GB550395A - Improved coin inlet mechanism for use on prepayment apparatus, more especially for electricity or gas - Google Patents

Abstract

550,395. Coin-freed mechanism for meters. LANDIS & GYR SOC: ANON. June 30, 1941. No. 8192. [Class 27] Coin inlet mechanism for prepayment meters for electricity &c. is arranged so that the insertion of the coin energizes a spring and releases the energy to pass the coin through and free the corresponding amount of the commodity paid for. The coin inserted through a slot 4 in the casing pushes a slide 3 back in a diametrical passage in a rotatable drum 2 fast with a shaft 15 journalled in the casing and in a cross member 1b, a rack 19 in the slide turning a pinion 17 loose on the shaft 15 and fast with a ratchet wheel 18 engaging a pawl 21 carried by a bevel wheel 22 free on the shaft 15 and gearing with a bevel wheel 23 loose on a cross shaft 26 and fast to a ratchet wheel 24 engaging a fixed spring pawl 25. An energy storing spring 27 is hooked into the wheel 23 and at the other end engages round the hub of a bevel wheel fast on the shaft 26 and engaging a bevel wheel fast on the shaft 15. Thus the inserted coin winds up the spring 27 at the same time positioning according to its size a slot on the slide 3 opposite a pin on a second slide 6 in the drum which is spring-pressed thus to bring one or both sets of pins 7 and 8 into position so that when a pin 36 on the slide 3 escapes past a stop 38 the drum is driven by the spring 27 to carry the pins 7, 8 to engage the pinion 11 on the quantity setting shaft, after which the coin falls into the receiving shoot and the drum returns to normal position with the pin 36 against the stop 38. In driving the drum the shaft 26 also by its cam 30 engages a roll 31 to retract a push rod 32 and close the supply contacts 35. In a modification the spring 27 is released from some of the friction of the moving parts by hooking the second end of the storing spring into a disc loose on the shaft 26 and pressed against the wheel 28 by the storing spring, the shaft 26 being journalled in a coaxial sleeve fast with the casing on which sleeve is journalled the pinion 23. In a simplified modification the storage spring 27 is disposed round the shaft 15, which is vertical in this form, and hooked into a ratchet wheel 43, Fig. 4, carrying the pawl engaging the ratchet wheel 18 and itself held by a fixed spring pawl 44 the other end of the spring being hooked into a disc 45 fast to the shaft 15. In a further modification the energy storing spring is hooked to two pinions loose on a fixed shaft and gearing with pinions corresponding to 22 and 29, Fig. 2, the fixed shaft being parallel to shaft 15. In this way less power of the storing spring is lost by friction in the coin inlet mechanism.