JP2000065523A - Thickness detecting device for paper money - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain the thickness detecting device for paper money which can surely detect a stuck forged bill, formed by sticking fragments of bills together by using a cellulose adhesive tape, at low cost without being made large in size. SOLUTION: The device comprises a movable roller 23 which is supported movably forward and backward between a position where it comes into contact with the peripheral surface of a shaft-fixed roller 22 and a position where it is separated, a light- shielding member 25 which moves back together with the movable roller 23, and an LED 27 and a PSD element 28 which are arranged opposite each other across a hole 27 bored in the light shield member 25. The movable roller 23 is displaced away from the shaft-fixed roller 22 when a bill passes through a nip part for the shaft-fixed roller 22 and the position relation between the LED 27 and PSD element 28 is so set that the detection light emitted by the LED 27 passes through the hole, etc., and is received by the PSD element 28; and two outputs from the PSD element 28 are maintain set values, while a bill having uniform thickness passes through the nip part between the shaft-fixed roller 23 and movable roller 23, but if a bill has a thicker part at least partially, the movable roller 23 is displaced as thick part passes, so that the two outputs generate fluctuations.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a bill discriminating apparatus used in a vending machine, a money changing machine, a depositing / dispensing apparatus and the like, and more particularly, to a bill produced by laminating bill pieces using a cellophane tape or the like. The present invention relates to a bill thickness detecting device capable of reliably and reliably detecting a laminated counterfeit bill at low cost.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A bill handling device such as a vending machine, a currency changer, and a depositing / dispensing device determines whether a bill inserted by a customer is authentic, a denomination, and the number of sheets by a bill discriminating device. When the required amount of money is satisfied, it is configured to execute a process such as providing a product or the like to pay out change, exchange money, or accept bills. By the way, as a fraudulent act using a bill handling device, a laminated counterfeit bill 1 created by laminating bill fragments 2 with a thin sealing material 3 such as cellophane tape as shown in FIG. 6 may be used. This type of counterfeit banknote 1 is hard to be detected by a conventional banknote recognition device, and the counterfeit banknote is frequently damaged, so urgent measures are required. On the other hand, it is possible to determine forgery using a sealing material by improving the accuracy of the identification device, but the identification device becomes expensive, and vending machines and the like using such a device are expensive. Since the problem of cost increase occurs, there has been a demand for the development of a technology capable of detecting a bonded counterfeit banknote at a low cost.

[0003] In order to detect such a bonded counterfeit bill, for example, a card presence / absence discrimination device used in a cash card discriminating device is diverted, and a portion of the inserted bill has a portion having a different thickness. In such a case, a method of determining that a foreign matter such as a sealing material is attached to the bill may be considered. 7 (a) and 7 (b) are schematic diagrams of an example of a device for judging the presence or absence of a cash card. A shaft fixing roller 5 having a fixed shaft and a movable roller 6 which is supported so as to be vertically movable.
And the detection mechanism 8 detects the amount of displacement of the movable roller 6 moving upward when the cash card 7 passes between them. The detection mechanism 8 includes a swinging plate 9 that supports the axis of the movable roller 6 at the tip and swings up and down around a fulcrum 9a, and a photo interrupter 10 that detects the other end of the swinging plate 9. ing. The ratio of the distance from the fulcrum 9a to the axis of the movable roller 6 and the distance from the fulcrum 9a to the other end of the swing plate is about 1: 2. This detecting mechanism 8 detects the presence or absence of the card by turning on / off the detection light between the light emitting element and the light receiving element by enlarging the shift due to the thickness of the card by a so-called lever configuration. In this example, when the cash card 7 does not exist in the nip portion between both rollers, the other end of the swinging plate 9 does not block the photo interrupter 10, while the cash card 7 passes through the nip portion. While the movable roller 6 is displaced upward, the swing plate 9 pivots clockwise around the fulcrum 9a as a result, so that the other end of the swing plate is
0 is shielded and the presence of a cash card is detected. Since the thickness of the cash card is as thick as about 1 mm, the presence or absence of the card can be detected by the detection mechanism 8 as described above. However, it is difficult to detect and identify the thickness of a thin banknote or seal material of about ten and several microns using a detection mechanism for a thick card. That is, in order to detect a thickness of more than ten microns using this detection mechanism 8, the ratio of the length from the fulcrum 9a to the movable roller shaft and the length from the fulcrum 9a to the other end of the rocking plate is determined by: Unless the ratio is set to 1: several tens or 1: several hundreds, a displacement that can be detected by the optical sensor cannot be obtained. Further, it is not possible to secure a necessary and sufficient detection accuracy only by moving the position of the fulcrum 9a so that each of the above dimensions satisfies the above ratio while maintaining the entire length of the swing plate 9 as it is. Unless the detection mechanism is enlarged by increasing the length of the moving plate, it is impossible to obtain a detection mechanism with necessary and sufficient accuracy. However, due to layout limitations of vending machines, etc., there is a limit to increasing the size of the detection mechanism, and it has not been possible to apply the detection mechanism for cards to the detection of the thickness of bills of more than ten microns. .

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The problem to be solved by the present invention is to reduce the number of counterfeit bills produced by laminating bill pieces using cellophane tape or the like without increasing the size of the apparatus. The present invention relates to a banknote thickness detecting device capable of reliably detecting cost.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a shaft fixing roller which is supported so as to be able to advance and retreat between a position in contact with a peripheral surface of the shaft fixing roller and a position apart from the peripheral surface. The movable roller includes a light-shielding member that moves forward and backward together with the movable roller, and an LED and a PSD element that are disposed to face each other with a hole or the like provided in the light-shielding member interposed therebetween. The positional relationship between the LED and the PSD element is set such that the bill is displaced in a direction away from the shaft fixing roller when passing, and the detection light emitted from the LED passes through the hole or the like and is received by the PSD element. The two outputs from the PSD element maintain a constant value while a banknote having a uniform thickness passes through the nip portion between the fixed shaft roller and the movable roller, while the thick portion is formed in at least a part of the banknote. When there is By the movable roller is displaced by the passage of the meat portion, characterized in that it is configured to change to the two outputs are generated.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of a bill thickness detecting device according to the present invention. The thickness detecting device is attached by detecting the thickness of a bill inserted in a bill handling device such as a vending machine. This is a means for determining whether or not it is a counterfeit banknote. A plurality of narrow belt-shaped belts 21 arranged in parallel at predetermined intervals to place the bills 20 and transport them in the direction of the arrow, and a shaft-fixed drive roller arranged in a space located between the belts 21 22, a movable roller 23 that can move up and down, and a bracket 2 that moves up and down while rotatably supporting a shaft 23a of the movable roller 23
4, a light-blocking member 25 integrally protruding upward from the bracket 24, a circular hole 26 formed through the light-blocking member 25, and an LED fixedly disposed to face the hole 26 therebetween.
(Light emitting element) 27 and PSD element (Position Sensitive)
Light Detector 28). The diameter of the circular hole 26 is about 0.5 mm ± 0.2 mm, and among the light emitted from the LED 27, the circular light beam that has passed through the hole 26 is received by the light receiving surface of the PSD element. Note that a horizontally long slit may be used instead of the circular hole. The banknote 20 is a so-called bonded counterfeit banknote in which pieces of the banknote are joined to each other by using a cellophane tape 30, for example.
It is about 1 mm. When the bill 20 enters the nip portion between the drive roller 22 and the movable roller 23 when the bill 20 is transported on the belt 21 in the direction of the arrow, the movable roller 23 Is pushed up by the banknote 20 and the thickness of the banknote (for example,
0.1 mm) or the total thickness of the bill and the cellophane tape 30 (for example, 0.2 mm).
Since the shaft portion 23a of the movable roller 23 moves up and down integrally with the bracket 24 and the light shielding member 25, the amount of displacement of the movable roller 23 in the vertical direction appears as the amount of displacement at the height of the hole 26.

Next, FIG. 2A is an enlarged perspective view showing the structure of the PSD element 28, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view thereof. The PSD element 28 has light receiving surfaces 40A and 40B divided into upper and lower parts. The output A from the light receiving surface 40A and the output B from the light receiving surface 40B are output from lead wires 41A and 41B to a control unit (not shown). FIG. 3 shows each light receiving surface 40A, 40B.
7 is a table showing the voltage values of outputs A and B from the device in relation to the distance from the center position C of the device, in which the optical axis of the light emitted from the LED 27 coincides with the center position C of the PSD device. This is the state shown in (b), where the optical axis of the emitted light is shifted upward (a), and the state shifted downward is shown in (c).
If the position of the optical axis of the emitted light is shifted upward or downward from the center C of the element, the outputs A and B from the respective light receiving surfaces 40A and 40B change, and the outputs A and B are symmetric. Therefore, the sensitivity can be increased by taking the difference between the two outputs. Next, FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram of each output A and B from when the laminated counterfeit banknote 20 starts passing through the nip portion of both rollers 22 and 23 until the end thereof, and FIG. 5 (a) and (b). (C) shows the state of the light receiving surface of the PSD element in a non-sheet passing state, a state in which the paper part of the bill passes, and a state in which the cellophane tape part passes. At the stage before t1 in FIG.
2B, the light emitted from the LED is in the light receiving state shown in FIG. 3B, and the outputs A and B are constant.

Next, at time t1, the movable roller 23 is pushed up by the leading end of the paper portion of the bill 20, and the light emitted from the LED and passing through the hole 26 is slightly above the state shown in FIG. (The light receiving surface 40A side). At this time, the output A is slightly increased and the output B is slightly decreased. This state continues until t2,
The period from t1 to t2 is a period in which the movable roller 23 is rolling on the upper surface of the paper portion. During the period from t2 to t3, the movable roller 23 rides on the cellophane tape 30 and rolls on the cellophane tape 30, and the output A in this period is higher than the output in the periods t1 to t2. Therefore, the output B is relatively reduced. Next, t
The period from 3 to t4 is a period corresponding to a state in which the movable roller 23 is rolling on the upper surface of the paper part of the bill, similarly to the period from t1 to t2, and the period from t4 to t5 is a period from t2 to t3. This is a period in which the movable roller 23 rides on the cellophane tape 30 and rolls on the cellophane tape 30 in the same manner as described above. Further, during the period from t5 to t6, t1 to t2 and t3
This is a period corresponding to a state in which the movable roller 23 is rolling on the upper surface of the paper portion of the bill, similarly to the period from to t4. At time t6, the trailing end of the bill passes through the nip of both rollers, and t
After 6 the output state is the same as before t1. As described above, the light receiving position of the light emitted from the LED 27 and passing through the hole 26 and irradiated onto the PSD element 28 is displaced vertically by the hole 26 moving up and down in conjunction with the up and down movement of the movable roller 23. I do. Fluctuations in the light-receiving position in the vertical direction appear as fluctuations in the outputs A and B, and are normal banknotes or laminated counterfeit banknotes having thick portions depending on the degree of the output fluctuations. Is determined. In other words, when a thick portion (thick portion) exceeding the original bill thickness is detected in the process of passing the nip portion between the rollers, the thick portion is bonded by a sealing material such as cellophane tape. The control unit determines that the bill is a bonded counterfeit bill, and takes necessary measures such as rejection of the bill.

In the above embodiment, the LED 27 and the PS
The D element 28 is fixed to a fixing member (not shown), and the bracket 24 side having the hole 26 is vertically movable.
While the LED 27 and the light blocking member 25 having the hole 26 are fixed to the bracket 24 so as to be vertically movable, the PSD 27
A configuration in which only 28 is fixed is also possible. However, in such a configuration, durability of the LED becomes a problem. That is, when this thickness detecting device is applied to a bill counter, the bills are conveyed at a high speed of about five sheets per second, so that the vibration generated from the movable roller becomes so large that it cannot be ignored. There is a possibility that the durability of this may rapidly decrease. Therefore, in the present invention, as described above, LE
While the D27 and the PSD element 28 are fixed, the bracket 24 having the hole 26 is movable in the vertical direction.
The problem that the durability of the ED rapidly decreases is eliminated. In addition, in the case of such a configuration, it is necessary to secure a distance of about 15 mm between the LED 27 and the PSD element. Therefore, sufficient detection accuracy can be ensured.

[0010]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the cost of a laminated counterfeit bill produced by laminating bill pieces using a sealing material such as a cellophane tape without increasing the size of the apparatus. , And can be reliably detected. That is, in the present invention, a drive roller fixed to the shaft is disposed below the paper money transport path, and a movable roller capable of moving up and down is disposed above, so that both rollers are nipped. The light-emitting element and the PSD element are fixedly opposed to each other with the holes and the like interposed therebetween, so that the light-emitting element and the PSD element are fixedly opposed to each other through the holes and the like. The paper thickness and the fluctuation of the paper thickness can be accurately detected as the fluctuation of the light receiving position of the incident light on the light receiving surface of the PSD element. If the thickness of the banknote partially fluctuates and the presence of the thick portion is detected, it is determined that the banknote is a counterfeit counterfeit banknote, and measures such as rejecting the banknote are surely implemented. can do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of one embodiment of a bill thickness detecting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2A is an enlarged perspective view showing a configuration of a PSD element.
(b) is a sectional view thereof.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C are diagrams showing a relationship between each output of the PSD element and a light receiving state; FIGS.

FIG. 4 is a waveform diagram of each output A and B from the start of passage of a laminated counterfeit bill through the nip portion of both rollers to the end thereof.

FIGS. 5 (a), (b) and (c) show states of the light receiving surface of the PSD element in a non-passed state, a state in which a paper part of a bill passes, and a state in which a cellophane tape part passes. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a laminated counterfeit banknote.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams of an example of a conventional device for determining the presence or absence of a cash card.

[Explanation of symbols]

20 banknote, 21 belt, 22 drive roller, 23
Movable roller, 24 Bracket, 25 Light shielding member, 26
Hole, 27 LED (light emitting element), 28 PSD element,
30 cellophane tape, 40A, 40B light receiving surface, 41
A, 41B Lead wire.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2F065 AA19 AA25 AA30 AA67 AA69 BB13 BB15 CC00 DD02 FF23 FF67 GG07 HH04 HH05 JJ16 LL28 LL30 PP16 QQ25 QQ28 TT08 2F069 AA46 AA98 AA99 GG34 GG30 GG01 GG34 MM14 3E041 AA02 BA04 BB01 CA01 DB01 EA01

Claims (1)

[Claims] A shaft-fixing roller, a movable roller supported so as to be able to advance and retreat between a position in contact with a peripheral surface of the shaft-fixing roller and a position separated therefrom; a light-shielding member that advances and retreats with the movable roller; The movable roller is displaced in a direction away from the shaft fixing roller when the bill passes through a nip portion with the shaft fixing roller when the bill passes through a nip portion with the shaft fixing roller. The positional relationship between the LED and the PSD element is set so that the detection light emitted from the LED passes through the hole or the like and is received by the PSD element. While the bill having a uniform thickness passes through the nip portion with the movable roller, the movable roller is displaced by the passage of the thick portion when the bill has a thick portion while at least a part of the bill has a thick portion. By Characterized in that the two outputs fluctuate.