JP2014174561A - Coin receiving and dispensing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To respond to the situation that a convenient rejected coin return destination varies depending on each assumed user of a coin receiving and dispensing device.SOLUTION: The coin receiving and dispensing device comprises: a conveyance path; a discrimination part; a rejection part; a return destination; a return conveyance path; a return drive part; a delivery destination; and a switching part. The conveyance path is a path of coins received and to be conveyed to a storage part. The discrimination part provided on the conveyance path discriminates rightness or denominations of each coin. The rejection part selectively removes a coin from the conveyance path in response to a discrimination by the discrimination part. The return destination is a destination to which the coin removed by the rejection part is returned. The return conveyance path branches off at the downstream side of the discrimination part in the conveyance path and connects to the return destination. The return drive part conveys the coin in the return conveyance path to the return destination. The delivery destination is a destination to which coins stored in the storage part through the conveyance path are delivered. The switching part removably provided in the return conveyance path changes the transportation direction of the coin conveyed by the return drive part and guides the coin to the delivery destination.

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to a coin deposit and withdrawal device.

  A conventional coin deposit / withdrawal device discriminates a denomination or a normal coin at the time of deposit, and returns a coin that is difficult to be mechanically discriminated due to an abnormal coin or deformation as a reject coin. The reject coins are returned to a return port, a dedicated port such as a drawer, or a change tray.

  The user of the coin deposit / withdrawal device is generally a clerk, but in the case of self-checkout, the customer is the user. In addition, in the cash lane where the store clerk handles the coin depositing and dispensing device, the processing speed is important, but in the case of self-checkout, the ease of operation is important. Due to these differences, there is a difference between the cash lane and the self-checkout in the processing of the coin deposit and withdrawal device. As a specific example, there is a difference in processing when the reject coin is returned. The self-checkout coin deposit / withdrawal device returns the reject coin to the customer and asks for deposit of a substitute coin. In contrast, the cash lane coin deposit / withdrawal apparatus dispenses change based on the amount input by the store clerk. In this case, the reject coins are put out into a dedicated mouth, and exchanged with a substitute coin by the store clerk and deposited.

In the cash lane where the store clerk is the user, if the return destination of the reject coin is a change tray, the process cannot proceed to pay out change until the reject coin is removed. Therefore, it is more convenient to make the coin return destination a dedicated port.
On the other hand, in the case of a self-checkout where the customer is a user, a person who is unfamiliar with the operation will use a change coin as the return destination of the reject coin so that he / she will not notice or forget the reject coin. Is convenient.
Thus, conventionally, the suitability of the return destination of the reject coin of the coin deposit / withdrawal apparatus varies depending on the assumed user.

  The coin deposit / withdrawal apparatus according to the embodiment includes a conveyance path, a determination unit, a rejection unit, a return destination, a return conveyance path, a return drive unit, a payout destination, and a switching unit. The conveyance path is a path for coins that are deposited and sent to the storage unit. The discriminating unit is provided in the transport path and discriminates whether the coin is correct or denominated. The reject unit selectively removes coins from the conveyance path according to the determination by the determination unit. The return destination is the destination where the coins removed by the reject unit are returned. The return conveyance path branches on the downstream side of the determination unit in the conveyance path and leads to the return destination. A return drive part sends the coin of a return conveyance path to a return place. The payout destination is a place where coins stored in the storage unit are paid out via the transport path. The switching unit is detachably provided on the return conveyance path, changes the moving direction of the coins sent by the return drive unit, and guides the coins to the payout destination.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a change machine according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of the change machine according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of the return conveyance path and its peripheral members according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of the switching member according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the positional relationship between the switching member and its surroundings according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical connection between a control unit and each unit included in the change machine according to the embodiment.

  Embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are perspective views showing the appearance of the change machine 1, wherein FIG. 1 shows the right corner in front and FIG. 2 shows the left corner in front. The change machine 1 is an example of a coin deposit and withdrawal device.

  The change machine 1 includes a rectangular parallelepiped housing 2 having a long depth, a deposit port 3 on the right side of the front side of the top surface of the housing 2, a withdrawal port 4 on the left side of the front surface of the housing 2, and a front surface of the housing 2. A reject port 5 is provided on the right side. The deposit port 3 is a port that accepts coins to be put into the housing 2. The withdrawal port 4 is a port for paying out coins to be taken out of the housing 2, that is, change. The reject port 5 is an example of a return destination, and has an opening that leads to the outside of the housing 2.

  The change machine 1 further includes a tray 6 that protrudes from the bottom of the dispensing port 4 and a storage portion (not shown) in the housing 2. The tray 6 receives the change paid out by the withdrawal port 4. The tray 6 is an example of a payout destination. The storage unit stores the coins received by the deposit port 3.

  FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the return conveyance path 12 (described later) and its peripheral members. The change machine 1 further includes a conveyance surface 7, a coin sensor 8, a reject unit 9, and a belt conveyor 10 in addition to the above configuration.

  The conveyance surface 7 is a surface of a sheet metal material and serves as a bottom of a conveyance path 11 that is a passage of coins from the deposit port 3 to the storage unit. On the transport surface 7, an endless belt (not shown) extends along the coin transport direction. The endless belt is rotationally driven by a transport motor 43 (FIG. 6, described later) and transports coins on the transport surface 7. The coin sensor 8 is an example of a discriminating unit, and discriminates the correctness or denomination of coins.

  The reject unit 9 includes a drop hole 91, an opening / closing lid 92, and a solenoid 93. The reject unit 9 selectively drives the solenoid 93 to move the open / close lid 92 to open / close the drop hole 91. As a result, the reject unit 9 drops the coin that the coin sensor 8 is not normal or the coin whose denomination cannot be discriminated from the drop hole 91 and removes it from the transport path 11.

  The belt conveyor 10 is an example of a return drive unit and serves as the bottom of the return conveyance path 12. The return transport path 12 is a coin path from the reject unit 9 to the reject port 5, and branches on the downstream side of the coin sensor 8 in the transport path 11 and communicates with the reject port 5. The belt conveyor 10 is rotationally driven by a return motor 44 (FIG. 6, described later) to carry coins.

  Here, in FIG. 3, the belt conveyor 10 is illustrated as a single endless belt 10a spanned between a pair of rollers 10b and 10c. The drive unit may be realized, or the return drive unit may be realized by a drive mechanism other than the belt conveyor.

  The change machine 1 further includes a switching member 20. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the switching member 20. FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the positional relationship between the switching member 20 and its surroundings. The switching member 20 is a drawer-type member that is detachably attached by being inserted into the reject port 5 and changes the return destination of the reject coin.

  The front surface of the switching member 20 is a front plate 21 that closes the reject port 5 when inserted into the reject port 5. The front plate 21 is provided with a handle 22 that is gripped when being pulled out. On the back surface of the front plate 21, a guide plate 23 that is a plate-like member extending to the back and rides on the belt conveyor 10 is attached.

  The back side of the guide plate 23 is a guide surface 24. The guide surface 24 is a curved surface that obliquely crosses the return conveyance path 12. The guide surface 24 obliquely crosses the transport path 12 so that the end nearer to the tray 6 is closer to the front and the far end is closer to the back.

  Coins on the belt conveyor 10 abut against the guide surface 24 and move along the guide surface 24. Thereby, the moving direction of the coins on the belt conveyor 10 is changed and bent toward the tray 6. The guide surface 24 guides the coin to the branch slider 13. The branch slider 13 is a coin passage from the downstream side of the guide surface 24 to the tray 6 and branches from the return conveyance path 12 to the tray 6. The branch slider 13 is lowered so that coins slide down toward the tray 6 side.

  Here, the switching unit (one example) is realized by the branch slider 13 and the switching member 20.

  A notch 25 is provided on the side surface of the guide plate 23 near the upstream end of the guide surface 24. In a state where the switching member 20 is housed in the reject port 5, an engaging portion (not shown) provided in the vicinity of the belt conveyor 10 in the housing 2 is elastically fitted into the notch 25. As a result, the switching member 20 is prevented from falling off the reject port 5 due to vibration or the like.

  The switching member 20 includes a detected piece 26 on the front side of the guide plate 23. The detected piece 26 is an example of a detected portion. The detected piece 26 is a small plate-like member and is provided upright on the guide plate 23. On the other hand, a detection unit 30 for detecting the detected piece 26 is provided above the reject port 5 as shown in FIG. The detection unit 30 is an optical sensor as an example, and detects the presence / absence of the detected piece 26 in the slit 31 and sends a signal corresponding to the presence / absence of the detected piece 26 to the control unit 40 (FIG. 6, described later). Output.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an electrical connection between the control unit 40 and each unit provided in the change machine 1. The change machine 1 further includes a control unit 40, a corresponding processing unit 41, and a display unit 42 in addition to the above configuration. The display unit 42 is a liquid crystal panel, for example, and displays various messages to the user.

  The control unit 40 includes a CPU (not shown), a RAM, and a storage unit such as a ROM and an HDD, and the CPU reads the program stored in the storage unit into the RAM and executes the program (coin sensor 8). The display unit 42, the transport motor 43, the return motor 44, and the solenoid 93) are collectively controlled. The control unit 40 functions as an example of the response processing unit 41 by executing a program.

  The response processing unit 41 determines the presence / absence of the detected piece 26 according to the signal input from the detection unit 30, that is, whether or not the switching member 20 is in the reject port 5. And according to this judgment result, correspondence processing part 41 changes processing accompanying payment / withdrawal. An example of processing accompanying deposit / withdrawal is message display on the display unit 42. The response processing unit 41 changes the content of the message displayed on the display unit 42 upon rejection.

  For example, in the case of a self-checkout where the user is a customer, the switching member 20 is used and the return destination of the rejected coin is the tray 6, so the display unit 42 returns “a coin that cannot be recognized by the change tray. Please display a replacement coin, etc. "to prevent customers unfamiliar with the operation from mistaking the reject coin as change. In addition, in the case of a cash lane where the user is a store clerk, the reject coin is returned to the reject port 5 without using the switching member 20, so that the display unit 42 briefly displays “rejected” or the like. Show the clerk that the coin needs to be post-processed.

  In the change machine 1 having such a configuration, when coins are inserted from the deposit port 3, the coins are stored in the storage unit through the transport path 11 and are paid out to the tray 6 from the withdrawal port 4. Also, coins are returned on the transport path 11 as rejected coins that are abnormal in the determination by the coin sensor 8. The reject coin is returned to the reject port 5 if the reject port 5 is opened, and returned to the tray 6 if the reject port 5 is closed by the switching member 20. A message corresponding to the reject destination is displayed on the display unit 42. The message prompts the user to recognize the reject coin.

  Thus, according to the present embodiment, the return destination of the reject coin can be changed depending on whether or not the switching member 20 is attached to the reject port 5.

In addition, the to-be-detected part and the detecting part are not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is only necessary that the detecting part detects whether or not the detecting part is present to determine whether or not the switching member 20 is attached to the reject port 5.
Moreover, although not touched in the present embodiment, a lid may be provided on the reject port 5. As a form of this lid, for example, the upper side of a rectangular plate material that closes the reject port 5 is rotatably attached to the upper part in the reject port 5. This attachment position is preferably set to a position where the lid will fly and not be caught by the switching member 20 when the switching member 20 is inserted into the reject port 5.
Further, in the present embodiment, the payout destination is the receiving tray 6, but in the implementation, the payout destination may be a position that can be guided by changing the moving direction of the coin on the return conveyance path by the switching unit, It does not have to be a saucer.
In this embodiment, the switching unit is realized by the switching member 20 and the branch slider 13. However, the embodiment is not limited to this form, and the shape of the switching member 20 and the branch slider 13 is also the embodiment. It is not limited to those.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Change machine, 2 ... Housing, 3 ... Deposit port, 4 ... Withdrawal port, 5 ... Reject port, 6 ... Receptacle,
7 ... Conveying surface, 8 ... Coin sensor, 9 ... Reject part, 10 ... Belt conveyor,
91 ... Drop hole, 92 ... Open / close lid, 93 ... Solenoid,
11 ... conveying path, 12 ... return conveying path, 13 ... branching slider,
20 ... switching member, 24 ... guide surface, 25 ... notch, 26 ... detected piece,
30 ... detector, 31 ... slit,
40: control unit, 41: correspondence processing unit, 42: display unit.

Japanese Patent No. 4786966 JP 2007-279908 A Japanese Patent No. 5021703

Claims (5)

A transport path that is a path for coins to be deposited and sent to the storage section
A discriminator provided in the transport path for discriminating whether the coin is correct or denominated;
A reject unit that selectively removes coins from the transport path according to the determination of the determination unit;
A return destination to which the coins removed by the reject unit are returned; and
A return conveyance path that branches off downstream of the determination unit in the conveyance path and leads to the return destination;
A return drive unit for sending coins in the return conveyance path to the return destination;
A payout destination to which coins stored in the storage portion via the transport path are to be paid out;
A switching unit that is detachably provided in the return conveyance path, and changes a moving direction of the coins sent by the return drive unit, and guides the coins to the payout destination;
A coin deposit and withdrawal device. The switching unit is a surface on which a coin abuts, a guide surface that bends the moving direction of the coin sent by the return drive unit toward the payout destination, and a coin whose movement direction is bent by the guide surface. The coin depositing / withdrawing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a branch slider that guides the position from the return conveyance path on the downstream side of the surface to the payout destination. The return destination has an opening in the front of the device itself,
The switching unit includes a drawer-type member that has a front plate that closes the opening and is detachable from the opening.
The coin depositing / withdrawing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the guide surface is provided on the drawer mold member. The switching unit includes a detected unit,
The detection part which detects the presence or absence of the said to-be-detected part, and the corresponding | compatible process part which changes the process accompanying payment / withdrawal according to the detection of the said detection part, It further comprises any one of Claims 1-3 Coin deposit and withdrawal device. The coin return / pay-in device according to claim 1, wherein the return drive unit is a belt conveyor type.

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