JP2003006703A - Paper money identifying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a paper money identifying device, with which a paper money steal suppressing function and daily smooth work for collecting paper money can be attained. SOLUTION: In the state of mounting a paper money housing part 4 on a frame unit 3, latch parts respectively protruded on both sides are locked to the lock part of the frame unit 3 by the elasticity of latch levers 8 attached on the back of the paper money housing part 4 to be slid. Between the latch levers 8, a rotary knob 9 is turnably positioned and corresponding to a rotating position thereof, the latch levers 8 can be locked. Because of a two-step action structure, with which the latch parts are not moved without unlocking by turning the rotary knob 9, unlocking and latch part canceling can be easily operated by ordinary attaching/detaching but a door can not be easily opened by operation while inserting a hand from the gap of the door. Thus, the paper money steal suppressing function and the daily smooth work for collecting paper money can be made compatible.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bill validator, and more particularly to a bill validator mounted on an automatic vending machine, a ticket vending machine, an automatic teller machine, or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic vending machine is equipped with a bill validator for discriminating inserted bills and for storing the bills in a bill storage device after purchasing a product. An overview of this bill validator is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the bill validator viewed from the front side, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the bill validator viewed from the rear side.
The bill validator 100 is attached from the inside of a door on the front of the vending machine, and has a bill slot 101 for throwing bills on the front. The bill slot 101
Is connected to a bill discriminating unit 102 which is arranged on the back side and performs authenticity determination of bills inserted from the bill insertion opening 101. The bill discriminating unit 102 is mounted on the frame unit 104 together with the bill storing unit 103 for storing the inserted bills, and constitutes the bill discriminating apparatus 100.

The bill storage unit 103 is a frame unit 1
A pair of latch levers are provided so that they can be easily attached to and detached from 04. The latch lever 105 has latch portions provided on the left and right sides of the bill storage portion 103 in a protruding state, and when the bill storage portion 103 is mounted on the frame unit 104, the latch portion is bent inward. The bill storage unit 103 is fixed to the frame unit 104 by being locked to the edge of the frame unit 104. When removing the bill storage unit 103 from the frame unit 104, the bill storage unit 103
A pair of latch levers 105 with fingers through a window opened in the
The latch levers 105 are slid inward, and the latch portions that have protruded to the side are retracted inward, whereby the latch portions are disengaged from the edges of the frame unit 104. By pulling out the bill storage unit 103 while holding the latch lever 105, the bill storage unit 103 can be easily removed from the frame unit 104.

Metal fittings are provided on the bill storage unit 103 and the frame unit 104, and a padlock 106 is inserted through the fittings to lock them. This makes it possible to prevent the bill storage unit 103 from being easily removed from the frame unit 104, thereby preventing the bill from being stolen.

[0006]

However, with the lock mechanism using the padlock, in the daily banknote collecting operation,
It takes a lot of time to open and close the key, and the anti-theft effect is high. However, due to the troublesomeness, there is a problem that the lock mechanism is often not used. Therefore, assuming a theft act such as opening the door of the vending machine with a bar etc. and inserting a hand through the gap of the door and pulling out the bill, there is a certain anti-theft effect and the impact on the bill collection operability. There was a desire for a locking mechanism that has less.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a bill discriminating apparatus capable of performing a bill theft prevention function and a daily smooth bill collecting operation.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has a frame unit to which a bill validating unit for discriminating bills inserted from an insertion slot is attached, in which the identified bills are stored. In a banknote processing device in which a storage unit is detachably provided, a lock mechanism that can lock movement in a latch release direction with respect to a latch unit that allows the frame unit to engage and disengage the banknote storage unit. There is provided a bill validator characterized by comprising:

According to such a bill discriminating apparatus, when the bill storage unit is mounted, the latch unit locks the bill storage unit to the frame unit, and in addition, the latch unit can be locked by the lock mechanism. There is. Accordingly, when the bill storage unit is removed from the frame unit, the latch unit of the bill storage unit is not released by one normal operation, and two operations of releasing the lock mechanism and releasing the latch unit are required. While it is difficult to release the latch when the hand is inserted through the gap, the latch can be easily released by opening the door. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both the bill theft prevention function and the daily smooth bill collection work, and the user can avoid a certain risk of theft without feeling the trouble of the daily collection work. it can.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a general perspective view showing a bill validator according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a general perspective view of a bill storage unit, and FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a lock mechanism of the bill storage unit.

The bill validator 1 is, as shown in FIG.
A bill validating unit 2 that takes in bills inserted from a bill slot provided on the front side of the vending machine and makes an authenticity determination is fixed to a frame unit 3, and the authenticity is determined downstream of the bill transport. A bill storage unit 4 for storing the bills is detachably attached to the frame unit 3.

As shown in FIG. 2, the banknote storage section 4 holds a stacker 5 for stacking and storing the banknotes conveyed from the banknote recognition unit 2, and a banknote stacked in the stacker 5. The pressing plate 6 and the pressing plate 6 that is placed between the pressing plate 6 and the bottom of the stacker 5 so as to prevent the stacked banknotes from floating in the stacker 5 at the edge of the banknote pushing opening. A coil spring 7 that applies pressure to the frame unit 3, a latch lever 8 that facilitates attachment and detachment to and from the frame unit 3, and a rotary knob 9 that locks the latch lever 8 so that it does not move.

When the latch lever 8 is attached to the stacker 5, the latch lever 8 has latch portions 10 which are in a protruding state on the left and right sides of the stacker 5 due to its elasticity. At a corresponding position of the latch portion 10 when the bill storage portion 4 is mounted on the frame unit 3, a locking portion 11 formed by bending an edge portion of the frame unit 3 inward is provided. Therefore, when the bill storage unit 4 is mounted on the frame unit 3, the tapered side surface of the latch unit 10 is pushed inward by the locking unit 11 of the frame unit 3, and the bill storage unit 4 is completely mounted on the frame unit 3. At this time, the upper surface of the latch portion 10 rides over the locking portion 11, and the elasticity of the latch lever 8 causes the latch portion 10 to move outward and is locked by the locking portion 11.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rotary knob 9 is rotatably provided outside the bottom of the stacker 5 between the latch levers 8. The rotary knob 9 has a lock plate 12 having a shape capable of restricting the sliding amount of the latch lever 8 depending on its rotational position. That is, the lock plate 12 has a diameter substantially equal to the distance between the step portions 13 of the latch lever 8, and these step portions 1
The side opposite to 3 has a cut portion 14 cut by the sliding amount of the latch lever 8.

Next, a specific operation for detaching the bill storage unit 4 having the above-mentioned configuration from the frame unit 3 will be described. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bill validator showing a procedure for removing the bill storage unit.

When removing the bill storage unit 4 from the frame unit 3, first, the rotary knob 9 is rotated to the unlocked position, that is, the rotary position where the stepped portion 13 of the latch lever 8 and the cut portion 14 of the lock plate 12 are aligned. Keep it. In that state, each latch lever 8 is pinched using the thumb and forefinger. As a result, the latch levers 8 slide inward relative to each other as indicated by the arrow a, and the latch portions 1
0 moves inward and disengages from the locking portion 11 of the frame unit 3. Here, by holding the latch lever 8 in the direction shown by the arrow b while holding it in the state shown in the drawing, and then pulling it up in the direction shown by the arrow c,
The bill storage unit 4 can be removed from the frame unit 3.

Next, the lock mechanism of the bill storage unit 4 by the rotary knob 9 will be described. 5A and 5B are views for explaining the lock mechanism, where FIG. 5A shows a locked state of the latch lever, and FIG. 5B shows an unlocked state of the latch lever.

The latch lever 8 slidably provided on the stacker 5 has a hook 15 which is bent into an L shape and has one end fixed to a side portion of the stacker 5, and the bent portion constitutes the latch portion 10, and the other. A stepped portion 13 that forms a space in which the end has a hole 16 for inserting a finger and the lock disk 12 of the rotary knob 9 rotates.
And are integrally formed of elastic plastic.

When the movement of the latch lever 8 is locked, as shown in (A), the rotary knob 9 is rotated so that the longitudinal direction of the lock plate 12 coincides with the sliding direction of the latch lever 8. As a result, the longitudinal end of the lock plate 12 engages with the stepped portion 13 of the latch lever 8 and prevents the latch lever 8 from sliding in the direction indicated by the arrow a.

In order to unlock the latch lever 8, as shown in (B), the rotary knob 9 is rotated so that the longitudinal direction of the lock plate 12 is at a right angle to the sliding direction of the latch lever 8. To As a result, the lock board 12
Since there is a gap between the cut portion 14 and the stepped portion 13 of the latch lever 8, the latch lever 8 can be slid in both directions indicated by the arrow d. When a finger is inserted into the hole 16 of the latch lever 8 and grasped, the other end side of the latch lever 8 can slide horizontally toward the center of the stacker 5, so that the latch portion 10 moves toward the stacker 5. As a result, it is disengaged from the locking portion 11 of the frame unit 3 and the latch lever 8 is unlocked.

As described above, by rotating the rotary knob 9, the latch lever 8 can be easily locked or unlocked. By locking the latch lever 8, the banknotes can be stored only by operating the latch lever 8. The part 4 cannot be opened.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the details of the rotary knob. The rotary knob 9 has a knob portion 17 with a small amount of protrusion that is difficult to grip when an operation is performed by groping and can be gripped without difficulty when visually checking and operating.

A protrusion 18 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the rotary disc 9 of the rotary knob 9 in the longitudinal direction. Since the latch lever 8 has elasticity in the direction of the arrow d, when the rotary knob 9 is rotated to the locking position, among the two protrusions 18 provided on the outer peripheral portion in the longitudinal direction of the lock plate 12,
When the protrusion 18 on the front side in the rotation direction first hits the step portion 13 of the latch lever 8 and pushes the step portion 13 outward, and further rotates the protrusion 18 to separate from the step portion 13, the latch lever 8 is also elastically moved. Return by the amount pushed by. When it is attempted to rotate further, the protrusion 18 on the rear side in the rotation direction hits the step portion 13 and the rotation becomes heavy, so that it can be known that the rotary knob 9 has rotated to the locking position. As described above, by providing the projection 18, when the latch lever 8 is locked by the rotary knob 9, an appropriate click feeling can be obtained.

[0024]

As described above, in the present invention, the frame unit is provided with the latch mechanism for locking the bill storage portion. By using a two-step action structure so that the latch does not move unless the lock mechanism is released, you can easily operate the lock mechanism and the latch release when opening and closing by normal attachment / detachment. If you try to insert a banknote to steal a bill, you cannot easily open it. As a result, it is possible to achieve both the bill theft prevention function and the daily smooth bill collection work, and the administrator of the vending machine equipped with the bill identification device according to the present invention makes daily bill collection operations troublesome. You can avoid a certain risk of theft without feeling it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a bill validator according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a bill storage unit.

FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a lock mechanism of a bill storage unit.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a bill validator showing a procedure for removing a bill storage unit.

5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating a lock mechanism, where FIG. 5A shows a locked state of the latch lever, and FIG. 5B shows an unlocked state of the latch lever.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing details of a rotary knob.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the bill validator viewed from the front side.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the bill validator viewed from the back side.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 bill validator 2 bill recognition unit 3 frame unit 4 banknote storage 5 stacker 6 Presser plate 7 coil spring 8 Latch lever 9 rotary knob 10 Latch section 11 Locking part 12 rock 13 Step 14 Cut section 15 hooks 16 holes 17 knob part 18 protrusions

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A banknote processing device in which a banknote storage unit for storing an identified banknote is detachably provided in a frame unit to which a banknote identification unit for identifying a banknote inserted from an insertion slot is attached. A bill identifying device, wherein the frame unit is provided with a lock mechanism capable of locking the movement in the latch release direction with respect to the latch portion that allows the bill storage portion to be engaged and disengaged. 2. The lock mechanism is rotatably provided between latch levers for releasing the latch by sliding the latch portions provided on both sides of the bill storage portion inward. A lock plate having an outer peripheral shape that abuts on the latch lever at the rotational position to prohibit the sliding motion of the latch lever, and allows the sliding motion of the latch lever at the first rotational position, and a knob for rotating the lock plate. The bill validator according to claim 1, further comprising a rotary knob having a portion. 3. The bill discriminating apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the knob portion of the rotary knob is formed in a shape having a small amount of protrusion. 4. The lock disc of the rotary knob is the first disc.
4. The banknote according to claim 3, wherein the outer peripheral portion that abuts the latch lever at the rotational position has a protrusion that provides a click feeling when the rotary knob is rotated for locking. Identification device.