U.S. patent application number 12/794811 was filed with the patent office on 2011-12-08 for document conveyor.
This patent application is currently assigned to JAPAN CASH MACHINE CO., LTD.. Invention is credited to Kenichi Ito.
Application Number | 20110298172 12/794811 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 45063854 |
Filed Date | 2011-12-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110298172 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ito; Kenichi |
December 8, 2011 |
DOCUMENT CONVEYOR
Abstract
A document transporter is provided which has a conveyor 3
comprising a frictional carrier 4 rotatably mounted in a passageway
2, a drive device 5 for driving frictional carrier 4 and a
weighting device 7 for pressing a bill 1 within passageway 2
against frictional carrier 4. Bill 1 can move within a
two-directional plane containing a contact point with a ball 6 of
weighting device 7 to release reactive force accumulated in bill 1
so that bill 1 moves to come into alignment with a longitudinal
central axis of passageway 2 for automatic centering.
[Representative Drawing] FIG. 1
Inventors: |
Ito; Kenichi; (Tokyo,
JP) |
Assignee: |
JAPAN CASH MACHINE CO.,
LTD.
Osaka
JP
|
Family ID: |
45063854 |
Appl. No.: |
12/794811 |
Filed: |
June 7, 2010 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
271/109 ;
271/226 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B65H 2701/1912 20130101;
B65H 2404/611 20130101; B65H 2404/54 20130101; B65H 2404/743
20130101; B65H 5/36 20130101; B65H 5/062 20130101; B65H 2301/4423
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
271/109 ;
271/226 |
International
Class: |
B65H 3/06 20060101
B65H003/06; B65H 9/00 20060101 B65H009/00 |
Claims
1. A document transporter comprising a passageway and a conveyor
for transporting a document along the passageway, wherein the
conveyor comprises a frictional carrier rotatably mounted in the
passageway, a drive device for driving the frictional carrier and a
weighting device for urging the document against the frictional
carrier, the weighting device comprises a holder adjacent to the
passageway, and a sphere rotatably maintained in the holder to be
in contact to the frictional carrier to grip the document between
the sphere and frictional carrier.
2. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the holder
comprises a vertically formed cylindrical hole, an inner bearing
surface formed into a partially spherical shape in the cylindrical
hole and an opening for communicating the inner surface with the
passageway, a bottom portion of the sphere in the holder projects
into the passageway through the opening of the holder.
3. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the document is
transported along the passageway while the document is gripped
between the frictional carrier and sphere.
4. The document transporter of claim 2, wherein the sphere is
freely rotatable or spherically movable on the inner bearing
surface to allow the document to move in any planar radial
direction of 360 angular degrees from a contact point of the sphere
on the document.
5. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the sphere is
vertically movable toward and away from the frictional carrier or
document.
6. The document transporter of claim 2, wherein the sphere is
rotatable or spherically movable within the inner bearing surface
of the holder depending on the document moving in any planar radial
direction within the passageway.
7. The document transporter of claim 2, wherein the sphere produces
a pressing force on the document against the frictional carrier,
the pressing force by the sphere is unchanged even if the sphere
rotates or spherically moves within the inner bearing surface of
the holder to press the document against the frictional carrier at
a constant pressure even though any spherical outer surface of the
sphere is in contact to the document.
8. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the sphere freely
rotates or spherically move depending on movement of the document,
a frictional force of the sphere on the document is smaller than
that of the frictional carrier on the document.
9. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the sphere is in a
spherical contact to the document.
10. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the sphere is in
contact to the document by its own gravity or by a resilient force
of an elastic material.
11. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the friction
carrier is disposed in a chamber formed in a bottom wall of the
passageway, and the sphere is disposed in the holder formed in a
top wall of the passageway.
12. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the frictional
carrier is rotatably mounted in a chamber formed in a top wall of
the passageway, and the sphere is disposed in the holder formed in
a bottom wall of the passageway to elastically urge the sphere
toward the frictional carrier by a spring.
13. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein the frictional
carrier comprises a conveyor belt or a roller.
14. The document transporter of claim 1, wherein at least one pair
of guide rollers are rotatably attached to side walls of the
passageway to cause either side edge of the document to come into
contact the guide rollers when the document is inserted into the
passageway with the deviated central axis of the document from a
longitudinal central axis of the passageway.
15. The document transporter of claim 14, wherein the side walls
comprise inwardly tapered surfaces to form an inlet in the
passageway.
16-17. (canceled)
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] This invention relates to a document transporter for
transporting a document such as a bill along and in alignment with
a passageway.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] One of known bill transporters comprises an aligning or a
centering device that may automatically bring a bill into alignment
with a passageway when the bill is inserted into the passageway in
the deviated or inclined condition of the bill from a longitudinal
central axis of the passageway. For example, Patent Document 1
below listed discloses a self aligning transport apparatus for
variable media that comprises a passageway and a plurality of
rotors aligned substantially parallel to side walls of the
passageway, wherein at least one of the rotors has a surface shaped
to drive the media in an intermittent fashion in a direction
longitudinal to the passageway so as to align the media
substantially with the side walls when the media is free to rotate
about each rotor. In this mechanism, the media is intermittently
driven to intermittently bring the surface of the rotor into
contact to the media, and at the point where the rotor becomes
disengaged from the media, the distorted media releases its strain
energy accumulated upon contact to a side wall of the passageway to
automatically bring the media in alignment with the passageway so
that the media may be transported along the passageway. However,
the apparatus of Patent Document 1 naturally needs the mechanism
for intermittently bringing the rotor into contact to valuable
media while resulting in increased abrasion in rotor which
therefore must be exchanged for new one at fixed intervals.
[0003] Patent Document 2 undermentioned represents a banknote drive
system that comprises a series of drive rollers located in a
banknote guide channel and an associated passive roller positioned
opposite to drive rollers and having a flattered or notched portion
to transport a banknote while gripping it between the drive roller
and passive roller wherein flattered or notched potion defines a
gap to pass the banknote through the gap during the stoppage of the
passive roller's rotation so as to allow alignment of the banknote
with a guide channel in the system. The banknote drive system shown
in Patent Document 2 disadvantageously requires a stop mechanism
made up of a spiral cam surface formed with a stop face and a
spring latch with which stop face of the cam surface is brought
into engagement to stop rotation of the passive roller. This stop
mechanism undesirably prevents continuous and smooth rotation of
the passive roller and leads to complicated structure in the
system.
[0004] The following Patent Document 3 demonstrates a banknote
centering device that comprises an enlarged slot for receiving a
banknote longitudinally, side engaging members associated with the
slot and movable from an open position either side of the slot to a
narrow position defining a minimum position between the side
engaging members, a banknote drive mechanism for driving a banknote
from an insert position to a centering position where the banknote
is freely centered within the slot, a side engaging member drive
arrangement for moving the side engaging members in a controlled
manner towards one another and equally spaced either side of a
centerline of the slot. The side engaging member drive arrangement
includes a motor for accelerating the side engaging members from
the open position towards the narrow position until further inward
movement of the side engaging members is opposed by the sides of a
banknote being parallel therewith and contacting the side engaging
members over a substantial length thereof centering the banknote in
the slot. The drive arrangement of the side engaging members
includes a screw drive in drive connection with the side engaging
members, and the screw drive includes a second shaft parallel to
the common shaft to maintain the side engaging members
appropriately spaced by the screw drive during movement between the
open and narrow positions. The banknote centering device of Patent
Document 3 unfavorably demands the side engaging members and the
side engaging member drive arrangement for moving the side engaging
members towards one another.
[0005] Patent Document 4 below exhibits an aligning and reading
apparatus for a bill that comprises first transporters for
laterally conveying a bill along a passageway when one kind of
bills having their different longitudinal length is supplied into
the passageway, an alignment arrangement for centering the bill
toward a longitudinal center of the passageway by urging inwardly
the opposite ends of the bill conveyed by the first transporters,
second transporters located on quarto lines of the bill for further
conveying the centered bill, and a reading head located away from
the quarto lines of the bill for detecting features of the bill.
The apparatus shown in Patent Document 4 disadvantageously has the
increased number of assembled elements and cannot be cut down the
cost for manufacture because it calls for the alignment arrangement
for centering the bill toward a longitudinal center of the
passageway by urging inwardly the opposite ends of the bill.
[Patent Documents]
[0006] [Patent Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,356
[0007] [Patent Document 2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,480
[0008] [Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,150
[0009] [Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Disclosure No.
55-115891
[Problem to be Solved by the Invention]
[0010] Thus, prior art apparatuses utilize an alignment or
centering device of its complicated structure that undesirably
leads to costly processes for manufacture with limited reduction in
cost for manufacture. Accordingly, an object of the present
invention is to provide a document transporter of the simplified
structure capable of aligning a transported document with a
passageway for the bill.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] The document transporter according to the present invention
comprises a passageway (2) and a conveyor (3) for transporting a
document (1) along passageway (2). Conveyor (3) comprises a
frictional carrier (4) rotatably mounted in passageway (2), a drive
device (5) for driving frictional carrier (4) and a weighting
device (7) for urging document (1) against frictional carrier (4).
Weighting device (7) comprises a holder (8) adjacent to passageway
(2), and a sphere (6) rotatably maintained in holder (8) to be in
contact to frictional carrier (4) to grip document (1) between
sphere (6) and frictional carrier (4). When document (1) is
inserted into passageway (2) with the deviated or inclined central
axis of document (1) relative to a longitudinal central axis of
passageway (2), document (1) is gripped between sphere (6) and
frictional carrier (4), and at the time, either side edge of
document (1) comes into contact to a side wall (13) of passageway
(2), and side wall (13) of passageway (2) causes flexible document
(1) to elastically deform while emerging a restoring force in
deformed document (1) to turn back to its original undeformed flat
shape. This restoring force in document (1) may produce a reactive
force that tends to separate the side edge of document (1) off from
side wall (13) of passageway (2) so as to move and bring document
(1) into alignment with a longitudinal central axis of passageway
(2). At that time, as sphere (6) in contact to moving document (1)
rotates or makes a spherical motion within holder (8) depending on
document (1) moving in any planar radial direction from a contact
point with sphere (6) within passageway (2), a frictional force of
sphere (6) on document (1) is very small, while the resultant
reactive force is greater than the frictional force to sphere (6).
Accordingly, document (1) can freely move within a two-directional
plane containing the contact point with sphere (6) to release the
reactive force so that document (1) moves to come into alignment
with a longitudinal central axis of passageway (2) for automatic
centering.
PERFORMANCE AND EFFECT OF THE INVENTION
[0012] The present invention can provide an inexpensive document
transporter of its simplified structure capable of automatically
aligning a transported document with a passageway to certainly
validate the aligned document by means of a discrimination sensor
mounted in the back of the passageway.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] [FIG. 1] A partial section view of a bill transporter as a
first embodiment according to the present invention and a sectional
view of a drive device for use in the bill transporter along a
longitudinal direction of a passageway;
[0014] [FIG. 2] A plan view of the bill transporter shown in FIG.
1;
[0015] [FIG. 3] A sectional view of the bill transporter along a
transverse central line of a ball shown in FIG. 1;
[0016] [FIG. 4] A sectional view showing a contact between the ball
and frictional carrier in FIG. 1;
[0017] [FIG. 5] A plan view of a passageway for receiving a bill
inserted on the angle;
[0018] [FIG. 6] A plan view of the passageway wherein the bill of
FIG. 5 is moved further slightly inwardly of the passageway;
[0019] [FIG. 7] A sectional view showing a variation of the contact
structure shown in FIG. 4;
[0020] [FIG. 8] A plan view of a first varied embodiment of a
passageway in the bill transporter according to the present
invention;
[0021] [FIG. 9] A sectional view of the bill transporter taken
along a transverse central line of a ball shown in FIG. 8;
[0022] [FIG. 10] A sectional view of the bill transporter shown in
FIG. 8 taken along its longitudinal central line;
[0023] [FIG. 11] A plan view of the passageway shown in FIG. 8 for
receiving a bill on the angle;
[0024] [FIG. 12] A plan view of the inclined bill further moved
slightly inwardly of the passageway by a frictional carrier;
[0025] [FIG. 13] A plan view of the bill slightly aligned with the
passageway from the condition shown in FIG. 12 during forward
movement of the bill;
[0026] [FIG. 14] A plan view of the bill slightly aligned with the
passageway from the condition shown in FIG. 13 during forward
movement of the bill;
[0027] [FIG. 15] A plan view of the bill perfectly aligned with the
passageway during forward movement of the bill; and
[0028] [FIG. 16] A plan view of the bill further moved inwardly of
the passageway from the condition shown in FIG. 15.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
[0029] Embodiments of the document transporter according to the
present invention will be described hereinafter in connection with
FIGS. 1 to 16 of the drawings. A word "document" used herein means
a bill, a banknote, a coupon, a security, tender, scrip of money
equivalence or one of all economically valuable papers.
[0030] FIGS. 1 to 7 illustrate a first embodiment of the bill
transporter according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1,
the bill transporter comprises a passageway 2 and a conveyor 3 for
transporting a bill 1 as a document inserted into passageway 2.
Passageway 2 comprises a bottom wall 11, a top wall 12 and side
walls 13 all formed of plastic or metallic materials. Conveyor 3
comprises a frictional carrier 4 rotatably mounted in passageway 2,
a drive device 5 for driving frictional carrier 4 and a weighting
device 7 for urging or pressing bill 1 against a conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4. While the shown embodiments instantiate
frictional carrier 4 utilizing a conveyor belt, however, it may
utilize a conveyor roller or conveyor rollers accessible to bill 1
in lieu of conveyor belt.
[0031] Weighting device 7 comprises a holder 8 formed adjacent to
passageway 2, and a sphere or ball 6 rotatably maintained in holder
8 to be accessible to or in contact to conveyor belt of frictional
carrier 4 to grip bill 1 between ball 6 and conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4. As seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, frictional carrier
4 is drivingly mounted within a chamber 14 formed in a bottom wall
of passageway 2. Drive device 5 comprises a drive motor 20 that is
drivingly connected to frictional carrier 4 through a power
transmission device 21 of a desired reduction gear ratio. Power
transmission device 21 may comprise a gear train, a belt
transmission or their combination.
[0032] Holder 8 is formed in a top wall 12 of conveyor 3 for
defining passageway 2 to arrange ball 6 in holder 8 that comprises
a vertically formed cylindrical hole 8b, an inner bearing surface
8a formed at a lower portion of cylindrical hole 8b into a
partially spherical shape and an opening 8c formed at the bottom of
holder 8 for communicating inner bearing surface 8a with passageway
2. Ball 6 is in contact to inner bearing surface 8a to freely
rotate, roll, make a spherical motion or slide in all or any
directions within inner bearing surface 8a when in contact to bill
1, and also to vertically move in holder 8 toward and away from
passageway 2. When bill 1 is inserted between ball 6 and conveyor
belt of frictional carrier 4, it comes into contact to ball 6 urged
downwardly by its own gravity, and ball 6 may freely rotate within
inner bearing surface 8a in accordance with the moving direction of
bill 1 that may be easily and smoothly moved in any and all radial
directions of 360 angular degrees in a planar surface from a
contact point between ball 6 and bill 1 even though bill 1 is
gripped between ball 6 and conveyor belt of frictional carrier 4.
Also, ball 6 may be in contact to bill 1 at its any and all
spherical outer surfaces to urge bill 1 on conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4 under a constant pressure by its own gravity.
Ball 6 may freely rotate and slide within holder 8 with an
extremely less amount of resultant frictional force between ball 6
and bill 1 compared to a case of the sliding contact only, and
also, ball 6 may upwardly move within holder 8 when any external
force is applied to ball 6 from the bottom.
[0033] Conveyor belt in frictional carrier 4 is formed of any
plastic material with its outer surface covered with rubber
materials of larger friction coefficient in contact to moved bill 1
and ball 6. Even where frictional carrier 4 comprises a conveyor
roller in place of conveyor belt, such a conveyor roller may have
its outer surface coated with a rubber material of larger friction
coefficient. Ball 6 is made of a material selected from the group
of corrosive-resistant materials such as stainless steel, iron or
ferric alloy, and in a structure of ball 6 resiliently urged toward
frictional carrier 4 by a spring 15, ball 6 may be made of a
relatively light metal such as copper, titanium, aluminum or their
alloy or wear-resistant plastic materials.
[0034] An inner diameter of opening 8c in holder 8 is smaller than
an outer diameter of ball 6 to keep ball 6 within holder 8 without
downward drop of ball 6 that however can move upwardly within
holder 8. As shown in FIG. 4, a bottom portion of ball 6 retained
in holder 8 projects into passageway 2 through opening 8c of holder
8 and makes contact to conveyor belt of frictional carrier 4 that
upwardly projects into passageway 2 from bottom wall thereof so
that bottom portion of ball 6 also makes contact to bill 1 in touch
with conveyor belt of frictional carrier 4 while bill 1 moves
between ball 6 and conveyor belt of frictional carrier 4 within
passageway 2.
[0035] Opposite side walls 13 define passageway 2 and have inwardly
tapered surfaces 9 at the front to form an inlet 16. A pair of
inlet sensors 10 are arranged in bottom and top walls 11 and 12 in
the vicinity of and on the opposite sides of conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4 to detect bill 1 inserted into passageway 2.
Not shown in the drawings, but, each of inlet sensors 10 may have a
photo-coupler of light emitting and receiving elements for
detecting light-interruption between these elements by bill 1
moving through passageway 2. When any inlet sensor 10 detects
light-interruption by passage of bill 1, it produces a detection
signal to a control device (not shown) that in turn effects a
trigger signal to drive device 5 to activate drive device 5 and
thereby drive frictional carrier 4. At that moment, ball 6 makes
contact to rotating conveyor belt of frictional carrier 4 and
thereby rotates within inner bearing surface 8a of holder 8, and
when ball 6 makes spherical contact to bill 1 inserted into
passageway 2, it may freely rotate within inner bearing surface 8a
of holder 8 in accordance with movement of bill 1 through
passageway 2 if bill 1 moves in any planar direction in passageway
2.
[0036] The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the
structures wherein ball 6 makes contact to conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4 or bill 1 under its own weight in other words
at a given pressure, and this structure has the feature capable of
maintaining a constant pressure on bill 1 by ball 6 without
effecting any change to pressure by ball 6 on conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4 and on bill 1 even though ball 6 rotates
within inner bearing surface 8a of holder 8. If rotating ball 6 has
any frictional force on bill 1, it is smaller than a frictional
force by bill 1 on frictional carrier 4.
[0037] When bill 1 is inserted into passageway 2 with the deviated
or inclined central axis of bill 1 relative to a longitudinal
central axis of passageway 2 on a plane surface as shown in FIG. 5,
bill 1 is gripped between ball 6 and conveyor belt of frictional
carrier 4, and at the time at least one or both of side edges of
bill 1 come into contact to either or both side walls 13 of
passageway 2, side wall or walls 13 cause flexible bill 1 to
elastically deform while inducing a restoring force in deformed
bill 1 to turn back to its original undeformed flat shape. This
restoring force in bill 1 may produce a reactive force that tends
to separate side edge or edges of bill 1 off from side wall or
walls 13 of passageway 2 so as to move and bring bill 1 into
alignment with a longitudinal central axis of passageway 2. At that
time, as ball 6 in contact to moving bill 1 rotates or makes a
spherical action within holder 8 depending on bill 1 moving in any
planar radial direction from a contact point with sphere 6 within
passageway 2, a frictional force of ball 6 on bill 1 is very small,
while the resultant reactive force is greater than frictional force
to ball 6. Accordingly, bill 1 can freely move within a
two-directional plane containing the contact point with ball 6 to
release the reactive force in bill 1 in contact to ball 6 so that
bill 1 moves to come into alignment with a longitudinal central
axis of passageway 2 for automatic aligning or centering of bill's
attitude. In this way, this invention may provide an inexpensive
bill transporter of its simplified structure capable of
automatically aligning a transported bill with a passageway.
[0038] FIG. 7 illustrates a variation from the embodiment in FIG. 4
with the vertically inverted structure of ball 6 and frictional
carrier 4 wherein frictional carrier 4 is rotatably arranged in
chamber 14 of top wall 12 in conveyor 3; holder 8 is formed in
bottom wall 11 of conveyor 3; and ball 6 is disposed in holder 8 to
upwardly and elastically urge ball 6 toward conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4 by a resilient force of a spring 15 as an
elastic material so that ball 6 makes contact to bill 1 moving
between ball 6 and frictional carrier 4. In the embodiment shown in
FIG. 7, as ball 6 is arranged under conveyor belt of frictional
carrier 4 without exerting ball's own gravity on bill 1, spring 15
is used to upwardly and elastically urge ball 6 to produce a
predetermined elastic force on bill 1 toward conveyor belt of
frictional carrier 4. However, if any downward external force is
applied to ball 6, it can downwardly move against resilient force
of spring 15. Even this embodiment can produce its performance and
effect equivalent to those of the structure shown in FIGS. 1 to 6
because spring 15 may exert an unchanged pressing force of a
constant level on bill 1 through ball 6 at any spherical outer
surface of ball 6 in contact to bill 1.
[0039] FIGS. 8 to 16 represent a second embodiment of the invention
wherein two pairs of guide rollers 22 are rotatably arranged
face-to-face each other and attached to opposite side walls 13 of
passageway 2 shown in FIGS. 1 to 7. In the second embodiment, each
guide roller 22 has an outer rim formed with a V- or U-shaped
annular groove 23 into which a side edge of bill 1 may be fit, and
each of side walls 13 of passageway 2 has an intermediate surface
formed into an arcuate shape between anterior and posterior guide
rollers 22.
[0040] As shown in FIGS. 11 to 16, when bill 1 is inserted into
passageway 2 with the deviated bill's longitudinal axis from
longitudinal central line of passageway 2, side edges of bill 1
come into contact with guide rollers 22 which therefore are rotated
upon contact with bill 1 so that guide rollers 22 may smoothly
modify the moving direction of bill 1 to bring bill 1 into
alignment with passageway 2. Then, as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16,
bill 1 is finally easily rendered aligned and coaxially with
passageway 2 during movement of bill 1.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY
[0041] This invention is applicable to document transporters of
various types for transporting documents in alignment with a
passageway.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS
[0042] (1) . . . a bill (a document), (1a) . . . side edges, (2) .
. . a passageway, (3) . . . a conveyor, (4) . . . a frictional
carrier, (5) . . . a drive device, (6) . . . a ball (a sphere), (7)
. . . a weighting device, (8) . . . a holder, (8a) . . . an inner
bearing surface, (8b) . . . a cylindrical hole, (8c) . . . an
opening, (9) . . . tapered surfaces, (10) . . . inlet sensors, (11)
. . . a bottom wall, (12) . . . a top wall, (13) . . . side walls,
(14) . . . a chamber, (15) . . . a spring, (16) . . . an inlet,
(20) . . . a drive motor, (21) . . . a power transmission device,
(22) . . . guide rollers, (23) . . . an annular groove,
* * * * *