JP2966540B2 - Coin hold mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coin holding mechanism suitable for use in an automatic toll collection device installed at a toll gate such as a toll road or a parking lot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, coins inserted by a user are stored in a safe in an automatic toll collection device installed in a toll gate such as a toll road or a parking lot in order to prevent various troubles. There is provided a coin temporary holding mechanism (visible coin temporary holding mechanism) for temporarily holding the coin before it can be viewed by the user. Conventionally, this kind of coin temporary holding mechanism has been configured as shown in FIG. FIG. 1A is an external view showing a schematic configuration of a coin temporary holding mechanism, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view thereof along the AA 'direction.

In the conventional coin temporary holding mechanism shown in FIG. 4, the coins are inclined on the back side and on both sides in the lateral direction of the coins, and the gap between the back plate 28 and the transparent plate 27 is two coins. Are managed so that they do not overlap. Then
Coins which are regarded as genuine coins by a coin discriminating section (not shown) are arranged one by one in a current processing vehicle holding section 24 divided by a partition plate 22 in a gap between a rear plate 28 and a front transparent plate 27. It is being done.

[0004] When the processing of one vehicle is completed and the next vehicle enters, the partition plate 22 is rotated by the rotary solenoid 23 for about 4 hours.
Rotate 5 °. As a result, the reserved coin 26 is moved to the previous processed vehicle reservation unit 25, the current processed vehicle reservation unit 24 is emptied, and the next vehicle inserted coin can be accepted.

The actual operation is performed by repeating the above cycle. In such a conventional coin holding mechanism, since the inserted coins are arranged one by one in order, it is easy for the user to check the coins, but on the other hand, the gap between the rear plate 28 and the transparent plate 27 is reduced. 2
It is necessary to manage more than one coin so that they do not overlap,
There was a problem that high-precision gap adjustment was required. Moreover, in actual operation, coins wet with water, slightly deformed coins, and the like may be inserted. When such coins are inserted, two coins are inserted into the gap between the back plate 28 and the transparent plate 27. Coins were wedge-shaped and overlapped. As described above, when the coins are overlapped in a wedge shape, the coins do not fall down even if the partition plate 22 is rotated, and in the worst case, the coin does not function as a coin temporary holding mechanism. Was.

[0006]

In the conventional coin escrow mechanism as shown in FIG. 4, the back plate (2
8) It is necessary to adjust the gap between the front transparent plate (27) and the front transparent plate (27) with high accuracy, and when a wet coin, a deformed coin, or the like is inserted, the coins overlap in a wedge shape, and the actual There is a problem that operation of the automatic toll collection device is hindered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to eliminate the need to manage the gap between the rear plate and the front transparent plate of the holding section for temporarily holding coins. Another object of the present invention is to provide a coin holding mechanism that does not hinder actual operation.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a coin inserted by a user and accepted as a genuine coin is guided to a gap between a rear plate and a front transparent plate of a holding portion of a coin temporary holding mechanism. The rear plate has an inclination so that the rear plate is inclined to the rear side, and the rear plate has an upper end.
While it has a structure that can rotate to its back side around the side ,
The coins accepted as genuine coins are suspended in the
The partition plate that forms the stop part is independent of the back plate
By driving the rear plate to the rear side thereof by a driving mechanism , the coins held in the holding section are discharged out of the holding section and dropped into a safe or the like. It is.

[0009]

According to the above construction, even if coins overlap in the gap of the holding section, the holding coin can be reliably dropped to the back side by rotating the back plate to the back side. . Therefore, fine adjustment of the gap between the back plate and the transparent plate is not required, and this gap can be widened as compared with the related art. That is, according to the above configuration, although there is no guarantee that coins are surely arranged one by one in order, there is no need for delicate gap adjustment at the time of assembly.
Even if the reserved coins overlap, they always fall to the back side, so that coins are not jammed on the way and hinder the operation of the automatic toll collection device.

[0010]

1A and 1B show the structure of a coin holding mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is an external view, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along the line AA '. is there. 2A and 2B show the configuration of a coin sorter having the coin holding mechanism shown in FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 2A is an external view and FIG. 2B is a side view. FIG. 3 shows the coin holding mechanism (FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an automatic toll collection system for a toll road to which a coin sorter of the present invention is applied.

The automatic toll collection system shown in FIG. 3 includes an automatic toll collection device 31 installed on a tollgate island 37,
It comprises a circuit breaker 34 and a start control signal light 35, and a vehicle entry detection device 32 and a vehicle start detection device 33 buried in the road. The automatic toll collection device 31 incorporates the coin sorter 10 shown in FIG.

A series of user processing in the automatic toll collection system shown in FIG. 3 is as follows. First, when the user's vehicle 38 approaches the automatic toll collection device 31, the fact is detected by the vehicle entry detection device 32. This detection signal is transmitted to the automatic toll collection device 31 and received by the device 31. When the automatic toll collection device 31 receives the detection signal of the vehicle entry detection device 32, the automatic toll collection device 31 is set to be in a state where it can accept a user to input a fee. Thereby, the user inserts some coins into the automatic toll collection device 31 as a usage fee.

The coins inserted into the automatic toll collection device 31 by the user are conveyed one by one to the discrimination sensor 12 for discriminating the coins by the coin conveyance mechanism 11 of the coin sorter 10 shown in FIG. The determination sensor 12 determines whether the coin transported by the coin transport mechanism 11 is a genuine coin. The coin discriminated as a genuine coin by the discrimination sensor (coin discriminating unit) 12 is further guided to a coin temporary holding mechanism 1 provided in the coin sorter 10 and directly related to the present invention. On the other hand, a coin discriminated as a counterfeit coin by the discrimination sensor 12 is moved to another course, guided to the front of the automatic toll collection device 31, and returned to the user.

As shown in FIG. 1, the coin temporary holding mechanism 1 is a current processing vehicle holding section 8 for temporarily holding coins determined as genuine coins by the discriminating sensor 12 as reserved coins 6.
And the coins 6 currently held in the processing vehicle holding unit 8
And a previous-vehicle-reserved-for-reservation unit 9 for receiving and suspending the vehicle during the toll collection process for the next vehicle. The currently processed vehicle reservation unit 8 forms the upper stage of the coin temporary storage mechanism 1, and the previous processed vehicle reservation unit 9 forms the lower stage of the coin temporary storage mechanism 1.
A rear plate 2 described later of the currently processed vehicle reservation unit 8 is a front plate that forms a front surface of the previous processed vehicle reservation unit 9 in the lower stage.

In the currently processed vehicle holding section 8, a gap between the back plate 2 forming the back surface and the transparent plate 3 (eg, acrylic plate, tempered glass, etc.) forming the front surface is partitioned by the partition plate 4. Composed of The back plate 2 and the transparent plate 3
Is set so as to be sufficient for coins determined as genuine coins by the discrimination sensor 12 and guided to the coin escrow mechanism 1 to move along the back plate 2 and be held. In this case, a delicate gap adjustment for preventing two or more coins from overlapping is not performed as in the related art. The back plate 2 is inclined so that coins received as genuine coins are inclined and aligned on the back side of the coin, and are held.
As shown by the dashed line in (b), it has a structure that can rotate to its own back side. A rotary solenoid 5 is connected to the back plate 2 of the currently processed vehicle holding unit 8 via a joint 7, and when the solenoid 5 is driven,
The rear plate 2 rotates. Further, the rear plate (symbols are omitted) of the previously processed vehicle holding unit 9 has the same structure as the rear plate 2. On the other hand,
As is clear from FIG. 1 (b), the partition plate 4
The accepted coins are stored in the currently processed vehicle reservation unit 8.
It has a stop part to stop. The partition plate 4 is on the back.
Independent of the rear plate 4 and not linked to the rotation of the plate 4
It is made.

The coin discriminated as a genuine coin by the discrimination sensor (coin discriminating unit) 12 and guided to the coin escrow mechanism 1 is tilted by the inclination of the back plate 2 of the currently processed car reserve unit 8 which forms the upper stage. Along the rear side, the gap between the rear plate 2 and the transparent plate 3 is moved, and the coins are stored as coins 6 in the holding section 8.
Will be held in line. The reserved coins 6 in the currently processed vehicle reserve section 8 are sent to the transparent plate 3 of the reserve section 8 through a temporary reserved coin confirmation window 36 provided on the front of the automatic toll collection device 31.
Can be visually recognized by the user. As a result, not only the display by the charge indicator (not shown) but also the inserted amount can be confirmed by looking at the actual coin, so that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of trouble due to misrecognition of the inserted amount.

When the automatic toll collection device 31 recognizes that the inserted amount has reached the toll, the circuit breaker 34 installed in front is opened, the start control signal light 35 switches from red to blue, and the vehicle 38 Can be encouraged to start. When the vehicle 38 starts and the start detection device 33 detects that the start is completed, the circuit breaker 34 closes, and the start control signal light 35 switches from blue to red. At the same time, coin transport mechanism 1
1 is also stopped, and the input coin acceptance is terminated.

In this state, when the entry of the next vehicle 38 is detected by the vehicle entry detection device 32, the rear plate of the last processed vehicle storage unit 9 which is the lower stage of the coin temporary storage mechanism 1 is moved to the lower rotary solenoid. (The symbols are omitted for all of them) and are opened by being pivotally driven to the rear side thereof.
As a result, the coins previously held in the processed vehicle holding unit 9 are dropped to a safe (not shown). Subsequently, the rear plate 2 of the currently processed vehicle storage unit 8, which is the upper stage of the coin temporary storage mechanism 1, is rotated by the upper rotary solenoid 5 toward the rear side and opened. As a result, the reserved coins 6 in the currently processed vehicle reservation unit 8 are moved to the previous processed vehicle reservation unit 9 at the lower stage, and the currently processed vehicle reservation unit 8 is emptied. At the same time, the coin transport mechanism 11 is activated, and the next vehicle coin can be accepted. The operation of the automatic toll collection system is performed by repeating the above-described cycle.

In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which the present invention is applied to an automatic toll collection system for toll roads. However, the present invention can also be applied to an automatic toll collection system for parking lots. The coins inserted and accepted as genuine coins are temporarily held before being stored in safes, etc.
Any coin holding mechanism that allows the user to view it through the front transparent plate is applicable.

[0020]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the back plate of the holding portion of the coin temporary holding mechanism is tilted so that coins guided and held in the holding portion tilt toward the back side. In addition, the structure that is rotatable to the back side of the user enables the back plate to be turned to the back side even if coins that are wet or deformed are thrown in and are piled up. By moving the coins, the reserved coins can be reliably dropped to the back side, and it is possible to eliminate the problem of the actual operation due to the overlap of the reserved coins.

Further, according to the present invention, since the coins can be overlapped in the holding portion, the gap between the rear plate and the front transparent plate can be increased as compared with the conventional case. Although it is somewhat inferior to the conventional coin escrow mechanism in that it is arranged in order (however, the number of coins actually inserted is usually about two to three, and in such a case, almost all coins are turned one by one). It has been confirmed by experiments that the coins are temporarily aligned), and fine adjustment of the gap at the time of assembling the coin temporary holding mechanism is not required, and assemblability and maintainability are improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a coin temporary holding mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a coin sorter having a coin temporary holding mechanism shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an overall configuration diagram of an automatic toll collection system for a toll road to which the coin temporary holding mechanism of FIG. 1 (the coin sorter of FIG. 2 having) is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional coin temporary holding mechanism.

[Description of Signs] 1,21 ... Coin temporary holding mechanism, 2,28 ... Back plate, 3,
27 ... Transparent plate, 4,22 ... Partition plate, 5,23 ... Rotary solenoid, 6,26 ... Reserved coin, 7,29 ... Coupling,
8, 24: current processing vehicle reservation section, 9, 25: previous processing vehicle reservation section, 10: coin sorter, 11: coin transport mechanism, 1
2 ... Discrimination sensor, 31 ... Automatic toll collection device, 32 ... Vehicle entry detection device, 33 ... Vehicle start detection device, 34 ... Interrupter, 35 ... Start control signal light, 36 ... Temporary coin confirmation window, 37 ... Toll booth Island, 38 ... Vehicle.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A is turned on hold temporarily the accepted coins as genuine by the user, in the coin escrow mechanism having a holding portion that the user has to be able to visually recognize it through the front of the transparent plate, A back plate that forms a back surface of the holding portion, has a tilt so that coins received as the genuine coins are tilted and aligned to the back side, and is rotatable to the back side thereof; And a drive mechanism for rotating and driving around the upper end thereof, and the back plate are provided independently, and are received as genuine coins.
A stop unit for stopping the used coins in the holding unit.
A partition plate, and by driving the rear plate to the rear side thereof by the driving mechanism, coins held in the holding portion are discharged out of the holding portion. Coin holding mechanism.