JPH06176232A - Coin processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the generation of any fault or trouble caused by the inser tion of small foreign coins by collecting the coins, which is judged smaller than the coins of the smallest diameter to be processed by a coin identifying means, with the first shutter of a sorting means. CONSTITUTION:The coins inserted to a receiving tray 1 are dropped down to a feed-out part 2 by rotating the receiving tray 1 and successively fed out one by one. In the case of foreign coins, there are extremely small diameter coins in comparison with Japanese domestic coins. When the small diameter coins are fed out, those coins are detected by a coin sensor 21. The detected coins are checked by a coin checker 23 and a CCD 22. When the CCD 22 detects that the conveyed coins are extremely small, a first shutter 27G is driven, and the coins are housed in a batch temporary holding box 7'. When all the coins are fed out of the feed-out part 2, the batch temporary holding box 7' is turned to the side of a lateral conveyance part 9, and the small diameter coins are sent to a longitudinal conveying path 11 by a lateral conveying path 10 and returned to the receiving tray 1. The small diameter coins returned to the receiving tray 1 are returned to a user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coin processing device, and more particularly to a device for inspecting and sorting inserted coins.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a circulation type coin processing machine has been used in ATMs as a coin processing device. In this device, coins are fed out one by one, inspected and sorted, and denominations of coins are selected. Each coin is stored, and the stored coins are used for withdrawal.

Such a device is intended to process domestic coins, but in recent years, a lot of foreign coins have been brought in.
Foreign coins may be thrown in.

When such foreign coins are inserted,
In some cases, coins cannot be fed out from the input section and remain, and the remaining coins are collected as foreign matter. However, although large foreign coins can be collected,
Very small foreign coins are delivered from the delivery section and conveyed, and fall inside the equipment from the conveyance path, causing the equipment to malfunction and stopping the equipment, or being mixed into the denomination-based storage. Then, there was a problem of causing trouble when withdrawing money.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the problem that a device malfunctions or troubles occur when a very small foreign coin is thrown in, and even when a very small foreign coin is thrown in, it fails. The present invention aims to provide a coin processing device that does not cause any trouble.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is, in the first invention, a receiving portion for receiving coins in a lump, and a feeding means for feeding coins one by one from the receiving portion. Identification means for identifying the type of coins delivered by the delivery means and for identifying whether or not it is smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed, and the type of coins provided for each type of coin after the identification means. Sorting means for sorting each, and a holding means provided between the identifying means and the sorting means for temporarily holding a coin determined to be smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed by the identifying means, and this holding Means for returning the coins retained in the means to the receiving part.

Further, in the second invention, a feeding means for feeding coins one by one, and a sorting means for transporting and sorting the coins fed by the feeding means, which comprises a plurality of shutters for sorting and a conveyor belt, A guide member formed between the feeding means and the sorting means for transporting coins from the feeding means to the sorting means, and a coin provided on the guide member for discriminating the type of coin and processing the minimum size coin to be processed. A coin that is determined to be smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed by the identifying means, and is collected by the first shutter of the selecting means after the identifying means. To do.

[0008]

In the present invention, coins determined by the identification means to be smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed are collected before the sorting means for each denomination. Therefore, it is possible to provide a highly reliable coin processing device without causing a very small coin to drop from the transport path to cause a failure inside the device or mix into another storage section.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a circulation type coin processing machine to which the present invention is applied.

The circulating coin processing machine is provided with a tray 1 for receiving coins inserted by a user. The coins inserted in the tray 1 are transferred to the feeding section 2 by the rotation of the tray 1. To fall. The feeding unit 2 feeds coins one by one and conveys them to the coin inspection unit 3. The coin inspection unit 3 is composed of a CCD line sensor that detects the diameter of coins and a magnetic sensor that measures the magnetic amount of coins, and determines the coin denomination, authenticity, and the like. The coins inspected by the coin inspection unit 3 are conveyed by the conveying unit 4 and are sorted by denomination by the sorting unit 5 based on the result of the coin inspection.

The selection unit 5 is a shutter 2 provided for each denomination.
2 is configured, and the shutter 22 is driven based on the determination result of the coin prosecution unit 3 to sort the denomination.

Below the shutter 22, coins selected by the shutter 22 are held in a primary holding unit 7 which temporarily holds the coins. The left end of the temporary holding unit 7 is a temporary holding unit for reject coins, and is sequentially placed on the right side by 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen.
There is a temporary holding unit for yen, 100 yen, and 500 yen coins.

The coins held in the primary holding unit 7 are stored in the coin-type safe 8 when a transaction is established without any abnormalities such as abnormal counting or misclassification. The denomination safe 8 is arranged for each denomination corresponding to each temporary holding unit 7.

A coin payout section (not shown) is provided in the denomination safe 8 so that coins can be paid out from the denomination safe 8 when paying out. The coins paid out from the coin safe 8 are conveyed to the left in the figure by the horizontal conveying unit 10, and further conveyed to the feeding unit 2 by the vertical conveying unit 12.

The coins conveyed to the feeding section 2 are fed one by one, and are passed through the inspection section 3 to the vertical conveying section 11 via the reject gate 15 and the horizontal conveying section 9 at the final portion of the conveying section 4. , The receiving tray 1 is to be withdrawn.

A shutter 6 is provided above the tray 1 so that the shutter 6 can be opened and a user can insert coins into the tray 1 during a deposit transaction. The shutter 6 is opened so that the user can receive coins from the tray 1 during withdrawal.

The conveyor belt support 16 is rotatably provided around a fulcrum 17, and a belt 24 is stretched around the conveyor belt support 16. The coins are transported on the transport path 4 by the transport belt 24. FIG. 2 is a plan view from above the feeding unit 2 and the money inspection unit 3.

The housing of the feeding portion 2 is composed of two feeding portion side plates 32, around which a feeding belt 18 for feeding coins is hung. A gap of about one coin is opened above the feeding belt 18 so that the gap roller 36 rotates in the direction opposite to the belt direction.
Are fed one by one by the action of the feeding belt 18 and the gap roller 36.

Coin guide plates 19 are provided at the tip of the feeding portion 2 at intervals slightly wider than the maximum diameter coins used. This has the function of collecting coins in the center of the belt as much as possible, and also functions to prevent foreign objects such as foreign coins larger than the largest coin from being sent to the coin inspection department.

The coin C fed from the feeding portion 2 is fed to the coin inspection portion conveying plate 20 whose tip is engaged with the feeding belt 18 with a slight gap. On both sides of the upper surface of the coin-checking section conveying plate 20, the coin-checking section guide plates 33 arranged at an interval slightly wider than the interval of the coin guide plates 19 are provided on both sides.

A sensor block 29 to which a sensor or the like is attached is provided under the coin-checking section conveying plate 20, and the sensor block 29 has a coin-checking device 3 for sorting coins, a coin sensor LED 21, and a CCD 22. LED30 as a light source of is attached.

A CCD case 35 is provided on the transfer board 20 of the coin inspection section. And the sensor block 29
LED30 and coin sensor LED2 installed inside
The phototransistors of the CCD 22 and the coin sensor 21 are provided on the same PC plate so as to face 1 and are provided in the CCD case 35. The CCD case 35 is fixed to the conveyor belt support 15. The coin C is conveyed in the direction A by the conveyor belt 31 shown by the dashed-dotted line on the inspection board conveying plate 20. Passage sensors 24, 25, and 26 for coins are arranged in the transport path 35, and the optical axes thereof are attached so as to incline from the top to the bottom of the transport path of the 35 and cross the coins.

That is, although not shown, the passage sensors 24, 2
Reference numerals 5 and 26 are each composed of a pair of LEDs and phototransistors. A PC board having phototransistors arranged in the same position is provided on the upper side of the conveyance path, and LEDs are arranged in a line at the same position on the lower side of the conveyance path. A PC board is provided. Then, when the passage sensor detects a coin, each shutter is opened to select the coin.

The shutter 27G is a shutter for temporarily holding coins in a lump, and when the passage sensor 24 detects coins, it is opened by being driven by a solenoid (not shown) if necessary. Then, after that, when the passage sensor 25 detects the passage of the coin, the solenoid is de-energized and the shutter is closed. The shutter 27a is a shutter for selecting 1-yen coins, and when the passage sensor 25 detects a coin, the shutter 27a is opened as described above.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, only the shutter for selecting 1 yen is shown, but in addition to this, 5 yen, 10 yen, 100
A shutter is provided for selecting yen and 500 yen, and a reject gate 15 for processing reject coins is provided at the final part of the selecting unit 5. No shutter is provided for this reject gate because no sorting is required. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the shutter section.

A rotary solenoid 117 is provided at 4 in the transport path.
The shutter 116 that opens and closes by 28a for each denomination
Up to 28 f are attached, and further, a total of seven shutters 27 that are collectively reserved are attached.

The shutters are continuously provided and form a coin carrying path. Further, the tip of the shutter 116 is deeply lowered so that coins are not caught by the shutter chattering.

The Sonorade 117 has a long shaft, and the Sonorade 117 is fixed to the frame 120 of the conveying path by a bearing 119. In addition, the shutter 11
6 is fixed to the shaft by the pin 121. The center of the solenoid 117 is fixed by the bearing 119 as described above, but the rotation direction and the thrust direction are slightly moved in the thrust direction by the solenoid stopper plate 122d, the solenoid fixing plate 123, the solenoid mounting screw 114, and the nut 125. Fixed in the direction of rotation.

That is, the thickness of the solenoid fixing plate 123 is
Since the solenoid clasp 122 is thinner than the thickness of the solenoid clasp 122, the solenoid 117 can move slightly in the thrust direction.

The holder 126 is for attaching the phototransistor 125 of the passage sensor, and the PC plate to which the phototransistor 125 is soldered is attached from the rear portion of the holder 126. An LED 129 is provided facing the phototransistor 125.

That is, in the LED 129, the PC plate to which the LED 129 is soldered is fixed to the holder 127 similarly to the phototransistor. As a result, it is detected that the coin passes through the transport path. Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

The coins put into the tray 1 are dropped to the 2 feeding section by the rotation of the tray 1, and the coins are successively fed from the feeding section 2 one by one. The dispensed coin is detected by the coin sensor 21, the material is determined by the coin inspector 23, and the diameter of the coin is determined by the CCD 22.

Then, the type of coin is determined by each combination. As a result of the determination, the shutter for each denomination of the sorting unit 5 operates to open when a coin is detected by the preceding passage sensor as described above, and the passage sensor immediately before the shutter detects the passage of coins. At this time, the shutter operates so as to close.

The coins thus inserted are sorted by the sorting unit 5 and temporarily held in the temporary holding unit 7.
When no coins are left in the feeding section 2, a residual sensor (not shown) in the feeding section detects this and stops the feeding operation.

Then, the user is informed of how much coin was inserted. The user inputs a deposit instruction (approval) if the amount deposited by the user and the amount determined by the coin processor are the same, whereby the temporary holding unit 7 rotates and the deposit safe 8 for each denomination.
The coins are stored in.

Thus, the deposit is completed. When the coin safe 8 is full of coins, the shutter for each denomination of the sorting unit 5 does not operate, but the shutter 27 for storing coins in the batch temporary holding unit 7 ′ operates, and all coins are It is stored in the batch temporary holding section. The stored coins are stored in the overflow safe 14 via the overflow coin chute 37 by rotating the batch temporary holding unit 7 ′ in the same manner as described above.

When the user demands the return of the coins for some reason when the money is deposited once and the selection is completed, the temporary holding 7 and the batch temporary holding unit 7'use the money type safe 8
Alternatively, the coins can be discharged onto the lateral conveyance path 9 by rotating in the opposite direction to the case of storing them in the overflow safe 14. And the coins on the lateral transport path 9
The tray 1 is conveyed in the direction B of FIG.
Will be returned to. Next, the withdrawal process will be described.

When the amount of money to be dispensed is designated from the ATM, a designated number of coins are dispensed from the coin type safe 8 based on the instruction. The fed coins are conveyed in the direction B of FIG. 1 by the horizontal conveyance path 10 and are conveyed to the feeding section 2 by the vertical conveyance path 12. The payout unit 2 pays out coins one by one as in the case of depositing, performs the coin inspection by the coin inspection unit 3, and then is conveyed on the conveyance path 4 to eject the coins from the reject gate 15.

The reject gate 15 is operated so that the coins fall onto the horizontal transport 9, and the coins are sent to the vertical transport path 11 by the horizontal transport path 10 and transported to the tray 1 by the vertical transport path 11. At this time, the shutter 27 operates to store coins that cannot be discriminated by the coin inspection unit 3 in the batch temporary holding unit 7 ',
The insufficient coins are fed again from the denomination safe 8 and conveyed to the tray 1. Then, after dispensing a predetermined amount of money, the batch temporary holding unit 7 ′ rotates and the reject coins are stored in the overflow safe 14.

Also, when coins of different denominations are mixed in the eight-kind coin, the coins are stored in the batch temporary holding unit 7'as well as the reject coins and then stored in the overflow safe 14. Next, a case where foreign coins are mixed in instead of Japanese coins at the time of deposit will be described. First, the case where the outer diameter or the thickness is large will be described. As described above, the coin guide 19 of the feeding section 2 is made slightly larger than the maximum diameter of coins used in Japan. Therefore, coins larger than domestic coins are prevented from being dispensed by the coin guide 19 and thus remain in the dispensing section 2.

If the coin is not fed out for a certain period and the residual sensor provided in the feeding portion 2 detects the coin,
If there is a foreign substance in the feeding unit 2, the foreign substance collecting gate 39 provided at the rear portion of the feeding unit 2 opens, and the remaining foreign substance is stored in the foreign substance collecting box 38.

At this time, instead of the foreign matter collection box 38, a shooter for discharging to the outside may be provided. Further, the thick coin cannot pass between the gate roller and the belt of the feeding unit 2 and remains in the feeding unit 2 similarly to the large-diameter coin, and is stored in the foreign matter collection box 38.

By the way, in the case of foreign coins, there are very small diameter coins as compared with coins in Japan. In that case, after it is determined that the coin is a small-diameter coin, the first gate 27G is opened and stored to prevent the coin from being lost.

When a small coin is fed, the coin sensor 2
1 detects a coin. Unlike the conventional coin sensor 21, two coin sensors 21 are provided on the coin inspection transport plate 20 so as to detect small-diameter coins.

When the coin sensor 21 detects a coin, the coin detector 23 and the CCD 22 perform coin inspection. When the CCD 22 detects that the conveyed coins are abnormally small, the first shutter 27G is driven to temporarily store the coins 7 '.
To store. Then, when all the coins are fed out from the feeding unit 2, the batch primary holding unit 7 ′ rotates to the side of the lateral transport path 9 and returns the small diameter coins and the reject coins to the tray 1. Therefore, the small coin and the reject coin returned to the tray 1 are returned to the user who deposits the coin.

According to the above-described embodiment, coins larger than domestic coins are prevented from being fed out by the coin guide 19, and coins smaller than the smallest domestic coin are temporarily held by the first shutter 27G. It is stored in 7 '.

Therefore, it is possible to provide a highly reliable device without causing coins to drop from the transport path and be held inside the device to cause a failure, or to be mixed into a storage portion for other denominations. .

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention, a coin determined to be smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed is collected before the sorting section for each denomination, and therefore a very small coin. It is possible to provide a highly reliable device without the occurrence of a problem that the product is dropped from the transport path to cause a failure inside the device or mix into another storage unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a circulation type coin processing machine.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a sorting unit.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a sorting unit.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a shutter structure of a selection unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a shape of a shutter.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sauce 2 ... Delivery part 3 ... Money inspection part 4 ... Conveyance part 5 ... Sorting part 6 ... Shutter 7 ... Primary storage part 7 '... Batch temporary storage box 8 ... Kind safe 9 ... Horizontal transfer part 10 ... Horizontal transfer part 11 ... Vertical transfer section 12 ... Vertical transfer section 13 ... Safe box 14 ... Overflow safe box 20 ... Payment transfer plate 21 ... Coin sensor 23 ... Coin checker 22 ... CCD 27 ... Shutter 38 ... Foreign material collection box 39 ... Foreign material collection gate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A receiving unit for receiving coins in a lump, a feeding unit for feeding coins from the receiving unit one by one, a type of coins fed by the feeding unit, and a minimum size to be processed. Identification means for identifying whether or not it is smaller than coins, selection means provided after the identification means for each type of coins and for selecting coins by type, and provided between the identification means and the selection means. It has a holding means for temporarily holding a coin determined to be smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed by the identifying means, and a means for returning the coin held in the holding means to the receiving section. And coin processing equipment. 2. A feeding means for feeding coins one by one, a plurality of shutters for sorting and a conveyor belt for feeding and sorting the coins fed by the feeding means, and a feeding means and a sorting means. A guide member that is formed between the means and that conveys the coins from the feeding means to the sorting means, and a type of coin provided on this guide member that identifies whether the coin is smaller than the minimum size coin to be processed. And a discriminating means for discriminating the coin, which is determined to be smaller than a coin having a minimum size to be processed by the discriminating means, is collected by the first shutter of the selecting means after the discriminating means. Coin processing equipment.