Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Sorting special items – and certain methods and apparatus for... – Sorting paper money
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-09
2001-12-11
Nguyen, Tuan N. (Department: 3653)
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...
Sorting paper money
C209S900000, C221S012000, C194S249000, C049S028000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328166
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill arranger for discriminating bills and sorting them based on the discrimination.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-64109, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional bill arranger for discriminating bills and sorting them based on the results of the discrimination is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-21437.
The bill arranger comprises a loader, a conveyer, a discriminating device, a plurality of stackers, and a wrapping device.
The loader loads a number of stacked bills, and sends the bills one by one into the bill arranger.
The discriminating device discriminates the bills sent from the loader into the bill arranger with regard to the denominations of the bills.
The conveyer conveys the bills, which the loader sent into the bill arranger, to one of the stackers and the wrapping device, based on the results of the discrimination by the discriminating device.
The stackers stack the bills conveyed from the loader by the conveyer. The stackers are exposed to the outside to allow an operator to remove the bills stacked therein.
The wrapping device stacks a predetermined amount of bills transferred from the loader through the conveyer, and wraps a tape around the stacked bills.
The bill arranger exposes the stackers to the outside so that the bills supplied to the stackers may be removed. This leads to the following problems.
The above-described bill arranger can sort the bills into the stackers for various purposes. However, if the operator inadvertently extracts some of the bills from the stackers during the sorting of bills, the operator will lose track of the sorting of the extracted bills. Further, after the completion of the process, the number of bills counted by the bill arranger may be inconsistent with the actual number of bills.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a bill arranger which can prevent bills, which are stacked by stackers, from being inadvertently extracted by an operator.
To achieve the purpose, the bill arranger of the present invention comprises: a loader for loading bills and feeding the bills one by one; a conveyer for conveying the bills fed from the loader; a discriminating device for discriminating the bills conveyed by the conveyer; a plurality of stackers for stacking the bills, which are conveyed by the conveyer, so that the bills can be removed; an operating device for selecting one of the sorting process modes which defines a method of sorting the bills loaded in the loader; and a controller for delivering the bills, which are fed from the loader, to one of the stackers, by the conveyer, based on the results of the discrimination by the discriminating device, according to the sorting process mode selected by the operating device.
The respective stackers have shutters controlled by the controller, the shutters allowing the removal of the stacked bills when the shutters are opened, and preventing the removal of the stacked bills when the shutters are closed.
When the bills loaded in the loader are fed, the conveyer conveys the bills. While conveying the bills, the bills are discriminated by the discriminating device. Based on the results of the discrimination by the discriminating device, the controller delivers the bills to one of the stackers according to the selected sorting process.
Thus, the bills are stacked in the stackers. The respective stackers have the shutters controlled by the controller. When the shutters are opened, the stacked bills can be removed. When the shutters are closed, the bills cannot be removed. Thus, the bills stacked in the stackers are prevented from being inadvertently removed by the operator.
There are two conditions one in which the removal of the bills from the stackers is allowed, and another in which the removal of the bills from the stackers is not allowed. Only when the removal of the bills from the stackers is allowed, are the shutters opened.
Thus, the bills stacked in the stackers are reliably prevented from being inadvertently removed by the operator.
The closed shutters are fixed so that the shutters cannot be opened.
The closed shutters cannot be manually opened. Thus, the bills stacked in the stackers are more reliably prevented from being inadvertently removed by the operator.
Further, the respective stackers have position changers for changing the positions of the stacked bills, the controller controlling the position changers to change the positions of the stacked bills when the shutters are opened.
Thus, the stacked bills, which were hard to remove, become easy to remove. This improves the working efficiency when the operator removes the bills from the stackers.
As the shutters are opened, the position changer changes the positions of the bills.
The same driving source is used to drive the shutters and to drive the position changer for changing the positions of the bills. Thus, the costs are reduced.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4251009 (1981-02-01), McLaughlin et al.
patent: 4473157 (1984-09-01), Hirose et al.
patent: 4709914 (1987-12-01), Taylor
patent: 4905839 (1990-03-01), Yuge et al.
patent: 4905840 (1990-03-01), Yuge et al.
patent: 54-119297 (1979-09-01), None
patent: 59-53358 (1984-03-01), None
patent: 7021437 (1995-01-01), None
Laurel Bank Machines Co. Ltd.
Nguyen Tuan N.
Nixon & Vanderhye PC
LandOfFree
Bill arranger does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Bill arranger, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Bill arranger will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2595669