Nidec Sankyo Corporation

Sankyo Seiki Mfg. Co., Ltd

Yoshihito Komatsu

Kazutoshi Ishikawa

Katsuhisa Higashi

Takaaki Miyabe

Yukihiko Takita

Eiji Imai

Kazuhiko Nakata

Masashi Nakata

The present invention is to provide a card reader that can prevent the illegal acquisition of magnetic information recorded on a magnetic stripe, based on an output signal from a pre-head. More specifically described, in a card reader having a card insertion slot for guiding a magnetic card having a magnetic stripe to a transport passage and a pre-head arranged in the vicinity of the card insertion slot for detecting the presence of the magnetic stripe, the pre-head is equipped with a head portion having at least one pair of magnetic cores arranged to be opposite from each other having a magnetic gap between them and coils wound around a pair of the magnetic cores; and a signal different from that of the magnetic information recorded on the magnetic stripe is output from the pre-head.

Card reader and control method of card reader

A magnetic head having a head unit for contacting a magnetic medium comprises at least a pair of magnetic cores which are arranged in the head unit which face each other on sides of a magnetic gap for recording and/or reproducing signals. A spacer is included for maintaining a space between one of the magnetic cores and another member, which may be the other magnetic core or a shield member. The spacer includes a usable life detection device for providing an indication of wear on the head unit which is interrupted when the head unit is worn down to predetermined depth. A device for electrically sensing an interruption of the indication is provided so that a usable lifetime of the head unit can be determined.

Magnetic head with a useable lifetime detection mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Yoshihito Komatsu