Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering to stack and feeding therefrom – With job divider
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-27
2001-05-22
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering to stack and feeding therefrom
With job divider
C271S003050, C271S003010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234469
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a money processing apparatus and method, in particular, it is used in a distribution industry, such as supermarkets and convenience stores, the money processing apparatus being connected to a POS (point of sales) register to total the amount of input bills.
In the money processing apparatuses used for store registers, cash delivery or exchange operations with customers are currently being streamlined, and the cash registers connected to the POS terminals are now getting popular now. A money processing apparatus has recently been developed to automatically process input or output coins or bills in response to information input through the POS terminal. Money processing apparatuses are generally classified into a coin processing apparatus and a bill processing apparatus. A money processing apparatus in which coin and bill-processing apparatuses are integrated and miniaturized to a size of a cash drawer to permit installation under the POS terminal has been proposed.
FIG. 9
is a perspective view illustrating the money processing apparatus. The installation area of the money processing apparatus
1
is reduced to be as compact as that of a POS register
2
, so that the apparatus
1
may be placed under the register
2
. The money processing apparatus
1
is integrally united by placing a bill-processing section
6
and a coin processing section
9
in parallel. The bill-processing section
6
includes a bill input port
3
, a bill output port
4
, and a bill collecting housing
5
on its front surface. The coin processing section
9
includes a coin input port
7
and a coin output port
8
on its front surface.
Bills are input from the bill input port
3
. Bills for change are output from the bill output port
4
on a command from the POS register
2
. The bill collecting housing
5
separately houses ten-thousand-yen bills which are not used as a change. When various types of coins are simultaneously input from the coin input port
7
, they are sequentially transported to the interior of the coin processing section
9
, which are separated by coin-types during the transfer and are stored in different locations. For example, when the POS register
2
sends instructions to provide change, predetermined types and numbers of coins are output from the coin output port
8
.
FIG. 10
is a side view showing an example of an internal structure of the bill-processing section. The bill-processing section
6
has input-bill rollers
11
, an input-bill identifying section
12
, a blade roller
13
, and a bill housing
14
on the downstream side of the bill input port
3
. A presser plate
15
that presses accumulated bills
10
downwards is supported on an oscillating shaft
20
of the bill housing
14
to permit oscillation. A supply roller
25
that feeds accumulated bills
10
in the horizontal direction from the bottom of the bills is placed at the bottom of the bill housing
14
. A separation and delivery section
16
that sequentially separates and delivers one bill, a delivered-bill transport section
17
, and an output-bill identifying section
18
are located on the downstream side of the supply roller
25
.
An output-bill transport section
19
leading to the bill output port
4
is located on the downstream side of the output-bill identifying section
18
. In addition, an output-bill gate
21
and a collecting gate
22
for switching a transport path are located on the downstream side of the section
18
, and a collected-bill transport section
23
. leading to the bill collecting housing
5
is provided behind the collecting gate
22
. A circulating transport section
24
is provided to guide the bills delivered from the bill housing
14
back to the bill housing
14
.
The function of the bill-processing section
6
will be described in detail along a bill transport route. First, bills input from the bill input port
3
are pulled by the opposed input-bill rollers
11
. The input-bill identifying section
12
is located on the downstream side of the input-bill rollers
11
to identify the input bills. The bills are normally input one at a time, but when, for example, change is supplied to the apparatus, multiple bills can be simultaneously input to reduce the bill input time.
The input bills are transported and sequentially aligned and accumulated in the bill housing
14
from its top while pushing up the presser plate
15
. The presser plate
15
presses the bills
10
accumulated in the bill housing
14
at a position generally corresponding to the center and opposed to the supply roller
25
, while the blade roller
13
presses the other end of the bills. This configuration enables stable accumulation by preventing succeeding bills from colliding against the bills
10
already housed.
One end of the presser plate
15
is fixed to the oscillating shaft
20
to support the plate
15
to permit oscillation. The plate
15
presses the bills
10
with its own weight only. For output, the supply roller
25
rotates to feed the bills
10
accumulated in the bill housing
14
to the right of the figure and sequentially from the bottom, and the separation and delivery section
16
sequentially separates and delivers one bill from the others. The delivered-bill transport section
17
transports the delivered bills. The output-bill identifying section
18
provided in the middle of the transport path determines the bill type.
Based on the results of the determination, bills to be output pass through the output-bill transport section
19
and are aligned and accumulated in the bill output port
4
. For the bills need not be output as a change, such as ten-thousand-yen bills, the output-bill gate
21
and collecting gate
22
operate to pass these bills through the collected-bill transport section
23
in order to align and accumulate them in the bill collecting housing
5
. For unidentifiable bills, only the output-bill gate
21
operates to pass these bills through the circulating transport section
24
to re-house them in the bill housing
14
.
According to the bill-processing apparatus of the above structure, when the bills are sequentially input, the input-bill identifying section can identify the bill types, so that bills can be counted based on the results of identification to determine the number of bills in the bill housing. If the supply of change in the apparatus runs out and requires re-supply, multiple bills can be input simultaneously in order to reduce the input time. In this case, the input-bill identifying section can not identify the types and numbers of the input bills, so that the number of the bills in the bill housing is unknown.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and the object of the present invention is to provide a bill-processing apparatus that can accurately and easily count the number of bills in the apparatus, even when multiple bills are simultaneously input.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of counting the number of bills in the bill-processing apparatus easily and accurately.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to attain the objects, the invention provides a money processing apparatus for processing input and output bills, which comprises input-bill transport means for transporting input bills; bill housing means for sequentially accumulating and storing bills transported by the input-bill transport means; separation and delivery means for sequentially separating one bill from others accumulated in the bill housing means for delivery therefrom; delivered-bill transport means for transporting the bill delivered by the separation and delivery means; output-bill identifying means for identifying the bill type during the transport executed by the delivered-bill transport means; switching gate means for switching a bill transport direction between a bill output port and the bill housing means; output-bill transport means for transporting to the bill output port the bills whose transport direction has been switched to the bill output
Henmi Toshinori
Jinnai Naohiro
Kawasaki Tetsuji
Fuji Electric & Co., Ltd.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Schlak Daniel K
Walsh Donald P.
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