The present invention relates to a disk feeding device that feeds a disk such as a coin or a medal.
In the related art, there is known a disk feeding device including a base body, a storage portion that stores a disk, a rotatable rotary member, a feeding passage through which the disk fed toward an outside of the device passes, and a guide member and a feeding member that face each other via the feeding passage.
For example, a coin output device as a disk feeding device described in Patent Literature 1 includes a base as a base body, a coin collecting funnel as a storage portion that stores a disk-like coin, a rotary disk as a rotary member, guide means as a guide member, and a moving part as a feeding member. The coin is ejected outside the device through a passage between a cylindrical moving part and plate-like guide means. The moving part and the guide means face each other via the aforementioned passage. The rotatable rotary disk includes a circular coin placing hole penetrating in a thickness direction, and a push-up part, and the coin is dropped on an upper surface of the base from the coin placing hole after the coin fed from the coin collecting funnel is caught in the coin placing hole. The rotary disk pushes and moves the coin dropped on the upper surface of the base in a rotation direction by the push-up part protruding downward from a lower surface of the rotary disk. The guide means brings a guide side into contact with the coin pushed by the push-up part to guide the coin toward the above-described passage at a position on an upstream side of the rotary disk in a rotation direction from the moving part. The moving part can reciprocate in a direction in which a distance from the guide means is changed, and the moving part ejects the coin pinched between the moving part and the guide side of the guide means along the passage by a biasing force of a spring while being biased toward the guide means by the spring.
When changing a size of the coin to be set in the coin output device, a user needs to change a distance between the moving part and the guide means in accordance with the size of the coin. In the coin output device described in Patent Literature 1, the user can change the distance between the moving part and the guide means by rotating the guide means about an axis to change an orientation of the guide means.
However, in this coin output device, as the orientation of the guide means changes, a direction in which the guide side of the guide means extends, that is, a direction in which the coin is guided by the guide side changes. When the orientation of the guide means is set in accordance with a large-size coin, the direction in which the coin is guided by the guide side becomes a direction substantially orthogonal to the movement direction of the moving part. When the coin moving in this direction collides with the moving part, there is a problem that the moving part as the feeding member does not satisfactorily move in a movable direction and a coin jam is easily caused.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described background, and an object of the present invention is to suppress occurrence of a disk jam caused by movement failure of the feeding member.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk feeding device including: a base body; a storage portion that stores a disk; a rotary member that is disposed in the base body and is rotatable; a feeding passage that is provided in the base body and through which the disk fed toward an outside of a device passes; and a guide member and a feeding member that face each other via the feeding passage, the rotary member including a circular through hole that penetrates in a rotation axis direction and a push portion that pushes the disk in a rotation direction to move the disk, and moving the disk that is sent to the rotary member from the storage portion and passes through the through hole with the push portion in the rotation direction, the guide member guiding the disk moved to a predetermined position of the rotation direction toward the feeding passage, the feeding member being capable of reciprocating in a direction in which a distance from the guide member is changed, and feeding the disk pinched between the feeding member and the guide member by a biasing force of a biasing member while being biased toward the guide member by the biasing member, the disk feeding device including: a holding body that holds the guide member; and locking position changing means for changing a locking position of the holding body with respect to the base body along a track in a circumferential direction centered on the rotation axis.
According to the present invention, it is possible to exhibit an excellent effect of suppressing the occurrence of the disk jam caused by the movement failure of the feeding member.
Hereinafter, as a disk feeding device to which the present invention is applied, an embodiment of a coin hopper that feeds a disk-like coin will be described. In the following drawings, scales, numbers, and the like in each structure may be different from those of an actual structure in order to facilitate understanding of each structure. In order to facilitate understanding of a portion to be described, a description of reference numerals in a non-target portion may be omitted.
Coins are stored in a bulk state in the hopper head 200, and some coins are stacked on the rotary disk 30 through the circular opening 203 described above. The coins placed on an upper surface of the rotary disk 30 are sorted one by one by a rotation of the rotary disk 30, and are fed from a feeding passage to be described later. An upper portion of the feeding passage is covered by a passage cover (44 in
The pedestal 80 covers a drive unit (50 in
The circumferential wall 3b of the circular recess 3 is not connected over the entire circumference, and includes an opening portion in a predetermined region in a circumferential direction. The circumferential wall 3b guides the movement of the coins in the circumferential direction (rotation direction of the rotary disk 30).
The disk-like rotary disk 30 is disposed in the circular recess 3 of the base body 2 and is rotated about the drive shaft 53. A clockwise direction in
Hereinafter, a radial direction of the circle centered on a rotation axis of the rotary disk 30 is simply referred to as a radial direction. In the radial direction, a side close to the rotation axis of the rotary disk 30 is referred to as an inner side. In the radial direction, a side away from the rotation axis of the rotary disk 30 is referred to as an outer side.
The rotary disk 30 includes a center hole 31 provided at a center, five coin catching holes 32 arranged in the rotation direction at positions on the outer side of the center hole 31 in the radial direction, and a conical central convex portion 33 provided on the upper surface so as to surround the center hole 31. The central convex portion 33 stirs the coins placed on the rotary disk 30.
The drive shaft 53 of the drive unit passes through the center hole 31 to rotate the rotary disk 30. The coin catching holes 32 penetrating in a disk thickness direction (rotation axis direction) catch the coins placed on the rotary disk 30 in an orientation parallel to the bottom surface 30a. A circumferential wall surface of the coin catching holes 32 has a tapered shape expanding upward, and makes it easy to drop the coins into the coin catching holes 32.
A circular recess 3g is provided at the other end portion of the upper surface of the base body 2 in the longitudinal direction. A motor 70 is fixed to the base body 2 in a state in which a distal end portion of the motor 70 is inserted into the circular recess 3g. A holding unit 18 is fixed to the upper surface of the base body 2, and the holding unit 18 will be described in detail later.
A coin detection sensor 41 including a transmission type optical sensor is disposed at one end portion of the feeding passage 49 in a width direction. The coin detection sensor 41 includes a light receiving element disposed on a floor surface side of the feeding passage 49 and a light emitting element disposed on a top surface side, and detects the coins in the feeding passage 49 when an optical path from the light emitting element to the light receiving element is blocked by the coins.
Although an example in which the circular recess 3 is provided on the upper surface of the base body 2 has been described, the circular recess 3 may be provided on a member fixed to the upper surface of the base body 2. A lower end portion of the hopper head 200 may function as a circular recess.
In
The lower surface of the base body 2 holds a drive unit 50 including a plurality of gears and a fixed shaft. A disk gear 54 that rotates together with the drive shaft 53 about the drive shaft 53 is fixed to the drive shaft 53 of the drive unit 50. In addition to the disk gear 54, the drive unit 50 includes a motor gear 58, a first intermediate gear 57, a second intermediate gear 56, and a third intermediate gear 55.
A motor shaft 71 of the motor 70 fixed to the upper surface side of the base body 2 passes through the base body 2 and protrudes toward the lower surface side. On the lower surface side of the base body 2, the motor gear 58 that rotates together with the motor shaft 71 about the motor shaft 71 is fixed to the motor shaft 71. The motor 70 is a DC motor that can rotate normally and reversely.
The first intermediate gear 57 includes a first small diameter gear 57a, a first large diameter gear 57b, and a first fixed shaft 57c. The first fixed shaft 57c is fixed to the lower surface of the base body 2. The first small diameter gear 57a and the first large diameter gear 57b, which are made of the same member, have a through hole provided at a rotation center position. The first fixed shaft 57c passing through the through hole rotatably holds the first small diameter gear 57a and the first large diameter gear 57b. The first intermediate gear 57 causes the first large diameter gear 57b positioned on the upper side among the first small diameter gear 57a and the first large diameter gear 57b to mesh with the motor gear 58. The first intermediate gear 57 causes the first small diameter gear 57a positioned on the lower side to mesh with a second large diameter gear 56b of the second intermediate gear 56 to be described later. A rotation drive force of the motor gear 58 is transmitted to the first large diameter gear 57b and the first small diameter gear 57a at a meshing portion of the motor gear 58 and the first large diameter gear 57b of the first intermediate gear 57.
The second intermediate gear 56 includes a second small diameter gear, the second large diameter gear 56b, and a second fixed shaft 56c. In
The third intermediate gear 55 includes a third small diameter gear 55a, the third large diameter gear 55b, and a third fixed shaft 55c. The third fixed shaft 55c is fixed to the lower surface of the base body 2. The third small diameter gear 55a and the third large diameter gear 55b, which are made of the same member, have a through hole provided at a rotation center position. The third fixed shaft 55c passing through the through hole rotatably holds the third small diameter gear 55a and the third large diameter gear 55b. The third intermediate gear 55 causes the third large diameter gear 55b positioned on the upper side among the third small diameter gear 55a and the third large diameter gear 55b to mesh with the second small diameter gear of the second intermediate gear 56. The third intermediate gear 55 causes the third small diameter gear 55a positioned on the lower side to mesh with the disk gear 54. A rotation drive force of the second small diameter gear and the second large diameter gear 56b is transmitted to the third large diameter gear 55b and the third small diameter gear 55a at the meshing portion of the second small diameter gear and the third large diameter gear 55b.
A rotation drive force of the third small diameter gear 55a and the third large diameter gear 55b is transmitted to the disk gear 54 and the drive shaft 53 at the meshing portion of the third small diameter gear 55a and the disk gear 54. A rotation drive force of the drive shaft 53 is transmitted to the rotary disk 30.
The lower surface side of the base body 2 holds a feeding bracket 21 and a pin bracket 12 in addition to the drive unit 50.
At one end portion of the lower surface of the base body 2 in the longitudinal direction, a guide groove 3h extending along a track in a circumferential direction about the drive shaft 53 of the drive unit 50 is provided. The feeding bracket 21 is disposed in the guide groove 3h. A feeding roller 20 is rotatably provided on an upper surface of one end portion of the feeding bracket 21 in the longitudinal direction. An opening penetrating toward the upper surface of the base body 2 is provided at one end portion of the guide groove 3h in the longitudinal direction, and the feeding roller 20 protrudes upward from the upper surface of the base body 2 through the opening. The feeding roller 20 can reciprocate within a length range of the opening in the longitudinal direction. The feeding bracket 21 is biased toward the feeding roller 20 side from a spring 22 side by the spring 22. In a state in which a force is not applied to the feeding roller 20 by a member other than the spring 22, the feeding roller 20 is positioned at an end on a backward movement side (end on the biasing side) in a reciprocating range. Hereinafter, this position is referred to as a home position.
When the feeding roller 20 is at the home position, the feeding roller 20 is closest to the guide roller to be described later. As the feeding roller 20 moves forward from the home position, a distance from the guide roller to be described later increases.
The third fin portion 12d is provided with a through hole 12e. As illustrated in
When the rotary disk 30 rotates normally (rotates in the clockwise direction in the drawing), the coins C placed on the rotary disk 30 are caught in the coin catching holes 32 while being stirred by a tapered circumferential wall surface around the coin catching holes 32 and the central convex portion 33. The coins C caught in the coin catching holes 32 pass through the coin catching holes 32, fall to the bottom surface (3a in
As illustrated in
In the vicinity of an end portion on the upstream side in the normal rotation direction in the opening portion of the circumferential wall 3b, a guide roller 17 as a guide member is disposed radially outside a circle having the same curvature as that of the circumferential wall 3b. At a position on the downstream side from the guide roller 17 in the normal rotation direction, the feeding roller 20 as a feeding member is disposed radially outside a circle having the same curvature as that of the circumferential wall 3b. The guide roller 17 and the feeding roller 20 face each other via the feeding passage (49 in
After the state illustrated in
After the state illustrated in
After the state illustrated in
An example in which only the second regulation pin 16a among the first regulation pin 15a and the second regulation pin 16a regulates the movement of the coin C in the normal rotation direction has been described, but both the first regulation pin 15a and the second regulation pin 16a as the regulation member regulate the movement of the coin C depending on a size of the coin C. Specifically, when the rotary disk 30 corresponding to a coin larger than the coin C illustrated in
The control board described above is provided outside the coin hopper 1, and counts the number of coins C based on a coin detection signal transmitted from the coin detection sensor 41. The control board turns on and off a power supplied to the motor 70 illustrated in
When a situation occurs due to occurrence of a coin jam, in which the forward rotation of the motor 70 is locked and an excessive current flows to a coil of the motor 70 or the coin detection signal is not transmitted from the coin detection sensor 41, the control board executes jam removing processing. In the jam removing processing, the control board repeats a process of performing the reverse rotation and the normal rotation of the motor 70 a predetermined number of times for a predetermined time.
When the rotary disk 30 rotates in the reverse direction, it is necessary to release the regulation of the movement of the coin in the reverse rotation direction by the first regulation pin 15a and the second regulation pin 16a. Therefore, as illustrated in
When changing the size of the coin C to be set in the coin hopper 1, the user at least needs to replace the rotary disk 30 illustrated in
In the coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment, the user can change the distance between the feeding roller 20 and the guide roller 17 in a wide range by changing a locking position of the holding unit 18 with respect to the base body 2 illustrated in
The holding unit 18 includes a holding body 19 and the guide roller 17. The holding body 19 includes a top plate 19a, a first side plate 19b, and a second side plate 19d. The guide roller 17 is positioned below the top plate 19a of the holding body 19, and is rotatably held by the top plate 19a. The second side plate 19d is positioned on the outer side from the first side plate 19b in the radial direction. On an outer surface of the second side plate 19d, a second tooth row 19c including a plurality of teeth arranged on a track along the circumferential direction centered on the drive shaft 53 of the drive unit 50 is provided.
The base body 2 is provided with a first tooth row 7 including a plurality of teeth. The plurality of teeth of the first tooth row 7 are arranged on a track along the circumferential direction centered on the drive shaft 53.
In the coin hopper 1 that changes the locking position of the holding body 19 with respect to the base body 2 along the track in the circumferential direction centered on the drive shaft 53, when the locking position of the holding body 19 is changed, the locking position of the guide roller 17 is also changed along the track in the circumferential direction centered on the drive shaft 53. As illustrated in
In the coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment, a combination of the first tooth row 7, the second tooth row 19c, and the like configures locking position changing means. The locking position changing means changes the locking position of the holding body 19 with respect to the base body 2 along the track in the circumferential direction centered on a rotation axis (drive shaft 53) of the rotary disk 30.
A direction in which the holding unit 18 is attached to and detached from the base body 2 is along a tooth width direction of the first tooth row 7 (direction orthogonal to a paper surface of
As described above, the user can change the size of the coin to be set in the coin hopper 1 by replacing the rotary disk 30 and adjusting the distance between the feeding roller 20 and the guide roller 17. However, when the positions of the first pin unit 15 and the second pin unit 16, which are illustrated in
Therefore, in the coin hopper 1, a locking position of the pin bracket holding the first pin unit 15 and the second pin unit 16 can be changed. Specifically, as illustrated in
When the position of the pin bracket 12 is changed, the guided portion 12a is inserted into the position guide hole 3f illustrated in
In general, in the coin hopper 1, the size of the base body 2 in the longitudinal direction is the largest among each of the parts. Therefore, in the coin processing apparatus, the orientation of the base body 2 is set in which the longitudinal direction is inclined from the horizontal direction h as described above, so that space saving of installation space of the coin hopper 1 in the horizontal direction h is achieved.
As illustrated in
In the rotary disk 300, the reason why the increase in the width of the circumferential edge of the ring-shaped disk is disadvantageous is as follows. That is, when the coin hopper 1 is mounted on the coin processing apparatus in the orientation in which the longitudinal direction of the base body 2 is inclined from the horizontal direction h, as illustrated in
In addition to the coin hopper of the comparative example illustrated in
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a disk feeding device capable of preventing a disk from remaining on a circumferential wall surface of a circular opening of a storage portion (hopper head 200 in the embodiment) such as a coin collecting funnel.
In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a disk feeding device including: a base body; a storage portion that stores a disk; a rotary member that is disposed in the base body and is rotatable; a feeding passage that is provided in the base body and through which the disk fed toward an outside of a device passes; and a guide member and a feeding member that are face each other via the feeding passage, in which the rotary member includes a circular through hole that penetrates in a rotation axis direction and a push portion that pushes the disk in a rotation direction to move the disk, and moves the disk sent to the rotary member from the storage portion and passing through the through hole with the push portion in the rotation direction, the guide member guides the disk moved to a predetermined position of the rotation direction toward the feeding passage, the feeding member is capable of reciprocating in a direction in which a distance from the guide member is changed, and feeds the disk pinched between the feeding member and the guide member by a biasing force of a biasing member while being biased toward the guide member by the biasing member, and a bottom portion of the storage portion includes a taper, a circular opening provided so as to continue to a lower end of the taper and facing the rotary member, and a protrusion provided in a lowermost region in a circumferential direction of a circumferential wall surface of the circular opening.
The coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment can achieve the above-described object.
On the circumferential wall of the circular opening 203 of the hopper head 200, a plurality of protrusions 205 arranged at a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction is provided in a part of the region in the circumferential direction. One of the plurality of protrusions 205 is provided in a region positioned on the lowermost side of the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening 203. Hereinafter, the protrusion 205 provided in the region positioned on the lowermost side of the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening 203 is referred to as a lowermost protrusion 205.
It is desirable that the shape of the protrusion 205 is a shape having a taper descending from a center of the protrusion 205 toward the outer edge at least on each of opposite sides of the protrusion 205 in a direction along a central axis of the circular opening 203 and opposite sides of the protrusion 205 in a direction perpendicular to the central axis of the circular opening 203. Examples of the above-described shape include a conical shape, a polygonal pyramid shape, a hemispherical shape, and the like, and the hemispherical shape without a corner is most preferable. In the coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment, as illustrated in
Hereinafter, a modification example in which a partial configuration of the coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment is modified to another configuration will be described. The configuration of the coin hopper 1 according to the modification example is the same as that of the embodiment unless otherwise noted below.
Although the preferred embodiments and modification examples of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and modification examples, and various modifications and changes can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention. These embodiments and modification examples are included in the scope and the gist of the invention, and are also included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalent scope thereof.
The present invention has unique effects for each of the following aspects.
According to a first aspect, there is provided a disk feeding device (for example, a coin hopper 1) including: a base body (for example, a base body 2); a storage portion (for example, a hopper head 200) that stores a disk (for example, a coin C); a rotary member (for example, a rotary disk 30) that is disposed in the base body and is rotatable; a feeding passage (for example, a feeding passage 49) that is provided in the base body and through which the disk fed toward an outside of the device passes; and a guide member (for example, a guide roller 17) and a feeding member (for example, a feeding roller 20) that face each other via the feeding passage, in which the rotary member includes a circular through hole (for example, a coin catching hole 32) that penetrates in a rotation axis direction and a push portion (for example, a first push body 34 and a second push body 35) that pushes the disk in a rotation direction to move the disk, and moves the disk sent to the rotary member from the storage portion and passing through the through hole with the push portion in the rotation direction, the guide member guides the disk moved to a predetermined position of the rotation direction toward the feeding passage, the feeding member is capable of reciprocating in a direction in which a distance from the guide member is changed, and feeds the disk pinched between the feeding member and the guide member by a biasing force of a biasing member (for example, a spring 22) while being biased toward the guide member by the biasing member, the disk feeding device including a holding body (for example, a holding body 19) that holds the guide member, and locking position changing means (for example, a combination of a first tooth row 7, a second tooth row 19c, and the like) for changing a locking position of the holding body with respect to the base body along a track in a circumferential direction centered on the rotation axis.
In the first aspect, regardless of the distance between the feeding member and the guide member (regardless of a size of the disk), a direction in which the disk guided by the guide member collides with the feeding member is set to be substantially constant. Furthermore, in the first aspect, by setting a relative position between the locking position changing means and the feeding member, the direction in which the disk guided by the guide member collides with the feeding member can be set to be substantially the same as the forward movement direction of the feeding member. In the first aspect, since the feeding member with which the disk collides is smoothly moved in the forward movement direction regardless of the distance between the feeding member and the guide member, occurrence of the coin jam due to the movement failure of the feeding member can be suppressed.
According to a second aspect, in the first aspect, a first tooth row (for example, a first tooth row 7) including a plurality of teeth arranged at a predetermined interval along the track is provided in the base body, a second tooth row (for example, a second tooth row 19c) that includes a plurality of teeth and meshes with the first tooth row is provided in the holding body, and the holding body is configured to be capable of being attached to and detached from the base body in a tooth width direction of the first tooth row.
In the configuration, the user can remove the holding body from the base body while releasing the meshing of the first tooth row provided in the base body and the second tooth row provided in the holding body. The user can mount the holding body on the base body while meshing the second tooth row provided in the holding body with the teeth at an arbitrary position of the first tooth row provided in the base body.
According to a third aspect, in the first aspect, a tooth row including a plurality of teeth arranged at a predetermined interval along the track is provided in the holding body, a gear (for example, a gear 27) meshing with the tooth row is provided in the base body, and the locking position changing means includes at least the tooth row and the gear.
In the configuration, the user can adjust the distance between the feeding member and the guide member with a simple operation of turning the gear.
According to a fourth aspect, in the second aspect or the third aspect, a scale (for example, a scale 19e) is provided on the first tooth row or the tooth row.
In the configuration, the user can set the distance between the feeding member and the guide member to an arbitrary value without using a dedicated jig by grasping a target attachment position of the holding body with respect to the base body by using the scale.
According to a fifth aspect, in any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, a regulation member (for example, a first regulation pin 15a and a second regulation pin 16a) that guides the disk toward the feeding passage in a radial direction while coming into contact with the disk pushed by the push portion and moved in the rotation direction to regulate a movement of the disk in the rotation direction; a regulation holding body (for example, a pin bracket 12) that holds the regulation member; and second locking position changing means (for example, a combination of a guided portion 12a, a position guide hole 3f, a male screw 13, a female screw portion 14, a third fin portion 12d, a through hole 12e, and the like) for changing a locking position of the regulation holding body with respect to the base body along a track in a circumferential direction centered on the rotation axis are further provided.
In the configuration, the changeable range of the size of the disk set in the disk feeding device can be expanded as compared with a configuration in which a position of the regulation member is set to be constant.
According to a sixth aspect, in any one of the first aspect to the third aspect, a taper (for example, a taper 36) descending from an outer side to an inner side in a radial direction is provided on an edge of the rotary member centered on the rotation axis.
In the configuration, the disk set in an orientation facing the lowermost region in the gravity direction in the entire circumferential region of the circumferential wall of the storage portion moves further downward while sliding on a surface of the taper provided on an edge of the rotary member and falls to the upper surface of the rotary member or into the through hole. In the sixth aspect, according to the falling of the disk, by preventing the coin from remaining in the lowermost region on the circumferential wall surface of the storage portion, the decrease in counting accuracy of the disk due to the remaining of the disk can be suppressed.
According to a seventh aspect, in the sixth aspect, a bottom portion of the storage portion includes a taper (for example, a taper 202), a circular opening (for example, a circular opening 203) continuing to a lower end of the taper, and a protrusion (for example, a protrusion 205) provided in a lowermost region in a circumferential direction of a circumferential wall surface of the circular opening.
In the configuration, the protrusion provided on the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening comes into contact with the disk to prevent the disk from adhering to the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening, so that the disk in the region on the lowermost stream side of the circumferential wall surface is prevented from remaining more favorably. Therefore, in the seventh aspect, the decrease in counting accuracy of the disk due to the remaining of the disk in the lowermost region on the circumferential wall surface of the storage portion can be suppressed.
The present invention can be suitably used for, for example, a disk feeding device and a disk processing device including the disk feeding device.
This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-226971 filed on Dec. 4, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018-226971 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/034959 | 9/5/2019 | WO | 00 |