Check-actuated control mechanisms – With specific cabinet structure
Patent
1993-02-08
1995-03-28
Gutierrez, Diego F. F.
Check-actuated control mechanisms
With specific cabinet structure
73163, G07F 910, G07F 302, G07F 304
Patent
active
054008913
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to coin testing mechanisms and in particular coin testing mechanisms of the kind provided with a removable and replaceable cassette which includes a plurality of coin storage tubes, and means for dispensing coins from the storage tubes. Such dispensing is required for the purpose of paying out change or giving prizes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are many published patent applications and granted patents which describe and show coin mechanisms in which such cassettes are used, and large numbers of coin mechanisms incorporating such cassettes have been manufactured and sold.
It has been the common practice for the coin storage tubes of the cassette to all be formed in a single injection-moulded part, in plastics material, or for the cassette to be assembled from two parts each of which is injection moulded in plastics material, one of the parts including the fronts of all the coin tubes and other of the parts including their backs, so that each coin tube is effectively constructed from two parts, a front and a back.
For the purpose of this specification the term "coin storage tube" is intended to encompass any structure capable of holding coins in a stable stack one above the other face-to-face, irrespective of whether or not it completely surrounds the stack and irrespective of whether or not it is of a generally circular cross-section.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is to provide coin mechanisms in which a cassette including coin tubes is used, but in which the adaptability of the cassette is improved and the cost of manufacturing cassettes for storing different combinations of coins is reduced.
The invention provides a coin testing mechanism of the kind provided with a removable and replaceable cassette which includes a plurality of coin storage tubes, and means for dispensing coins from the storage tubes, characterised in that the cassette is an assembly which comprises a plurality of storage tube modules each of which modules comprises at least one storage tube, the modules being retained in the assembly by releasable and re-usable retaining means whereby to enable exchanging of one module of the cassette for another.
In a first aspect, the cassette assembly is so arranged that no module can be removed from the cassette assembly until the cassette assembly has been removed from a main frame of the coin mechanism. In a second aspect, in addition to the retaining means, a locking means is provided for locking the modules in position. In a third aspect the retaining means a push or snap fittings operable by hand to retain and release each module.
The invention facilitates modifying an existing coin mechanism so that it can store a different set of coin denominations from previously, and also modifying an existing coin mechanism so that it can store a newly introduced size of coin, even though the denomination of that coin may be the same as the previously used but differently sized coin of that denomination. It will be understood, of course, that the coins of the world vary very greatly in diameter and although a single coin tube internal diameter may be usable for coins of a range of different diameters, nevertheless a selection of coin tubes having different internal diameters will be required in order for an appropriate internal diameter for each of the commonly used coins, or at least most of them, to always be available.
By the use of the invention, a coin tube already in the cassette can readily be removed therefrom after the cassette has been detached from its coin mechanism and a tube of a different diameter can be easily installed in its place.
Previously known coin tube cassettes would have required replacement of the entire cassette in order for the coin mechanism to be comparably adapted for storing a different set of coins.
At the manufacturing stage, previous coin tube cassettes would have required separate, and relatively expensive, tooling for each particular combination of tube internal diameters to be
REFERENCES:
patent: 3590833 (1971-07-01), Walton
patent: 4326550 (1982-04-01), Mochizuki et al.
patent: 4607650 (1986-08-01), Kobayashi et al.
Gutierrez Diego F. F.
Mars Incorporated
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