JPH0339935B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a paper sheet feeding device that feeds paper sheets one by one from a group of accumulated paper sheets, and particularly relates to The present invention relates to a paper sheet feeding device that feeds out the foremost paper sheet one by one from a group of accumulated paper sheets by frictional contact.

(Prior art) Conventionally, in order to count, identify, throw out, and perform various other processing of paper sheets such as banknotes, paper sheets have been collected one by one from a group of accumulated paper sheets in which a large number of paper sheets are stored in an array. There are paper sheet feeding devices that take out and convey paper sheets, but these devices generally have a friction roller in frictional contact with the surface of the foremost paper sheet, and the rotation of this friction roller drives the paper sheet to feed out one sheet at a time. There is.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the case of the paper dispensed by the friction roller as described above, the contact portion with the paper surface is a line contact, and therefore, in the case of banknotes, new banknotes have a certain surface texture. This does not cause much trouble, but if the surface texture of circulating banknotes is uneven, such as wrinkles or creases, they tend to slip and become unstable, making it necessary to feed them at regular intervals. In some cases, the intervals may be uneven, which may cause problems in post-processing.

For this reason, conventionally, in order to provide a feeding device that needs to perform reliable feeding, a suction head is used to suck and separate paper sheets one by one, and after separation, the paper sheets are fed out by a feeding means.

However, in the case of using the above-mentioned suction head,
In order to separate paper sheets after adsorbing them to the suction surface of the suction head, it is necessary to make the suction head perform an oscillating motion, which not only significantly complicates the structure but also requires a vacuum pump and its There is a problem that the vacuum pump requires a lot of auxiliary equipment such as piping systems and switching valves, making it very expensive. Furthermore, the suction head described above has the disadvantage that there is a limit to the speed at which paper sheets can be fed out, since the swinging movement of the suction head and the switching operation of the switching valve to create a vacuum state are inevitably involved.

Therefore, an endless belt having a planar outer surface that comes into contact with the frontmost paper sheet surface of the stacked paper sheet group, and a freely deformable slack part are formed in a part of this endless belt, and the slack part is the part of the stacked paper sheets. An endless belt posture holding means that holds a predetermined portion of the belt so as to be in contact with the frontmost sheet surface of a group of leaves, an outer surface of the endless belt, and a gate forming member, and the belt is fed out by the endless belt. a gate section that allows only one sheet of paper to pass through and restricts the feeding of subsequent paper sheets; and a belt motion imparting means that applies a forced belt movement to the endless belt in the paper sheet feeding direction. and a freely deformable slack portion of the endless belt located upstream from the gate portion in the paper sheet feeding direction is brought into surface contact with the frontmost sheet surface of the stacked paper sheet group to feed the sheet. I devised it.

Although this device eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional device, the gate action between the outer surface of the endless belt and the gate forming member is incomplete, and although it is extremely rare, two sheets of paper may be fed out. Ta.

In view of this, the present invention was made for the purpose of solving the problems of the prior art and the developed technology, and provides a paper sheet feeding device that can reliably feed paper sheets.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for dispensing paper sheets one by one from a group of accumulated paper sheets. an endless belt having an outer circumferential surface portion that contacts the surface of a sheet of paper; and a plurality of grooves for forming gate portions formed circumferentially at a plurality of locations in a predetermined area in the width direction on the outer surface; A paper sheet that is composed of a plurality of gate forming grooves and a plurality of gate forming members corresponding to each gate forming groove, and that allows only one sheet of paper fed out by the endless belt to pass through and follow this. A gate part that restricts the feeding of the endless belt, and a freely deformable slack part is formed in a part of the endless belt, and the belt is arranged so that the slack part comes into contact with the frontmost paper sheet surface of the stacked paper sheet group. an endless belt posture holding means having a rotating body provided on the inner surface of the endless belt facing the gate forming member and holding a predetermined portion of the endless belt, and a belt movement for forcing the endless belt to move in the sheet feeding direction and a freely deformable slack portion of the endless belt located upstream from the gate portion in the paper sheet feeding direction is brought into surface contact with the frontmost paper sheet surface of the stacked paper sheet group. At the same time, a plurality of gate forming grooves on the outer surface of the endless belt and corresponding gate forming members allow one sheet of paper to be removed.
This is characterized by allowing sheets to be fed out.

(Function) As a result, the freely deformable slack portion of the endless belt located upstream from the gate portion in the paper sheet feeding direction is brought into surface contact with the foremost paper sheet of the stacked paper sheet group, and the paper sheet is The gate part ensures that only one sheet passes through, and one sheet of paper is fed out.

(Example) The present invention will be described below with reference to an example shown in the drawings.

In this embodiment, paper sheets will be explained.

The illustrated embodiment shows a case in which paper sheets are arranged in a vertical direction and stacked one on top of the other, and the lowest paper sheets are sequentially fed out to one side.
are stacked on the bottom plate 2 of the paper sheet storage section 1, and are formed to be fed out from a feeding opening 3 formed at one end of the bottom plate 2.

A notch 4 is formed in the bottom plate 2 at the center in the width direction extending from the end on the side of the feeding port 3 to near the rear end on the opposite side, and a rotating body 5 is mounted on a shaft at a position directly below the feeding port 3. 6 through a one-way clutch (not shown) so as to be freely rotatable in only one direction,
An endless belt 7 is wound around this rotating body 5.

The endless belt 7 is made of a flexible, highly elastic material with a large coefficient of friction such as rubber, has a width of about 1/3 of the width of the sheet in the feeding direction, and is wound around the rotating body 5. The freely deformable slack portion 7A extending rearward from the portion has a length extending to near the rear end of the sheet P. Further, it is preferable that the width of the endless belt 7 is as wide as possible.

As shown in FIG. 3, the outer surface 7B of the endless belt 7 has outer circumferential surface portions 7C ₁ , 7C ₁ , 7 that contact the frontmost sheet surface of the group of sheets P stored in an aligned state.
C ₁ and gate forming grooves 7C 2 and 7C 2 formed in a plurality of grooves 7C ₂ and 7C ₂ in the circumferential direction in a predetermined area in the width direction of the outer surface 7B. 14, the periphery of 14 and the groove portion 7C ₂ ,
A gate gap G is formed with the peripheral edge of _7C2 . Also, the outer peripheral surface portion 7C ₁ of the endless belt 7
A large number of uneven strips 7D are formed in the width direction.

An endless belt posture holding means 8 for holding the belt 7 in a predetermined posture is provided below the endless belt 7, and in the illustrated embodiment, this posture holding means 8 causes the endless belt 7 to move in the direction of the arrow. A case is shown in which the device also serves as a vibration imparting means for imparting vibration.

That is, the posture holding means 8
and an intermediate rotary body 9 that is mounted on an axis at a distance from the pulley 10, which brings the endless belt 7 into contact with the intermediate rotary body 9; and a freely deformable slack portion 7A of the endless belt 7. It consists of a driving pulley 11 that is mounted on a shaft in the lower part near the rear end, and a belt 12 that is wound around these pulleys 10 and 11. The lower surface of the endless belt 7 is pressed against the upper surface of this belt 12. When there is no sheet P on the bottom plate 2 and there is no pressing member 25, which will be described later, the sagging part 7A, which can be freely deformed by this pressure contact, swells upward from the top surface of the bottom plate 2 as shown by the chain line in FIG. By driving the drive pulley 11 in the direction of the arrow, the endless belt 7 is moved in the direction of the arrow.

At the upper part of the feeding port 3, there are grooves 7C ₂ on the outer surface 7B of the endless belt 7 wound around the rotating body 5.
Gate forming members 14, 14 that form a gate portion 13 that allows passage of one sheet P between the gate forming members _{14 and} 7C2.
is the groove 7C ₂ on the outer surface 7B of the endless belt 7,
It is provided in correspondence with 7C ₂ .

The above correspondence relationship is as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8, the width L of the groove portions 7C ₂ and 7C ₂ of the endless belt 7,
L is approximately l + 0.5 m/m with respect to the width l of the gate forming members 14, 14, and the groove portions 7C ₂ and 7C ₂
The gap M between the bottom of the gate forming member 14 and the circumferential surface of the gate forming members 14, 14 is approximately 1.3 m/m. The dimension between the gates G is between the peripheral edges 7E, 7E of the groove _7C2 of the endless belt 7 and the peripheral edge 14 of the gate forming member 14.
It is determined by the distance between E and 14E. The above dimensions are for banknotes circulating in Japan, and are based on a banknote thickness of approximately 0.1m/m.
In the case of banknotes from other countries or paper sheets other than banknotes, the thickness is appropriately selected depending on the thickness of the paper sheet.

The gate forming member 14 may have a normal perfect circular roller structure, but in the illustrated embodiment, the circumferential surface has an approximately 90° range as shown in enlarged view in FIGS. 5 and 6. The part that is formed in the small diameter part 14A and continues to the large diameter part 14B is the rotating body 5.
The concave arc-shaped surface 14C corresponds to the outer peripheral surface of the endless belt 7 wound around the belt.
Between _the gates G
The entrance dimensions of the gate are determined, and the distance between the gates is determined by the peripheral edges 14E, 14E (shown in the eighth figure) of the concave arc-shaped surface 14C and the peripheral edges _7E , 7E of the groove 7C2 of the endless belt 7.
The dimensions of are determined.

When the circumferential end portion 14D of the large diameter portion 14B is worn out and the entrance dimension between the gates G is enlarged, the gate forming member 14 is slightly rotated in the direction of the dotted line arrow to create a new end portion 14D. A predetermined gate inlet gap is formed opposite to the groove portion _7C2 of the endless belt 7. Further, a circumferential surface portion 14F having a smaller diameter than the outer circumferential surface of the small diameter portion 14A is formed between the gate forming members 14, 14, and the circumferential surface portion 14F and the gate forming members 14, 14 are integrated. ing. As a means for rotating this gate forming member 14, as shown in FIG. A knob 19 is provided on the shaft 18, and by rotating the knob 19, the gate forming member 14 is slightly rotated, and means for fixing the gate forming members 14, 14 with screws or the like is provided.

Next, the adjustment state between the gates will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 9A and 9B. As shown in FIG. 9A, the endless belt 7
When the gate forming member 14 is deeply advanced into the groove 7C ₂ , a gap between the peripheral edges 7E, 7E of the groove 7C ₂ and the peripheral edges 14E, 14E of the gate forming member 14 is formed.
When the dimension, that is, the distance between gates G is small, and the degree of entry of the gate forming member 14 into the groove 7C ₂ is small as shown in FIG. 9B, the peripheral edge 7 of the groove 7C ₂
E, 7E and the peripheral edge 14E of the gate forming member 14,
14E, the dimension, ie, the distance between the gates, is large.

In addition to the above-mentioned embodiment, the gate forming members 14, 14 have a perfect circular shape as shown in an example in FIG.
A one-way clutch (not shown) that allows free rotation in the direction of the arrow (opposite to the sheet feeding direction) and non-rotation in the opposite direction is interposed between the clutch and the clutch 5, or it is completely fixed. It may be something that has been done.

Note that the gate forming members 14', 1 in FIG.
The outer circumferential surfaces 14'A, 14'A of 4' correspond to the small diameter parts 14A, 14A of the gate forming members 14, 14,
The distance between the grooves _7C2 and the bottom is exactly the same, and the circumferential surface 14'F corresponds to the circumferential surface 14F and has the same dimensions.

At a predetermined position spaced apart on the downstream side of the gate section 13, there are rollers 2 which are mounted on shafts at symmetrical positions in pairs, upper and lower, for holding and conveying the delivered paper sheet P.
A conveying means 22 consisting of 0, 20, 21, 21 is provided.

Freely rotating rollers 23, 23 are rotatably provided on the outer side of the gate forming members 14, 14 by shafts 24, 24, and the outer circumferential surfaces of these freely rotating rollers 23, 23 are arranged on both sides of the endless belt 7. The outer circumferential surfaces 7C ₁ and 7C ₁ of the endless belt ₇ have _a dimension that satisfies the condition M>N, that is, about 1 m/m. 7E, 7E and the peripheral edges 14E, 14E of the gate forming members 14, 14 hold down the paper sheet that is slightly bent as shown in FIGS. At this time, the outer circumferential surface portion _7C1 contacts only the circumferential surfaces of the freely rotating rollers 23, 23. Note that the distance between the outer circumferential surface _7C1 at the center of the endless belt 7 and the circumferential surface 14F is slightly larger than the distance M, which assists in the gate action and also provides a distance between the circumferential surfaces of the freely rotating rollers 23, 23 and the endless belt. This is taken into consideration so as not to affect the contact with the outer peripheral surface portion _7C1 of 7.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 25 denotes a pressing member which is stacked on the upper surface of the group of sheets P stacked and stored in the paper sheet storage section 1 and presses the endless belt 7 to maintain it in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. It has a pressing body 26 and a plate-shaped pressing plate 27 which is approximately the same size as this pressing body 26 and is placed on the lower surface of the pressing body 26, and is provided protruding from the front and rear upper surfaces of this pressing plate 27 in the sheet feeding direction. The pins 28 and 29 are inserted into elongated holes 3 formed in the pressing body 26 and long in the front-rear direction.
0, 31, and a stopper 3 such as a nut or a stop ring
2 and 33, the pin 28 and a pin 34 protruding from the rear part of the pressing body 26.
A tension spring 35 is tensioned between the two, so that the state shown in the drawing is maintained at all times. Therefore, the paper sheet P in the paper sheet storage section 1 runs out and the pressing plate 27
When contacting the outer circumferential surface portions 7C ₁ , 7C ₁ , 7C ₁ of the endless belt 7, the freely deformable slack portion 7A at the rear of the endless belt 7 moves together to follow the movement when deforming into a flat shape, and both of them move together. This prevents frictional contact between the parts and prevents wear.

A guide plate 36 is formed by extending the lower end of the front wall 1A of the paper sheet storage section 1 and guides the upper surface of the paper sheet P;
37 is a guide plate provided following the front end of the bottom plate 2 and guides the lower surface of the paper sheet P; 38 is a motor; 39 is a pulley on a shaft 40; 41 is a roller 20 of the conveying means 22, rotated by the shaft 42 of 20 This belt 41 is wound between the pulley 43 of the shaft 42 and the pulley 40.

In the above embodiment, when performing intermittent feeding in which paper sheets P are fed out at predetermined intervals,
Rollers 20, 20 constituting the conveying means 22,
21, 21 is configured to be driven at a speed faster than the belting speed of the endless belt 7. In particular, in this embodiment, since the outer diameter of the drive pulley 11 and the outer diameter of the roller 20 are made approximately equal, the smaller the diameter of the pulley 43 relative to the diameter of the pulley 39, the faster the endless belt 7 will move. The driving speed of the roller 20 becomes faster.

Hereinafter, the operation of the paper sheet feeding device will be explained with reference to FIGS. 11A to 11F.

As shown in FIG. 11A, a large number of paper sheets P are arranged and stored in a stacked state in the paper sheet storage section 1, and a pressing member 25 is placed on the top surface to apply pressure. As a result, the freely deformable slack portion 7A that swells upward from the endless belt 7 and protrudes upward from within the notch 4 of the bottom plate 2 is pushed by the lower surface of the foremost sheet P, and the lower surface of the sheet P is pushed. be placed in close contact with each other.

When the drive pulley 11 is rotated in the direction of the arrow based on the dispensing command, both the pulley 10 and the belt 12 are rotated in the direction of the arrow, and the part of the pulley 10 rotates the endless belt 7 between it and the intermediate rotating body 9. Since they are clamped, the rotating body 5 and the intermediate rotating body 9 are rotated in the direction of the arrow via the endless belt 7, and the rear end of the portion of the endless belt 7 that is wound around the rotating body 5 (Fig. 11A) (7' position) is pulled, so the freely deformable slack portion 7A is moved in the direction of the arrow while maintaining the posture shown in FIG. 11A.

When the endless belt 7 moves in the direction of the arrow as described above, the foremost sheet P that is in surface contact with the upper surface of the freely deformable slack portion 7A is displaced to the left in the figure due to the contact friction. The second and subsequent sheets of paper P are stopped by the gate part 13 and only one sheet is fed out from the feeding opening 3.

When the leading edge of the fed paper sheet P is caught between the rollers 20 and 21 of the conveyance means 22 as shown in FIG. Since it is fast, the paper sheet P is pulled from the moment it is held in its mouth.
Since the rear lower surface of the fed paper sheet P is pressed against the endless belt 7, the friction between them causes the endless belt 7 to be pulled together, and as a result, as shown in FIG. '' is formed while following the advance of the paper sheet P. At this time, the rotating body 5
is also rotating at the same speed as the endless belt 7.

As a result, when the rear end of the paper sheet P finishes passing through the gate part 13, when it comes out from under the piled paper sheets, or when it is the last sheet, the pressing member 25
When it comes out from under , the freely deformable slack portion 7A approaches the intermediate rotating body 9 as shown in FIG. 11D, and the slack 7'' becomes maximum.

At this stage, the rear end of the paper sheet P is at the gate part 1.
3 and is sent to the downstream side by the conveying means 22, while the posture maintaining means 8 is moved as shown in FIG. 11E.
By driving the drive pulley 11, only the lower half of the endless belt 7 moves to the right in the figure so as to eliminate the slack 7'', and the upper half, that is, the lower surface of the foremost sheet P in the storage section 1. The contacting parts do not move and remain stationary, returning to the state shown in FIG. 11F, in other words, FIG. 11A.The rotating body 5 is has stopped rotating.

At this time, the previously fed paper sheet P is ready to be sent to the downstream side by the conveying means 22, and the next paper sheet P to be fed out is ready to be gripped.

When the state shown in FIG. 11F is restored, the upper half of the endless belt 7 starts to move again in the direction of the arrow due to the rotation of the posture holding means 8, and the next paper sheet P is fed out on the upper surface thereof, and Sequential feeding is performed by repeating the same action.

Therefore, by appropriately selecting the driving speed of the conveying means 22, the feeding interval of the paper sheets P can be arbitrarily selected, and after feeding one sheet P, the upper half portion of the endless belt 7 is kept stationary until the next sheet P is fed out, so that intermittent feeding is ensured.

In the above action, when all the stored paper sheets have been fed out, the outer surface 7B of the endless belt 7 tries to expand upward by the thickness of the paper sheet P, but at the gate part, both sides of the endless belt 7 The outer peripheral surface portions 7C ₁ , 7C ₁ of the free-rotating rollers 23 , 23 contact the peripheral surfaces of the free-rotating rollers 23 , 23 disposed at opposing positions, and the free-rotating rollers 23 , 23 synchronize with the movement of the endless belt 7 .
23 rotates to prevent wear due to frictional contact, and to connect the endless belt 7 and the gate forming members 14 and 1.
4 and gate forming members 14, 14.
And wear of the endless belt 7 is prevented. The freely deformable slack portion 7A at the rear of the endless belt 7 contacts the pressing member 25, but since the pressing plate 27 on the lower surface of the pressing body 26 follows the shifting movement of the endless belt 7 and slides together, this portion wear is also prevented.

In the illustrated embodiment, the paper sheets P are stacked and stored, and the paper sheets P are fed out sequentially starting from the lowest one. There are no restrictions on the feeding direction, such as a structure in which the foremost sheet of paper P is fed downward or upward, and the feeding direction can be selected as appropriate depending on the purpose, and it can be applied to similar items other than paper. In the illustrated embodiment, the posture holding means 8 also serves as the belt movement imparting means for the endless belt 7, but the posture holding means 8 is simply the freely deformable slack portion 7A of the endless belt 7. The position of the rotating body 5 or the intermediate rotating body 9 is
Alternatively, a driving roller may be pressed against a portion corresponding to the belt 7 to apply belt movement to the endless belt 7. Further, the pressing member 25 is not limited to a plate shape, but may be a pressing roller, and may be configured to press as the amount of stacked sheets decreases. Further, the configurations of the gate portion 13, the conveyance means 22, etc. are not limited to the illustrated embodiment, and design changes may be made arbitrarily without departing from the technical idea of the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the endless belt that performs the feeding function and the sheet surface come into surface contact, and since the endless bell is flexible, the contact pressure ensures reliable operation regardless of the properties of the sheet. It can be slid out, and even if there are wrinkles or creases like circulating banknotes, it can be fed out without any problems. Further, since the portion of the endless belt that forms the gate with the gate forming member has a rotating body on its inner surface, one sheet of paper can be reliably fed out, and the function as a gate is guaranteed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view showing one embodiment of the paper sheet feeding device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, and FIG.
The figure is a perspective view of the endless belt in Fig. 1, Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the gate section taken from Fig. 1, Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken from Fig. 2, and Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken from the same line. 7 is a side view showing an example of the adjusting means for the gate forming member, FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing details of the gate part, and FIGS. 9A and B are explanations showing states in which the distance between the gates is changed. 10 is a longitudinal sectional side view showing a modification of the gate forming member in FIG. 1, and FIG.
Figures A to F are explanatory diagrams showing the same operating state. 7...Endless belt, 7A...Freely deformable slack portion, 7B...Outer surface, 7C ₁ ...Outer peripheral surface portion,
7C ₂ ... Groove for forming gate portion, 8... Endless belt posture holding means, 13... Gate portion, 14... Gate forming member, P... Paper sheet.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a device that feeds paper sheets one by one from a group of accumulated paper sheets, an outer peripheral surface portion 7C ₁ whose outer surface contacts the foremost sheet surface of the group of paper sheets stored in an aligned state. and a plurality of gate section forming grooves 7C2 formed circumferentially at a plurality of locations in a predetermined area in the width direction on the outer surface; and a plurality of gate section forming grooves _7C2 of the endless belt 7. It is composed of a groove _7C2 and a plurality of gate forming members 14 corresponding to each gate forming groove _7C2 , and allows only one sheet of paper fed out by the endless belt 7 to pass through, and the sheet of paper that follows this. A gate part 13 that restricts the feeding of the paper sheet, and a freely deformable slack part is formed in a part of the endless belt 7, and the slack part 7A is arranged so that it comes into contact with the frontmost paper sheet surface of the stacked paper sheet group. an endless belt posture holding means 8 having a rotating body 5 provided on the inner surface of the endless belt 7 facing the gate forming member 14 and holding a predetermined portion of the belt; and a banding motion imparting means for imparting a forced banding motion of The paper sheets are fed out in surface contact with the paper sheet surface, and one sheet of paper sheets is fed out by the plurality of gate forming grooves _7C2 on the outer surface of the endless belt and the corresponding gate forming members 14. A paper sheet feeding device characterized by: