JPH05270698A - Paper sheet thickness detecting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To surely and highly precisely detect thickness of a bill without degrading responsiveness and irrespective of a bill conveying position. CONSTITUTION:In a conveying passage 1 for conveying a bill P, a plurality of thickness detectors 4-7 for detecting thickness of the bill P are juxtaposed at predetermined intervals in the direction orthogonal to the conveying direction. Before these thickness detectors 4-7, a line sensor 3 for detecting a conveying position in the direction orthogonal to the conveying direction of the bill P is provided and the conveying position of the bill P to be conveyed is detected by means of output of the line sensor 3. A thickness detector for practically performing thickness detection is selected among the plural thickness detectors 4-7, based on information on the conveying position of the bill P obtained by this detection and information previously stored in a storage part for selecting a thickness detector capable of detecting thickness in relation to the conveying position of the bill P.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper sheet thickness detection device for detecting the thickness of a bill to be conveyed, for example, in a bill inspection device used in an automatic depositing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, it is an important item to detect the thickness of a banknote in an apparatus that detects information held by each banknote such as a banknote inspection apparatus. Is. The thickness detection device for such a purpose is for determining whether or not only one bill is conveyed and whether or not a tape or the like is attached, and is configured as follows. Has been done.

That is, a displaceable detection roller is brought into contact with a reference roller which is a reference of thickness, and a bill conveyed by a conveyor belt is passed between the two rollers to adjust the thickness of the bill to be passed. The displacement amount of the accompanying detection roller is converted into an electric signal by a converter such as a non-contact displacement meter, and whether the number of banknotes is one or not according to the electric signal.
Alternatively, it is to determine whether the bill is a bill to which a tape or the like is attached or two or more bills are overlapped.

Conventionally, in such a bill thickness detecting device, generally circulated bills are apt to be broken or torn especially at the right end portion or the left end portion, and tape sticking and the like are common. To detect the thickness of the edge of a banknote using a limited number of detection rollers, either distribute the layout of the detection rollers to both ends of the banknote or use a detection roller with a length equal to the width of the banknote. I was dealing with it by setting it up.

[0005]

However, in the case where the detection roller having a length equal to the width of the bill is provided, the mechanical accuracy of contact with the bill is lowered, and the detection roller becomes large in weight. There was a problem that sex deteriorates.
In addition, depending on the layout of the detection roller or the conveyance position of the bill, the bill is not conveyed on the detection roller even though the bill has been conveyed. There was a problem that it became a detection.

In view of the above, the present invention is directed to a paper sheet thickness detection device capable of reliably and accurately detecting the paper sheet thickness without deteriorating the responsiveness and regardless of the paper sheet conveyance position. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

A paper sheet thickness detecting device according to the present invention is arranged side by side at a predetermined interval in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction with a conveying means for conveying a sheet and conveys the same. A plurality of thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the sheet to be conveyed, a conveying position detecting means for detecting a conveying position of the sheet conveyed by the conveying means in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction, and this conveying Selection means for selecting a thickness detection means for actually performing thickness detection from the plurality of thickness detection means based on the conveyance position information of the paper sheet obtained from the position detection means. There is.

The paper sheet thickness detecting device of the present invention is
A plurality of thickness detecting means arranged in parallel with a conveying means for conveying the paper sheets at a predetermined interval in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction, for detecting the thickness of the conveyed paper sheets; Storage means for storing in advance information for selecting a thickness detecting means capable of detecting the thickness with respect to the conveying position, and a direction of a sheet orthogonal to the conveying direction of the paper sheets conveyed by the conveying means. Based on the transport position detection means for detecting the transport position, the transport position information of the paper sheets obtained from the transport position detection means and the information in the storage means, from among the plurality of thickness detection means, actually, Selection means for selecting a thickness detection means for detecting the thickness.

[0009]

It is possible to detect the transport position of the sheet to be transported and select the thickness detecting means for actually performing the thickness detection from the plurality of thickness detecting means based on the detected transport position. As a result, it is possible to reliably and accurately detect the thickness of the paper sheet without deteriorating the responsiveness as in the conventional case or causing an erroneous detection due to the transport position of the paper sheet.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a wide conveying path for conveying banknotes P as paper sheets in a direction indicated by an arrow. A line light source 2 is installed above the transport path 1 in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction, and a line sensor 3 is installed below the transport path 1 facing the line light source 2. The line light source 2 and the line sensor 3 are
It is used to detect the transport position of the transported bill P in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction.

In front of the line light source 2 and the line sensor 3 on the conveying path 1, a plurality of (four in this example) thickness detectors 4, 5, 6, 7 are provided at predetermined intervals in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction. Are installed side by side. The thickness detectors 4, 5, 6, 7 are used as thickness detecting means for detecting the thickness of the banknote P being conveyed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the thickness detectors 4, 5, 6, and 7 include a reference roller 11 serving as a reference for measurement, and a displaceable detection roller 12 contacting the reference roller 11.
And a converter 13 such as a non-contact displacement meter (for example, a potential meter) for converting the displacement amount of the detection roller 12 into an electric signal, and a conveyance path between the reference roller 11 and the detection roller 12. When the banknote P is conveyed in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG.
Moves up and down, and the converter 13 outputs an electric signal according to the moving amount of the detection roller 12. In addition,
Line light source 2 and line sensor 3, thickness detector 4,
In mounting 5, 6 and 7, the bills are incorporated in a bill checking device for checking the bills P.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the structure of the thickness detecting device according to this embodiment. In the figure, the outputs of the line sensor 3 and the thickness detectors 4, 5, 6, 7 are supplied to a control unit 26 via amplifiers 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, respectively. A storage unit 27 is connected to the control unit 26. The storage unit 27 stores information for selecting a thickness detector capable of detecting the thickness with respect to the conveyance position of the banknote P, for example, the thickness detectors 4, 7 at the right end and the left end.
The output information of (1) stores in advance the threshold value of the transport position at which the thickness can be detected.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be described. Now, as shown in FIG. 2A, for example, it is assumed that the banknote P having the adhesive tape 9 for repairing the cut portion attached to the right end portion is conveyed in a right-justified state. Then,
The control unit 26 first obtains, based on the output signal of the line sensor 3, the conveyance position information that the left end conveyance position of the banknote P is “15” and the right end conveyance position is “1”, for example.

That is, the transport position information indicates the bit position of the line sensor 3 with respect to the transport path 1, and the bill P
When the light from the line light source 2 is cut off to the line sensor 3, as shown in FIG. 4, an output indicating the length of the long side of the banknote P and the positions of the left end portion and the right end portion, as shown in FIG. Is obtained. However, in general, the information for each scan of the line sensor 3 has an error, and it is necessary to determine the positions of the left end portion and the right end portion at positions with higher reliability.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, from the first scan in which the banknote P enters the line sensor 3 to the nth scan corresponding to 2/3 of the short side length of the banknote P, the banknote P is detected. The length of the long side (| left end position information-right end position information |) is monitored, and the length of the long side is 5 or more consecutive scans, and
Information on the left end portion and the right end portion at the x-th scanning which is the closest to the length of ⅔ of the short side is used as the transport position information.

In this way, when the conveyance position information of the banknote P is detected, the control unit 26 takes in the respective outputs of the thickness detectors 4, 5, 6, 7 and digitizes them, respectively, and thereby the thickness detector 4 , 5, 6 and 7 are obtained.
However, in this case, the thickness detector 4 at the left end is
As is clear from (a), the banknote P has not passed.
That is, the thickness information obtained from the thickness detector 4 is not the information of the bill P.

Therefore, the control unit 26 detects the thickness of the bill P before detecting the thickness of the bill P.
Is read out from the storage unit 27 as a threshold value of the transport position at which the thickness can be detected, and the left end portion and the right end portion are compared and compared with the transport position information of the left end portion and the right end portion detected as described above. It is determined whether or not the detection information in the section in the state where the banknote P is recognized by the section thickness detectors 4 and 7 is valid.

In this example, "17" and "2", which are the centers of the thickness detectors 4 and 7 at the left end portion and the right end portion, are used as threshold values, and the conveying position information detected by the output of the line sensor 3 is When the value is closer to the center of the transport path 1 than the value, the output information of the thickness detector is ignored in the thickness detection.

That is, in this case, by selecting only the thickness detectors 5, 6, 7 through which the bill P has passed, the output information of the thickness detector 4 is ignored and the thickness detectors 5, 6, 6 are selected. The thickness is detected only by the respective output information of 7. As a result, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection that the banknote P is thin because the banknote P did not pass through the thickness detector 4.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 2B, for example, when the bill P is conveyed in a left-aligned state, the conveyance position information detected by the output of the line sensor 3 has "18" at the left end. , The right end portion is “4”, and the threshold value “17” in the storage unit 27 is compared with “2” to detect the banknote P by the thickness detector 7 at the right end portion. Can be recognized as invalid.

Therefore, in this case, by selecting only the thickness detectors 4, 5, 6 through which the bill P has passed, the output information of the thickness detector 7 is ignored and the thickness detectors 4, 5, 5 are selected. The thickness is detected only by the respective output information of No. 6.
Accordingly, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection that the banknote P is thin because the banknote P did not pass through the thickness detector 7.

Thus, even if the bill is not conveyed on the thickness detector at the left end or the right end, depending on the conveyance position of the bill, the thickness detector is selected based on the conveyance position information of the bill to make an erroneous detection. You can choose not to. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to provide a detection roller having a length equal to the width of the bill, so that the responsiveness is not deteriorated, and even if the conveyance position of the bill changes, the bill does not depend on it. The thickness of can be detected reliably and with high accuracy.

In the above embodiment, the case where the paper sheet for which the thickness is to be detected is a banknote has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a check, a stock certificate, or any other valuable currency than a banknote. The same applies to securities and the like.

[0026]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a paper which can reliably and accurately detect the thickness of a paper sheet without deteriorating the responsiveness and regardless of the transport position of the paper sheet. A leaf thickness detection device can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of a thickness detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the thickness detection device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the thickness detection device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a process of detecting a banknote transport position.

[Explanation of symbols]

P ... Banknotes (paper sheets), 1 ... Transport path, 2 ... Line light source, 3 ... Line sensor, 4, 5, 6, 7 ... Thickness detector, 11 ... Reference roller, 12 ... ... Detection roller, 13 ...
... converter, 26 ... control unit, 27 ... storage unit.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masato Ochi Masato 70, Yanagimachi, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa Toshiba Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of thickness detecting means, which are arranged in parallel with a conveying means for conveying the paper sheets, at a predetermined interval in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction and detect the thickness of the conveyed paper sheets. , A transport position detecting means for detecting a transport position of the paper sheet transported by the transport means in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction thereof, and based on the transport position information of the paper sheet obtained from the transport position detecting means, A thickness detecting device for paper sheets, comprising: a selecting means for selecting a thickness detecting means for actually detecting the thickness from the plurality of thickness detecting means. 2. A plurality of thickness detecting means, which are arranged in parallel with a conveying means for conveying the paper sheets, at a predetermined interval in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction and detect the thickness of the conveyed paper sheets. A storage means for storing in advance information for selecting a thickness detecting means capable of detecting a thickness with respect to the transport position of the paper sheet; and a transport direction of the paper sheet transported by the transport means. Transport position detecting means for detecting a transport position in the direction orthogonal to the plurality of thickness detecting means based on the transport position information of the paper sheet obtained from the transport position detecting means and the information in the storing means. And a selection unit for selecting a thickness detection unit for actually detecting the thickness from among the above.