Check-actuated control mechanisms – Control mechanism actuated by check – other than coin – which... – By pliant currency
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-17
2004-02-24
Matecki, Kathy (Department: 3654)
Check-actuated control mechanisms
Control mechanism actuated by check, other than coin , which...
By pliant currency
C194S207000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06695119
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a bill counting machine and, particularly, such a machine having a small size which can prevent bills from being jammed when the counting operation is restarted, and can sort unacceptable bills from acceptable bills and reliably collect them.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
In a bill counting machine, it is required to separate an unacceptable bill from acceptable bills and collect it when it is detected and, therefore, various methods have been proposed for separating an unacceptable bill from acceptable bills and collecting it when it is detected.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-41439 discloses a bill counting machine constituted so as to take out bills placed on a hopper one by one, discriminate the denomination of the bills and stack them in a bill stacking section, wherein the counting operation is stopped when an unacceptable bill is detected.
Further, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-22922 discloses a bill counting machine constituted so as to separate an unacceptable bill from acceptable bills and collect it by feeding the unacceptable bill to an unacceptable bill collecting section separately from a bill stacking section where acceptable bills are stacked as each acceptable bill is detected.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-342487 and 8-221543 disclose bill counting machines constituted so as to separate an unacceptable bill from acceptable bills and collect it when the unacceptable bill is detected by stopping a vane wheel just at the time the unacceptable bill is held between adjacent vanes of the vane wheel for stacking bills in a bill stacking section.
However, as pointed out in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-41439, if only the operation of the bill counting machine is stopped when an unacceptable bill is detected, it is impossible to predict where the unacceptable bill will be positioned in the bill transportation passage, and in the case where the handling speed of bills is high or the length of the bill transportation passage is short in a small bill counting machine, since the bill following the unacceptable bill is fed into the bill transportation passage at a time when the bill counting machine is stopped, it is difficult to identify the unacceptable bill, whereby the unacceptable bill cannot be separated from acceptable bills and be reliably collected.
Further, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-22922, in the case where an unacceptable bill collecting section is provided separately from a bill stacking section where acceptable bills are stacked, the bill counting machine inevitably becomes large.
Furthermore, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 6-342487 and 8-221543, in the case where an unacceptable bill is separated from acceptable bills and collected when the unacceptable bill is detected by stopping a vane wheel at a time the unacceptable bill is just held between adjacent vanes of the vane wheel for stacking bills in a bill stacking section, it is practically difficult to stop the vane wheel just at the time the unacceptable bill is held between adjacent vanes of the vane wheel for stacking bills in a bill stacking section, and when the handling speed of bills is high or the length of the bill transportation passage is short in a small bill counting machine, it is difficult to predict where the bill following the unacceptable bill and fed into the bill transportation passage at the time the bill counting machine is stopped will be stopped in the bill transportation passage, whereby there is some risk of the bill following the unacceptable bill jamming when the operation of the bill counting machine is restarted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a bill counting machine of small size which can prevent bills from jamming when the counting operation is restarted, and can sort unacceptable bills from acceptable bills and reliably collect them.
The above and other objects of the present invention can be accomplished by a bill counting machine comprising a bill setting section where bills to be counted are set, a bill take-out means for taking out bills set in the bill setting section one by one into a main body of the bill counting machine, bill conveying means for conveying the bills taken out into the main body of the bill counting machine in a bill conveying passage, a sensor device for detecting optical properties and/or magnetic properties of each bill and producing detection data of the bill, reference data storing means for storing reference data of bills, discriminating and counting means for comparing the detection data of the bill produced by the sensor device with the reference data of bills, thereby discriminating whether or not the bill is acceptable, the denomination of the bill and whether bills are being conveyed by the bill conveying means one by one and counting bills to be counted, and a bill stacking section, the bill counting machine further comprising a stopper locatable at a projecting position in the bill conveying passage downstream of the sensor device, the discriminating and counting means being constituted so as not to count a bill discriminated as unacceptable and a following bill or not to count two or more bills discriminated to be simultaneously conveyed and a following bill when it discriminates that the bill is unacceptable or that two or more bills are being simultaneously conveyed and to locate the stopper in the projecting position, the stopper located at the projecting position being accessible from outside of the main body of the bill counting machine.
According to the present invention, a stopper is provided so as to be locatable at a projecting position in a bill conveying passage downstream of a sensor device and when an unacceptable bill is detected or two or more bills are being simultaneously conveyed, the stopper is located at the projecting position in the bill conveying passage by a discriminating and counting means. Therefore, the bill discriminated as unacceptable and the following bill, or two or more bills discriminated to be simultaneously conveyed and the following bill are stopped by the stopper, thereby being prevented from advancing to the bill stacking section. Further, since the stopper located at the projecting position is accessible from the outside of the main body of the bill counting machine, the bill discriminated as unacceptable and the following bill, or two or more bills discriminated to be simultaneously conveyed and the following bill can be easily and reliably collected. As a consequence, it is unnecessary to provide a separate collecting section for collecting the bill discriminated as unacceptable and two or more bills discriminated to be simultaneously conveyed, thereby enabling the bill counting machine to be made compact, and it is possible to reliably prevent the bill following the unacceptable bill from jamming when the operation of the bill counting machine is restarted.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the stopper is constituted so as to be movable between a retracted position where it does not interfere with bills conveyed in the bill conveying passage by the bill conveying means and the projecting position where it projects into the bill conveying passage.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the stopper is constituted so as to be swingable between the retracted position and the projecting position.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the stopper is constituted so as to be driven by a solenoid and the discriminating and counting means is adapted for actuating the solenoid, thereby moving the stopper between the retracted position and the projecting position.
According to this preferred aspect of the present invention, since the stopper can be driven by the solenoid, when an unacceptable bill is detected or when it is discriminated that two or more bills are being simultaneously conveyed, the stopper can be quickly m
Cohen & Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Kim Sang K
Laurel Machinery Co., Ltd
Matecki Kathy
LandOfFree
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