GB2147443A - Feeding devices for coins and other articles - Google Patents

Abstract

A coin sorter of the inclined disc type incorporates a hopper (9) of frusto-conical shape which is fixed to the disc (2) for rotation therewith. This reduces the chance of coins becoming jammed between the hopper and disc. In order to provide an increased effective circumference of the disc to accommodate coin testing devices (27) and coin ejection mechanism, the cutouts (12) in the disc are partitioned by a fixed baffle (16) into a series of radially outer pockets (15), and coins are permitted to transfer from the radially inner series to the radially outer series by a break (17) in the baffle. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Feeding devices for coins and other articles This invention relates to feeding devices for coins or other articles of similar shape, such as washers.

The invention is concerned with feeding devices of the kind in which a rotatable disc is provided with a series of circumferentially spaced pockets, and on rotation of the disc such that the pockets dip into a mass of articles individual articles are picked out of the mass by the disc and are carried round in the pockets.

Devices of this kind are commonly used for counting a batch of coins, the coins being removed from the disc at an appropriate point in its travel and being fed past a counting mechanism. Such devices have also been arranged to sort a batch of coins into different denominations which are removed from the disc at different points in its rotational path.

Usually the disc is arranged with its plane inclined to the vertical so that the coins picked up by the disc are retained in the pockets until they reach the removal location. A hopper for the mass of coins is usually of generally trough shape, with the rotating disc dipping into the trough. A problem which arises with known arrangements is that coins can become jammed between the wall of the hopper and the disc, and thereby arrest the disc, or overload the drive motor for the disc.

Attempts have been made to overcome this problem by permitting some axial movement against spring biassing of a backplate but jams can still occur.

One aspect of the present invention is concerned with reducing the possibility of jams occurring by arranging for the hopper itself to rotate with the disc thereby avoiding any relative motion between the hopper and the disc.

According to the first aspect of the invention a feeding device for coins or other articles of similar shape comprises a rotatably mounted disc provided with a series of circumferentially spaced pockets for receiving the articles, and an annular hopper which is mounted co-axially of the disc and is rotatably fixed thereto, the hopper defining with the lower portion of the disc a trough to receive a batch of the articles from which articles are picked out by the disc on rotation of the disc.

The hopper is preferably of frusto-conical shape, and when made of metal is conveniently made by spinning or pressing. Such a hopper can be substantially cheaper to manufacture than conventional, fixed hoppers.

We have previously proposed a hopper coin sorter in which an inclined disc provided with pockets dips into a fixed trough containing a batch of mixed coins, a coin discriminator positioned at one location in the path of the disc tests the denomination of the coins picked up by the disc, and a series of circumferentially spaced coin removers is provided for removing the coins from the disc at different locations in the path of the disc in dependance upon the coin denomination, the coins removed being fed to different receiving stations.When it is desired to sort several de nominations of coins the circumferential length required to accommodate the different coin removing stations can be substantial, and may only be accommodated with existing arrangements if a disc of very large diameter is employed, which is costly, and moreover this may not be possible where the coin sorter is to be accommodated within a machine of restricted size. Usually approximately 120 of angular rotation of the disc is taken up in arranging that any excess coins are released from the pockets to ensure that there is only one coin in each pocket.

According to a second aspect of the invention a sorter for coins or articles of similar shape comprises a rotatably mounted disc provided with first and second series of circumferentially spaced pockets, the first series being positioned radially inwards of the second series, and a hopper for containing a batch of the articles in contact with the disc, and obstruction means controlling radial movement of coins between the first and second series of pockets, the arrangement being such that on rotation of the disc articles are picked up from the batch by the first series of pockets, and at a predetermined angular location are permitted to transfer from a pocket of the first series to a pocket of the second series.

Since coin removing stations may be positioned at almost any convenient angular location for removing coins from the second series of pockets, the number of coin removing stations that can be accommodated for a disc of a given diameter is substantially increased.

Also, additional room is available for coin testing if this should be required.

Preferably the first and second series of pockets are provided by a series of radially elongate pockets in the disc, and the obstruction means comprises a fixed circumferentially extending baffle which is arranged to partition the elongate pockets, at least for a substantial part of the circumferential path of the disc, to provide the first and second series of pockets, the baffle being provided at said predetermined angular location with a break to permit the transfer of articles.

The break in the baffle is preferably positioned at a location which is circumferentially just in advance of the position to which the batch of articles reaches, to provide a maximum arc of the disc in which operations may be performed upon articles located in the first series of pockets.

Preferably a further, fixed baffle is provided radially inward of the first baffle and adjacent to the break so arranged to prevent any coins falling across the disc from entering the break.

Preferably the first baffle extends from substantially a full circle apart from the break.

A coin sorter in accordance with the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of the hopper, disc assembly and back plate, which section includes the axis of the disc; and Figure 2 is a front view of the disc assembly looking in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 1, the hopper having been removed, and the back plate omitted.

The illustrated coin sorter comprises a circular back-plate 1 mounted at an angle to the vertical, as shown in Fig. 1. on a base, not shown. A plastics disc 2 is rotatably mounted on a spindle 3 carried by the back-plate 1 at its centre. The disc 2 has a central hub portion 4 carrying a bearing 5, an annular rim portion 6 of thickness equal to that of the hub portion 4 and a radially intermediate annular portion 7 of reduced thickness compared with the portions 4 and 6, the reduction in thickness resulting from an annular recess 8 in the front of the disc, the rear face being planar.

A frusto-conical hopper 9 of plastics has its larger diameter end secured, by fasteners not shown, to the disc 2 in the angle 10 at the step between the portions 6 and 7, for rotation co-axially with the disc. The cone angle of the hopper is chosen such that in the lower part of the hopper the wall 11 is inclined to the vertical in the opposite sense to the disc, to direct coins against the front of the disc.

As shown in Fig. 2, the disc is provided with a series of circumferentially spaced cutouts 1 2 which extend through the full thickness of the disc, are of substantially trapezium shape, and are elongated in the radial direction of the disc. Each cut-out 1 2 is sufficiently large to accept two coins of the largest size to be handled, when the coins are positioned such that one is radially inward, relative to the disc, of the other, as at 1 3.

The-cut-outs 1 2 are partitioned into radially inner and outer pockets 14 and 1 5 respectivery by a circumferentially extending fixed baffle 1 6 which is secured to back plate 1.

The baffle 1 6 is in the form of a strip which projects normally from back plate 1 and is received with clearance in an annular groove provided in the back face of the disc 2, thereby permitting free rotation of the disc.

The baffle 1 6 is of sufficient height to prevent coins from sliding between the inner and outer pockets, except where a break 1 7 is provided in the baffle 1 6. As shown in Fig. 1, the baffle 1 6 is positioned just radially outward of the connection between the hopper 9 and the disc 2.

The disc 2, and with it the hopper 9, are conveniently driven by an electric motor through a cord 1 8 which passes around a pulley 1 9 on the motor shaft and around the disc in a groove 20 provided in the disc edge.

The direction of rotation of the disc is shown by the arrow B in Fig. 2. A batch of mixed coins is placed in the hopper and occupies the shaded area C in Fig. 2 when the disc is rotating. An arcuate further baffle 21 of plastics is mounted within the hopper on a support arm 22 secured to spindle 3 by a threaded knob 23.The further baffle 21 is thereby removably fixed in position relative to the back-plate 1 and is positioned to prevent any coins falling across the face of the disc from entering the break 1 7. As will be seen from Fig. 2, the lower end 24 of further baffle 21 is closely adjacent to the junction between the hopper 1 9 and the disc 2, to prevent coins in batch C getting behind baffle 21, but its upper end 25 is positioned radially inward of said junction to prevent any possible interference with coins in the pockets 1 4.

As the disc rotates coins in batch C tend to fall into the radially inner pockets 14. They are prevented from passing at this stage into the radially outer pockets 1 5 by the baffle 16.

In order to ensure that a coin is successfully captured and retained by almost every pocket 14, the thickness of the portion 7 of the disc 2 is made greater than the thickness of the thickest coin to be handled, but the front surface of the disc is relieved around the radially inner end of the cutouts 12, at 26.

This arrangement ensures that in most cases two coins, and if not two visually one, will be picked up in a pocket 1 4 as the pocket 14 pass through the batch C of coins. When the pocket 14 reaches an angular position D then the surplus coin, in the case of two coins having been picked up, will roll out of the pocket since the thickness of the disc at 26 is insufficient to support two coins. The surplus coins fall back across the face of the disc, as indicated at E into the batch C.

Since the wall 11 of the hopper 9 is not moving relative to the disc 2 the coins in batch C cannot become trapped between the wall 11 and the disc 2. The coin batch C is carried forwards to some extent as shown in Fig. 2 by the shading.

An inductive coin tester 27 is mounted on the back-plate 1 adjacent to the top of the disc for testing the coin in a pocket 14 which is passing the tester 27. The coin tester 27 is arranged to determine the denomination of the coin. If necessary, further coin testing station may be provided for testing the coin at positions located angularly between tester 27 and the break 1 7. When the cut-outs 1 2 reach the break 1 7 the coin previously held in the inner pocket 1 4 slides under its own weight into the radially outer pocket 1 5 of the respective cut-out 12, as indicated by arrow F. The break 1 7 is positioned in advance of the coin batch C to clear the pockets 14 in readiness for picking up fresh coins. Once the coins are positioned in the radially outer pockets they may be removed from the disc by various ejection mechanisms, npt shown, at any angular position from the bottom of the disc round to just before the break 17, that is over an angular range of approximately 315 .

The ejection mechanisms are triggered in response to the earlier determination of the coin denomination, a suitable time delay being timed between the coin testing operation and ejection of the coin from the outer pocket 1 5.

The respective ejection mechanisms for different coin denominations feed the coins into respective collection stations, not shown.

Thus it will be seen that a substantially greater range of angular positions has been made available for the positioning of testing and ejection mechanisms.

Claims (1)

1. A feeding device for coins or other articles of similar shape comprising a rotatably mounted disc provided with a series of circumferentially spaced pockets for receiving the articles, and an annular hopper which is mounted co-axially of the disc and is rotatably fixed thereto, the hopper defining with the lower portion of the disc a trough to receive a batch of the articles from which articles are picked out by the disc on rotation of the disc.

2. A feeding device as claimed in claim 1 in which the hopper is of substantially frustoconical shape.

3. A feeding device as claimed in claim 2 in which the hopper is formed from sheet metal by spinning.

4. A feeding device as claimedin claim 2 in which the hopper is formed from sheet metal by pressing.

5. A feeding device as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as described with reference to Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings.

6. A sorter for coins or articles of similar shape comprising a rotatably mounted disc provided with first and second series of circumferentially spaced pockets, the first series being positioned radially inwards of the second series, a hopper for containing a batch of the articles in contact with the disc, and obstruction means controlling radial movement of coins between the first and second series of pockets, the arrangement being such that on rotation of the disc articles are picked up from the batch by the first series of pockets, and at a predetermined angular location are permitted to transfer from a- pocket of the first series to a pocket of the second series.

7. A sorter as claimed in claim 6 in which the first and second series of pockets are provided by a series of radially elongate pockets in the disc, and the obstruction means comprise a fixed circumferentially extending baffle which is arranged to partition the elongate pockets, at least for a substantial part of the circumferential path of the disc, to provide the first and second series of pockets, the baffle being provided at said predetermined angular location with a break to permit the transfer of articles.

8. A sorter as claimed in claim 7 in which a further, fixed baffle is provided radially inward of the first baffle and adjacent to the break so arranged to prevent any coins falling across the disc from entering the break.

9. A sorter as claimed in claim 7 or claim 8 in which the first baffle extends for substantially a full circle apart from the break.

10. A sorter as claimed in claim 6 and substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

CLAIMS Amendments to the claims have been filed, and have the following effect: *(a) Claims 1 above have been deleted or textually amended.

*(b) New or textually amended claims have been filed as follows:

1. A feeding device for coins or other articles of similar shape comprising a rotatably mounted disc provided with a series of circumferentially spaced pockets for receiving the articles, and an annular hopper which is mounted co-axially of the disc and is fixed thereto, the hopper defining with the lower portion of the disc a trough to receive a batch of the articles from which articles are picked out by the disc on rotation of the disc.