GB2143356A - Systems for the issue of tickets - Google Patents

Abstract

Ticket stock from one of two reels (9, 10) is fed through a guillotine cutter (11) such that a freshly cut blank ticket (20) is permitted to lie in a rest position (6) between two pairs of rollers (21, 24, 22, 24). An enabling signal generated by a coin sensing mechanism (3) causes the blank ticket (20) to be conveyed on a path over a recording head (13) and under a printing head (14) to an exit slot (15), to be printed and encoded at the time of issue. A new blank ticket length is automatically cut and fed into the rest position as the previous ticket exits, thereby permitting a response time to ticket issue having no component due to the cutting time of ticket stock. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to systems for the issue of tickets The present invention relates to systems for the rapid issue of tickets and is particularly, but not exclusively, suitable for the automatic issue of tickets indicating entitlement to travel on public transport. Such tickets are commonly sequentially cut from a strip of ticket stock stored on a reel and issued in response to enabling signals which may be derived from a money deposit sensing apparatus or alternatively a value card identifying apparatus operated by a patron.

An issued ticket normally carries printed information and may be magnetically encoded; for example, a ticket for public transport would normally be printed with at least the ticket serial number, the fare and the date of issue. In order to avoid fraud, it is advantageous for a ticket to be printed and encoded after issue has been enabled. Information may be printed as the ticket is issued by using blank ticket stock and passing the freshly cut blank tickets under a fast printing head. The reverse side of the ticket stock may be coated with magnetic oxide and the freshly cut tickets passed over one or more recording heads for encoding with magnetically recorded ticket information to provide access through automatic barrier gates.

An example of an automatic ticket issue system which includes a cutterforcutting blankticketsfed from a reel of ticket stock, a printer for printing ticket information on the blank tickets, magnetic recording heads for encoding blank tickets, and transport means for conveying the tickets from the cutter over the printer and the magnetic heads to a ticket exit is disclosed in British Patent Application No. 2090454A, which describes a means of enabling automatic money operated ticket issue which is representative of the present state of the art. In such a system an enabling signal is generated when a money deposit sensing apparatus indicates that sufficient money for a fare has been inserted.Once the ticket issuing system has been enabled, control signals are applied to the ticket handling system, to operate in sequence the feed from the ticket reel stock, the cutter, and the transport means for conveying the freshly cut tickets over the printer and magnetic heads to the ticket exit. It is advantageous with crowded public transport systems for tickets to be issued as rapidly as possible following money or value card insertion. In a system as described above the time from generation of an enable signal to ticket issue is comprised of two components, the time taken to feed one ticket length of stock and operate the cutter, and the time taken to transport a cut ticket over encoding and print heads to the ticket exit.The second component, with presently available compact dot matrix printers and recording heads, is typically in the order of one second, with a ticket speed typically of 20cms/ second and a path length over encoding and print heads of typically 20cms. The first component is largely composed of the time taken to operate the cutter, and is again typically in the order of one second. This operation involves the cutting of ticket stock which must usually be sufficiently rugged for tickets to withstand personal handling and reliable decoding in barrier gate machines. Ticket stock for the currently used "Edmonson" type ticket for example, is of card material having a thickness of 0.56mm and a width of 3cm, and presently used cutters may have a rotary or a guillotine action.It is not envisaged that cutting speed will reduce significantly in future machines, bearing in mind the requirements of precision of cut, reliability of operation and reasonably low cost in a practical machine.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for the automatic issue of tickets which has a faster response than has hitherto been achievable in having a response time from enabling the system to the issue of a ticket which includes substantially no component due to the cutting of ticket stock.

According to the invention there is provided a system for the automatic issue of tickets comprising feed means for feeding a strip of ticket stock, cutting means for cutting tickets of a given length from the fed end of said strip, transport means for conveying said tickets, when cut, elong a path from said cutting means to a ticket exit, a ticket rest position between said cutting means and said ticket exit such that a cut ticket may lie in said rest position while said ticket issuing system is in a quiescent state, control means being provided such that, in operation, an enabling signal causes said transport means to convey said cut ticket from said ticket rest position to said ticket exit and, on the vacation of said rest position, said control means causes said ticket feed means and said cutter means to operate such that a newly fed ticket is fed into said rest position.

In order that the present invention may be fully understood and carried into effect, embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a coin operated ticket vending machine which incorporates an embodiment of the invention, and Figure 2 shows an embodiment of the invention in schematic form.

A self-contained free-standing coin operated ticket vending machine is shown in Figure 1. The machine is housed in a stainless steel cabinet 1 and has an opening front door 2 to provide access to a coin mechanism 3, a ticket mechanism 4, and a power supply unit 7. A sloping front panel housing illuminated signs and a coin entry slot 8 is hinged to provide access to these mechanisms from above. The ticket mechanism is mounted on heavy duty slides to permit forward movement for ready access and Figure 1 shows this mechanism in its forward position in order to reveal many of its components.

Blank ticket stock in strip form and coated on one side with magnetic oxide is fed from one of two reels 9 or 10 by means of a pair of feed drive rollers through a guidance slot 19 and under a guillotine cutter blade 11 to a ticket rest position 6 provided by two pairs of rollers spaced less than a ticket length apart. Tickets are cut by the operation of the guillotine, and while the machine is in quiescent state, a cut blank ticket lies in the rest position with its magnetic coating facing downwards.

The coin mechanism is of a known design in which coins are inserted into a slot 8 and, following validation that coins of at least the required value have been inserted, an enabling signal is generated to initiate ticket issue. A change/reject coin compartment and cash box are shown at 12 and 12A respectively.

On the generation of an enabling signal, drive is applied to each pair of rollers at the ticket rest position such that the ticket vacates the rest position to be transported over one or more magnetic heads 13 where encoding takes place, and thence, by means of a further pair of driven rollers, under one or more print heads 14 where printing takes place to an exit slot 15. When the rest position is vacated, control signals are generated which cause the feed drive rollers to feed the end of the ticket stock under the guillotine blade, and to cease feeding and operate the guillotine blade 11 when a new ticket length has passed into the rest position.Operated in this manner, the time from the generation of an enabling signal to the issue of a ticket is only the time taken to transport the ticket from the rest position to the exit slot, and contains no component due to the ticket feed and guillotining operations.

The automatic operation of the machine is controlled by a microprocessor which, following an enabling signal, appropriately controls the energisation of drive motors, guillotine operation, recording heads and print heads. Sensors, which may be microswitches or optical sensors, are located at intervals along the ticket path from the rest position to monitor the progress of tickets, enabling automatic clearing routines to be followed in the event of a ticket jam being sensed. One such sensor may be used to detect the vacation of the ticket rest position, and enable the generation of signals to control the feed and guillotining of a new ticket length into the rest position.

Sensors are also placed in the paths of the feed from each reel of ticket stock such that the end of a reel may be detected and a routine for automatically changing the feed from one reel to another may be initiated.

A schematic diagram of the invention is shown in Figure 2, showing feed from only one reel of ticket stock 9. The ticket stock is fed between two rollers 16 and 17, the former being belt driven buy a motor 18.

The end of the strip is fed through a guidance slot 19 under the blade of a guillotine cutter 11 to a ticket rest position as shown by the position of a blank ticket 20. The rest position is defined by two pairs of rollers and a microswitch sensor 31, the lower roller of each pair, 21 and 22 being driven by a motor 23 and the upper rollers 24 being idler rollers. The guillotine blade is operated when a strip of one ticket length has been fed past the blade position, and with the motors 18 and 23 both stationary. The ticket path to a ticket exit slot 15 includes a magnetic encoding head 13 and platen roller 25, a dot-matrix printer 14 and platen roller 26, and two pairs of rollers, the lower rollers 27 and 28 being driven by a motor 29 and the upper rollers being idler rollers.

Microswitch sensors for monitoring and control ing the position of a ticket in its path are shown by arrows at positions 30,31,32 and 33, and a sensor for indicating the approach of the end of roll is shown at position 34.

In operation, a blank ticket 20 lies in the ticket rest position with motors 18 and 23 stationary until a coin mechanism 3, or alternative input device such as a card operated apparatus, generates an enabling signal which is transmitted to a microprocessor in a control unit 34. In response to this enabling signal, the motor 23 is energised causing the blank tickets 20 to move towards the exit slot 15, first over the recording head 13 and thence under the print head 14 as the drive is picked up by the rollers 27 and 28, which are driven by the motor 29, to the ticket slot. A signal may be derived from any one of the sensors 30 to 33 to control the feed of a replacement blank ticket to lie in the ticket rest position. In practice, the microprocessor will be connected to the print head, the recording head, the guillotine, the drive motors and all sensors.Forthe purposes of clarity, only those connections which are relevant to the present invention are shown.

We will first consider the derivation of such a control signal from the sensor 31, which is placed at one ticket length from the guillotine. A signal representing the passage of the trailing edge of the ticket over this sensor indicates that the rest position has just been vacated. This signal is transmitted to the microprocessor, and the feed motor 18 is energized, causing ticket stock to be fed underthe guillotine blade. When the leading edge of the ticket stock reaches the sensor 31, one ticket length has been fed into the rest position, and signals are generated to remove drive from the motors 18 and 23 and to operate the guillotine, the machine then being in a quiescent state with a freshly cut blank ticket in the rest position.The feed of a new ticket length may be arranged to commence at any time following the start of the movement of the previous ticket by the appropriate placement of sensors. For example, the use of a sensor at position 30 to detect the trailing edge of a ticket would give a faster response and, with the geometry shown, would ensure that a new ticket was in the rest position before the previous ticket had passed through the exit slot.

The motor 29 may run continuously, or, alternatively, power may be saved by energising this motor on the transmission of an enabling signal from the coin sensing apparatus and utilising sensor 33 to remove drive as the trailing edge of a ticket approaches the slot.

With coin operated apparatus, there is inevitably a delay between first coin insertion and the transmission of an enabling system due to the time taken to insert coins and the time taken by the apparatus to validate that at least the correct fare has been inserted. In such cases, no time is lost overall if a sensor at position 33 is used to control the operation ofthe feed, this sensor detecting the trailing edge of the ticket as it is issued. With such sensing, and by controlling the motor 29 as above, this motor does not operate during the time that the feed motor 18 operates and the drain on power supply is reduced.

Additionally, the likelihood of ticket jams may be reduced by having only one ticket in the system at any one time.

With a two reel system, automatic changeover from one reel to another may be made by using a sensor such as shown at 34 with each reel to detect the approach of the end of a reel. In response to a signal sensing the trailing edge of a reel, control signals from the microprocessor cause the removal of the trailing end of stock by reversing the feed motor, and the leading edge of the new reel is fed under the guillotine to prepare a fresh ticket in the rest position.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, a system may be required to transport cut tickets from the rest position to the ticket exit at a higher speed than a speed at which it is reasonably economical to feed a large ticket reel. Such a system would be feasible by using a slow feed motor 18 and fast ticket transport motors 23 and 29. The rollers 21 and 22 may be allowed to free run with motor 23 de-energised during the ticket feed operation.

Furthermore the invention is not limited to systems which encode or print tickets as they are issued, orto use with ticket vending machines, and may be suitable, for example, for the rapid issue of tickets from reeled stock at a kiosk in which the enabling signal is derived from a manually operated key.

Claims (13)

1. A system for the automatic issue of tickets comprising feed means for feeding a strip of ticket stock, cutting means for cutting tickets of a given length from the fed end of said strip, transport means for conveying said tickets, when cut, along a path from said cutting means to a ticket exit, a ticket rest position between said cutting means and said ticket exit such that a cut ticket may lie in said rest position while said ticket issuing system is in a quiescent state, control means being provided such that, in operation, an enabling signal causes said transport means to convey said cut ticket from said ticket rest position to said ticket exit and, on the vacation of said rest position, said control means causes said ticket feed means and said cutter means to operate such that a newly fed ticket is fed into said rest position.

2. A system according to Claim 1 in which said ticket stock is blank ticket stock such that a blank cut ticket may lie in said rest position while said ticket issuing system is in a quiescent state.

3. A system according to either of Claims 1 or 2 in which said cutting means is a guillotine cutter connected to said control means.

4. A system according to any preceding claim in which said ticket rest position is provided by two pairs of rollers spaced less than a ticket length apart and said transport means includes at least one drive motor capable of driving at least one of said rollers.

5. A system according to Claim 4 in which said transport means for conveying said tickets includes at least two further pairs of rollers, said transport means including at least one further drive motor capable of driving at least one roller of said further pair of rollers.

6. A system according to any preceding claim in which said path to said ticket exit includes a printing head such that information may be printed on said tickets after the application of said enabling signal.

7. A system according to Claim 6 which is suitable for the automatic issue of tickets indicating entitlement to travel on public transport.

8. A system according to any preceding claim in which said ticket stock has a magnetic coating and in which said path to said ticket exit includes one or more magnetic recording heads such that said tickets may be magnetically encoded afterthe application of said enabling signal.

9. A system according to any preceding claim in which said enabling signal is derived from a money deposit sensing apparatus.

10. A system according to any one of Claims 1 to 8 in which said enabling signal is derived from a manually operated key.

11. A system according to any preceding claim in which said ticket stock 13 provided from one of two rolls, said control system being provided with end of reel sensors such that an automatic changeover from one reel to the other may be made as the end of a reel approaches.

12. A system according to any preceding claim in which said transport means conveys said cut ticket from said rest position to said ticket exit at a higher speed than said end of said strip of ticket stock is fed into said rest position.

13. A system for the automatic issue of tickets substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.