GB703349A - Improvements relating to coin-actuated mechanisms - Google Patents

Abstract

703,349. Coin freed mechanisms. Prepayment meters. FERRANTI, Ltd., SPENCER, V. W., and HALL, H. March 9. 1951 [Dec. 10, 1949], No. 31755/49. Class 27 In a coin freed mechanism which performs two operations one after the other when a coin is inserted (e.g. setting up credit in an electric prepayment meter and closing a switch) insertion of a coin through a coin slit moves a blocking member away from the slit to cause a charging member to be displaced to store energy: a tripping device then consigns the coin to a position from which-after the tripping device has returned the blocking member to close the coin slit-it can pass to a coin box, actuating in its passage a trigger which permits the charging member to return to its initial position. One of the operations is effected either directly as the coin moves the charging member or as the charging member is restored, while the second operation is effected as the charging member is restored. Coin traps. Coin action: weight and thrust. In the mechanism of Fig. 1 a blocking member 12 is pivoted at 15, Fig. 3, to a pair of parallel plates 13, 14, (Figs. 1 and 3). A coin inserted through a slit 11 in a fixed face-plate 10 presses the member 12 against the nose 26 of a pawl 27 pivoted at 30 to the plates so turning them about a pivot 16 against a spring 22. As the plates turn a pin 40, Fig. 4, carried by them turns an arm 42, forming the charging member and fast with a shaft 43, against a spring 47 until a spring-biased latch 44 on the arm engages behind teeth 45 on the latch plate 46. On continued movement of the plates 13, 14 a fixed stop 34, Fig. 1, engages the tail 32 of the pawl 27 which releases the member 12 for movement relatively to the plates 13, 14 about the pivot 15, Fig. 3, against a spring 25: this spring and the spring 22 then return the plates 13, 14 and the member 12 to their initial positions, propelling the coin to a position above the plates 13, 14 as indicated at 64 in Fig. 4. After the plates 13, 14 and the member 12 have completed their return movement, so closing the coin slit, a free passage is left between the plates 13, 14 for the coin to fall to a money box. During its fall the coin deflects a trigger 55, Fig. 4, connected through an arm 56 to a cam 53 which turns to present a slot 60 to the edge 51 of the latch plate 46 which is then turned about a pivot 50 by a spring 57 anchored on the arm 56 and permits the arm 42 to be returned by the spring 47 to its initial pisition in which a pin 61 which it carries engages an arm 63 on the latch plate 46 to return it to its initial position so releasing the pawl 53. Prepayment meters. In the embodiment illustrated the downward motion of the lever 42 is communicated through' the shaft 43, Fig. 4, and gearing 70, 71, 73 to a rack 74 which sets prepayment storage mechanism associated with an electricity meter, while its upward movement operates mechanism to close an electric switch. As shown in Fig. 1 the latter mechanism comprises a spring-biased pawl 81 carried by a crank-plate 80 on a spindle 77 driven through gearing 75, 76 from the shaft 43. During the downward movement of the arm 42 the nose 82 of the pawl 81 slips over the surface of a disc 83, free on the spindle 77 and operating the switch through a pinion 87 and rack 90, and falls behind the tail 85 of the pawl to withdraw it from the disc so that the prepayment mechanism may subsequently open the switch. In an alternative embodiment the prepayment storage mechanism is set during the first part of the return movement of the lever 42 while the crank plate 80 is held against return movement, under the action of a further spring tensioned by the downward movement of the arm 42, until the arm 42, towards the end of its return movement, releases a trigger which permits the crank plate 80 to return and close the switch. Testing coins: diameter and thickness. 'The margins 11c and 11d of the coin slit 11, Fig. 1, and a pair of flanges 23, 24, formed on the plates 13, 14 and received within a widened portion of the slit, prevent insertion of a coin which is too thick or of too great a diameter. Coins of small diameter are deflected by a projection 92, Fig. 3, on the member so that they do not strike the trigger 55.