Methods for personalizing metal or plastic cards by punching alphanumerical characters are known.

These methods generally involve the use of a gripper which from a holder containing a plurality of stacked cards withdraws one card and transfers it into a position below a punching unit which forms in relief a series of alphanumerical characters corresponding to the data to be personalized on the card, and also effects other possible processes to which the card has to be subjected.

With the increasing use of bar code readers in recent years, card personalizing methods have been proposed using a bar code. This system of personalization has however not been found to be reliable because it does not enable the correctness of the data transferred to the card to be checked after processing.

Moreover, attempts to personalize the card either by punching alphanumerical data or by punching data in bar code have encountered a considerable limitation because the card obtained may carry impressed alphanumerical data and bar code data not corresponding to the effective data to be personalized. Again, whereas incorrect cards can be eliminated by visual reading if in aiphanumerical code, the same cannot be said if in bar code which as stated cannot be checked.

To this must be added the fact that after the control system for the punching unit has transferred the data to said unit, it generally eliminates the

data from its memory, hence if the data punched in bar code do not correspond to the alphanumerical data, not only is the card unusable but in addition the control system has to be reloaded with the data, with considerable time loss.

The object of the invention is to eliminate these drawbacks by providing a method for personalizing a flat support which enables data to the punched both in alphanumerical characters and in bar code, the method enabling the correctness of the punched bar code data to be checked.

This object and other ones are attained according to the invention through a method for personalizing flat supports as described in claim 1.

To effect the method an apparatus is provided as claimed in claim 2.

A support is obtained through the method as described in claim 6.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, on which: Figure 1 is a schematic plan view form above showing an apparatus for implementing the method of the invention; and Figure 2 is a side view thereof.

As can be seen from the figures, the method of the invention involves the use of an apparatus comprising substantially a punching unit 2 consisting of two superposed rotatable discs 4,6, of which the upper disc 4 comprises a plurality of radial appendices carrying impressions corresponding to the overlying reliefs.

Operating hammers 8 are provided in a position above the upper disc 4 and below the lower disc 6.

To the side of said unit there are provided two containers 10,12 for a

plurality of stacked cards 14, the width of the cards in one container being different from the width of the cards in the other container. On that side of the punching unit distant from the containers there is provided a discharge tray 16 with an overlying optical reader 17, to the side of these there being provided a station 18 for feeding the card to the subsequent processing stages. Said station consists of an advancement belt 20 provided with a dragging tooth 22.

in said station there is also provided a movable side wall 24 with its operating device regulated by a group of photoelectric cells 25 provided in correspondence with the card containers 10,12.

The loading containers 10,12, the punching unit 2, the discharge tray 16 and the station 18 are longitudinally aligned, there being provided parallel to said components a guide 26 on which there is slidingly mounted a gripper 28, which is also movable transversely to the slide.

Finally the apparatus comprises a unit 30 for controlling and handling the various operations such as the rotation of the discs 4,6, the operation of the hammers 8, the movement of the gripper 28, the operation of the belt 20, the movement of the movable side wall 24, etc..

The apparatus also comprises a plurality of operating members (motors, actuators, etc.), transmission members and automatic devices (switches, counters, various controls, etc.) for effecting the automatic processing cycle, but which have not been illustrated or described for simplicity. they will however be referred to in the course of the following description by a simply mentioning their presence, they being of traditional type and as such known to an expert of the art.

The apparatus of the invention operates as follows:

after bringing the gripper 28 into a position facing one of the two loading containers 10,12, a pusher member (not shown on the drawings) inserts the lower card of the stack between the jaws of the gripper, which then moves along the guide 26 to position the card between the two discs 4,6 of the punching unit 2.

During this withdrawal stage the group of photoelectric cells 25 measures the width dimension of the card, the control unit 30 then causing the side wall 24 of the discharge station to move in order to adapt to this dimension.

On the basis of the information received the unit 30 then causes the discs to rotate so that by acting on the radial appendices, the hammers 8 punch a bar code.

On termination of this stage the gripper 28 advances along the guide 26 and positions the card above the discharge tray 16 and below the optical reader 17, which reads the bar code punched into the card and feeds the reading to the control unit for comparison with the memorized data. If the bar code punched into the card and the data memorized in the control unit do not coincide, this latter causes the gripper to slacken its jaws so that the card falls into the discharge tray 16. If however the data coincide, the control unit causes the gripper to reposition the card in the punching unit where the alphanumerical characters corresponding to the data already punched in bar code are now punched.

On termination of this operation the gripper transfers the card to the discharge station 18 where, as already stated, the movable side wall 24 has been shifted to a distance such as to form a stop for the transverse movement of the card and its consequent resting against the advancement belt.

From the aforegoing it is apparent that the method of the invention has numerous advantages, and in particular: - it enables the correctness of the data impressed in bar code to be verified, - it provides reliable correlation between the data impressed in alphanumerical characters and the data impressed in bar code, - it effects these operations in a reliable manner.