Article dispensing – Plural sources – stacks or compartments – With discharge means for each source
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-08
2002-01-22
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Article dispensing
Plural sources, stacks or compartments
With discharge means for each source
C221S129000, C221S123000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06340095
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to a device for dispensing items (rolls of coins), preferably money, having at least one magazine for stocking the items and having at least one discharge device, for dispensing items from the at least one magazine, in which inside the dispensing device a movable receiving device, which is preferably movable up and down, is provided, near whose path of motion the at least one magazine is disposed with its take-out end, and in which via the at least one discharge device an item can be dispensed from the magazine into the receiving device, when the receiving device is located in the region of the take-out end of the magazine.
One such dispensing device has been disclosed for instance by German Patent DE 36 30 191 C2.
With money dispensing devices, individual coins, rolls of coins, bank notes, or bundles of bank notes can be dispensed. From German Utility Model DE-GM 296 09 900, a device is known for dispensing rolls of coins that are stocked in a storage magazine. Via a drum-like discharge device, a roll of coins is received from the storage magazine and sent through a discharge opening to a take-out tray from which the roll of coins can then be taken by the user. If rolls of coins of different values are to be dispensed, for instance, then a plurality of such dispensing devices must be disposed side by side in modular fashion, and they dispense their rolls of coins into a common tray. Since each dispensing device has complicated dispensing mechanics with many moving parts, and each dispensing operation must additionally be monitored for security reasons, the overall result is a complicated and not very flexible dispensing arrangement. Expanding it or converting it from dispensing rolls of coins to dispensing bank notes or vice versa is practically impossible, or is feasible only at very great effort and expense, in this modular dispensing arrangement.
From German Patent DE 36 30 191 C2 mentioned above, a dispensing device for rolls of coins is already known in which a discharge device is movable vertically for taking rolls of coins out of the magazine. To that end, cam disks with cams are provided on the movable discharge device, by means of which cams the magazine bottom, on which the rolls of coins to be removed rests, can be raised. The roll of coins thus raised via the front wall of the magazine rolls into the bowl-shaped discharge device, which is moved into its upper terminal position so that the rolls of coins removed can be dispensed. This known dispensing device requires the specialized embodiment of the magazine bottoms with raisable parts as well as a complicated mechanical course of motion of the cam disks for dispensing the rolls of coins.
Finally, DE 36 30 191 C2 also cites Japanese Patent Application JP 58 (1983) 1 27 285, from which again a dispensing device is known. For dispensing rolls of coins from a magazine, a rotating finger is used that grasps the frontmost roll of coins from below through a recess in the magazine bottom and lifts it out of the magazine. When such a finger on a movable discharge device is provided, a complicated adaptation must be made between the rotary motion of the finger and the displacement motion of the discharge device, so that the latter moves onward only once a removal operation is concluded and the finger is no longer in a rotary position for removal. The length of the finger must also be adapted to the diameter of the particular coin or coins involved.
In view of this, it is the object of the present invention to simplify a dispensing device of the type defined at the outset in such a way that dispensing is as simple as possible and that flexible, problem-free expansion or conversion with regard to items to be dispensed is possible.
This object is attained according to the invention in that as the discharge device on the receiving device, at least one take-out device that is extensible in operative engagement with the item to be taken out is provided, which when moving past the receiving device can take the item out of the at least one magazine, preferably by raising it. To that end, the take-out device can for instance be moved out of the path of motion of the receiving device, and the magazine can be left open on its take-out end in such a way that the take-out device that has been extended outward can lift the frontmost roll out of the magazine through this opening, while the receiving device is moving past this magazine, preferably upward.
Because the discharge device is provided on the receiving device, a separate discharge device is not needed for every magazine; instead, items can be taken from different magazines with a single discharge device that is movable together with the receiving device. On the magazine itself, no mechanical or electrical adjustments are then necessary, and as a result the magazine can be embodied simply, and can be produced correspondingly economically.
The dispensing device according to the invention operates on a principle of removal and presentation, in which the items to be dispensed to the customer from the dispensing device are first collected inside the dispensing device with the receiving device, in order then to allow the customer to take them out, for instance from above from this receiving device. The receiving device can be displaced horizontally, for instance, or vertically, as is preferred, for instance by means of a lift, and the receiving device is preferably displaced linearly. In the case of a dispensing device that dispenses money, for instance, individual coins, rolls of coins, bank notes and bundles of bank notes and suitably printed receipts can be dispensed into the receiving device, which in particular is provided with a receiving tray. The items to be dispensed need merely be placed in the receiving device, to which end the force of gravity of the items to be dispensed can advantageously be utilized. As the discharge device, known bank note and bundled note dispensing equipment can be used. If money-accepting devices are also provided, then the entire monetary transaction of the kind that is now done in a bank branch can be performed with the device of the invention.
The take-out device is preferably an extensible slide.
In preferred embodiments of the invention, the receiving device is open at the top, so that items dispensed from the magazine are on the one hand securely stored in the receiving device and on the other can easily be taken from above by a user.
If the items located in the at least one magazine are acted upon in the direction of the take-out device of the magazine, for instance via a spring force, then it is assured that an item located in the magazine can in fact be taken out on the take-out end.
As an especially preferred refinement of this embodiment, it is provided that the items located in the at least one magazine are acted upon in the direction of the take-out end of the magazine. By the weight of the magazine, or by the slope descending force, the items in the magazine are then urged in the direction of the take-out end.
To allow the items taken from a magazine to reach the receiving device quickly and reliably, the top side of the take-out device, in its extended position, can have a steeper course than a bottom face, on the take-out side, of the magazine for the items. For instance, if a take-out device lifts the frontmost roll of coins out of a coin bowl magazine, then this inclination assures that the roll of coins will continue to roll downward into the receiving device. The take-out device in its extended position stops the rolls behind it and thus makes it easier to take out the frontmost roll. The next roll of coins in succession, against which the roll that has been removed still rests during the taking-out process, moreover assures that the roll of coins that has been taken out cannot twist but instead is forced outward in parallel. Space can thus be made for other rolls of coins to be removed, and the capacity of the takeout tray can be optimally utilized.
If a plurality of magazines are disposed in succession in
Ellis Christopher P.
Hess SB - Automatenbau GmbH
Jones Tullar & Cooper P.C.
Sharma Rashmi
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