Classifying – separating – and assorting solids – Sorting special items – and certain methods and apparatus for... – Sorting paper money
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-27
2004-09-14
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Classifying, separating, and assorting solids
Sorting special items, and certain methods and apparatus for...
Sorting paper money
C271S003030, C271S301000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06789682
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper processing apparatus for processing papers such as paper money and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a kind of paper processing apparatus, so far there has been known a consumer transaction facility (Cash Dispenser (CD), Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), and so on) provided at banks and other financial institutions, for executing transactions such as receipt of money, payment, etc.
As a consumer transaction facility as mentioned above, in Japan, a so-called recycle machine for making transactions of payment using not only paper moneys stored in a consumer transaction facility by a bank or other financial institutions in advance but also paper moneys received from customers has been mainly used. On the other hand, in countries other than Japan, there are not many transactions of receipt of money made by general customers and most of their transactions are payment transactions. Demands for transactions of receipt of money greatly vary with the place, and even if there is a case that receipt of money is required, a transaction facility is used as a safe for receiving paper moneys from a shop owner in most of such cases.
Here, a recycle machine for using paper moneys received from a customer for payment to other customers needs to have a built-in discrimination apparatus highly developed for strictly discriminating genuine paper moneys from forged ones among the received paper moneys, because it is not clear which customer will have the received paper moneys, thus the cost is extremely high.
On the other hand, a payment-dedicated machine may only perform simple discrimination processing like discriminating of two-ply paper moneys for example, because only paper moneys identified as genuine papers and stored in advance by a financial institution are used for payment. Thus, its cost is far lower than that of a recycle machine, like in the ratio of one to seven.
Even in a case that a transaction for receipt of money is required, if a machine in which received paper moneys are only stored and are not used for payment is used in such case, more sophisticated discrimination processing than the above payment-dedicated machine is required but strict discrimination processing is not required in many cases compared to a recycle machine, because it is easy to associate the received paper moneys with the customers who fed the moneys in the machine.
In view of the above-described circumstances, in countries other than Japan, a payment-dedicated machine is provided only when transactions of payment are required, and a recycle machine is provided only when transactions for receipt of money are also required, or a payment-dedicated machine and a recycle machine are provided side by side.
Thus, in countries other than Japan, provision of payment-dedicated machines is enough in many cases because of differences in matters of each country or differences in local areas of one country, etc., and demands for receipt of money greatly vary even when transactions for receipt of money are required. Here, when services for carrying out receipt of money are required, even if a demand for receipt of money is remarkably poor compared to a demand for payment, it is necessary to provide a payment-dedicated machine and a receipt-dedicated machine side by side or to provide a recycle machine like in the case of a great demand for receipt of money. As a result, in order to satisfy a poor demand for receipt of money, it is necessary to invest a large amount of money which is as much as that in the case of a great demand for receipt of money and disproportionate to a poor demand for receipt of money, and such investment will be wasted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the forgoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a paper processing apparatus of low cost that is capable of performing receipt of papers for which demand is poor such as receipt of moneys and the like.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides the first paper processing apparatus, in which papers are fed one by one from a first paper storing section for storing papers delivered to an exterior, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block, and also papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the first paper storing section are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path and stored in a predetermined second paper storing section, the paper processing apparatus comprising:
a third conveyance path for receiving papers from the exterior and leading the received papers to the first conveyance path meeting the third conveyance path.
Here, the first paper processing apparatus, further comprising a mechanism for processing exterior papers wherein papers coming through the third conveyance path and further the first conveyance path are temporarily stored in the temporary storing section, and the temporarily stored papers are led to the second conveyance path and are stored in the second paper storing section. In this case, the mechanism for processing exterior papers may lead papers stored in the temporary storing section to the second conveyance path, and store the led papers in the second paper storing section or return the led papers to the exterior from the paper delivery section according to operation.
Since the first paper processing apparatus of the present invention has the third conveyance path, only by combining this apparatus with a paper receipt unit which will be described later, etc. and sending the papers from the exterior to the first conveyance path via the third conveyance path, processing for receiving papers (receipt processing for paper moneys) can be carried out in this apparatus, using a mechanism for paper delivery processing such as a mechanism for conveying papers, a temporary storing section, a paper delivery section and the second paper storing section. And also, even if the first paper processing apparatus is used as a delivery-dedicated machine (a payment-dedicated machine in the case of a consumer transaction facility as described above), compared with a machine that cannot be combined with a paper receipt unit, there will be only a slight increase in the cost since only the above-described third conveyance path is added to this apparatus.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention also provides the second paper processing apparatus comprising a paper delivery unit in which papers are fed one by one from a first paper storing section for storing papers to be delivered to an exterior, conveyed on a predetermined first conveyance path, temporarily stored in a predetermined temporary storing section, and then delivered from a predetermined paper delivery section in a block to the exterior, and also papers having difficulties with delivery after being fed from the first paper storing section are led to a second conveyance path which is a divergent path of the first conveyance path and stored in a predetermined second paper storing section; and
a paper receipt unit arranged on an upper side of the paper delivery unit, for receiving papers fed from the exterior,
wherein the paper delivery unit has a third conveyance path for receiving papers from the exterior and sending the received papers to the first conveyance path meeting the third conveyance path,
and wherein the paper receipt unit has a fourth conveyance path for transmitting the papers fed from the exterior and received one by one to the third conveyance path.
Here, like the first paper processing apparatus of the present invention, in the second paper processing apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the paper delivery unit has a mechanism for processing exterior papers in which papers coming through the third conveyance path and further the first conveyance path are temporarily stored in the
Abe Hayami
Kimura Atsunori
Minamishin Hayato
Armstrong Kratz Quintos Hanson & Brooks, LLP
Schlak Daniel K
Walsh Donald P.
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