The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 27, 1998
Henry V. Holec, Mendota Heights, MN (US);
Cory Dean Wooldridge, Brooklyn Park, MN (US);
Gary Paul Mattila, Excelsior, MN (US);
Jeffrey J. Rust, Brooklyn Park, MN (US);
Datacard Corporation, Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
An improved card feeding apparatus and associated method for feeding plastic cards to a printer. The apparatus can be used in any system where plastic cards are fed into a printer, but has particular use in a self-service, automated card issuance kiosk. The apparatus includes a support structure, and a card cassette is mounted on the support structure for holding a plurality of cards. The card cassette is moveable relative to the support structure, with the card cassette defining a discrete position for each card. A card picker is mounted on the support structure, with the card picker being capable of picking any one of the plurality of cards from the card cassette. Since each card has a discrete position within the card cassette, the card cassette can be moved past the card picker and any one of the cards within the card cassette can be picked by the card picker, and subsequently fed to a printer to personalize the card.