The present invention relates to automatic devices for delivering and distributing coins, and more particularly relates to a configurable coin dispenser.
Known devices for delivering coins include a magazine for accumulating coins of the same value and a dispenser situated therebelow, inside which the coins to be delivered and distributed are conveyed by gravity.
The coin magazine is situated inside the automatic machines for payment or coin distribution (coin change), while the dispenser is placed, below the magazine, inside suitable recesses made on the facing of the machines, so as to face outwards with a relative wall, for example the front wall.
The coin dispenser includes a box-like structure, whose upper wall is partially open, so as to receive the coins from the magazine, and which includes, situated thereinside, a collecting container for accumulating the coins and having a coin discharge opening situated on its bottom.
The dispenser includes also means for withdrawing coins from the bottom of the container and for conveying them toward an outlet slot, so as to dispense and distribute them in a position corresponding to the front wall.
For this purpose, the front wall of the dispenser has a chamber, open outwards, on which the coin outlet slot opens, and which has a conveying chute, situated below the slot, for dispensing and distributing coins.
Therefore, at present, the coins are dispensed only at a position corresponding to the front wall of the dispenser.
This is limiting for the structure design and the arrangement of the dispenser inside the automatic payment machines or coin distributing machines.
Moreover, in order to enable an automatic machine to dispense coins of different value, it is necessary to make various recesses, inside which corresponding dispensers will be situated for dispensing different value coins.
Consequently, the front wall of the machines have two separate sections, spaced apart, for dispensing coins: this is doubtlessly a drawback for the user.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to propose a new coin dispenser, configurable, which can avoid the disadvantages of the coin dispensers used so far.
In particular, the main object of the present invention is to propose a new coin dispenser, which can be configured in a simple and immediate way, so as to change the coin dispensing wall, and thus to allow the change the coin dispensing section of the relative automatic machine, inside which it is installed, without being withdrawn and replaced in a new, different orientation.
Another object of the present invention is to propose new coin dispensers, which can be configured so as to be connected one to another according to a particular reciprocal arrangement, which allows them to be situated in the same recess inside an automatic machine for payment or coin distribution, in order to dispense coins of different value from the same dispensing section, or from two separate dispensing sections, situated close to each other.
A further object of the present invention is to propose a new dispenser, which can change its configuration, in order to change the positioning of the coins dispensing section in an extremely rapid and functional way.
The above mentioned objects are wholly obtained, in accordance with the contents of the claims, by means of a configurable coin dispenser including:
a box-like structure and a storage container situated inside said box-like structure for storing coins;
a chamber define in said box-like structure with an opening at a front wall of the box-like structure:
a coin outlet passage leading to the chamber to dispense the coins;
a first additional coin outlet slot, situated on a first lateral wall of said box-like structure and facing said chamber;
coin conveying means, removably situated inside said chamber to connect said outlet passage with said first additional slot, so as to guide coins leaving said outlet passage to said first additional slot, and dispense the coins from said first lateral wall.
According to a second embodiment, the configurable coin dispenser includes a coin inlet slot, situated on a lateral wall of said box-like structure,
and additional inner coin guiding channel, which extends from the coin inlet slot and leads to said chamber, and which receives coins of a second value coming from another coin dispenser and guide them to said chamber, so that also the coins of second value are dispensed at the front wall.
Also an arrangement is claimed, of configurable coin dispensers, including:
a first configurable dispenser for the first coins of a first value, having an outlet passage for said first coins of the first value, which leads to a chamber with an opening on a relative front wall in order to dispense the coins and which includes a coin inlet slot, made on the first lateral wall, and an additional coin guiding channel, which extends from the inlet slot to the chamber;
a second configurable dispenser for second coins of a second value, having an outlet passage for said second coins of the second value, with said second dispenser having also a first additional slot, made on a lateral wall and coin conveying means removably placed inside the chamber, so as to connect the outlet passage with the first additional slot, in order to dispense the coins from the lateral wall, and in that said second dispenser is connected to the first dispenser by the lateral wall, which is beside the first lateral wall of the first dispenser, and by the first additional slot, facing and joined to the inlet slot of the additional inner guiding channel of the first dispenser, so that the coins of the second dispenser are conveyed to the chamber of said first dispenser and dispensed from the front wall of the latter.
The characteristic features of the invention will become obvious from the following description, given as an example and not limiting, with reference to the enclosed figures, in which:
a, 4b, 4c are respective schematic, perspective views of the configurable coin dispenser, proposed by the present invention, in corresponding further possible characteristic coin dispensing configurations;
With regards the enclosed Figures, the reference letter (E) generally indicates the configurable coin dispenser, proposed by the present invention.
The dispenser (E), as shown in
The dispenser (E) has a coin outlet passage (U), which opens into a chamber (A), open toward a relative front wall (F).
The dispenser (E) has also means (not shown, since they are known and do not need to be protected by the present invention) for withdrawing coins from the bottom of the storage container (S) and for conveying them to the outlet passage (U), in order to dispense the coins (M1).
The dispenser (E), when in the operation configuration as shown in
The distinctive feature of the dispenser (E) proposed by the present invention lies in the fact that it can be configured, so as to allow the dispensing of coins contained therein also from a first lateral wall (L1).
Actually, as it is shown in
Consequently, after having been set in the described configuration, the conveying means (11) convey the coins (M1), leaving the outlet passage (U), to the first additional slot (13), so as to dispense and distribute them from the first lateral wall (L1), instead of the front wall (F).
The conveying means (11) can include for example a first elongated element (15), which has, at its first end, a first coin inlet opening (16), and at its second end, a second coin outlet opening (17), and which forms, thereinside, a coin guiding channel.
The first elongated element (15) can be situated removably inside the chamber (A), by e.g. its introduction through the first additional slot (13), when the latter has been freed from the closing door (14), so that the first inlet opening (16) joins with the outlet passage (U) and so that the second outlet opening (17) is situated in a position corresponding to the first additional slot (13) made in the first lateral wall (L1) of the dispenser (E) (See
Another distinctive feature of the dispenser (E), proposed by the present invention, lies in the fact that it includes a coin inlet slot (21), situated on another wall, opposite to the first lateral wall (L1), and an additional coin guiding channel (2), which extends from the inlet slot (21) and opens into the chamber (A).
This allows the dispenser (E), as shown for example in the configuration of
Thus, the dispenser (E) is capable of dispensing coins of two different values, respectively (M1) and (M2), from its front wall (F), and consequently from the same dispensing point.
Further, according to other possible configurations, the dispenser (E) can:
The configuration described in point a) and shown in
In order to obtain the configuration described in point b) and shown in
Consequently, the dispenser (E) can guide and convey the coins (M2) coming from the second dispenser (E*), to the second additional slot (32), so as to dispense them from the same first lateral wall (L1), from which it dispenses the coins (M1) contained therein.
The above mentioned guiding means (3), as shown for example in
The second elongated element (23) can be situated removably inside the chamber (A), by e.g. its introduction through the second additional slot (32), when the latter has been freed from the relative closing door (33), so that the first inlet opening (24) joins with the outlet of the additional inner channel (2) and so that the second outlet opening (25) is situated in a position corresponding to the second additional slot (32) made in the first lateral wall (L1) of the dispenser (E).
Consequently, as it results from what above, after having been configured according to the two respective operation configurations shown in
This is undoubtedly an advantage, because it is possible to change the coin dispensing point of the automatic machine in a simple and immediate way, without removing the dispenser from its recess, re-introducing and re-positioning it according to a different orientation and arrangement.
After having been configured in the three operation configurations shown in
The dispenser (E) has also means (7) for detecting the passage of coins through the outlet passage (U), which are connected to electronic control means (not shown) and which count the dispensed coins and their amount.
The sensor means (7) and the electronic control means, as shown in
The sensor means (7) include diodes (74), emitting light radiation (optical rays), and diodes (75) receiving light radiation (optical rays), which are to be put beside a first edge of the outlet passage (U), and means (R1, R2), reflecting the light radiation, which are to be situated close to a second edge of the outlet passage (U), opposite to the first edge and in front of the emitter diodes (74) and the receiver diodes (75).
The reflecting means (R1, R2) receive the optical rays emitted by the emitter diodes (74), which pass through the outlet passage (U), and convey them, by reflecting, to the receiver diodes (75), so that the reflected optical rays pass again through the outlet passage (U).
In particular, as shown in
The transfer of a coin through the outlet passage (U), and consequently through the slot (77) of the projecting section (76), causes the interruption of at least one optical ray passing through the same slot (77): this interruption is detected by the control means connected to the diodes, which detect the passage of the coin and its subsequent dispensing.
Advantageously, as shown in
The reflecting means (R1, R2) can include e.g. prisms introduced into recesses made in the edge of the slot (77) opposite to the edge, in which the emitter and receiver diodes are placed.
A relative reflecting prism can be used for each pair of emitter and receiver diodes.
The protection of the present invention covers also an arrangement of coin dispensers, which uses coin dispensers configurable as described before.
This arrangement of configurable coin dispensers includes, as shown in
This arrangement allows to convey the coins (M2) of the second dispenser (E2) to the chamber (A1) of the first dispenser (E1), so that the coins (M2) are dispensed from the front wall (F1) of the first dispenser (E1), together with the coins (M1) contained in the first dispenser (E1).
The first dispenser (E1) can be advantageously configured in a way as described previously (with reference to
For this purpose, the first dispenser (E1) includes a first additional coin outlet slot (13) made on the second lateral wall and coin conveying means (11), which can be placed removably inside the chamber (A1), so as to join the outlet passage (U1) to the first additional slot (13) in such a way, as to guide the coins (M1) going out from the outlet passage (U1) toward the first additional slot (13), in order to dispense the coins (M1) from the second lateral wall (L1). Further, the first coin dispenser (E1) can be configured in such a way, as to dispense coins (M1), contained therein, and to dispense the coins (M2), coming from the second dispenser (M2), from the second lateral wall (L1) (as described previously with reference to
For this purpose, the first dispenser (E1) includes a second additional coin outlet slot (32), made on the second lateral wall (L1), and coin guiding means (3), which can be removably placed inside the chamber (A1), in order to join the additional inner channel (2) to the second additional outlet slot (32), so as to guide and convey the coins (M2) coming from the second dispenser (E2) to the second outlet slot (32), to dispense them from the second lateral wall (L1).
It is doubtless how the above arrangement of coin dispensers allows, in an extremely advantageous way, placement of at least two configurable dispensers, situated one beside another, in one recess made on the face of an automatic machine for coin dispensing (payment or money change), so as to obtain the dispensing of at least two different values of coins from the same dispensing point, or from two dispensing points, situated close to each other, thus making it considerably easier for the user to withdraw the coins.
The advantages and the problems resolved by the configurable coin dispenser proposed by the present invention are evident from the above description.
Actually, it allows to change the point of coin dispensing in the automatic machine, in which it is placed, without any removal and re-placing according to a different orientation.
Moreover, the invention proposes a new arrangement of configurable coin dispensers inside the same recess made in an automatic machine for dispensing and distributing coins, which allows to locate the dispensing of coins of two different values in the same dispensing point, or in two dispensing points, situated close to each other, according to different configurations assumed by the configurable dispensers.
This is a big advantage for the user, who does not have to collect and to withdraw coins dispensed by dispensing points, which are very distant one from another, as it occurred with prior art dispensers situated in different recesses.
The extreme versatility of the configurable coin dispenser, as well as the innovative arrangement of the configurable coin dispensers, connected to each other in the above described way, simplify considerably the design of the automatic machines, inside which the configurable dispensers are to be installed, as well as the logistics arrangement of the dispensers inside the above machines.
It is understood that the proposed invention has been described, with reference to the enclosed figures, as a mere, not limiting example. Therefore, it is obvious that any changes or variants suggested by its use and practice can be applied thereto and remain within the protective scope defined by the following claims.
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