JPH1166372A - Coin feeding mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide an easy-to-maintain coin dispensing mechanism that reliably dispenses coins without using a special urging mechanism, and a coin processing device provided with such a coin dispensing mechanism. SOLUTION: A coin conveying path 110, and a circular feeding roller 101 for pressing coins to the conveying path 110 and feeding coins one by one, are provided. The feeding roller 101 can be elastically deformed toward the center of the circle. A coin feeding mechanism. Since the feeding roller is provided with an elastically deformable roller, the coin is pressed against the transport path by the elastic deformation. There is no need to provide a special biasing mechanism in addition to the feeding roller.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a coin feeding mechanism, and more particularly to a coin feeding mechanism having a horizontal disk-type hopper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional coin dispensing mechanism is a real coin 7-49.
As described in No. 574, the payout of coins is
This has been done by a feeding roller urged toward the coin transport path by an urging mechanism. FIG. 5 shows such a coin feeding mechanism. FIG. 5A is a plan view of a coin feeding mechanism having a horizontal disk-type hopper, and FIG.
FIG. As shown in FIGS. 5 (A) and 5 (B), the coin feeding mechanism includes a cylindrical hopper side wall 1.
And a rotating horizontal disk 2 provided near the lower end thereof
It has. A coin outlet 1a is provided at a part of the lower end of the hopper side wall 1, and a coin transport path 4 having a surface in the same plane as the surface of the horizontal disk 2 is provided in the coin outlet 1a.
Is provided near the horizontal disk 2.

[0003] Pulleys 5, 6 are provided above the coin transport path 4.
And a belt 7 wound therearound are provided so that coins 9 sent out from the rotating disk are fed between the coin transport path 4 and the belt 7. The pulleys 5, 6 and the belt 7 constitute a feeding roller, and the feeding roller is pressed against the coin transport path 4 by an urging mechanism 8 as shown in FIG.

[0004] With such a structure, the coins 9 move along the coin transport path 4 as the pulleys 5 and 6 rotate.
Is conveyed by a belt that moves so as to slide on the surface of the paper.

[0005]

The conventional coin feeding mechanism as described above has a complicated structure since it has an urging mechanism. In addition, as a result of an increase in the number of parts, cost increases or maintenance becomes difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a coin dispensing mechanism which reliably dispenses coins without using a special urging mechanism and which is easy to maintain, and a coin processing apparatus provided with such a coin dispensing mechanism. I have.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a coin feeding mechanism according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a coin feeding path 110 and a coin feeding path 11 as shown in FIG.
A coin dispensing roller 101 for pushing coins out of the coin and pushing out coins one by one;
It is elastically deformable toward the center of the circle.

[0008] With this configuration, the coin is pressed against the coin transport path by the elastically deformable feeding roller because of the elastically deformable feeding roller. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a special urging mechanism in addition to the feeding roller.

In this coin feeding mechanism, as set forth in claim 2, the feeding roller is mounted on a drive shaft for rotating the feeding roller; the feeding roller is detachably attached to the drive shaft. Preferably, it is configured.

With this configuration, the feeding roller is driven to rotate by the drive shaft and is configured to be detachable from the drive shaft. Therefore, when repairing around the feeding roller, the shaft is left as it is and only the feeding roller is used. Can be removed.

In the above coin feeding mechanism, a third aspect of the present invention is provided.
And a horizontal disk-shaped hopper having a coin outlet. The transport path may be connected to a coin outlet of the horizontal disk-shaped hopper.

[0012] With this configuration, since the horizontal disk-type hopper is provided, the coins stored therein are typically fed one by one in the horizontal direction. The coins fed in the horizontal direction can be reliably fed by the feeding roller without using a special urging mechanism.

As shown in FIG. 2, a coin processing apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention includes a coin feeding mechanism 200 according to any one of the first to third aspects, and a coin inlet / outlet 211.

[0014] With this configuration, the coin dispensing mechanism as described above is provided, so that a coin processing device that can be easily maintained and managed without a complicated urging mechanism can be provided.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding members are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a front view and a side view showing an embodiment of a coin feeding mechanism according to the present invention. FIG. 1 (A)
FIG. 1 is a side view of a circular feeding roller 101 of the present invention viewed from a direction perpendicular to a fixed shaft 102 to which the roller 101 is attached. In the drawing, a feeding roller 101 is mounted on a pulley 103 by a method described later, and the pulley 103 is rotatably mounted on a fixed shaft 102 via a bearing described later.

A belt 104 is wound around the pulley 103, and the belt 104 is further wound around a pulley 105 arranged in the belt winding direction with the pulley 103. The pulley 105 is connected to the transmission mechanism 10 if necessary.
6 is connected to the electric motor 107.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, the feeding roller 101 and its peripheral mechanism will be described in detail. FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional side view of the feeding roller 101 of the present invention viewed from a direction perpendicular to the fixed shaft 102, and shows a substantially lower half from the center axis. The upper half is symmetrical with the lower half with respect to the central axis indicated by the dashed line. FIG. 3 (B)
It is the DD arrow view of (A). Therefore, pulley 103
Only the section is shown. (A) is an EE arrow view of (B).

In FIG. 3A, the feeding roller 101 of the present embodiment is formed of a frustum of a truncated cone, and has a thickness of about 1.5 to 2.0 mm on the slope. It is formed as a mortar-shaped rotating body that has come off. The material is an elastic body such as plastic or rubber. In particular, ether-based synthetic rubber, for example, urethane rubber having a hardness of 60 degrees is preferable.

A cylindrical surface 101a parallel to the center line of the truncated cone is formed on the large-diameter end of the inclined surface of the truncated cone, that is, on the outer peripheral side of the feeding roller 101, and a knurl is formed on this cylindrical surface. Have been. The knurl is jagged, as shown in FIG. 3 (B), consisting of fine grooves and ridges having a depth of about 0.2 to 1.0 mm. The knurl is shown only partially in FIG. F in FIG. In the figure, the two-dot chain line indicates the pitch circle at the bottom of the knurl. The knurl is not limited to parallel grooves and ridges as shown in FIG. 1 (A), and various patterns can be used like tires of automobiles. The point is to select an appropriate pattern that can prevent slippage with coins.

A cylindrical surface 101b parallel to the center line of the truncated cone is formed at the end on the small diameter side of the inclined surface of the truncated cone, that is, on the inner peripheral side of the feeding roller 101, and the cylindrical surface 101b has a 90 ° angle. Are formed at four angular intervals. The convex portion 101c is a mountain-shaped projection having a semi-cylindrical cross section when viewed from a direction along the fixed shaft 102, and a line at the top of the mountain is formed parallel to the fixed shaft. It extends over the entire length. The semicylindrical shape has a width of 1.0 to 2.0 mm, preferably about 1.5 mm, and a height of 0.5 to 1.0 mm, preferably about 0.8 mm.

On the other hand, the pulley 103 has a hollow substantially cylindrical shape as shown in the cross section of FIG. 3A, and has a concave groove portion 103a in which the cylindrical surface 101b of the feeding roller 101 is fitted. Are formed. The concave groove 103a has a concave groove 10 complementary to the convex portion 101c of the feeding roller.
3b is formed, and the hand direction of the concave groove 103b is parallel to the fixed shaft 102.

When the cylindrical surface 101b of the feeding roller 101 is mounted on the groove 103a, the feeding roller 101 is made of an elastic material, so that it can be extended and fitted. In this way, the convex portion 101c is
3b. This serves as a stopper for the feeding roller 101 with respect to the pulley 103.

Although four convex portions 101c are provided on the entire circumference, eight concave grooves 103b are provided at 45 ° intervals in FIG. 1B. Thus, the concave groove 103b
Does not need to be the same as the number of the convex portions 101c (although it may be the same), but may be an integer multiple thereof.

In FIG. 3A, a cylindrical pulley 1 is shown.
The outer surface of the outer race of the rolling bearing 108 including the inner race and the outer race is fixedly fitted to the inner surface side of the inner race 03. The inner surface of the inner race of the bearing 108 is fixedly fitted to the outer peripheral surface 107 of the fixed shaft 102. Therefore, pulley 10
3. The feeding roller 101 can be freely rotated with respect to the fixed shaft 102 via the bearing 108. Here, the drive shaft for rotating the feeding roller 101 of the present invention is a bearing 1
Pulley 103 that rotates integrally with the outer race 08
Point to. The center of the rotation coincides with the center of the fixed shaft 102. In FIG. 3B, the illustration of the rolling bearing is omitted.

In the present embodiment, the rolling bearing 10
Although 8 is used, a sliding bearing, a gas bearing, or an unlubricated bush sliding bearing may be used instead. The rolling bearing may be a ball bearing, a roller bearing or a needle bearing.

Further, since the circular feeding roller 101 is made of an elastic material, its outer periphery can be elastically deformed toward the center of the circular shape.

The knurled outer peripheral surface of the feed roller 101 is opposed to the coin conveying path 110 with a very small gap whether or not it is just in contact with the coin conveying path 110. (Coincident with the center of the axis) is arranged at right angles to the coin transport direction of the coin transport path 110 (FIG. 1).

In such a configuration, the coin transport path 11
When the coin on zero tries to be sandwiched between the coin transport path 110 and the feeding roller 101, the feeding roller 101 elastically bends toward its rotation axis. The feeding roller includes a pulley 103, a belt 104, a pulley 105, and a speed change mechanism 10.
6, the coin 107 is rotatably driven by the electric motor 107, so that the coin caught between the coin conveyance path 110 and the feeding roller 101 is conveyed on the conveyance path 110.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the feeding roller used in the present invention. In this embodiment, feeding rollers 101 and 121 are provided on both sides of the pulley 103. Other configurations are the same as those of the embodiment of FIG. Also in this configuration, when a coin on the coin transport path 110 tries to be caught between the coin transport path 110 and the feeding rollers 101 and 121,
Both the feeding rollers 101 and 121 are elastically bent toward the rotation axis, and the feeding rollers 101 and 121 rotate with the rotation of the electric motor, and are caught between the coin conveyance path 110 and the feeding rollers 101 and 121. Coins are in transport path 1
10 is conveyed. In this case, the two feeding rollers are rotating in parallel, and the coin is pushed in two places, so that the slip between the coin and the feeding roller is small and effective conveyance is possible.

As described above, according to the coin feeding mechanism of the present invention, one coin can be fed without providing a special urging mechanism for bringing the coin into close contact with the transport path.

Next, with reference to FIG. 2, an embodiment of a coin processing apparatus according to the present invention having the coin feeding mechanism described above will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the coin processing device 130 according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, a coin processing apparatus 130 includes a coin receiving and dispensing section 211 for depositing and dispensing coins, and a coin of the present invention for aligning and dispensing a plurality of coins of a multi-kind type in an apparatus frame 210. Coin feeding section 204 using a feeding mechanism
And a sorting / conveying unit 209 for sorting coins fed from the coin feeding unit 204 into denominations, and storing coins sorted by the sorting / conveying unit 209 in denominations so that the stored coins can be taken out as dispensed coins. Provided coin storage unit 213.

The coin processing device 130 guides coins from the coin depositing / dispensing section 211 to the coin feeding section 204 and transports the coins taken out of the coin storage section 213 to the coin feeding section 204; Part 204
And a transport unit 205 including the transport path of the present invention for transporting the coins fed from the printer to the sorting transport unit 209 one by one.

The coin feeding section 204 is provided with a coin feeding device for receiving and aligning coins. The illustrated coin feeding device is referred to as a horizontal disk-type hopper 200 which is a hopper for coins, and receives coins inserted from a chute 212. The hopper includes a hopper side wall 201 and a horizontal disk 202 arranged so that a surface thereof is a part of an inner surface of the hopper.

When the horizontal disk 202 is rotated in a predetermined direction by the drive motor 203, the coins are aligned along the inside of the hopper side wall 201 by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the horizontal disk 202. The hopper side wall 201 has a coin outlet similar to the coin outlet 1a shown in FIG. 5, and the coins aligned by the horizontal disk 202 are fed out from the outlet, and the present invention is also called a regulating roller. The coin is regulated one by one by the feeding roller 101 of the horizontal disk 20.
2 is fed out to a transport unit 205 connected to the surface of the second unit.

As shown in FIG. 2, the transport unit 205
Conveyance path 11 extending substantially horizontally from coin feeding section 204
It has 0. The transport path 110 is configured as a transport plate that is flat and has a very smooth surface, and is aligned with the coin outlet.

A transport belt that comes into contact with and rotates with the transport belt 207 is wound around a plurality of pulleys, so that coins passing through the transport plate 110 can be transported by the transport belt 207 or the like. Sorting / conveying unit 209 sandwiched and provided on the upper part of the apparatus frame 210
Transported to

The transport belt 207 is guided by appropriately arranged tension pulleys, and the rotating transport belt is guided by these tension pulleys. Since these tension pulleys are arranged at substantially equal intervals, the pinching force between the transport belt and the transport belt 207 can be kept substantially constant, and coins can be transported to the upper sorting transport section 209.

The deposit processing will be described with reference to FIG. When the user presses a deposit button on an operation panel (not shown) arranged on the surface of the apparatus frame 210, the shutter 214 of the coin depositing / dispensing unit 211, which is a coin depositing / dispensing unit according to the present invention, opens to wait for coin insertion. State. Here, when a plurality of coins of multiple denominations are inserted from the deposit port, all the coins are guided by the chute 212 and fall on the horizontal disk 202 of the coin feeding device 200 in the coin feeding unit 204.

Coin feeding device (horizontal disk type hopper) 20
The coins stored in the coin 0 are aligned by the rotation of the horizontal disk 202, and the aligned coins are sent to the transport unit 205 by regulating the interval between the coins by the feeding roller 101.
At this time, the feeding roller 101 is elastically bent in accordance with the thickness of the coin depending on the denomination of the coin, and presses and conveys the coin against the conveyance plate 110 with a necessary and sufficient pressing force.

The coins fed by the feeding roller 101 are separated one by one at regular intervals by a conveyor belt 207 and conveyed to a coin discriminating section 208. When a coin passes through the coin identification unit 208, the frequency of an oscillation signal from a coil (not shown) of the coin identification unit 208 changes, and the authenticity and denomination of the passing coin are identified from the change.

The coin feeding device according to the present invention is suitable for use at the beginning or end of the transport path as in the above embodiment, but is not limited to this, and may be used as a transport roller in the middle of the transport path. Good. Also in this case, in the middle of the transport path,
Since there is no need to provide a special urging mechanism for bringing the coins into close contact with the transport path, it is possible to avoid complication of the apparatus,
It is advantageous in terms of cost and maintenance.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the pay-out roller which is elastically deformable is provided, it is possible to pay out coins without using a special urging mechanism. Further, when the feeding roller is made detachable from the drive shaft, unlike the case where the feeding roller is baked on the shaft, it is not necessary to remove the feeding roller together with the shaft, and maintenance becomes easy.

Further, the coin processing device provided with such a coin feeding mechanism is easy to maintain.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view and a side view of a feeding roller used in a coin feeding mechanism according to the present invention and a driving mechanism thereof.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of a coin processing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a feeding roller used in a coin feeding mechanism according to the present invention and a driving mechanism thereof.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing another example of a feeding roller used for the coin feeding mechanism according to the present invention and a driving mechanism thereof.

FIG. 5 is a plan view and a side view illustrating a conventional coin feeding mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101, 121 Feeding roller 101a Outer cylindrical surface 101b Inner cylindrical surface 101c Convex portion 102 Fixed shaft 103 Pulley 103a Recessed groove 103b Recessed groove 104 Belt 105 Pulley 106 Transmission mechanism 107 Motor 108 Bearing 110 Coin transport

Claims (4)

[Claims] A coin feeding path; and a circular feeding roller for pressing coins against the coin feeding path to feed coins one by one; and the feeding roller is elastically deformable toward the center of the circle. Yes; coin feeding mechanism. 2. The coin feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the feeding roller is mounted on a drive shaft that rotates the feeding roller; and the feeding roller is configured to be detachable from the drive shaft. mechanism. 3. The coin dispenser according to claim 1, further comprising a horizontal disk-type hopper having a coin discharge port; wherein the transport path is connected to a coin discharge port of the horizontal disk-type hopper. mechanism. 4. A coin processing device comprising: a coin feeding mechanism according to claim 1; and a coin inlet / outlet.