This invention relates to a document transporter for transporting a document such as a bill along and in alignment with a passageway.
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.
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.
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.
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 Document 1] U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,356
[Patent Document 2] U.S. Pat. No. 6,860,480
[Patent Document 3] U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,150
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 55-115891
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.
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.
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.
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Embodiments of the document transporter according to the present invention will be described hereinafter in connection with
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
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.
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.
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
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.
The embodiment shown in
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
As shown in
This invention is applicable to document transporters of various types for transporting documents in alignment with a passageway.
(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,