Check Scanner

Overview

A check scanner is the small device a bank teller or a business uses to turn a paper cheque into a deposit. It pulls one cheque at a time off a stack, photographs both sides, reads the magnetic account code printed along the bottom edge, and sends the images and that code to teller software or a remote-deposit service. The operator drops a handful of cheques into the Feed Pocket and the machine clears them into the Exit Pocket in seconds.

Two jobs happen at once as a cheque moves through. The Imaging Module module captures a picture of each face, and the MICR Read Head reads the MICR codeline, the stylised magnetic numbers that carry the routing and account number. Because the codeline is printed in magnetic ink, the scanner reads it by magnetism rather than by sight, which is far more reliable than optical recognition on a creased or stamped cheque. Many units also carry a Franking/Endorser that stamps a deposit endorsement on the back as proof the item was processed.

Everything is sequenced by the Control Board, driven through the Feed Module and Transport Path, and powered from an external adapter through the Power Supply.

How it works

A stack sits in the Feed Pocket. The Feed Module uses a pickup roller and a retard roller against a separation pad to grab exactly one cheque; the Feed Motor, a stepper built on a reused Stator Assembly and Rotor Assembly, drives the rollers. The single cheque hands off to the Transport Path, where driven and pinch rollers carry it flat through a guide track at a constant, known speed.

As the cheque passes the window, the two CMOS Image Sensor contact image sensors in the Imaging Module module scan the front and back line by line, lit by LED bars and focused through rod-lens arrays. At the same moment the magnetic head in the MICR Read Head sweeps the codeline and its amplifier shapes the waveform into characters. If endorsing is enabled, the Inkjet Printhead in the Franking/Endorser stamps the back. The Control Board stitches the images to the decoded codeline and streams the result to the host over USB, then the cheque drops into the Exit Pocket.