IDTECH SecureHead User Manual page 19

10. If the life of the reader is to be greater than 50,000 passes, the bottom of slot must embed a
metal wear plate. Stainless steel is the metal of preference to avoid corrosion. The plastic
material used for the slot needs to be significantly harder than the card material to ensure
adequate rail life.
11. The head opening in the rail must allow room for maximum gimbal action. The back side (pin
side) of magnetic head should have enough reserved space to prevent any interference during
a swipe. The design must provide for a minimum of 1.25~1.52mm of space behind the head
to allow for proper gimbal and head movement during card swiping.
12. When the head is installed into the rail, the spring holding the head should be slightly
preloaded. Preloading the spring will ensure that the head has some stability at first card
impact. This is especially important if the card is swiped at high speed. If the spring is not
preloaded it will tend to vibrate when the card impacts the head and vibration causes the
head to lose contact with the card.
13. ID TECH's solution to preloading the head spring is to add 2 symmetrical bumps, one on each
side of the head (head window), molded into the rail (see drawing below). We recommend
that the difference between the spring resting surfaces and the crown of the bumps is
0.06+/_0.03 mm. A head spring that is 0.20 mm thick will result in a 0.14+/- 0.03 mm bow.
The bumps should by cylindrical and their crown parallel with the slot wall opposite to the
head crown. This will ensure when the head is mounted into the rail, its crown will be parallel
to the slot surface and will make good contact with the magnetic stripe on the card.
SecureHead™ Demo Program
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