Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Mikio Kawasaki

Hiroshi Tomiyasu

Kazutaka Sakamoto

Takahiro Ohmori

Sinji Arase

Hiroyuki Ueta

To provide a card reader adaptable to a variety of cards and excelling in card carrying ease. The card reader includes: a card passage; a carrying unit for moving a card within the passage, a data recording/reproducing unit for at least either recording data onto or reproducing data out of the card present in the passage, an image forming unit for forming a visible image on the card, and an image erasing unit for erasing any visible image formed on the card, and has a configuration of handling cards differing in thickness.

Card reader

A magnetic head slider (1) has a first rail (20) with a first air bearing surface, a second rail (25) with a second air bearing surface and further a third rail (15) with a third air bearing surface. The third rail is formed between the first rail (20) and the second rail (25). On both sides of the third air bearing surface (16), a first air pressurization part (17) and a second air pressurization part (18) are formed sunk by respective depths. When the skew angle '.theta.' occurs, appropriate pressurized air flows are generated by the first air pressurization part (17) and the second air pressurization part (18) to compensate for the lifting force.

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Kumamoto, Japan

Mikio Kawasaki