Patent Application
20100270119
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to bill acceptors for parking, vending and gaming applications and more particularly, to such a bill acceptor with a bill passage adjustment structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of technology, our mode of living has been changed, and different automatic vending machines are used everywhere to sell different products without serviceman. These automatic vending machines are highly invited for the advantage of saving much labor and bringing convenience to people.
Further, the bill acceptor of a vending or gaming machine generally has a recognition device mounted therein for checking the authenticity and value of each inserted bill. However, the bill insertion slot and bill passage of a bill acceptor have a fixed width that is not adjustable to fit different kinds of bills. If the width of the bill insertion slot and bill passage of a bill acceptor does not fit the width of an acceptable bill perfectly, an acceptable bill may be biased after its insertion through the bill insertion slot into the bill passage. In this case, the recognition device of the bill acceptor may be unable to recognize the inserted bill accurately, and the inserted bill may be rejected due to a recognition error.
To prevent the aforesaid problem, bill acceptor providers will provide different bill acceptors specifically designed for use in different countries to fit different sizes of bills. However, preparing bill acceptors having different bill passage widths require different molds, complicating the manufacturing process and increasing the manufacturing cost. Further, preparing bill acceptors having different bill passage widths relatively increases the inventory cost.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a bill acceptor that eliminates the aforesaid problems.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide a bill acceptor, which allows adjustment of the bill passage width during fabrication, thereby saving the manufacturing cost and simplifying inventory control.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, the bill acceptor comprises a bill acceptor body, and a bill slot panel. The bill slot panel is mounted on the front side of the bill acceptor body, defining therein a bill insertion slot for the insertion of a bill. The bill acceptor body comprises a bill passage in communication with the bill insertion slot, a bill box located on the rear side of the bill passage, a transmission mechanism adapted for transferring an acceptable bill through the bill passage toward the bill box, a bill recognition unit adapted for checking the authenticity and face value of an inserted bill, and a bill pressing device adapted for pushing each acceptable bill away from the bill passage into the inside of the bill box, and two first adjustment devices for mounting on two opposite lateral sides of the bill passage to adjust the width of the bill passage to one of a set of bill passage widths.
Further, two second adjustment devices are mounted in the bill slot panel to adjust the width of the bill insertion slot subject to the bill passage width defined by the first adjustment devices.
Referring to
The bill acceptor body 1 comprises a bill passage 11, a bill box 14 located on the rear side of the bill passage 11, a transmission mechanism 12 adapted for transferring an acceptable bill being inserted through the bill slot panel 2 into the bill passage 11 to the bill box 14, a bill recognition unit 13 adapted for checking the authenticity and face value of each inserted bill, and a bill pressing device 15 adapted for pushing each acceptable bill away from the rear side of the bill passage 11 into the inside of the bill box 14. The bill acceptor body 1 further comprises two locating blocks 111 symmetrically arranged at two opposite lateral sides of the bill passage 11, and two first adjustment devices 112 respectively mounted on the locating blocks 111 and adapted for adjusting the width of the bill passage 11. Further, each locating block 111 has a plurality of locating grooves 1111. Further, each first adjustment device 112 comprises a mounting base 1121 fastened to the associating locating block 11. The mounting bases 1121 of the two first adjustment devices 112 define there between a standard bill passage width. The mounting base 1121 has a plurality of protruded retaining portions 1123 respectively forced into engagement with the locating grooves 1111 of the associating locating block 111. Further, each retaining portion 1123 has a beveled guide face 1124 at each of the two opposite lateral sides thereof to facilitate engagement of the respective retaining portion 1123 into the respective locating groove 1111.
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Further, the first adjustment devices 112 can be installed in the locating blocks 111 in one of the aforesaid different measures employed to affix the second adjustment devices 22 to the locating portions 21. In conclusion, the first adjustment devices 112 and the second adjustment devices 22 can be fastened to the locating blocks 111 or locating portions 21 by adhesive means or hook means, or by means of screws, rivets, or any suitable known techniques or fastening devices.
Referring to
As stated above, the invention provides a bill acceptor with a bill passage width adjustment function, which has the following advantages and features:
1. By means of using the first adjustment devices 112 of the bill acceptor body 1 and the second adjustment devices 22 of the bill slot panel 2, the bill passage width of the bill acceptor can be set in the factory in one of three sizes to fit different application requirements, thereby saving much tooling and inventory cost.
2. The first adjustment devices 112 as well as the second adjustment devices 22 are symmetrical. By means of exchanging the relative position between the first adjustment devices 112 and the relative position between the second adjustment devices 22, the bill passage width is relatively adjusted.
3. By means of using the first adjustment devices 112 and the second adjustment devices 22 to adjust the bill passage width for a particular size of bills, acceptable bills can be inserted into the bill passage 11 of the bill acceptor accurately without biasing for accurate recognition by the bill recognition unit 13, improving bill recognition success rate and accuracy.
Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
