GB2213870A

GB2213870A - Closure assembly for document feed opening

Info

Publication number: GB2213870A
Application number: GB8827426A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Philip Kennard
Original assignee: De la Rue Systems Ltd
Current assignee: De la Rue Systems Ltd
Priority date: 1987-12-16
Filing date: 1988-11-24
Publication date: 1989-08-23
Also published as: GB8729306D0; GB8827426D0

Abstract

A closure assembly for a document feed opening through which documents are normally fed in one direction comprises two closure members (7, 8) positioned one behind the other stream of the opening (1). Each closure member is movable between an open and a closed position. The closure members are movable to their open positions upon the passage of documents (5) in the normal feed direction towards the feed opening (1) to allow the documents to be fed through the feed opening. The closure members are arranged so that they cannot be opened for downstream of the opening (1) to an extent sufficient to allow documents to be fed past the closure assembly in a direction opposite to the normal feed direction. <IMAGE>

Description

CT,nSURE ASSEMPLY The invention relates to a closure assemblx,z for a document feed opening.

Many types of document or sheet feeding apparatus have been devised in the past in which sheets are fed singly or in stacks through feed openings accessible to a user of the apparatus. In order to prevent inadvertent or fraudulent operation of the apparatus in which attempts are made to feed documents or sheets in through a feed outlet opening, it is common to provide a closure member adjacent to the feed opening. This closure member is typically operated under solenoidal control or the like upon the normal approach of documents or sheets towards the opening so as to open and allow the documents to be fed out through the opening. It has been found that these closure members require a complex construction and in certain circumstances can be manually opened from the downstream side of the feed opening to allow sheets to be inserted through the opening in a fraudulent manner.

In accordance with the present invention, a closure assembly for a document feed opening through which documents are normally fed in one direction comprises-'wo closure members positioned one behind the other upstream of the opening, each being movable between open and closed positions, at least the closure member nearest the opening being biased towards its closed position to close the feed opening, the closure members being movable to their open positions upon the passage of documents in the normal feed direction towards the feed opening to allow the documents to be fed through the feed opening, and whereby the closure members are arranged so that they cannot be opened from downstream of the opening to an extent sufficient to allow documents to be fed past the closure assembly in a direction opposite to the normal feed direction.

We have devised a very simple and cheap closure assembly which deals with the problems outlined above and provides considerable security against an deliberate attempts to force the closure assembly open from the downstream side of the feed opening.

In the simplest case, the two closure members may be spaced apart by a distance sufficient that the upstream closure member cannot be opened even if the downstream closure member itself is opened via the feed opening.

Thus, the closure members could be spaced apart by a distance greater than the length of a document in the feed direction.

In a preferred arrangement, the upstream closure member is positioned above a step in the document feed path, the step facing towards the downstream closure member. This provides additional security against opening of the upstream closure member.

Although in the preferred arrangement just two closure members are provided, we envisage the use of metre than two closure members positioned in series along the feed path.

Typically, each closure member is pivotably mounted and is angled in the feed direction. This means that when documents are fed normally, the closure members can be pivoted by the documents towards their open positions.

Typically, each closure member is biased towards its closed position under gravity although other forms of bias such as a spring bias may be used.

In the preferred arrangement, the downstream closure member co-operates with the upstream closure member such that movement of the downstream closure member towards its open position by a force exerted from the downstream direction urges the upstream closure member towards its closed position. Thus, if an attempt is made fraudulently to open the downstream closure member via the feed opening, this will force the upstream closure member into its closed position thereby preventing the feeding of documents past the closure assembly.

In one example, the closure members are independently mounted one behind the other, part of the downstream closure member adjacent the upstream closure member engaging the upstream closure member upon opening movement of the downstream closure member so as to prevent the upstream closure member from pivoting in the open direction.

In another example, the upstream closure member is pivoted to the downstream closure member at a position such that upon opening of the downstream closure member, the upstream closure member is urged towards its closed position.

in a further example, the upstream closure member is arranged to hold the downstream closure member in its closed position, opening of the downstream closure member being permitted after the upstream closure member has opened.

Typically, the assembly further comprises limiting means to limit the amount by which each closure member can open to define a gap between each closure member and the adjacent surface of the assembly to which the closure assembly is mounted, the gap being substantially equal to the thickness of the largest document or stack of documents to be fed.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, document feed apparatus incorporates an outlet opening and a closure assembly according to the one aspect of the invention associated with the outlet opening. Such apparatus may include a banknote dispenser or a banknote acceptor., the outlet opening in the latter case constituting a reject opening. An example of banknote accepting apparatus having a reject opening is described in-EP-A-0194139.

In one example of document feed apparatus, a reject passage is provided opening into the space between the two closure members whereby any documents fed in the upstream direction past the downstream closure member will pass along the reject passage.

The invention is applicable to many forms of document handling apparatus but is particularly suited to banknote feeding apparatus.

Some examples of closure assemblies according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a first example of a closure assembly according to the invention illustrating motion of the closure members during normal operation; Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but showing operation of the closure assembly when the downstream closure member is opened from the downstream direction; Figure 3 is a cut-away perspective xiew of the closure assembly shown in Figures 1 and 2; and, Figures 4 - 7 illustrate schematically four further examples of closure assemblies according to the invention.

Figure 1 illustrates the reject aperture of a banknote acceptor. The aperture 1 is defined by an end plate 2 of the apparatus, banknotes being fed to the aperture 1 by conveyor belts 3, 4 positioned upstream of the aperture 1. The banknotes are pushed bv the conveyor belts 3, 4 along a feed surface 5 to a closure assembly 6. The closure assembly 6 comprises a pair of pivoted gates 7, 8. One end surface 9, 10 of each gate 7, 8 is tapered towards the reject opening 1 and normally rests under gratuity against the feed surface 5. It will be noted in Figure 1 that the feed surface 5 includes a step 11 facing towards the reject opening 1 for a purpose to be described below. As banknotes are pushed into the closure assembly 6, they cause the upstream gate 8 to pivot in an anti-clockwise direction about the pivot 12 so as to pass underneath the gate 8.Subsequently, they engage the gate 7 which is also caused to pivot in an anti-clockwise direction about its pivot 13 thus enabling the banknotes to be fed out of the reject opening 1.

Figure 1 illustrates at 7', 8' the position of the gates 7, 8 when in their open positions.

If an attempt is made to open the gate X from outside the apparatus by inserting an instrument through the reject opening 1, then it might be possible to lever up the gate 7 to the position shown in Figure 2 at 7'.

However, the gates 7, 8 are positioned relatively close together so that in this situation, the end 14 of the gate ? engages the gate 8 at a position below the pivot 12 thus preventing movement of the gate 8 towards its open position. In this way, access to the conveyor system defined hy the belts 3, 4 is prevented. Further securit is achieved by virtue of the step 11 since in practise the opening movement permitted of the gate 7 will be relatively small, typically no more than two to two and a half times the distance corresponding to the height of the step 11 so that it would be vr difficult to push banknotes past the step 11 to the gate 8.

Figure 3 is a cut-away perspective view of the closure assembly shown in Figures 1 and 2 with a slight modification to the downstream gate 7. As can be seen in Figure 3 the gates 7, 8 are mounted on a carrier 15 spot welded to a facia 15a bolted to the apparatus. In this case, the upper end 14 has a rearwardly projecting flange extending along its length which will engage the upstream gate 8 when the downstream gate is opened via the reject opening 1.

Figure 4 illustrates a second example in which most elements of the apparatus have been omitted for clarity.

In this example, the downstream gate 16 is pivoted to the apparatus at 17 while the upstream gate 18 is also pivoted at 17 to the downstream gate 16. In this case, the two gates pivot independently about the pivot 17 but due to the narrowness of the reject opening 1, even if it is possible to lever up the downstream gate 16 it is very difficult to reach behind the gate and lever up the upstream gate 18.

In Figure 5, a downstream gate 24 is pivoted to the apparatus 25 while an upstream gate 26 is pivoted to the gate 24 at pivot 27. During normal operation, documents will cause the upstream gate 26 to pivot in an anti-clockwise direction followed by the downstream gate 24. However, if attempts are made to lever up the downstream gate 24 via the reject opening 1, this will force the upstream gate 26 into engagement with a surface 28 of the apparatus thus preventing documents from being fed past the closure assembly.

The Figure 6 example comprises a pair of independently pivoted gates 29, 30 and a reject passage 31 opening between the two gates 2, 30. In this arrangement, during normal operation, documents will cause anti-clockwise rotation of the gates 29, 30 to allow the documents to fed out of the reject opening 1.

If the gate 29 is successfully opened via the reject opening 1 and sheets are forced past the gate 29, these sheets will then pass down the reject passage 31 and will not reach the upstream gate 30.

A modification of the Figure 6 example is shown in Figure 7. In this case the gate 30 is positioned upstream of a step 32 which overlaps the entrance 33 to the reject path 31 so that documents moving in the feed direction pass through the opening 1 but documents moving in-the other direction are caught.

Claims

1. A closure assembly for a document feed opening through which documents are normally fed in one direction, the assembly comprising two closure members positioned one behind the other upstream of the opening, each being movable between open and closed positions, at least the closure member nearest the opening being biased towards its closed position to close the feed opening, the closure members being movable to their open positions upon the passage of documents in the normal feed direction towards the feed opening to allow the documents to be fed through the feed opening, and whereby the closure members are arranged so that they cannot be opened from downstream of the opening to an extent sufficient to allow documents to be fed past the closure assembly in a direction opposite to the normal feed direction.

2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the two closure members are spaced apart by a distance sufficient that the upstream closure member cannot be opened even if the downstream closure member itself is opened xria the feed opening.

3. An assembly according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the upstream closure member is positioned above a step in the document feed path, the step facing towards the downstream closure member.

4. An assembly according to any of the preceding claims, wherein each closure member is pivotably mounted and is angled in the feed direction.

5. An assembly according to any of the preceding claims, wherein each closure member is biased towards its closed position under gravity.

6. An assembly according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the downstream closure member co-operates with the upstream closure member such that movement of the downstream closure member towards its open position by a force exerted from the downstream direction urges the upstream closure member towards its closed position.

7. An assembly according to claim 6, wherein the closure members are independently mounted one behind the other, part of the downstream closure member adjacent the upstream closure member engaging the upstream closure member upon opening movement of the downstream closure member so as to prevent the upstream closure member from pivoting in the open direction.

8. An assembly according to claim 6, wherein the upstream closure member is pivoted to the downstream closure member at a position such that upon opening of the downstream closure member, the upstream closure member is urged towards its closed position.

9. An assembly according to claim 6, wherein the upstream closure member is arranged to hold the downstream closure member in its closed position, opening of the downstream closure member being permitted after the upstream closure member has opened.

10. An assembly according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising limiting means to limit the amount by which each closure member can open to define a gap between each closure member and the adjacent surface of the assembly to which the closure assembly is amounted, the gap being substantially equal to the thickness of the largest document or stack of documents to be fed.

11. Document feed apparatus incorporating an outlet opening and a closure assembly according to any of the preceding claims associated with the outlet opening.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein a reject passage is provided opening into the space between the two closure members whereby any documents fed in the upstream direction past the downstream closure member will pass along the reject passage.