EP0060774B1 - Sheet separating device - Google Patents

Abstract

1. An apparatus for separating sheets of paper from a pile (12) and comprising : - a support for said pile, - a structure (10) movable about an axis (11) parallel to the plane of the sheets above said support, - hollow drums (14A, 14B) supported by said structure (10) and mounted so as to rotate about their respective axes parallel to the axis (11) of said structure (10) in a direction opposite to that of the structure, each drum having at least one opening (21) at its periphery, - means (30 to 35) for temporarily creating a depression inside said drums (14A, 14B) so that, when one the drums engages the topmost sheet of the pile (12), the edge of this sheet is detached from the pile and partially winds on the periphery of this drum under the action of the depression existing in this drum, while another drum maintains in position the sheet just underneath in the pile - means (22 to 26) for removing the sheet thus partially wound in a direction opposite to its detached edge characterized in that said structure (10) is driven around said axis (11) with an oscillating movement by driver means (18 to 20), and in that said drums are two in number (14A, 14B) and undergo a depression only during a half-period of the oscillating movement of said structure.

Description

The present invention relates to a machine for separating sheets of paper from a stack of sheets, and in particular applicable to the separation of banknotes for their examination and sorting.

A machine of this kind is for example described in French patent No. 2,345,376 in the names of the applicants. It essentially comprises a set of hollow drums mounted on a rotating wheel and animated by a hypocycloidal movement during which each drum comes in turn to contact the top of the stack of banknotes towards one of their ends, the drum arriving in contact having simultaneously its interior placed in communication with a source of vacuum so that, the vacuum acting through openings on the banknote in contact, it coils partially around the periphery of the drum when the movement of this drum continues , while the next drum acts to temporarily hold the bill immediately below. The note thus lifted from the stack by one of its ends is then transported between two pinch rollers using a hollow wheel in permanent rotation whose interior is also connected to the source of vacuum and which acts tangentially by openings on the end of the banknote in contact with the stack to move it and bring it between the two pinch rollers.

It should be noted that in this embodiment of the prior art, only two consecutive drums are active at a time and cooperate to detach the first ticket from the stack and retain the next ticket; the other drums are put into service 1 one after the other, in pairs with the previous one, only during the progressive rotation of the support of the drums which produces their hypocycloidal movement.

The subject of the invention is a machine for separating sheets of paper of the kind described in the previous example, but of a more simplified design thanks to a modification of the kinematics used.

• - un support pour ladite pile,
• - une structure mobile autour d'un axe parallèle au plan des feuilles au dessus dudit support,
• - des tambours creux portés par ladite structure et montés de manière à pouvoir tourner autour de leurs axes respectifs parallèles à l'axe de ladite structure dans un sens opposé à celui de la structure, chaque tambour possédant au moins une ouverture à sa périphérie,
• - des moyens permettant de créer temporairement une dépression à l'intérieur desdits tambours de manière que lorsqu'un tambour arrive au contact de la feuille au sommet de la pile, l'extrémité de cette feuille se détache de la pile et s'enroule partiellement sur la périphérie de ce tambour par effet de la dépression régnant à l'interieur de ce dernier, tandis qu'un autre tambour maintient en place la feuille immédiatement au dessous dans la pile,
• - des moyens d'évacuation de la feuille ainsi partiellement enroulée dans la direction opposée à son extrémité détachée, et elle est caractérisée en ce que ladite structure est animée autour de son axe d'un mouvement oscillant par des moyens d'entraînement, et que lesdits tambours sont au nombre de deux et ne sont soumis à une dépression interne qu'au cours d'une demi-période du mouvement oscillant de ladite structure.

According to the invention, the machine for separating sheets of paper from a stack comprises:

• - a support for said stack,
• - a mobile structure around an axis parallel to the plane of the sheets above said support,
• - hollow drums carried by said structure and mounted so as to be able to rotate around their respective axes parallel to the axis of said structure in a direction opposite to that of the structure, each drum having at least one opening at its periphery,
• - Means for temporarily creating a vacuum inside said drums so that when a drum comes into contact with the sheet at the top of the stack, the end of this sheet detaches from the stack and is partially wound on the periphery of this drum by the effect of the depression prevailing inside the latter, while another drum holds the sheet in place immediately below in the stack,
• - means for evacuating the sheet thus partially wound in the direction opposite to its detached end, and it is characterized in that said structure is animated around its axis of an oscillating movement by drive means, and that said drums are two in number and are subjected to an internal vacuum only during a half-period of the oscillating movement of said structure.

The drive means of the structure are preferably made by making it include a slot in which an eccentric crank pin driven by a motor can slide.

This same engine also drives a camshaft controlling valves connected respectively in pneumatic circuits connecting the interior of the drums to a source of vacuum.

The means for discharging the sheet partially wound around the drum are constituted by a hollow wheel provided with openings which is in contact with the top of the pile and which rotates around a shaft parallel to the axis of the structure, the previous camshaft also controlling a valve connected to a pneumatic circuit connecting the vacuum source inside the wheel.

The machine according to the invention is thus simpler to produce than the machines of the prior art, the use of an oscillating movement allowing, with a flow rate of the machine a little less, to always make the two drums cooperate during of a half-period of their cyclic movement, the other half-period serving to bring them back to their original position.

This results in price advantages for the machine by reducing the number of drums limited to two, and also in space by replacing the drum carrying wheel with a simple circular sector. Another advantage consists in reducing the air consumption because the vacuum source is only connected to the drums and the evacuation wheel during half of an operating cycle.

• - la figure 1 représente, en coupe partielle, une vue schématique en élévation d'une machine distributrice suivant l'invention en position origine au point mort arrière,
• - la figure 2 représente une vue analogue de la machine de la figure 1 en position au point mort avant,
• - la figure 3 représente, en coupe partielle, une vue de profil de la machine avec ses circuits pneumatiques,
• - la figure 3A montre la commande d'une vanne,
• - la figure 4 est une vue en coupe partielle du montage de la zone d'évacuation,
• - la figure 5 représente schématiquement un palpeur d'asservissement maintenant le sommet de la pile à niveau constant.

The invention will be better understood by referring to the following description and to the accompanying drawings, given by way of nonlimiting examples of an embodiment of a separating machine according to the invention.
In these drawings:

• FIG. 1 represents, in partial section, a schematic elevation view of a dispensing machine according to the invention in the original position at rear dead center,
• FIG. 2 represents a similar view of the machine of FIG. 1 in the position in front neutral,
• FIG. 3 represents, in partial section, a side view of the machine with its pneumatic circuits,
• FIG. 3A shows the control of a valve,
• FIG. 4 is a partial section view of the mounting of the evacuation zone,
• - Figure 5 shows schematically a servo probe maintaining the top of the stack at constant level.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, we see at 10 the structure of the machine, movable about an axis 11 supported by the machine frame, this axis 11 being horizontal and parallel to the plane of the sheets of paper, for example banknotes, which form a stack 12 guided in a store 13. Additional means, which will be described later, make it possible to maintain the top of the stack of notes 12 at a constant level. The axis 11 is arranged in a vertical plane passing in the vicinity of one of the ends of the stack 12. The mobile structure 10 has the general shape of a circular sector of axis 11 and carries, near its periphery, two drums hollow 14A, 14B whose spacing is chosen to be less than the length of the tickets to be separated. Each drum 14 is mounted on a hollow shaft 15 which can rotate in bearings 36 of the structure 10.

On each shaft 15 is wedged a toothed wheel 16 which meshes with the corresponding toothing of a toothed sector of a fixed circular crown 17, coaxial with the axis 11, so that, when the structure 10 oscillates around the axis 11, the drums rotate around their shaft 15 alternately in one direction and in the other according to the direction of oscillation, describing a hypocycloidal movement.

The oscillatory movement of the structure 10 is obtained by means of an electric motor 18, fixed on the frame of the machine, which rotates along the arrow F an eccentric crank pin 19 which can slide in a slot 20 formed in the structure 10. The assembly is dimensioned so that, during their movement, the periphery of the drums 14 is just in contact with the top of the stack 12 kept at constant level.

Each of the drums 14 is provided with one or more openings 21 directed in a direction perpendicular to the axis and communicating the interior of the shaft 15 and the drum with the external surface of the latter.

At the end of the top of the pile 12 opposite to that where the drums 14 are flush with the banknotes, is mounted a hollow wheel 22 which acts as a means of discharging the banknote and which continuously rotates while remaining in contact with the top of the stack 12. The wheel 22 is used to move to the right the banknote already partially wound on the drum 14A where it is taken up by a pair of pinch rollers 23, 24 to be transported to an examination and sorting device in the direction of the arrow FI.

The wheel 22, shown in section in FIG. 4, is mounted, by means of a bearing 27 on a fixed shaft parallel to the axis 11 and supported by the frame of the machine. The shaft 25 is hollow and the wheel 22 has a plurality of openings 26 (FIG. 1) bringing the interior of the shaft 25 into communication with the external surface of the wheel 22. The latter is rotated around the shaft 25 by a motor 28, supported by the frame of the machine, and by means of a gear train 29.

The machine also comprises pneumatic circuits making it possible to selectively connect on the one hand the interior of the drums 14A and / or 14B, on the other hand the interior of the wheel 22, with a source of vacuum 30, for example a pump or a fan, possibly associated with a vacuum tank, by means of a sleeve 34 and flexible connecting pipes 35, and of valves 31 A, 31 B and 32. These valves are controlled by a camshaft 33 driven by the same motor 18 as the structure 10. The respective control cams of the valves 31 A, 31 B and 32 are set so as to control these valves in synchronism with the movement of the structure 10, and consequently do not put the inside the drums 14 and the wheel 22 in vacuum only at instants determined during the active half-period of the oscillating movement of the structure 10. FIG. 3A shows in profile an example of a cam cooperating with its associated valve. Valves 31 and 32, instead of being directly controlled, can be replaced by solenoid valves.

• - Partant de la position origine représentée à la figure 1, les tambours 14A et 14B sont «au point mort arrière» du maneton 19, le rouleau 14A étant au contact du billet au sommet de la pile 12 avec ses ouvertures 21 dirigées vers le billet.
• - Le maneton 19 effectuant une rotation suivant le sens de la flèche F, la structure 10 amorce une demi-oscillation vers la droite, les tambours 14A et 14B tournant, eux, dans le sens horaire sur la vue de la figure 1. Le calage de la came relative au tambour 14A sur l'arbre 33 est tel que la vanne 31 A met alors l'intérieur de ce tambour en dépression de sorte que l'extrémité du billet au sommet de la pile 12 est aspirée par ce tambour et que le billet adhère à la périphérie du tambour autour de laquelle il tend à s'enrouler au fur et à mesure que le mouvement de la structure 10 se poursuit vers la droite.

The operation of the machine then proceeds as follows:

• - Starting from the original position shown in FIG. 1, the drums 14A and 14B are "at rear dead center" of the crankpin 19, the roller 14A being in contact with the banknote at the top of the stack 12 with its openings 21 directed towards the banknote .
• - The crankpin 19 rotating in the direction of the arrow F, the structure 10 initiates a half-oscillation to the right, the drums 14A and 14B rotating, them, clockwise in the view of Figure 1. The setting of the cam relative to the drum 14A on the shaft 33 is such that the valve 31 A then puts the interior of this drum in vacuum so that the end of the bill at the top of the stack 12 is sucked by this drum and that the ticket adheres to the periphery of the drum around which it tends to wind as the movement of the structure 10 continues to the right.

FIG. 2 shows the position of the structure 10 at the end of its half-oscillation to the right, that is to say at the "front dead center" of the crank pin 19. The upper banknote of the stack 12 is then wound on about a half circumference of the drum 14A while the drum 14B has just come into contact with the banknote immediately below in the stack. At this stage, the cams of the shaft 33 act respectively: on the valve 31 A to stop the vacuum inside the drum 14A and release the half-wound bill at its periphery; on the valve 31 B to on the contrary cause the depression in the drum 14B to act and retain the next banknote from the stack; and on the valve 32 to act the vacuum inside the wheel 22 which can then drive the upper bill, released by the drum 14A, towards the rollers 23, 24.

The upper banknote of the stack thus separated and evacuated, the structure 10 departs to the left for a half-oscillation "empty" during which the vacuum is removed in the drums 14A and 14B; these being deactivated, they do not play any role tending to withdraw a ticket, but simply roll in turn on the top of the pile in an anti-clockwise direction. The same goes for wheel 22.

When the second half-oscillation of the structure 10 to the left ends, it is found in the original original position described in Figure 1, and another cycle of oscillation will be repeated analogously for the sampling of the new note occupying the top of the stack.

FIG. 5 schematically represents a permattant means of ensuring the constancy of the level of the banknotes of the stack 12 in the magazine 13 (FIG. 1). Two arms 40 serving as level probes from the top of the stack 12 surround the wheel 22 and are pivotally mounted about an axis 41. A metal pallet 42 is integral with the arms 40 and cooperates with a proximity sensor 43, for example of the reluctance variation type; it turns on or off an electric motor (not shown) controlling the upward movement device 44 (fig. 1) of the bottom plate of the magazine 13 containing the stack of notes 12, depending on whether the pallet 42 is at a distance from the sensor above or below a determined threshold.

- It is obvious that the invention is not limited to the single embodiment which has been described by way of example, and that modifications can be made thereto without departing from its field, in particular as regards the drive means structure in its oscillating movement and in obtaining control of the valves in synchronism with this oscillating movement.

Claims (6)

1. An apparatus for separating sheets of paper from a pile (12) and comprising:

- a support for said pile,

- a structure (10) movable about an axis (11) parallel to the plane of the sheets above said support,

- hollow drums (14A, 14B) supported by said structure (10) and mounted so as to rotate about their respective axes parallel to the axis (11) of said structure (10) in a direction opposite to that of the structure, each drum having at least one opening (21 ) at its periphery,

- means (30 to 35) for temporarily creating a depression inside said drums (14A, 14B) so that, when one the drums engages the topmost sheet of the pile (12), the edge of this sheet is detached from the pile and partially winds on the periphery of this drum under the action of the depression existing in this drum, while another drum maintains in position the sheet just underneath in the pile

- means (22 to 26) for removing the sheet thus partially wound in a direction opposite to its detached edge characterized in that said structure (10) is driven around said axis (11) with an oscillating movement by driver means (18 to 20), and in that said drums are two in number (14A, 14B) and undergo a depression only during a half-period of the oscillating movement of said structure.

2. A separator apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said means (18) for driving the structure (10) control in synchronism said means for temporarily creating a depression (30, 31 A, 31 B, 35) inside the drums (14A, 14B).

3. A separator apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said remover means have a pneumatic action, characterized in that said driver means (18) also control in synchronism the internal depression of the remover means (22).

4. A separator apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said means for driving the structure include a rotating motor (18), characterized in that said motor (18) drives a cam shaft (33) which actuates respective valves (31A, 31 B) mounted within pneumatic circuits connecting the inside of the drums (14A, 14B) to a depression source (30).

5. A separator apparatus according to claims 3 and 4, characterized in that said cam shaft (33) has an additional valve (32) mounted within a pneumatic circuit connecting the pneumatic action remover means (22) to the depression source (30).

6. A separator apparatus according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that said motor (18) drives the structure (10) by means of an excentric pin (19) which is slidable within a slot (20) provided in said structure.

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