GB469676A - Improvements in coin-freed apparatus comprising means for altering the price to be charged - Google Patents

Abstract

469,676. Prepayment mechanism for electricity meters. LANDIS & GYR AKT.-GES. Jan. 30, 1936, No. 2901. Convention date, Feb. 19, 1935. [Class 27] Price-change mechanism.-A stepped gear arrangement for altering a unit charge, i.e. energy charge or basic charge, in a prepayment electricity meter comprises two sets of stepped gearing which are adjustable independently of one another and with one of which there can be effected a coarse adjustment and with the other a fine adjustment in the determination of the unit charge. The stepped gear arrangement can be interposed between either the coin mechanism or the meter mechanism and the quantity mechanism, or between the basic charge device and the quantity mechanism. Fig. 1 shows an arrangement of two stepped gears in series between the coin mechanism and the quantity mechanism. A knob 16 of the coin mechanism rotates a shaft 15 on which is keyed a toothed drum 11 driving a gearwheel 10 meshing with one of the graded wheels 3 ... 7 of a stepped gear keyed to a shaft 151. A toothed drum 11<1> on shaft 15<1> drives a gearwheel 10<1> meshing with one of the graded wheels 3<1> ... 61 of a second stepped gear fixed to the shaft of one sun-wheel 20 of a differential quantity mechanism, the other sun-wheel 22 of which is driven from the meter shaft 24. The shaft of the planet wheel 27 is connected to the quantity shaft 26. The wheels 10, 10<1> are carried by frames 12, 13, 14 and 12<1>, 13<1>, 14<1> respectively which can be rocked and moved longitudinally to engage the gears 10, 10<1> with any one of the graded wheels of their respective stepped gears, the frames being carried by hollow shafts 19, 191 and being adjustable by knobs 18, 18<1> bearing pointers 17, 171 coacting with scales II, I. The arrangement shown allows twenty different price changes to be effected. Fig., 2 shows an arrangement between the basic charge device and the quantity mechanism and comprises a stepped gear common to two trains of gearing. The stepped gear having graded wheels 3 ... 9 is driven by the shaft 30 of a synchronous motor and drives two gear-wheels 10, 10<1> which are adjustable as described in connection with Fig. 1. The wheels 10, 101 drive toothed drums 11, 11<1> on shafts 15, 151, the motions given to these shafts being summated by a differential gear 37 and transmitted to one sun-wheel 41 of a second differential gear 42. The other sun-wheel 43 of gear 42 is actuated from the coin mechanism handle 16 and the planet wheel 44 is connected to a sun-wheel 46 of a third differential 47, the other sun-wheel 48 of which is driven from the meter shaft 24, while the planet wheel 50 is connected to the quantity shaft 26.