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 discharging device as a disk feeding device described in Patent Literature 1 includes a base body, a coin tank as a storage portion that stores a disk-like coin, a coin discharging disk plate as a rotary member, a guide plate as a guide member, and a coin feeding roller as a feeding member. The guide plate and the coin feeding roller face each other via a feeding passage provided on an upper surface of the base body. The rotatable coin discharging disk plate includes a circular coin catching hole penetrating in a thickness direction and a coin push-out fin, and after the coin sent from the coin tank is caught by the coin catching hole, the coin is dropped on the upper surface of the base body from the coin catching hole. The coin discharging disk plate pushes and moves the coin dropped on the upper surface of the base body in a rotation direction by the coin push-out fin protruding downward from a lower surface of the coin discharging disk plate. The guide plate comes into contact with the coin pushed by the coin push-out fin and guides the contacted coin toward the feeding passage at a position on the upstream side from the coin feeding roller in the rotation direction of the coin discharging disk plate. The coin feeding roller can reciprocate in a direction in which a distance from the guide plate is changed, and the coin feeding roller feeds the coin pinched between the coin feeding roller and the guide plate along the feeding passage by a biasing force of a spring while being biased toward the guide plate by the spring.
When changing a size of the coin to be set in the coin discharging device, a user needs to change a distance between the guide plate and the coin feeding roller in accordance with the size of the coin. In the coin discharging device described in Patent Literature 1, the user can change the distance between the guide plate and the coin feeding roller by changing an orientation of the guide plate with a rotation about an axis.
However, in the coin discharging device described in Patent Literature 1, when the orientation of the guide plate is greatly changed, the coin moved to a predetermined position in the rotation direction of the coin discharging disk plate cannot be guided toward the feeding passage by the guide plate. Therefore, in the coin discharging device described in Patent Literature 1, there is a problem that the changeable range of the size of the coin is limited.
The present invention has been made in view of the above background, and an object of the present invention is to further expand a range in which a size of a disk can be changed.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is 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 the 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 reciprocally holds the feeding member and is separated from the base body; 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 direction in which the distance is changed.
According to the present invention, there is an excellent effect that the changeable range of the size of the disk can be further expanded.
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.
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 49. Examples of the coins include money, scrip money such as a token, a medal used in a game machine, other pseudo money, and the like. A shape of a plane cross section of the disk set in the disk feeding device according to the present invention is not limited to a perfect circle. A flat body having an elliptical plane cross section, a flat body having a polygonal (for example, a heptagon or a dodecagon) plane cross section, and the like can also be a disk to be set in the disk feeding device according to the present invention.
The pedestal 80 covers a drive unit that is fixed to a lower surface of the base body 2 and that will be described later while supporting the base body 2 from below.
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 counterclockwise 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 50 passes through the center hole 31 to rotate the rotary disk 30. The coin catching holes 32 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.
An upper side of the feeding passage 49 is covered by a passage cover 44 fixed to the upper surface of the base body 2. Opposite sides of the feeding passage 49 are covered by the passage cover 44 and a passage wall 4 provided in the base body 2.
The drive unit 50 is fixed to a lower surface of the base body 2. A motor 70 is fixed to a lower surface of a lower cover 51 of the drive unit 50. A holding unit 18 is fixed to the lower surface of the base body 2 as well as the drive unit 50, 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.
A first recess 45, a second recess 46, and a third recess are provided at the other end portion of the feeding passage 49 in a width direction, and a lower end of a width adjustment pin 48 is inserted into any one of the three recesses. In
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.
On the lower surface of the rotary disk 30, a first push body 34 and a second push body 35 are provided in a vicinity of each of the five coin catching holes 32. The first push body 34 and the second push body 35 protrude downward from the lower surface of the rotary disk 30. The first push body 34 is positioned on an inner side from the second push body 35 in the radial direction. Each of the first push body 34 and the second push body 35 pushes the coins in the normal rotation direction with a side surface on a downstream side of the normal rotation direction. The side surfaces of the first push body 34 and the second push body 35 are positioned on an involute curve extending outward in the radial direction from the center of the rotary disk 30 in a plan view.
The coins caught by the coin catching holes 32 do not stay in the coin catching holes 32, pass through the coin catching holes 32, and fall to the bottom surface (3a in
A motor shaft 71 of the motor 70 fixed to a lower surface of a lower cover 52 of the drive unit 50 passes through a bottom wall of the lower cover 52. In the lower cover 52, 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 bottom wall of the lower cover 52. 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 lower 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 upper side to mesh with the 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 56a, the second large diameter gear 56b, and a second fixed shaft 56c. The second fixed shaft 56c is fixed to the bottom wall of the lower cover 52. The second small diameter gear 56a and the second large diameter gear 56b, which are made of the same member, have a through hole provided at a rotation center position. The second fixed shaft 56c passing through the through hole rotatably holds the second small diameter gear 56a and the second large diameter gear 56b. The second intermediate gear 56 causes the second large diameter gear 56b positioned on the upper side among the second small diameter gear 56a and the second large diameter gear 56b to mesh with the first small diameter gear 57a of the first intermediate gear 57. The second intermediate gear 56 causes the second small diameter gear 56a positioned on the lower side to mesh with a third large diameter gear 55b of the third intermediate gear 55 to be described later. A rotation drive force of the first small diameter gear 57a and the first large diameter gear 57b is transmitted to the second large diameter gear 56b and the second small diameter gear 56a at the meshing portion of the first small diameter gear 57a and the second large diameter gear 56b.
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 bottom wall of the lower cover 52. 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 lower side among the third small diameter gear 55a and the third large diameter gear 55b to mesh with the second small diameter gear 56a of the second intermediate gear 56. The third intermediate gear 55 causes the third small diameter gear 55a positioned on the upper side to mesh with the disk gear 54. A rotation drive force of the second small diameter gear 56a 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 56a 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.
When the rotary disk 30 rotates normally (rotates in the counterclockwise 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
A feeding roller 20 as a feeding member is disposed at a position on the downstream side from the guide pin 19 in the normal rotation direction. The guide roller 17 as a guide member is disposed at a position on the downstream side from the feeding roller 20 in the normal rotation direction. The feeding roller 20 and the guide roller 17 are positioned radially outside a circle having the same curvature as that of the circumferential wall 3b, and face each other via the feeding passage (49 in
After the state illustrated in
The feeding roller 20 can perform a forward movement in a direction away from the guide roller 17 and a backward movement in a direction approaching the guide roller 17, and is biased in the backward movement direction by a spring. As the coin C pinched between the feeding roller 20 and the guide roller 17 moves outward in the radial direction, the feeding roller 20 moves forward in a direction away from the guide roller 17 as indicated by an arrow in
After the state 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, and reverses a polarity of a voltage at each of two power supply input terminals of the motor 70. This way, a normal rotation and a reverse rotation of the motor 70 are controlled.
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 15 and the second regulation pin 16. Therefore, the first regulation pin 15 and the second regulation pin 16 are configured to be retracted into the through holes (3d and 3e) provided on the bottom surface 3a.
Specifically, a tilting bracket 14 illustrated in
The lower surface of the base body 2 holds a rotating bracket 12 illustrated in
When the coin C 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. Hereinafter, the holding unit 18 will be described in detail.
The swing body 24 includes a cylindrical portion 24a and a fin portion 24b. The cylindrical shaft 23 inserted into the hollow of the cylindrical portion 24a holds the swing body 24 so as to be swingable as a fixed shaft itself. The guide pin 19 described above is fixed to substantially the center of an upper surface of the fin portion 24b of the swing body 24 in the longitudinal direction.
As illustrated in
On an outer surface of the frame body 21 of the holding unit 18, a second tooth row 21c including three teeth is provided. A function of the second tooth row 21c will be described later.
A force of the spring 11 that pulls one end portion of the rotating bracket 12 illustrated in
The holding unit 18 is mounted on the base body 2 in a state in which an upper end portion of the cylindrical shaft 23 is inserted into a hollow of the shaft support portion 8 of the base body 2. At this time, the guide pin 19 of the holding unit 18 is inserted into the second elongated hole 6 of the base body 2, and the feeding roller 20 of the holding unit 18 is inserted into the first elongated hole 5 of the base body 2. A tip end of the screw portion of the male screw 22 inserted into the hollow of the shaft support portion 8 is fastened to a nut 26 illustrated in
In the coin hopper 1 having such a configuration, the position and orientation of the guide roller 17 are caused to be constant regardless of the size of the coin (distance between the feeding roller 20 and the guide roller 17), and thus the coin is appropriately guided toward the feeding passage by the guide roller 17 regardless of the size of the coin. Therefore, the changeable range of the size of the coin can be further expanded.
In the coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment, a combination of the first tooth row 7, the second tooth row 21c, the shaft support portion (8 in
A direction in which the cylindrical shaft 23 is inserted into and extracted from the hollow of the shaft support portion 8 is along a tooth width direction of the first tooth row 7 (direction orthogonal to a paper surface of
In a case in which the coin has a small size, when the coin is fed from the feeding passage 49, the coin passes by the side of the optical path without passing through an optical path of the coin detection sensor 41 illustrated in
An arrow g 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
However, the hopper head 400 according to the second comparative example has a disadvantage that an adaptable coin size is limited. Specifically, in the second comparative example, in order to prevent the coin C from spilling out of the hopper head 400 through a gap between the lowermost region on the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening 403 described above and an upper surface of the rotary disk 300, it is necessary to make the gap smaller than the thickness of the coin C. On the other hand, when the size of the coin C is changed, it is necessary to replace the rotary disk 300, but the thickness of the rotary disk 300 is not constant. This is because the thicknesses of the first push body and the second push body of the rotary disk 300 are set to values corresponding to the thickness of the coin C. When the rotary disk 300 has a relatively small thickness, the gap between the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening 403 of the hopper head 400 and the upper surface of the rotary disk 300 is larger than the thickness of the coin C, and the coin spills out of the hopper head 400. On the other hand, when the rotary disk 300 has a relatively large thickness, the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening 403 comes into contact with the upper surface of the rotary disk 300, and the hopper head 400 is inhibited from being attached to the base body (2 in
In addition to the coin hopper of the first comparative example, the coin discharging device described in Patent Literature 1 also has a problem that the coin C may remain on the circumferential wall surface of the circular opening of the coin tank.
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 tank.
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; and a feeding passage that is provided in the base body and through which the disk fed toward an outside of the device passes, 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 disk moved to a predetermined position of the rotation direction is fed outside the device from the feeding passage, and a remaining prevention portion that prevents the disk from remaining on an edge of the rotary member in a radial direction is detachably provided in the storage portion.
The coin hopper 1 according to the embodiment can achieve the above-described object. As illustrated in
Specifically, as illustrated in
It is desirable that the remaining prevention portion 204 has a tapered surface descending from an outer side to an inner side in the radial direction of the circular opening 203.
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; 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 (for example, a coin C) 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 while being biased toward the guide member by the biasing member, the disk feeding device including a holding body (for example, a holding unit 18) that reciprocally holds the feeding member and is separated from the base body, and locking position changing means (for example, a combination of a first tooth row 7, a second tooth row 21c, a shaft support portion 8, a cylindrical shaft 23, a nut 26, and the like) for changing a locking position of the holding body with respect to the base body along a track in a direction in which the distance is changed (track along a tooth arrangement direction of a first tooth row 7).
In the configuration, a position and an orientation of the guide member are caused to be constant regardless of the size of the disk set in the disk feeding device, and thus the disk is appropriately guided toward the feeding passage by the guide member regardless of the size of the disk. Therefore, according to the first aspect, the changeable range of the size of the disk can be further expanded.
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 21c) 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 base body, a gear meshing with the tooth row is provided in the holding 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, in the disk feeding device, a scale 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 in the base body by using the scale.
According to a fifth aspect, in any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect, a detection sensor (for example, a coin detection sensor 41) that detects the disk in the feeding passage, a width adjustment member (for example, a width adjustment pin 48) that adjusts a width of the feeding passage, and a plurality of recesses (for example, a first recess 45, a second recess 46, and a third recess) into which the width adjustment member is inserted are provided in the feeding passage.
In the configuration, the user can easily and appropriately adjust the width of the feeding passage by inserting the width adjustment member into the recess suitable for the diameter of the disk among a plurality of the recesses provided in the feeding passage, and thus can suppress occurrence of a failure that the disk is not detected by the detection sensor.
According to a sixth aspect, in any one of the first aspect to the sixth aspect, a remaining prevention portion (for example, a remaining prevention portion 204) that prevents the disk from remaining on an edge of the rotary member in a radial direction is detachably provided in the storage portion.
In the configuration, the user can easily change the size of the disk that can be set in the disk feeding device by replacing the remaining prevention portion that is attached to the storage portion. Therefore, since a manufacturer of the disk feeding device is not required to individually manufacture the storage portion corresponding to each size and it is only necessary to manufacture the remaining prevention portion corresponding to each size at a lower cost than that of the storage portion, the cost can be reduced.
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. 2018-226414 filed on Dec. 3, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018-226414 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/034961 | 9/5/2019 | WO | 00 |