FR2585492A1 - INSTALLATION FOR CONVEYING COINS OF CURRENCY BETWEEN AN AUTOMATIC PAYMENT MACHINE AND A CURRENCY PROCESSING STATION - Google Patents

Abstract

INSTALLATION FOR CONVEYING COINS BETWEEN AN AUTOMATIC PAYMENT MACHINE AND A COIN PROCESSING STATION, CHARACTERIZED IN THAT IT INCLUDES, IN COMBINATION: - AT LEAST ONE SELF-PROPELLED CART 2 SUITABLE TO MOVE AUTOMATICALLY BETWEEN THE MACHINE PAYMENT 1 AND THE PROCESSING STATION, THIS TROLLEY 2 BEING EQUIPPED WITH A CONTAINER 3 EQUIPPED AT ITS UPPER PART WITH AN ENTRY PORT 4 THROUGH WHICH THE COINS ARE INTRODUCED INSIDE AND IN ITS LOWER PART OF A HATCH WHOSE CONTROLLED OPENING ALLOWS THE CONTENTS OF THE CONTAINER TO BE DILLED AT THE PROCESSING STATION; AND - AT LEAST ONE BUFFER TANK 6 PLACED ON EACH PAYMENT MACHINE 1 AND THROUGH WHICH THE COINS INTRODUCED IN THE MACHINE ARE TRANSIT, THIS TANK 6 ALLOWS TEMPORARILY RETAINING THE SAID COINS WHEN MOVING TROLLEY 2 TO THE ASSET POST THE DIRECT PASSAGE OF THESE PARTS TOWARD CONTAINER 3 OF THE TROLLEY WHEN THE LATTER IS STOPS UNDER THE PAYMENT MACHINE 1.

Description

Installation for conveying coins between a machine

  The present invention relates to an installation for conveying coins between an automatic payment machine and a coin processing station. This facility is more specifically intended for toll stations, but can also be used for parking tolls, ticket machines, gaming machines, and generally in all areas where there is a collection.

currency.

  At present, automatic payroll acquisition machines are

  coins are usually equipped with chests that the operatives are obliged to periodically collect for

replace with empty chests.

  The transport is carried out either by hand or with conventional handling means. This mode of intervention therefore generates bodily risks and a lack of security of the funds transported since there is, in public places, incitement to aggression. In addition, the cost of exploitation is relatively high, mainly because of the salary of

pickup.

  Also known is a pneumatic conveying system which allows

  to solve the problem by direct aspiration of the coins. This system

  However, the disadvantage of this method is that it has an uninterrupted operation which results in a high energy consumption. In addition, there is a

  significant wear of parts, with production of metal filings.

  The main object of the present invention is thus to remedy these

  disadvantages and, to that end, it relates to a

  a journey of coins essentially characterized in that it comprises, in combination: at least one self-propelled carriage able to move automatically between the payment machine and the processing station, this carriage being equipped with a container provided with at its upper part of an inlet port through which the coins are introduced inside and at its lower part of a hatch whose controlled opening allows to pour the contents of the container to the treatment station; and at least one buffer tank placed on each payment machine and through which the coins introduced into the machine transit, this reservoir making it possible to temporarily retain said coins during the movements of the carriage towards the treatment station and ensuring the direct passage of these parts to the cart container when the cart

  found stopped under the payment machine.

  Preferably, the self-propelled carriage moves on rails of

  guidance arranged inside an underground gallery.

  With this set of provisions, the coins are transferred safely, without any manual intervention and at a reasonable cost, to the processing station constituted for example by the

  vaulocal vault of surveillance of a motorway toll station.

  In a particular embodiment of the invention, the reservoir

  see buffer is provided at its upper part with an orifice through which the coins introduced into the payment machine fall freely inside, and at its lower part of a shutter shutter whose opening is controlled

  by means of electromagnets, in connection with the movements of the

  engine. In addition, a duct is advantageously arranged under the tank

  buffer, to ensure the gravity transfer of the coins

  than the cart container below, when the shutter

said tank is open.

  Moreover, the opening and closing of the hatch of the container are provided by a rod driven alternately by a turntable driven in rotation by means of an electric motor, the position

  closing the hatch corresponding to the top dead center of the connecting rod.

  With this arrangement, when the hatch is closed, it is impossible to open by pulling it and it remains closed without input

  of energy, its opening can only be achieved through the

engine.

  An embodiment of the invention is hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: - Figure 1 is a simplified sectional view of a coin conveying installation according to the invention; - Figures 2 and 3 are views on a larger scale of the self-propelled carriage equipped with its container; - Figures 4 to 6 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the opening system of the container door; and FIGS. 7 to 9 are diagrams illustrating the operation of the shutter of the buffer tank located on the automatic payment machine. The purpose of the installation shown in FIG. 1 is to ensure the automatic transfer of the coins acquired in a coin machine.

  payment such as 1, for example part of an automatic toll station

  to a processing station where they are unloaded, for example

ple in a vault.

  According to the invention, this transfer is carried out by means of self-propelled trolleys such as 2, each equipped with a specialized container 3 able to receive the coins collected by the payment machine 1. This container is provided at its upper part with a funnel-shaped inlet opening 4 through which the parts are introduced inside, and at its lower part a movable door 5, visible in FIGS. 4 to 6, of which

  the opening makes it possible to unload the contents of the container at the treatment station.

  is lying. Each payment machine 1 is further equipped with a buffer tank 6 which will be described in more detail later. After treatment, the parts introduced into the machine by slots or by means of a basket 7, as shown in the figure, fall into this tank

  buffer, where they are likely to be held tenporamirenent during displacements dchariot 2.

  In the particular example described here, the carriage 2 moves to

  the interior of an underground gallery 8 on guide rails.

  between the buffer tank 6 of the payment machine 1 ins-

  surface and the container 3 of the carriage 2 located in the gallery sou-

  8 is carried out through the soil by a conduit 10 equipped with a gudgeon

  high burbot 11 and a low chute 12. The precise stop carriage to the loading station, so that the inlet port 4 of the container is exactly in line with the lower chute 12, is carried in a manner known in

  by means of a fixed selector 13 cooperating with identification means

carried by the trolley.

  As can be seen more clearly in FIGS. 2 and 3, the guide rail 9 of the carriage 2 is fixed to the ceiling of the underground gallery 8 by suspension lines 14. The rolling of the carriage on this rail is ensured by

  two lower roll trains 15 and two upper roll trains 16.

  Its displacement is achieved by a friction wheel 17 driven in rotation by a not shown traction motor. The friction wheel 17 is also integral with a gear wheel 18 designed to cooperate with a rack 19 provided for this purpose in the rising or falling parts of the path, this

  which allows the truck to cross relatively large slopes.

  The rail 9 communicates to the truck the energy it receives from a food

  fixed ment, by two insulated busbars 20 cooperating with wipers 21 carried by the carriage and through which is fed the

  electric traction motor. The direction of travel of the truck is deter-

  mined by the polarities of the voltage applied on the bars 20 and can be

  thus make it change meaning by simply reversing these polarities.

  A third insulated conducting bar 22, associated with a wiper 23, allows the exchange of orders and controls between a central control unit and the carriage, in particular the opening order of the hatch 5 of the

container 3.

  The carriage can be stopped, either by an external command during the identity recognition by the selector 13, or by internal power cut, autonomously, with sensors 24 provided at both ends of the carriage, at the meeting. an obstacle or another trolley. The point of loading of the container 3, determined by the selector 13, is protected from fraudulent attacks upstream and downstream by a tunnel

  removable guard 25 closed by a key lock 26.

  The specialized container 3 will now be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. This container comprises three main compartments, namely:

  a storage compartment 27 closed by the hatch 5 and in the

  which the coins fall through the entry-shaped entrance

  black 4; - A compartment 28 containing the operating mechanism of the hatch 5, closed by a maintenance access door 29 locked by a key lock 30; and a compartment 31 in which is enclosed a geared motor 32

  actuating the mechanism of the hatch.

  This mechanism realizes, successively and in a single cycle, the opening

  ture and closure of the hatch 5 which is pivotally mounted at 33 on one of the sides of the container 3. It consists essentially of a rod 34 whose one end is articulated on the hatch 5 and whose other end is hinged on a turntable 35, mounted on the output shaft 36 of the geared motor 32 and which performs a complete rotation per cycle. The rotational rotation movement is thus transformed by the connecting rod into

  an alternative movement that communicates with the hatch 5.

  Figure 4 shows the opening movement of the hatch, tan-

  say that Figure 5 shows the hatch in the closed position. Note that this closed position corresponds to the top dead center of the rod 34,

  so that it is impossible to open the hatch by simply pulling on it.

  Keeping the trap door closed without energy input is further improved by two special provisions. The first is constituted by an ovalized bore 37 of the turntable 35, in which freely moves a bearing 38 constituting the top axis of the connecting rod. The second is constituted by a half-bearing 39 formed on the turntable of the side opposite the axis of articulation of the connecting rod, bearing on which comes

  take support a second bearing 40 attached to the connecting rod.

  Thus, when the hatch is in the closed position, any attraction exerted on it from below, or any pressure exerted from above, automatically causes the alignment of the rod with the vertical axis of the container, and as this position corresponds precisely to the top dead center of the connecting rod, the hatch remains closed. It follows that the hatch can only be opened by feeding the geared motor 32 by means of an external control transmitted to the truck via the busbar

  22 of the guide rail 9, which is an important security.

  Furthermore, closing the hatch and closing the maintenance access door 29 are controlled by a switch 41 mounted directly on said door. A proximity sensor 42 also makes it possible to control the passage of the hatch by the open position when a magnet

  43 fixed on the turntable 35 passes through the low point of the rod, tan-

  say that another proximity sensor 44 allows the gear motor 32 to stop

  when this magnet 43 goes back through the high point.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the container 3 is hooked on the carriage 2 by means of a quick-attachment fixing plate comprising at one end two symmetrical hooks 46 able to engage in two corresponding slots formed on the side. of the container. At the other end, the container is held by two large brake screws 47 entering two buttonholes on the top of the container. For security reasons, these two screws are accessible only through the lockable maintenance door 29. Where appropriate,

  these two screws could also be sealed.

  As for the buffer tank 6, shown in greater detail in FIGS. 7 to 9, it consists essentially of a storage compartment 48, in which the coins fall freely through an upper inlet orifice 49, and which is capable of to be closed at its bottom by a movable flap 50. A second compartment 51 encloses the operating mechanism of the movable flap 50, with two electromagnets 52 and

  53 respectively controlling the closing and opening of the shutter.

  When powered, the electromagnet 52 pulls on an articulated arm 54 at 55 and the flap 50 which is integral with this arm pivots in position

  as shown in FIG. 8. Keeping the shutter in position

  closure without energy supply is provided by a square bracket 56

  abutment 57, which comes to bear on the free end of the arm 54 under the action of a spring 58 connected between the bracket and the arm, to block

the latter in the low position.

  On the contrary, when it is the electromagnet 53 which is powered, it pivots the bracket 56 rearwardly about its hinge axis 57, thus releasing the arm 54 which then returns to the high position under the action of the spring 58, by bringing the flap 50 into the open position, as shown

in Figure 7.

  In this latter position, the coins introduced into the automatic payment machine 1 pass freely through the buffer tank and then fall by gravity into the container 3 of the carriage 2 stopped below, via the conduit 10 and the chutes 11 and 12. On the other hand, when the carriage is moving towards the discharge point in a vault, the shutter 50 is closed by the electromagnet 52 and the buffer tank then temporarily holds the parts in the compartment 48, the volume of this compartment being sufficient to ensure the storage of parts during

said movements of the carriage.

  Generally, there are several payment machines and there is provided a self propelled trolley by machine. The carriages then move in convoy if the installation has only one rail on which the different machines are arranged in series. In this case, the end of the single rail located beyond the unloading point constitutes a storage area for the trucks that have just been unloaded. After unloading, all

  wagons leave in convoy in the opposite direction to the payroll machines.

  is lying. The carriages can also move independently of each other on several rails, derivations can be made in

  stop stations to form sidings.

  Where appropriate, each trolley could be assigned to several

  machines which would then be picked up successively.

  Of course, the operation of the installation is fully or partially automated throughout the carriage, thanks to the commands and controls that are transmitted on electrical connections connecting the central units of the automatic payment machines and the conveyor system to the local logic of control and the central calculator of the

surveillance room.

  The departure of the carriages towards the unloading point can be

  ordered at fixed time intervals, according to a calculation of estimated

  the minimum filling time of a container.

  However, when the payment machines count the parts to be stored, it is possible to give starting orders according to the fills and according to the mode of transport of the carriages. Thus, when the carriages move in convoy, the starting order is given by the central system, calculator of the surveillance room or automaton, as soon as

  only one of the trolleys is full. On the contrary, when the carriages are

  place independently, each payment machine gives the order of

  departure to the trolley assigned to him as soon as it is full.

  The conveying installation according to the invention therefore has a definite

  nitive flexibility and makes it possible to

  Filling coins from payment machines, safely

and without human intervention.

Claims (5)

  1. Installation for conveying coins between an automatic payment machine and a coin processing station, characterized in that it comprises, in combination: - at least one self-propelled carriage (2) able to move automatically -   between the payment machine (1) and the treatment station, this   riot (2) being equipped with a container (3) provided at its upper part with an inlet (4) through which the coins are introduced inside and at the bottom of a hatch ( 5) whose controlled opening makes it possible to discharge the contents of the container to the treatment station; and   - at least one buffer tank (6) placed on each payroll machine   (1) and through which pass the coins introduced into the machine, the tank (6) for temporarily retaining said parts during movement of the carriage (2) to the treatment station and ensuring the direct passage of these parts to the container (3) of the trolley   when the latter is stopped under the payment machine (1).   Conveying plant according to Claim 1, characterized in that the self-propelled carriage (2) moves on guide rails (9).   disposed within an underground gallery (8).   3. Conveying installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized   characterized in that the buffer tank (6) is provided at its upper part   an orifice (49) through which the coins introduced into the coin   China of payment (1) fall freely inside, and at its lower part   of a shutter (50) whose opening is controlled by means of   electromagnets (52, 53) in connection with the movements of the motor (2).   4. Conveying installation according to claim 3, characterized in that a duct (10, 11, 12) is arranged under the buffer tank (6),   to ensure gravity transfer of coins up to   neur (3) of the carriage (2) below, when the shutter (50) said tank is open.   5. Conveying installation according to any one of the claims   1 to 4, characterized in that the opening and closing of the hatch (5) of the container (3) is ensured by a connecting rod (34) reciprocated by a rotating plate (35) rotated by means of a   electric motor (32), the closing position of the hatch (5) corresponds to   laying at the top dead center of the connecting rod (34).