Vibration absorption system for a card reading mechanism

Claim 1

A vibration absorbing system for use in a reader mechanism including a read head, a track means guiding the head for movement along a longitudinal axis, a driven-cable for moving the read head along the track, a coded stripe to be read along to its longitudinal axis by the read head, said system being effective for damping frequency vibrations applied to the driven cable and to reduce said vibrations to a point below the response level of the read head, said vibration absorbing system comprising: a. a housing of predetermined length encompassing a portion of said cable and guidably supported by said track means, said housing being provided with a pair of apertured end walls through the apertures of which said cable enters and exits, said head being mounted on said housing, b. a moving wall divider provided within said housing and fixed to said cable, said moving wall divider separating the interior of said housing into a pair of interior compartments, c. a damping element of predetermined density and compressible resiliency disposed in the interior compartment on the side of said movable wall divider corresponding to the direction in which said cable is driven, said damping element abutting against said movable wall divider and a corresponding apertured end wall of said housing and being axially traversed by said cable, and d. a compression spring of predetermined length and pitch disposed within the other of said compartments and abutting against said movable wall divider and the opposite apertured end wall of said housing, whereby the biasing effect of the moving wall divider upon the damping element when the cable is driven, and the biasing effect of the spring upon the damping element to normalize the bias level of the damping element when the cable is deactivated, effectively reduce the frequency vibrations caused by the excitation of the cable.

Claim 13

A device for dampening external excitations below the response level of an associated read head, the read head being a part of a reader apparatus including a magnetic stripe operative to be read by the read head, a track means guiding the read head for movement along the longitudinal axis of the magnetic stripe, and a drive cable for moving the read head, the device comprising: a. housing means mounting said magnetic stripe reading head, b. a damping element of predetermined density and compressible resiliency disposed within said housing means, and c. means responsive to the starting and stopping of said drive cable and said reading head effective for applying a constant bias to said damping element whereby the frequency vibrations caused by the starting and stopping excitation of the drive cable are reduced below said response level of said reading head.

Claim 14

A device for dampening external excitations below the response level of an associated read head, the read head being a part of a reader apparatus including a magnetic stripe operative to be read by the read head, a track means guiding the read head for movement along the longitudinal axis of the magnetic stripe, and a drive cable for moving the read head, the device comprising: a. housing means mounting said magnetic stripe reading head, b. a damping element of predetermined density and compressible resiliency disposed within said housing means, and c. means responsive to the starting and stopping of said drive cable and said reading head effective for applying a constant bias to said damping element whereby the frequency vibrations caused by the starting and stopping excitation of the drive cable are reduced below said response level of said reading head.