JPH0617178B2 - Paper handling equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to paper sheets such as bills, postcards, etc. for performing processing such as counting the number of sheets, discrimination, and reading display information. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper sheet conveyance processing apparatus that separates and conveys sheets one by one.

[Prior Art] A paper sheet conveying / processing device is used to perform counting, discrimination, and the like while separating and conveying paper sheets one by one. As a paper sheet conveying / processing device, For example, there is a bill depositing device for depositing bills. This banknote depositing device has a hopper section into which a plurality of banknotes are inserted, and the banknotes inserted into the hopper section are sent from the banknote carry-out port to a banknote transport path and provided in the middle of the banknote transport path. In the discrimination section, counting the number of bills conveyed, its authenticity, presence of damage,
It is configured such that identification processing such as identification of denominations is performed, and the banknotes after the identification processing are stored in a stacker unit provided on the downstream side of the identification unit in the banknote transport path.

Here, in order to smoothly perform the discrimination processing in the discrimination unit described above and the conveyance of the bills in the bill conveyance path, the bills inserted into the hopper unit are surely separated one by one, and along the conveyance path. Need to send straight. For example, if two or more banknotes are conveyed in a double or chained state in which all or a part of them overlap each other, or if they are conveyed in a skewed state, not only will they be indistinguishable, but jamming will occur during conveyance, etc. Will cause inconvenience. For this reason, the one in which a separating / conveying means for separating the bills inserted into the bill conveying port of the hopper unit one by one and sending them out to the bill conveying path has been conventionally used.

The separating / conveying means is composed of a driving drum having a feeding portion formed by adhering a member having a large friction coefficient such as rubber on a part of the outer peripheral surface thereof, and a driven roller slidably contacting the driving drum. When the drum rotates and its feeding portion engages with the bill, the bill is wound between the drive drum and the driven roller, whereby the bills are separated one by one and carried out toward the bill transport path. ing. Also,
After the preceding one banknote is sent out, an auxiliary feed roller that is eccentrically rotated to a side closer to the banknote input section in the hopper section than the drive drum is provided in order to guide the subsequent banknote toward the above-described separating and conveying means. It is also known that it is attached.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] If the above-described separating / conveying means and the auxiliary feeding roller are attached to the above-mentioned separating / conveying means, the bills can be fed out relatively well. In order to prevent double, chain, and skew more reliably, when inserting a bill into the hopper, the ends of the bill must be aligned so that the bill is straight in the conveying direction. I won't. However, some banknotes to be deposited in the banknote depositing device have creases, wrinkles, etc., and it is not always necessary to insert them into the hopper section with their ends aligned accurately. In some cases, it may be difficult, and due to carelessness, banknotes may be thrown into the hopper section without being arranged. In such a case, the occurrence of doubled, chained, or skewed conveyance banknotes described above is prevented. You will not be able to do it.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to surely align the end portions of a paper sheet that has been put into a hopper before being conveyed. Therefore, there is provided a paper sheet conveying / processing apparatus capable of reliably preventing the paper sheet from being conveyed in a doubled, chained or skewed state in which two or more sheets are wholly or partially overlapped. To provide.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is provided with a hopper unit for loading a plurality of paper sheets in a stacked state and a paper sheet carrying-out port in the hopper unit. In a paper sheet conveying / processing apparatus including a separating / conveying unit that separates paper sheets one by one and sends them to a paper sheet conveying path, a shutter for opening / closing the paper sheet conveying port is provided at the paper sheet conveying port, A vibration member for vibrating the inserted paper sheet from the bottom is provided at the bottom of the hopper portion, and a paper sheet holding means for pressing the paper sheet in the hopper portion from above is provided, and the paper sheet holding means is solenoid-operated to the paper inside the hopper portion. The paper sheet pressing means is provided with a roller for driving a shutter, and the shutter is provided with the roller for rolling, so that the paper sheet pressing means is arranged so as to be rotationally displaced between an operating position in contact with the leaf and a retracted position separated from the hopper. Moving cam surface While continuously connecting the operating portion having the, the spring normally biases the paper sheet outlet in a closed state, and when the paper sheet pressing means is in the retracted position, the shutter causes the paper sheet outlet to be opened. The shutter is opened by rolling the roller along the cam surface of the operating portion when the sheet pressing means is closed and is displaced from the retracted position to the open position. Is its characteristic.

[Operation] First, the sheet outlet is closed by the shutter, and a plurality of sheets are loaded into the hopper. Then, by operating the vibrating member, the ends of the input paper sheets are aligned. At this time, since the paper sheet pressing means is in the retracted position, when the vibrating member is operated, the paper sheet surely vibrates,
Smoothly arranged. When this paper sheet alignment is completed, the solenoid is operated to move the paper sheet holding means in the retracted position,
The paper sheet in the hopper comes into contact with the paper sheet and is displaced from above to a state of being pressed. Then, during the operation of the paper sheet pressing means, the roller comes into contact with the cam surface of the operating portion provided continuously with the shutter,
The shutter is switched from the state in which the paper sheet outlet is closed to the state in which it is opened. As a result, the paper sheets whose edges are accurately aligned are reliably separated one by one by the separation / delivery means,
It is sent out toward the paper sheet transport path and is delivered in a straight state. As a result, there is no risk of double, chain, skew, etc., and it is possible to reliably prevent inconveniences such as jamming during conveyance in the sheet conveyance path and inability of discrimination in the discrimination section. In addition, since the paper sheet pressing means operates in conjunction with the opening of the shutter and comes into contact with the upper part of the paper sheets thrown into the hopper portion, regardless of the number of paper sheets thrown into the hopper portion. The paper sheet can be surely sent out from the paper sheet outlet, and moreover, the last one sheet can be surely sent out.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, a banknote depositing device will be described as an example of a paper sheet transport processing device.

First, FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of a bill depositing device. In the figure, 1 is a hopper section, 2 is a banknote transport path, 3 is a discrimination section, 4 is a stacker section, a banknote outlet 1a is formed in the hopper section 1, and the banknote transport path 2 is appropriately arranged. It is configured by combining the feed roller 2a and the guide plate 2b provided at the position, and the banknotes 5 inserted into the hopper section 1 described above are transported from the banknote outlet 1a to the banknote transport path 2 and
In the discriminating section 3, discrimination processing including counting of the number of sheets, authenticity, presence of damage, discrimination of denomination, etc. is performed, and the bills after the discrimination processing are fed by the impeller-type bill take-out means 6 to the bill conveying path 2 It is configured to be taken out from the stacker and stacked on the stacker unit 4.

In order to carry out the banknote 5 from the banknote carry-out port 1a of the hopper section 1 to the banknote transport path 2, the hopper section 1 is provided with a banknote separating / carrying-out means 7. The bill separating and delivering means 7
Is a drive drum 9 that is rotated by a motor 8.
And a driven roller 10 that is in sliding contact with the drive drum 9, and a part of the drive drum 9 faces the inside of the hopper unit 1. The feeding portion 9a is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the drive drum 9 by sticking a rubber or the like having a large friction coefficient at an angle corresponding to the length of the short side of the banknote 5, and the other portions are made smooth. It is finished so that two or more banknotes are not simultaneously and continuously sent.

After one banknote 5 is unloaded at a position closer to the banknote input section of the hopper section 1 than the arrangement position of the drive drum 9,
Auxiliary feed roller 11 for guiding the succeeding bills to the drive drum 9
The auxiliary feed roller 11 also has a part of the auxiliary feed roller 11 facing the inside of the hopper unit 1 like the above-mentioned driving drum 9, and when the banknote 5 is inserted into the hopper unit 1, the lowermost layer It is designed to come into contact with. Further, a transmission belt 12 is wound around the auxiliary feed roller 11 and the drive drum 9, and the auxiliary feed roller 11 is rotated via the transmission belt 12 so as to follow the drive drum 9. It has become. The auxiliary feed roller 11 rotates in an eccentric state, thereby vibrating the bill and driving the drive drum.
It is designed to move to 9.

This banknote deposit device is equipped with banknotes 5 inserted into the hopper 1.
A bill aligning mechanism for aligning short ends of the bills is attached. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, this banknote aligning mechanism is composed of a shutter 13 for opening and closing the banknote carry-out port 1a of the hopper unit 1 and the auxiliary feed roller 11 described above. By turning around the fulcrum 14, as shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, a closed position for closing the bill outlet 1a,
As shown by the alternate long and short dash line in the figure, it can be displaced between the open position and the open position. Then, the shutter 13
A curved surface-shaped operating portion 15 having a function as a cam is extended in the direction opposite to the mounting portion to the fulcrum 14, and a normally closed position is provided by a spring 16 attached to the operating portion 15. Is urged to become. In addition, the shutter 13
A lever 18 having a roller 17 attached to the tip thereof for displacing the lever 18 to the open position, the base end side of the lever 18 is L-shaped, and the bent portion is a pivot fulcrum portion 19 and a shaft. It is attached and the end is connected to the solenoid 20. When the solenoid 20 is in the non-energized state, the lever 18 is separated from the operating portion 15 connected to the shutter 13 by the action of the spring 21, and the roller 17 is separated from the operating portion 15 connected to the shutter 13. When energized, lever 18 springs 21
The shutter 13 can be displaced to the open position by rotating in the direction shown by the arrow A in FIG. 2 against the biasing force of the roller 17 and rolling the roller 17 along the operating portion 15. Has been done.

In FIG. 2, numeral 22 is a banknote pressing arm, and a pressing roller 23 is attached to the tip of the banknote pressing arm 22, and the pressing roller 23 presses the banknote 5 put into the hopper unit 1 from above. By this, the banknote 5 is separated and carried out by the means 7
It is configured to guide to. Further, reference numeral 24 denotes a sensor for detecting whether or not the banknote 5 has been inserted into the hopper unit 1.

The present embodiment is configured as described above, and its operation will be described next.

First, the solenoid 20 is held in a non-energized state, the shutter 13 is held in the closed position shown by the solid line in FIG. 2, and a predetermined number of banknotes 5 are stacked and inserted into the hopper unit 1. Then, when the motor 8 is operated, the drive drum 9 is driven to rotate by the motor 8 and the auxiliary feed roller 11 connected to the drive drum 9 via the transmission belt 12 is also rotated. As a result, the banknotes 5 in the hopper unit 1 are about to be moved toward the banknote carry-out port 1a side while being vibrated from the lower part thereof. However, since the banknote outlet 1a is closed by the shutter 13, the banknote 5 in the hopper unit 1 is vibrated in the vertical direction, and at the same time, the banknote 5 is struck by the shutter 13 and the end of the banknote 5 is struck. The parts will be aligned along the shutter 13. Where the shutter 13 bills
By tilting it toward the conveyance direction of 5,
The end portions of 5 are arranged in a wedge shape, and the conveyance state becomes extremely good as described later.

When the shutter 13 closes the bill outlet 1a, the auxiliary feed roller 11 is continuously rotated for a predetermined time, and the edges of the bills 5 are aligned, and then the solenoid 20 is energized.
The lever 18 rotates in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 2, and the roller 17 attached thereto rolls along the operating portion 15 that is connected to the shutter 13, so that the shutter 13 is indicated by a dashed line in FIG. The bill is discharged to the open position, the bill outlet 1a is opened, and the bill pressing arm 22 is rotated so that the pressing roller 23 is moved to the bill.
5 will be pressed from the top. In this way, by pressing the banknotes from above with the pressing roller 23, the banknotes can be reliably sent to the last one.

Here, since the auxiliary feed roller 11 and the drive drum 9 are rotating, the bills in the lowermost layer are sent from the auxiliary feed roller 11 toward the drive drum 9 and the drive drum 9
When the feeding section 9a formed in 1 is engaged with this bill, the bill is caught between the drive drum 9 and the driven roller 10 and is fed toward the bill conveying path 2. Along with this, the succeeding bills are driven by the auxiliary feed roller 11 to the drum.
9 is sent to the position where it abuts the drive drum.
Until the feeding unit 9a in 9 engages with the succeeding bill, the bill remains in that position, and as a result, the bills are sent to the bill transport path 2 in a state of being separated one by one.

Here, since the bills 5 put into the hopper unit 1 are in a state where the ends thereof are aligned, the bills 5 come into contact with the drive drum 9 one by one and without being evenly hit. Two or more bills are not sent to the separating / delivering means 7 or abutted against the drive drum 9 in an inclined state, and two or more bills are overlapped in a double state or one bill. Even if the parts are conveyed in a chained state or separated one by one, they will not be conveyed in an abnormal state such as a skewed state, and they will be conveyed straight one by one under extremely good conveying conditions. It becomes possible to carry. Therefore, jamming does not occur while the bills are conveyed along the bill conveyance path 2, and the discrimination processing in the discrimination unit 3 is not disabled.

As described above, the banknotes are sequentially carried out to the banknote transport path 2,
After the bills are sent along the bill conveying path 2 to the discriminating unit 3 for discrimination, the discriminated bills are taken out from the bill conveying passage 2 by the bill take-out means 6 and stacked on the stacker unit 4. Will be. Then, when all the bills in the hopper unit 1 have been carried out, this is detected by the sensor 24, and when the solenoid 20 is de-energized based on this detection signal, the shutter 13 returns to the closed position for closing the bill discharge port 1a. Then, the bill pressing arm 22 also retracts from the hopper unit 1.

Thus, when the shutter 13 is closed and the auxiliary feed roller 11 is rotated to align the ends of the banknotes 5 in the hopper unit 1, in order to perform this end alignment smoothly and quickly, It is preferable not to regulate the movement of the bill 5. On the other hand, when the shutter 13 is opened and the bill 5 is sent out from the bill carry-out port 1a, the auxiliary feed roller 11 and the drive drum 9 are rotated to sufficiently exert the frictional force on the lowermost bill 5 so that the bill 5 is discharged. It must be sent out from the bill outlet 1a. If the number of banknotes stacked in the hopper unit 1 is large, a sufficient frictional force can be exerted on the lowermost banknotes of the auxiliary feed roller 11 and the drive drum 9. The number of banknotes 5 inserted into the hopper unit 1 is not always constant, and in some cases only a relatively small number of banknotes are inserted. In such a case, even if the ends of the bills 5 are aligned before the start of feeding the bills 5, the ends of the bills 5 may be disturbed again when the shutter 13 is opened.

However, since the bill holding arm 22 is rotated in conjunction with the opening operation of the shutter 13 so that the holding roller 23 holds the bill 5, the bill 5 with its end aligned may be disturbed. There is no. Moreover, by pressing the banknotes from above with the pressing roller 23, even if the number of banknotes 5 stacked in the hopper section 1 is extremely small, the auxiliary feeding roller
A sufficient frictional force can be exerted on the lowermost banknote 5 by the 11 and the drive drum 9, and the banknote 5 is reliably delivered to the last one banknote from the banknote outlet 1a. Further, since the opening / closing of the shutter 13 and the operation of the pressing roller 23 are interlocked with each other, a single solenoid 20 may be used as the drive mechanism, and therefore the configuration of the drive mechanism can be simplified.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, as the transport processing device for transporting the paper sheets, the one configured as a banknote depositing device for depositing the banknotes is shown, but while transporting the paper sheets thrown into the hopper part, In addition, as long as it performs processing such as counting the number of sheets, identification of the type and display content, discrimination, etc., other than this, for example, as a device for identifying and sorting the postal code written on the postcard It goes without saying that it can be used. Although the shutter 13 is configured to be opened / closed by the solenoid 20, the opening / closing drive means may be a means such as a cam. Further, the auxiliary feed roller 11 is used as a vibrating member that constitutes a bill aligning mechanism that aligns the ends of the bills.
Although the vibrating member 11 and the function of guiding the succeeding bill toward the separating / delivering means 7 are shown, the vibrating member may be provided separately from the auxiliary feed roller 11.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, the paper sheet conveying / processing apparatus according to the present invention is configured such that the paper sheet aligning mechanism including the vibration member and the shutter is provided in the hopper portion into which the paper sheets are loaded. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the inconvenience of being conveyed or skewed when two or more sheets are overlapped in whole or in part, and the sheets are interlocked with the opening of the shutter. Since the pressing means is brought into contact with the paper sheets in the hopper portion, even if the number of paper sheets thrown into the hopper portion is small, the edge alignment is performed in the hopper portion after opening the shutter. There is no possibility that the paper sheet will be disturbed again, and it is possible to surely convey from the bottommost layer in a straight state in an extremely good conveying condition, and the shutter and the paper sheet pressing means are interlocked. From
These can be driven by a single drive means, and various effects can be obtained such that the configuration of the drive mechanism can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a banknote depositing device as an example of a paper sheet transporting / processing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration explanatory diagram of a main portion thereof, and FIG. 3 is an X direction of an arrow in FIG. It is an external view viewed from the left half, showing the operating state of the bill pressing means,
The right half is an operation explanatory view showing the bill aligning means. 1: Hopper section, 1a: Banknote outlet, 2: Banknote passage, 5:
Banknotes, 7: separation / delivery means, 9: drive drum, 11: auxiliary feed roller, 13: shutter.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yukio Ito 2-6-2 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, inside Nitrate Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-61-263545 (JP, A) Kai 62-175358 (JP, A) JP-A-60-82554 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A hopper unit for loading a plurality of paper sheets in a stacking state, and a separation / conveyance unit installed at a paper sheet outlet in the hopper unit, for separating the paper sheets one by one and sending them to a paper sheet conveyance path. In a paper sheet handling and processing apparatus including: a shutter for opening and closing the paper sheet outlet is provided at the paper sheet outlet, and a vibrating member for vibrating the input paper sheet from below is provided at the bottom of the hopper unit. Further, a paper sheet pressing means for pressing the paper sheet in the hopper portion from above is provided, and the paper sheet pressing means is rotated to an operating position in which it is brought into contact with the paper sheet in the hopper portion by a solenoid and a retracted position separated from the hopper portion. The sheet pressing means is provided with a roller for driving a shutter, the shutter is provided with an operating portion having a cam surface on which the roller rolls, and the spring is always provided by a spring. Paper leaf When the paper sheet pressing means is biased to the closed state and the paper sheet pressing means is in the retracted position, the shutter closes the paper sheet carrying-out port and the paper sheet pressing means is displaced from the retracted position to the open position. Further, the paper sheet transporting and processing apparatus is characterized in that the roller is rolled along the cam surface of the actuating portion to perform the opening operation of the shutter.