Patent ID: 8727694

Claim:
A card elevating/lowering device for use with cards, the device comprising: a card storage part in which the cards are stacked and accommodated; and an elevating/lowering mechanism by which the cards accommodated in the card storage part are elevated and lowered; wherein the elevating/lowering mechanism is provided with a placing table on which the cards accommodated in the card storage part are placed and an urging member which urges the placing table in an upper direction; wherein a spring constant of the urging member is substantially equal to a weight per unit thickness of the card; wherein the urging member is a tension coil spring; wherein one end of the tension coil spring is attached to the placing table and the other end of the tension coil spring is attached to a spring end fixing member which is movable in an up-and-down direction; and wherein the elevating/lowering mechanism is provided with a holding mechanism for holding a position of the spring end fixing member in the up-and-down direction and a releasing mechanism for releasing a holding state of the spring end fixing member by the holding mechanism.