Patent GB-897426-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus adapted for use in reading information recorded on a record
Filed: 1958-09-16
Abstract: 897,426. Selective punching-machines. KIMBALL CO., A. Sept. 16, 1958 [Sept. 17, 1957], No. 29560/58. Class 31 (2). Apparatus for use in reading information recorded on a record, comprising a record feeding and sensing device arranged to feed a record into and out of a sensing station where sensing means simultaneously senses all the information on the record, and a secondary device arranged to transfer the information to a record card by progressively punching appropriate holes in the card in a step by step manner, is characterized in that the information sensed from the record is stored and progressively transferred to the secondary device in such a manner that the sensed record may be fed out of the sensing station and another record fed into the sensing station while progressive punching of a record card corresponding to the sensed record is taking place. The apparatus shown analyses the data recorded, in the form of punched holes, in a fourposition two-element code in a merchandise tag 1, Fig. 8, and records this data in a tenposition single element code in a record card 5, Fig. 10. The tag is also provided with locating and feeding holes 3. The apparatus comprises a tag reader which feeds and senses tags and the feeding and sensing mechanisms of which are similar to those described and shown in Specification 753,063 and a card punching unit which is similar to certain mechanism shown in U.S.A. Reissue Specification 21,133. In the operation of the apparatus, tags are fed one by one from a magazine TM, Fig. 5, to an intermediate position, then to a preread station PR, then to a read station R and thence to a tag receiver TR. At the read station, sensing mechanism reads the information recorded on a tag, and this information is transmitted to decoding units which convert the information from the code used on the tags to the code used on the record cards. The converted information is stored and is then transferred to the punching unit which punches the information into a record card corresponding to the tag. Storage of the information allows a sensed tag to be released immediately after being sensed and another tag to be fed to the sensing station while the punching unit is operating. The tag reader is provided with a cam shaft 34, Fig. 3, which has cams 35, 36 fixed thereto. Punched tags are fed seriatim from the lower end of magazine TM, Fig. 5, by means of a picker knife 38 which is reciprocated horizontally by means of mechanism operated by rotation of the cam 35. The tag feeding mechanism is provided with feeding pins 100 which are moved downwardly, by means of mechanism operated by rotation of the cam 36, to engage the holes 3 in the tags and are then moved horizontally, by means of mechanism operated by rotation of the cam 35, to feed the tags along. The sensing mechanism at the read station comprises sensing wires 200 the upper end of each of which is fixed in a U-shaped tube 240, Fig. 3, which is slidably mounted in two plates 242, 243 forming part of an oscillatable unit 244 operatively connected to mechanism operated by rotation of the cam 36. Each tube 240 engages an associated spring- urged sensing slider 266. When the unit 244 is in its initial position, the wires 200 are held upwards out of sensing position at the read station and a contact 278 associated with each wire is held spaced from an associated contact 280. When the unit 244 is moved forward in the operation of the machine, the wires 200 are moved down to sense the tag at the read station. When a hole is present in the tag, the appropriate wire 200 passes through the hole and the appropriate contacts 278, 280 close. Mounted adjacent the shaft 34 are six switches, C1 to C6 in Fig. 11, operated by cams on the shaft, these switches controlling the sequential operation of the various control circuits, Fig. 11, which co-ordinate the action of the tag reader and the card punching unit. The card punching unit comprises a shaft 325, Fig. 7, which carries a number of cams which actuate a number of contacts including a circuit breaker 330, Fig. 11, together with an emitter E. Punches 331 are arranged in a single line across the length of the record cards which are fed intermittently row by row thereunder by means of feed rollers 326. Each punch has associated therewith a punch magnet 333 which, when energized, causes actuation of the punch. The apparatus comprises decoding units, Fig. 11, each arranged to convert the information recorded on the tag into the form in which it is punched in a record card. Each decoding unit comprises relays each of which is associated with contacts 278, 280 in such a manner that when a contact is closed the appropriate relay is caused to operate certain switches to close a circuit to one of a number of wires OA-9A. Each wire leads to a corresponding segment OB- 9B of the emitter E. Each decoding unit associated with a single column on the tag has a wire 332 leading therefrom to the punch magnet 333 associated with the corresponding column on the record card to be punched. Three operator initiated cycles of operation of the tag reader are necessary before the control circuit is conditioned for automatic operation. After the third cycle, there will be a tag at the intermediate position and at each of the preread and read stations. In the third cycle, a blank record card is fed from the card magazine to a position where it will be punched in the next cycle of operation of the punching unit. In the fourth, automatic, cycle, the tag reader senses a punched tag and the punching unit punches a corresponding record card. Near the end of the cycle of the punching unit, the next cycle of operation of the tag reader is initiated. Early in the tag reader cycle and before the new tag at the read station is sensed, the decoding relays of all the decoding units are deenergized so as to clear all stored information from the previous tag before any information is sensed from the new tag at the read station. If a column of a tag has been punched, erroneously, with three or four holes instead of one or two, an error circuit is completed through the associated decoding unit from the wire 332 to an error line 336, Fig. 11. This results in error relays being energized to de-energize the relays of the decoding units so that no recorded information is available to be stored in the decoding units.