Patent ID: 6908241

Claim:
A system for processing cards including a magnetic medium extending along one side of the cards and printing on both sides of the cards comprising: a plurality of card processing stations spaced along a card transport extending between a card input and a card output with the stations comprising a combined magnetic encoding and a card flipping station which encodes the magnetic medium and which flips individual cards as held by the combined magnetic encoding and card flipping station from one side after printing the one side to another side to permit printing on the another side of the cards, and a printing station which prints both sides of the cards; a first drive motor which drives a transmission coupling the motor to a card drive associated with each station to transport the cards at each station during processing thereof; a second drive motor which rotates the combined magnetic encoding and card flipping station from a first rotational position to a second rotational position displaced substantially 180° from the first rotational position to flip the cards contained in the combined magnetic encoding and card flipping station; and a controller which controls operation of the stations and the first and second motors so that cards are sequentially processed at the combined magnetic encoding and flipping station to encode the magnetic medium, to transport the cards to the printing station to print one of the sides thereof, to transport the cards back to the combined magnetic encoding and flipping station where the cards are flipped to a reverse orientation of the sides of the cards for printing on the another side of the cards and to transport the cards back to the printing station to print on the another side of the cards.