JP4405581B1 - Paper sheet transport device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a technique capable of transporting and collecting paper sheets transported by an air flow.
SOLUTION: A blower tube, a feeding device that feeds paper into the blower tube, an airflow generator that generates an airflow in the blower tube, and an end portion of the blower tube are conveyed in the blower tube. In the paper sheet conveying apparatus having a collecting apparatus for collecting the coming paper sheets, the bending apparatus disposed in the feeding apparatus and bending the rear end portion of the paper sheets into a bent or curved shape, and the collecting apparatus A conveyor belt 100 that is disposed and conveys paper sheets to the inside of the collection device, and a discharge port is provided on the back side of the conveyor belt 100 opposite the conveyor belt 100;The conveyance direction of the paper sheet 32 that is conveyed through the blower pipe by applying the wind pressure of the airflow to the rear end portion 32b of the paper sheet 32,The paper sheet 32 is brought into contact with the conveyor belt 100.Change directionAnd an exhaust pipe 60 for exhausting the air flow.
[Selection] FIG.

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for conveying paper sheets by an air flow.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when transporting banknotes at a game hall or the like, a transport device that transports bills using a belt or a roller has been used. However, in such a transport apparatus, the entire apparatus becomes large in a game area having a large area, and the running cost for driving the belt and the rollers becomes very high.

  Then, this inventor has proposed the conveyance apparatus which conveys paper sheets, such as a banknote, using an airflow (patent document 1). According to the transport device using such an air flow, the device can be downsized and the running cost can be reduced as compared with a transport device using a belt or a roller.

Japanese Patent No. 4130697

  The paper sheet conveying technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 forms a deformed portion (bent or curved portion) at the rear end of the paper sheet in the conveying direction, and applies wind pressure to the deformed portion. As a result, the paper sheet obtains a propulsive force, and the paper sheet is conveyed so as to flow in the blower pipe in a state where the deformed portion is formed. Also, when the paper is collected in the collection device at the transport destination, the paper sheet and the air flow are separated by the separation unit, and the deformed part of the paper sheet is corrected and flattened by the correction unit and stored in the storage unit. Is done.

  However, before being conveyed from the separation unit to the correction unit, the paper sheets may be separated from the air flow and stay in the separation unit. For this reason, the paper sheets that are subsequently conveyed are overlapped and clogged at the separation unit, causing a problem that they cannot be conveyed and collected.

  The objective of this invention is providing the technique which can convey and collect | recover the paper sheets conveyed by the airflow.

A blower tube, a feeding device for feeding paper sheets into the blower tube, an airflow generator for generating an airflow in the blower tube, and a paper sheet conveyed through the blower tube to a terminal portion of the blower tube A paper sheet transport device having a recovery device for recovering the paper sheet, the bending device disposed in the feeding device, the bending device for bending or bending the rear end portion of the paper sheet, and the recovery device, A transport belt that transports the paper sheets to the inside of the collecting device, and a discharge port is provided on the back side of the transport belt opposite the transport belt, and airflow wind pressure acts on the rear end of the paper sheets. And a discharge pipe for discharging the air flow by changing the direction of conveyance of the paper sheet conveyed through the blower pipe so that the conveyed paper sheet is brought into contact with the conveyance belt. It is characterized by. The paper sheet is a bill.

  If the effect obtained by the representative one of the inventions disclosed in the present application is briefly described, the paper sheets conveyed by the airflow can be more reliably conveyed and collected.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the outline | summary of the paper sheet conveying apparatus in one embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the conveyance method of paper sheets. It is explanatory drawing which shows a collection | recovery apparatus from the side surface side. It is a perspective view of the isolation | separation part in one embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which decomposes | disassembles and shows a part of isolation | separation part. It is a top view which decomposes | disassembles and shows a part of isolation | separation part. It is (a) side view and (b) top view of a squeegee. It is a side view of a lattice board, (a) It is explanatory drawing which shows positional relationship with a conveyance belt, (b) It is explanatory drawing which shows positional relationship with a squeegee. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 9 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 10 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 11 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 12 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 13 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance following FIG. 14 from the upper surface side of a separation part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the paper sheets in conveyance in FIG. 10 from the side surface side of a lattice board.

  The paper sheet conveying apparatus 20 in this Embodiment is demonstrated. Since the technology described in Patent Document 1 proposed by the present inventor can be applied to the paper sheet transport device 20, the description will focus on different technologies.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the paper sheet transport device 20 includes a blower tube 22, a feeding device 28 that feeds paper sheets into the blower tube 22, and an airflow generator 24 that generates an airflow in the blower tube 22. And a collection device 34 that collects paper sheets conveyed through the blower tube 22 at the end of the blower tube 22. In the paper sheet transport device 20, for example, an air flow generated by an air flow generator 24 such as a blower is circulated through a delivery pipe 25, a connecting pipe 26, a blower pipe 22, a collection device 34, and a return pipe 36. It is configured. The blower pipe 22 is formed with a bent portion 23 that is bent in a U-shape to form a circulation path. The return pipe 36 has an external air intake 37. Thereby, external air is taken in with return air, and it blows in the ventilation pipe 22 from the airflow generator 24 again.

  A plurality of the feeding devices 28 are arranged at appropriate positions of the blower tube 22 in the paper sheet transport device 20. The feeding device 28 includes a banknote recognition device 29 disposed on the front side of the feeding and a bending device 30 disposed on the back side and connected to the blower tube 22.

  Among them, the bending device 30 has a zigzag-shaped deformed portion 32b (a bent portion) at the rear end in the transport direction with respect to the flat portion 32a at the front end in the transport direction of the paper sheet 32 as shown in FIG. Is formed). A wind pressure from an air flow (indicated by hatched arrows in FIG. 2) flowing in the blower tube 22 acts on the deforming portion 32 b, and the paper sheet 32 is conveyed through the blower tube 22. In the present embodiment, a case where the deformed portion 32b of the paper sheet 32 is formed in a zigzag shape is shown. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the deformable portion 32b is L-shaped as long as the wind pressure of the airflow acts. Alternatively, it may be bent or curved into a round shape. That is, the bending device 30 is disposed in the feeding device 28, and deforms the rear end portion (deformation portion 32b) of the paper sheet 32 into a bent or curved shape (a bent or curved portion).

  As shown in FIG. 3, the collection device 34 included in the paper sheet transport device 20 includes a separation unit 94, a correction unit 96, and a storage unit 98 that are sequentially provided from the terminal end side of the blower tube 22 in the transport direction. It is configured. The collection device 34 is detachably attached to the terminal end of the blower tube 22 and collects the paper sheets 32 conveyed through the blower tube 22.

  The separation unit 94 in the present embodiment will be described. 4 is a perspective view of the separating portion 94, FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view showing a part of the separating portion 94, and FIG. 6 is a top view showing a portion of the separating portion 94 in an exploded manner. FIG. 6 also shows a discharge pipe 60 that discharges the air flow (shown by hatched arrows) of the separation portion 94. The discharge port of the discharge pipe 60 is provided to face the conveyor belt 100. The conveyor belt 100 is disposed in front of the correction unit 96 (correction roller 104) (see FIG. 3).

  The separation unit 94 includes four sets of a conveyance belt 100 that is an endless belt, and a drive pulley 103 and a passive pulley 103a on which the conveyance belt 100 is engaged. Among these, the four conveyor belts 100 are disposed in the collection device 34 and convey the paper sheet 32 toward the inside (correction unit 96) of the collection device 34. The drive pulley 103 is disposed on the inside (correction unit 96) side of the collection device 34 with respect to the passive pulley 103a, and conveys the paper sheet 32 to the inside (correction unit 96) side of the collection device 34. is there. The four drive pulleys 103 have their rotational axes arranged on the same line. The four passive pulleys 103a have their rotation axes arranged on the same line.

  The separation unit 94 includes four rollers 321 that face the four driving pulleys 103 respectively. Each of the four rollers 321 has a rotation axis arranged on the same line. The four rollers 321 are arranged to clamp the paper sheet 32 together with the four drive pulleys 103 (conveying belt 100) and send them to the correction unit 96.

  The drive pulley 103 is connected to a concentric gear 332, and the roller 321 is connected to a concentric gear 333. The gear 332 and the gear 333 are meshed with each other, and the driving pulley 103 and the roller 321 are rotated synchronously by the separation unit motor 101 (see FIG. 3) that rotationally drives the gears 332 and 333. As a result, the paper sheet 32 can be clamped between the drive pulley 103 and the roller 321, and the paper sheet 32 can be fed into the correction unit 96 from the correction unit side port 324.

  As described above, the correction unit side port 324 serving as the outlet of the paper sheet 32 conveyed to the separation unit 94 is large enough to allow the paper sheet 32 to pass through the side edge. On the other hand, the blower pipe side port 323 serving as the inlet of the paper sheet 32 conveyed to the separation unit 94 has the same size as the cross section of the blower pipe 22, and the paper sheet 32 having the deforming part 32b passes through. The size is as large as possible. Accordingly, the passage through which the paper sheet 32 passes is formed so as to become gradually narrower from the terminal end of the blower tube 22 to the correction unit 96 in the separation unit 94.

  In the present embodiment, the passage of the separation unit 94 is formed by the conveyance belt 100 and a squeegee 301 that is disposed to face the conveyance belt 100 and has a protrusion 302. The squeegee 301 is attached to a guide plate 326 disposed from the edge of the blower tube side port 323 toward the edge of the correction unit side port 324, and on the side opposite to the discharge port of the discharge tube 60, the conveyor belt. 100 is arranged to face.

  The protruding portion 302 of the squeegee 301 has a rear side surface 304 that is parallel to the conveyor belt 100 and a front side surface 303 that narrows the passage of the separating portion 94. That is, the front side surface 303 is inclined with respect to the conveyance direction of the paper sheet 32 conveyed from the blower tube 22. As shown in FIG. 7A, the squeegee 301 has a Y-shaped side surface and has a protrusion 302 at the branching position (FIG. 7B).

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the rear surface of the conveyor belt 100 has a discharge port facing the conveyor belt 100, and air is conveyed so that the conveyed paper sheet 32 contacts the conveyor belt 100. A discharge pipe 60 for discharging the flow is provided. As shown in FIG. 8, a lattice plate 330 having a plurality of openings 331 penetrating through a space surrounded by the conveyor belt 100 that is an endless belt is disposed at the discharge port of the discharge pipe 60. Since the size of the opening 331 of the lattice plate 330 is smaller than that of the paper sheet 32, the paper sheet 32 is not discharged from the discharge pipe 60.

  As a result, by passing the openings 331 of the lattice plate 330 and discharging the airflow, the conveyed paper sheets 32 can be brought into contact with the transport belt 100 before being separated from the airflow. The paper sheet 32 that is in contact with the transport belt 100 receives the frictional force of the transport belt 100 and is transported by the transport belt 100. In the present embodiment, the case where the lattice plate 330 is provided in the space surrounded by the conveyance belt 100 will be described. However, the space surrounded by the conveyance belt 100 is provided before the discharge port of the discharge pipe 60. You may provide outside a part.

  Since the paper sheets 32 that have been conveyed in the air duct 22 by the wind pressure of the air flow are retained when completely separated from the air flow, they are taken over by another means before that, and the inside of the recovery device 34 ( It is necessary to send it to the correction unit 96) side. Therefore, in the separation unit 94, the air flow is discharged so that the conveyed paper sheet 32 comes into contact with the transport belt 100, and the discharge port of the discharge pipe 60 faces the transport belt 100 on the back side of the transport belt 100. Provided. Thereby, before completely separating the conveyed paper sheet 32 and the air flow, the paper sheet 32 is conveyed by the conveying belt 100, and the roller 321 and the driving pulley arranged in front of the correction unit 96 are conveyed. 103 (conveyor belt 100) can be taken over.

  Here, the conveyance method of the paper sheets 32 in the separation unit 94 in the present embodiment will be described. 9 to 15 are explanatory views showing the paper sheet 32 being conveyed from the upper surface side of the separation unit 94. The hatched arrows in FIGS. 9 to 15 indicate the direction of airflow. FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing the paper sheet 32 being transported in FIG. 10 from the side surface side of the lattice plate 330. The paper sheets 32 in FIG. 16 are hatched.

  First, when the paper sheet detection sensor 99 (see FIG. 3) disposed at the entrance of the separation unit 94 detects that the front end (one end) of the paper sheet 32 has arrived, the separation unit motor 101 is driven. . Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the paper sheet 32 that has entered from the air duct side port 323 of the separation unit 94 is discharged by the discharge pipe 60 so that the air flow is discharged by the discharge pipe 60, so that the discharge pipe 60 is pressed against the conveyance belt 100. Head to the outlet. Further, since the passage is narrowed by the squeegee 301 attached to the guide plate 326, the paper sheets 32 are directed toward the protruding portion 302 side of the squeegee 301 while the leading end of the paper sheet 32 is moved toward the conveying belt 100 side. For this reason, the conveyed paper sheet 32 receives a pressing force to the conveyor belt 100, contacts the conveyor belt 100, and is conveyed by the frictional force with the conveyor belt 100, as shown in FIGS. The Rukoto.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 11, the leading edge of the paper sheet 32 passes between the protrusion 302 and the conveyor belt 100 and is conveyed by the conveyor belt 100 toward the correction unit side port 324. Next, the leading edge of the paper sheet 32 is sandwiched between the roller 321 and the driving pulley 103 (conveying belt 100) (see FIG. 12). Since the roller 321 and the driving pulley 103 are driven by the separation unit motor 101, the paper sheet 32 does not stay in the separation unit 94 even when separated from the air flow, and can be conveyed to the correction unit 96.

  As described above, the paper sheets 32 are not retained in the separation unit 94 because they are taken over by the conveying belt 100 even if they are separated from the air flow. Therefore, the paper sheets 32 conveyed by the air flow can be more reliably conveyed and collected.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 12, the leading end of the paper sheet 32 having the bent deformed portion 32b that has entered from the air duct side port 323 is sandwiched between the roller 321 and the driving pulley 103 (conveying belt 100) to be corrected. It passes through the part side port 324, and the terminal end tries to pass through the protrusion 302. In FIG. 12, A is shown as the end (rear edge), and bent portions are shown as B and C from the end side (correspondingly shown in FIGS. 13 to 15). In the separation portion 94 in the present embodiment, the deformable portion 32b is not limited to a bent shape, but may be a bent or curved portion that is bent or deformed into an L shape or a round shape, It can be similarly conveyed.

  Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 13, the end A (rear edge) of the paper sheet 32 having the bent deformed portion 32b abuts against the front side surface 303 of the projection 302 and receives resistance, and is shown in FIG. Thus, the bent part (deformed part 32b) is opened. Next, as shown in FIG. 15, the protruding portion 302 restricts the bent portion to open by abutting the inner surface of the bent portion (deformed portion 32 b) and squeezing the bent portion. Thereafter, the entire paper sheet 32 passes through a slit-like gap (passage) between the rear side surface 304 of the protrusion 302 and the conveyor belt 100.

  The front side surface 303 of the squeegee 301 is formed on an inclined surface that abuts at the end A (rear edge) of the conveyed paper sheet 32 and restricts the bent deformed portion 32b to open. For this reason, since the terminal end (rear edge) of the paper sheet 32 having the bent portion (deformed portion 32b) that has been conveyed receives resistance at the protrusion 302, the paper sheet 32 is stretched and opened. Can do. Thereafter, since the deforming portion 32b of the paper sheet 32 is corrected by the correcting section 96, the deformation of the deforming portion 32b of the paper sheet 32 can be satisfactorily eliminated. In the present embodiment, the case where the end A of the paper sheet 32 abuts on the front side surface 303 of the projection 302 is described. This is because when the paper sheet 32 passes through the protruding portion 301, the paper sheet 32 has already been opened.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the passage of the separation unit 94 is formed by the conveyance belt 100 and the squeegee 301 having the protrusion 302, and the discharge port facing the conveyance belt 100 on the back side of the conveyance belt 100 A discharge pipe 60 having the above is disposed. That is, the air flow is discharged by the discharge pipe 60 while the surface of the paper sheet 32 transported to the separation unit 94 is brought into contact (pressed) with the transport belt 100 by the air flow.

Until the sheet 32 is disengaged from the opening 331 completely grid plate 330 is conveyed continues affected by air flow was diverted to the discharge direction from the conveying direction of the sheet 32, conveyed to the sheet 32 A force (pressing force) in a direction to be pressed against the belt 100 continues to work. The pressing force at the time of jumping into the lattice plate 330 is minimum, and the maximum pressing force is obtained when the paper sheet 32 covers the opening 331 of the lattice plate 330 over the entire surface, and is further conveyed by the roller 321 and the driving pulley 103. The minimum value is obtained when it completely deviates from the opening 331 of the lattice plate 330, and it becomes almost zero when it deviates.

  In this way, the paper sheet 32 is separated from the air flow by the discharge of the air flow, and is taken over by the conveyance belt 100, so that the paper sheet 32 is conveyed to the correction unit 96 side without staying in the separation unit 94. Therefore, the paper sheets 32 conveyed by the airflow can be more reliably conveyed and collected.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the correction unit 96 of the collection device 34 is provided between the separation unit 94 and the storage unit 98, and corrects the deformation unit 32 b of the paper sheet 32. The correction unit 96 has four correction rollers 104. In the correction section 96, the four correction rollers 104 are arranged with a gap enough to allow the paper sheets 32 to pass therethrough. A guide plate (not shown) having an arcuate cross section is disposed so as to cover the outer periphery of each correction roller 104 so that a fixed space is formed between the correction roller 104 and the outer peripheral surface.

  The rotation shafts of the correction unit motor 105, which is a drive motor for driving the correction rollers 104, and the gears fixed to the rotation shafts of the four correction rollers 104 are sequentially meshed with each other, so that each adjacent correction roller 104 is connected. They are rotated in opposite directions. As a result, the paper sheets 32 that have entered between the correction rollers 104 are conveyed in a zigzag shape, sequentially bent in the opposite direction, corrected in bending (deformation), and sent to the inlet side of the storage unit 98.

  When the paper sheet 32 is detected by the inlet sensor 102 disposed at the inlet of the correction unit 96, the separation unit motor 101 is stopped, while the correction unit motor 105 is driven to rotate the four correction rollers 104. The As a result, the paper sheet 32 is conveyed between the correction rollers 104 and bent several times in the front and back direction during that time, and is fed into the storage unit 98 with the bending corrected. When the end (other end) of the paper sheet 32 is detected by the end detection switch 110, the correction unit motor 105 is stopped.

  The storage unit 98 of the collection device 34 stores the paper sheet 32 that has been flattened by correcting the deformation of the deformation unit 32 b by the correction unit 96. As shown in FIG. 3, a terminal detection switch 110 is disposed at the entrance of the storage unit 98. Further, a press plate 112 that can be moved by the storage unit motor 115 and a receiving plate (not shown) that receives the paper sheets 32 are disposed in the storage unit 98. When the paper sheet 32 is carried into the storage section 98 and the end detection switch 110 detects that the end of the paper sheet 32 has passed, the storage section motor 115 is driven. By driving the storage motor 115, the press plate 112 moves toward the receiving plate, and the paper sheet 32 is pressed and stored between the press plate 112 and the receiving plate.

  In the present embodiment, the air flow is discharged while the paper sheet 32 conveyed to the separation unit 94 is abutted (pressed) against the conveyance belt 100 by the air flow. As a result, the paper sheet 32 is taken over by the conveyor belt 100 while being separated from the air flow, so that the paper sheet 32 is conveyed to the inside of the collecting device 34 (correcting section 96) without staying in the separating section 94. Therefore, the paper sheets 32 conveyed by the airflow can be more reliably conveyed and collected. In addition, the paper sheets 32 can be prevented from being jammed before and after the correction unit 96. Furthermore, the conveyed paper sheets 32 can be stored in the storage unit 98 satisfactorily. For this reason, it is possible to suppress the stop of the system itself of the paper sheet transport apparatus 20 due to a problem and improve the operating rate of the system.

  The present invention is widely used in the manufacturing industry of a paper sheet transport apparatus using the paper sheet transport method.

20 Paper Sheet Transfer Device 22 Blow Pipe 23 Bending Unit 24 Air Flow Generation Device 25 Sending Pipe 26 Connecting Pipe 28 Feeding Device 29 Bill Identification Device 30 Bending Device 32 Paper Sheet 32a Flat Surface 32b Deformation Unit 34 Recovery Device 36 Return Pipe 37 Inlet 60 Discharge pipe 94 Separating part 96 Straightening part 98 Storage part 99 Paper sheet detection sensor 100 Conveying belt 101 Separating part motor 102 Inlet sensor 103 Driving pulley 103a Passive pulley 104 Straightening roller 105 Straightening part motor 110 Termination detection switch 112 Press plate 115 Storage Motor 301 Squeegee 302 Projection 303 Front Side 304 Rear Side 321 Roller 323 Blower Pipe Side Port 324 Correction Portion Side Port 326 Guide Plate 330 Grid Plate 331 Opening 332, 333 Gear

Claims (2)

A blower tube, a feeding device that feeds paper into the blower tube, an airflow generator that generates an airflow in the blower tube, and a paper sheet that is conveyed through the blower tube to the end of the blower tube A paper sheet transport device having a recovery device for recovering
A bending device disposed in the feeding device and configured to bend or curve the rear end of the paper sheet;
A conveyor belt that is disposed in the collection device and conveys paper sheets to the inside of the collection device;
A discharge port is provided on the back side of the conveyance belt so as to face the conveyance belt, and the conveyance direction of the paper sheet conveyed through the blower pipe by applying the air pressure to the rear end of the paper sheet. A discharge pipe for changing the direction of the paper sheets so as to contact the conveyor belt and discharging the airflow;
A paper sheet conveying apparatus comprising: The paper sheet conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paper sheet is a banknote.

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