparatus is sodium stearate. 
The lubricating apparatus includes a pair of rollers, between which the 
printed documents are fed. One of the rollers is a drive roller that 
advances the documents. Opposite of and spring loaded against the roller 
is a free running lubricating roller that is manufactured from a solid 
soap, which lubricating roller is of length equal to the length of the 
MICR character field that is printed on the document. In the printing of 
the document, a sensor mark is printed on the document and used to 
indicate the beginning of the MICR character field. A sensor circuit 
detects the presence of the sensor mark and activates a solenoid to stop 
the lubricating roller from rotating as the document is fed past the 
lubricating roller. This causes the document to be dragged across the 
lubricating roller, thereby applying a thin film of lubricant from the 
lubricating roller solely to the area of the document that contains the 
printed MICR characters. Thus, this MICR character printing apparatus both 
applies a lubricant only to the MICR character field on the printed 
surface of the document without coating the entire document and uses an 
inexpensive lubricant to extend the useful life of the printed MICR 
characters. 
Lubricating Mechanism 
FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of the MICR character printing apparatus of 
the present invention. This apparatus can, for example, consist of part of 
the forms stacker elevator for the printer mechanism (not shown). Element 
101 is the elevator frame structure to which the lubricating apparatus is 
connected. The lubricating apparatus consists of a rubber coated drive 
roller 102 and a lubricating roller 110 between which the documents or 
forms 111 are fed. Drive roller 102 is driven by means of a drive roller 
motor 103 that has a gear 104 attached to the end thereof. Gear 104 drives 
drive roller 102 via gear 105 connected to the end of drive roller 102 
through a mechanical linkage between gears 104 and 105, such as a belt 
mechanism 106. The lubricating roller 110 is a free running roller that is 
spring loaded against the forms 111 and the drive roller 102. In 
operation, drive roller motor 103 causes drive roller 102 to rotate, 
transporting forms 111 through the drive roller and the free wheeling 
lubricating roller 110. A spring mechanism 112 is used to hold lubricating 
roller 110 in contact against forms 111 and drive roller 102. Solenoid 113 
is used to engage or disengage lubricating roller 110 in contact against 
forms 111 and drive roller 102. Also shown on FIG. 1 is a sensor 121 used 
to sense a timing mark that is printed on the documents or forms 111 that 
are fed through the elevator structure. In addition, a rotary solenoid 
114, connected to lubricating roller 110 by means of gears 116, 117 
respectively and belt 118, is used to brake lubricating roller 110 to 
cause it to stop its rotation. FIG. 2 illustrates a cross sectional end 
view of this lubricating apparatus. 
In operation, a timing mark is printed on the document 111 and detected by 
sensor 121 to indicate when the line of MICR printed characters is about 
to be positioned between drive roller 102 and lubricating roller 110. 
Sensor 121 activates rotary solenoid 114 to cause lubricating roller 110 
to stop rotating, which causes the forms 111 to be dragged across 
stationary lubricating roller 110 by drive roller 102 thereby coating the 
line of printed MICR characters with a thin film of lubricating element 
found on lubricating roller 110. When the line of printed MICR characters 
has gone beyond lubricating roller 110, the brake mechanism, consisting of 
rotary solenoid 114 gears 116, 117 and belt 118, releases and lubricating 
roller 110 free wheels on the forms 111 until the next line of MICR 
printing comes under the lubricating roller 110 as indicated by a timing 
mark associated with this line of printed MICR characters. The presence of 
a subsequent line of MICR characters causes the above described cycle to 
repeat. In this fashion, only a small area around the line of printed MICR 
characters is coated with the lubricant, not the entire form. 
The lubricant used in this system is a solid roller of sodium stearate. 
Additional lubrication can be obtained by adding Teflon.RTM. powder to the 
sodium stearate base or by the use of other similar materials to fabricate 
lubricating roller 110. 
FIG. 3 illustrates the document 111 to be printed illustrating thereon the 
timing mark 301 which consists of a narrow bar 302 and a wide bar 303 
printed along the outer edge of the document 111. The line of MICR 
characters 304 is located in the center of the document 111 for 
illustration purposes and the dotted box 305 drawn around the outer edge 
of the line of printed MICR characters 304 illustrates the area that is 
coated with lubricant by lubricating roller 110. A perforation mark 306 is 
also shown on FIG. 3 to illustrate the end of one page of the document 111 
and beginning of the second page of the document when continuous form 
paper is used in the printer. A subsequent unlubricated line of MICR 
characters 310 is illustrated at the top of the figure. The documents 111 
are fed through the printing and lubricating mechanism in a direction 
indicated by arrow "A" on FIG. 3. 
Sequence of Operations 
In operation, the following described sequence of operations takes place. 
When the power is turned on in the printer mechanism, the linear solenoid 
113 that holds lubricating roller 110 away from forms 111 and drive roller 
102 is energized so that spring 112 is compressed and lubricating roller 
110 is not in contact with forms 111. This creates a gap through which 
forms can be loaded between drive roller 102 and lubricating roller 110. 
Then drive motor 103 for drive roller 102 is energized, drive roller 102 
begins rotating in the counterclockwise direction as illustrated by the 
arrow in FIG. 2. Forms 111 are loaded into the printing mechanism (not 
shown) and the printing cycle begins, printing lines of MICR characters on 
the documents in addition to other printing thereon as the forms 111 move 
in direction "A". When the first trigger mark 301 is detected by the 
reflective sensor 121, linear solenoid 113 is de-energized which allows 
spring 112 to transport frame 119 and its lubricating roller 110 into 
contact against forms 111 and drive roller 102. The counterclockwise 
rotation of drive roller 102 causes a clockwise rotation of lubricating 
roller 110 as illustrated by the arrow in FIG. 2. The detection of the 
trigger mark 301 by sensor 121 also energizes rotary solenoid 114 which 
brakes lubricating roller 110 to a stop so that drive roller 102 advances 
forms 111 in direction "A" across the stationary lubricating roller 110, 
coating the line of MICR characters 304 with a thin film of the lubricant 
contained on lubricating roller 110. The length of time that rotary 
solenoid 114 is energized determines the length of the area on the forms 
111 that is coated with a lubricant. The time duration of this cycle can 
be either a fixed period of time to lubricate a fixed size area, or can be 
adjustable by, for example, the use of a coded timing mark 301 that 
indicates to the control circuit the desired cycle time. During the entire 
printing process, the linear solenoid 113 remains de-energized and the 
rotary brake solenoid 114 is cycled on and off by sensor 121 each time a 
timing mark 301 is detected by sensor 121. 
While a preferred embodiment of this invention has been shown, it is 
expected that those skilled in the art can and will devise variations of 
the disclosed embodiment which variations fall within the scope of the 
appended claims.