Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering to stack and feeding therefrom – Feeding from bottom of stack
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-20
2001-06-19
Bollinger, David H. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering to stack and feeding therefrom
Feeding from bottom of stack
C271S004080, C271S010090, C271S121000, C271S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06247693
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a bill feed-out device and particularly to a bill feed-out device which can reliably dispense bills one bill at a time even when the number of bills stacked therein becomes large.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2-175528 teaches a bill feed-out device configured to dispense vertically stacked bills one bill at a time from the bottommost. This bill feed-out device comprises kick rollers that contact the undersurface of the bottommost bill of the stacked bills and kicks it laterally, a feed-out roller that contacts the undersurface of the bill kicked out by the kick rollers and further feeds it laterally, and separation rollers facing the feed-out roller from above and produces friction between the bill and the feed-out roller to ensure dispensing of the bills one by one.
With bill handling machines being called on to process ever larger numbers of bills in recent years, the number of bills that must be stacked in such machines has risen in proportion.
When the number of bills stacked in a bill feed-out device that dispenses bills from the bottommost one of the stack in the foregoing manner is increased, however, the increased weight of the stacked bills produces large frictional forces between the kick rollers and the bottommost bill as well as among the bills near the bottom of the stack. The likelihood of two or more bills being simultaneously fed between the feed-out roller and the separation rollers and of the feed-out roller and the separation rollers being incapable of separating them therefore rises. The result is degraded ability of the feed-out device to ensure that the bills are dispensed one at a time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a bill feed-out device that can reliably dispense bills one at a time even when the number of bills stacked therein becomes large.
The above and other objects of the present invention can be achieved by a bill feed-out device adapted for dispensing bills from a bill storage box, said bill feed-out device comprising a bill stacking plate disposed in the bill storage box to support stacked bills on its upper surface, at least one kick roller means provided below the bill stacking plate to be contactable with a bottommost bill of the bills stacked on the bill stacking plate for kicking the bottommost bill laterally, a feed-out roller means, located downstream relative to a bill kick-out direction of the kick roller means and having multiple large-diameter portions and multiple small-diameter portions, for feeding further downstream bills kicked out by the kick roller means, at least one separation roller means which has multiple large-diameter portions and multiple small-diameter portions and whose multiple large-diameter portions can mesh into the multiple small-diameter portions of the feed-out roller means for separating one by one bills present between itself and the feed-out roller means, a stacked bill number detecting means for detecting the number of bills stacked on the bill stacking plate, a bite amount regulating means responsive to the number of stacked bills detected by the stacked bill number detecting means for regulating depth of meshing of the multiple large-diameter portions of the separation roller means into the multiple small-diameter portions of the feed-out roller means.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the bite amount regulating means regulates the meshing depth of the at least one separation roller means into the feed-out roller means to increase the meshing depth of the multiple large-diameter portions of the separation roller means into the multiple small-diameter portions of the feed-out roller means in proportion as number of stacked bills detected by the stacked bill number detecting means increases.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the bite amount regulating means includes step motor means and a rotation angle of a drive shaft of the step motor means can be detected by rotary encoder means.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises step motor means for raising and lowering the bill stacking plate and the stacked bill number detecting means detects the number of bill stacked on the bill stacking plate based on a number of pulses applied to the step motor.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises a dispensed bill sensor installed downstream of the feed-out roller means for counting the number of bills fed out by the feed-out roller means.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises, in addition to the dispensed bill sensor, an incoming bill sensor for counting the number of bills taken into the bill storage box.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises multiple sensors spaced vertically in the bill storage box.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises a bill number input means for inputting the number of bills from outside.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises a presser means for pressing down on the bills stacked on the bill stacking plate from above when less than a prescribed number of bills are stacked on the bill stacking plate and the bite amount regulating means is adapted to increase the meshing depth of the multiple large-diameter portions of the separation roller means into the multiple small-diameter portions of the feed-out roller means when the presser means presses down on the bills stacked on the bill stacking plate from above.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises a stack height sensor for detecting based on the stack height of the bills stacked on the bill stacking plate whether or not the number of bills stacked on the bill stacking plate has reached the prescribed number.
In a further preferred aspect of the present invention, the bill feed-out device further comprises at least one arm means whose one end portion is swingably attached to a support shaft and whose other end supports at least one separation roller means, and at least one swinging means for swinging the arm means, the bite amount regulating means being adapted to regulate the meshing depth of the multiple large-diameter portions of the separation roller means into the multiple small-diameter portions of the feed-out roller means by swinging the swinging means about the support shaft.
The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4275874 (1981-06-01), DiBlasio
patent: 4834362 (1989-05-01), Uehara
patent: 5211388 (1993-05-01), Walluk
patent: 2105690 (1983-03-01), None
patent: 61-45856 (1986-03-01), None
patent: 2-175528 (1990-07-01), None
patent: 3-79531 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 7-137870 (1995-05-01), None
Bollinger David H.
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Laurel Bank Machines Co. Ltd.
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