Package making – With means responsive to a sensed condition – Of individual contents or group feed or delivery
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-16
2002-12-03
Smith, Scott A. (Department: 3721)
Package making
With means responsive to a sensed condition
Of individual contents or group feed or delivery
C053S212000, C053S500000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06487834
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a coin wrapping machine and, particularly, to such a machine which can reliably sort new issue coins and past issue circulating old coins of the same denomination from each other and efficiently collect old coins without any special mechanism and, more particularly, to such a machine which can reliably sort new issue coins and past issue circulating old coins of the same denomination from each other, efficiently collect old coins without any special mechanism while counting the new issue coins and the old coins and, at the same time, wrap the new issue coins to produce a wrapped coin roll.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
As disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 10-105764, a coin wrapping machine is generally constituted to feed coins one by one by a rotatable disk into a coin passage, discriminate whether or not each coin is acceptable and the denomination of the coin based on magnetic data and/or optical data of the coin detected by a sensor and wrap or count coins of the denomination specified by an operator, while it separately collects unacceptable coins and coins other than those to be wrapped or counted.
Recently, cases have arisen in which coins of the same denomination as circulated coins but different magnetic properties and surface patterns from those of the circulated coins have been newly issued in order to avoid coin counterfeiting and the like and in such cases, it is usual for old coins circulated before the issuance of new coins to be gradually collected and replaced by new issue coins.
In Japan, 500 yen coins have been newly issued in order to avoid coin counterfeiting and it is expected that 500 yen coins circulated be fore the issuance of the new 500 yen coins will be gradually collected and replaced by the newly issued 500 yen coins.
When coins of the same denomination as that of coins circulated are newly issued, in order to ensure that old coins circulated before the issuance of the new coins are gradually collected and replaced by the new issue coins, a coin wrapping machine has to be constituted to sort the coins circulated before the issuance of the new coins from the new issue coins.
However, a conventional coin wrapping machine has only a function of sorting coins to be wrapped or counted from unacceptable coins such as counterfeit coins, foreign coins and the like and coins of other denominations, wrapping or counting them, but has no function of sorting coins circulated before the issuance of new coins from new issue coins and cannot sort and collect only the old coins of the same denomination as that of the new coins from the new issue coins.
This problem can be solved by providing a conventional coin wrapping machine with a special mechanism for sorting circulated old coins from new issue coins. However, provision of a special mechanism for sorting circulated old coins from new issue coins in order to collect circulated old coins leads to higher cost and such a special mechanism becomes useless after the collection of the circulated old coins has been completed. Therefore, this solution is very uneconomical.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a coin wrapping machine which can reliably sort new issue coins and past issue circulating old coins of the same denomination from each other and efficiently collect old coins without any special mechanism.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a coin wrapping machine which can reliably sort new issue coins and past issue circulating old coins of the same denomination from each other, efficiently collect old coins without any special mechanism while counting the new issue coins and the old coins and, at the same time, wrap the new issue coins to produce a wrapped coin roll.
The above other objects of the present invention can be accomplished by a coin wrapping machine comprising an operation mode selecting means for selecting a counting mode for counting coins or a wrapping mode for wrapping coins, a denomination specifying means for specifying a denomination of coins to be handled, a rotatable disk for feeding coins one by one to a coin passage, a first coin sensor provided in the coin passage for detecting physical properties of coins, a second coin sensor provided in the coin passage downstream of the first coin sensor for detecting physical properties of coins different from those to be detected by the first coin sensor, a first coin sorting and collecting means provided in the coin passage downstream of the second coin sensor for sorting coins and collecting sorted coins, a second coin sorting and collecting means provided in the coin passage downstream of the second coin sensor for sorting coins and collecting sorted coins, a third coin sorting and collecting means provided in the coin passage downstream of the second coin sensor for sorting coins and collecting sorted coins, a discriminating means for discriminating, based on the physical properties detected by the first coin sensor and the second coin sensor, whether or not a coin is acceptable, the denomination of the coin when it is acceptable and whether or not the denomination of the coin coincides with that specified by the denomination specifying means, and a coin stacking and wrapping apparatus connected to a downstream end portion of the coin passage for stacking and wrapping coins, the discriminating means being made responsive to inclusion of new issue coins and past issue circulating coins among coins of the denomination for further discriminating whether the coin is a new issue coin or a past issue circulating coin, the first coin sorting and collecting means being made responsive to such inclusion for sorting and collecting coins discriminated unacceptable by the discriminating means when the counting mode is selected by the operation mode selecting means, and the second coin sorting and collecting means being made responsive to such inclusion for sorting and collecting one kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins.
According to the present invention, when the counting mode is selected, since the first coin sorting and collecting means sorts and collects coins discriminated unacceptable by the discriminating means and the second coin sorting and collecting means is made responsive to inclusion of new issue coins and past issue circulating coins among coins of the denomination for sorting and collecting one kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins, if the first coin sorting and collecting means or the second coin sorting and collecting means is constituted to sort and collect coins of denominations different from that specified by the denomination specifying means, and the third coin sorting and collecting means is made responsive to such inclusion for sorting and collecting the other kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins, it is possible to sort and collect one kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins by the second coin sorting and collecting means and collect the other kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins by the third coin sorting and collecting means. Therefore, it is possible to reliably sort the new issue coins and past issue circulating old coins of the same denomination from each other without providing any special mechanism and efficiently collect the past issue circulating old coins.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the third coin sorting and collecting means is made responsive to inclusion of new issue coins and past issue circulating coins among coins of the denomination specified by the denomination specifying means for sorting and collecting the other kind between the new issue coins and the past issue circulating coins.
According to this preferred aspect of the present invention, the first coin sorting and collecting means is constituted to sort and collect coins discriminated unacceptable by the discri
Chukwurah Nathaniel
Cohen & Pontani, Lieberman & Pavane
Laurel Precision Machine Co., Ltd.
Smith Scott A.
LandOfFree
Coin wrapping machine does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Coin wrapping machine, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Coin wrapping machine will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2985991