The present invention relates to a machine for mechanically scraping the removable paint film off of the scratch tickets.
As known, the removal of the paint film, which covers the numbers of scratch tickets, is manually done using items such as coins, or other kind of appropriate elements for the scraping. The aim of the present invention is to provide an automatic and fast mechanical element, which can clean up the ticket, revealing all that is hidden under the paint film to be scratched off, without causing damage to the underlying graphics.
The system, in accordance with the present invention, is made up of an upper scraping device R (
In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, a machine for scratching off the removable paint of tickets (20), such as scratch tickets or the like, is provided that comprises a scraping device (R) and a contrast and drawing device (T), wherein the scraping device (R) comprises at least one first scraping roll (RA1) and the contrast and drawing device (T) comprises at least one contrast and drawing roll (RB1), wherein the at least one first scraping roll (RA1) and the first contrast and drawing roll (RB1) are provided with at least one motorization so as to be both driven, wherein the at least one first scraping roll (RA1) and the at least one first contrast and drawing roll (RB1) are opposite and spaced between each other, so that the ticket (20) passes between them and, due to the contemporaneous action of the at least one scraping roll (A1) and the at least one drawing roll (RB1), the removable paint of the ticket (20) is scraped off. In accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention, the first embodiment is modified so that the scraping device (R) includes a first motorization (MR), which rotates the at least one scraping roll (RA1) and the contrast and drawing device (T) comprises a second motorization (MT), which rotates the at least one drawing roll (RB1).
In accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention, the first embodiment or the second embodiment is further modified so that the scraping device (R) comprises at least a first and a second scraping roll (RA1,RA2) and the contrast and drawing device (T) comprises at least a first and a second contrast and drawing roll (RB1, RB2), wherein the at least one first scraping roll (RA1) is opposite and distanced from the first contrast and drawing roll (RB1) and the at least one second scraping roll (RA2) is opposite and distanced from the at least one second contrast and drawing roll (RB2),) wherein the ticket (20) passes between the at least two scraping rolls (RA1, RA2) and the at least two contrast and drawing rolls (RB1, RB2) so that, due to the action of both scraping rolls (RA1, RA2), the removable paint of the ticket (20) is scraped off. In accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention, the third embodiment is further modified so that the scraping device (R) contains a pair of scraping rolls (RA1,RA2) with a respective motorization and the contrast and drawing device (T) contains a pair of contrast and drawing rolls (RB1, RB2) with a respective motorization, wherein the ticket (20) passes between the scraping device (R) and the contrast and drawing roll (T) so that due to their contemporaneous action they clean the ticket of the removable paint. In accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention, the third embodiment or the fourth embodiment are further modified so that the at least two scraping rolls (RA1, RA2) comprise a plurality of toothed rollers (r2) spaced between each other and attached respectively to a shaft (A1, A2). In accordance with a sixth embodiment of the present invention, the fifth embodiment is further modified so that the rollers (r2) are metallic and completely made of a single solid body. In accordance with a seventh embodiment of the present invention, the fifth embodiment or the sixth embodiment are further modified so that the rollers (r2) are arranged in parallel and subsequent rows.
In accordance with an eighth embodiment of the present invention, the fifth embodiment, the sixth embodiment and the seventh embodiment, are further modified so that the toothed scraping rollers (r2) of the first scraping roll (RA1) are arranged in a complementary way with the rollers (r2) of the second scraping roll (RA2), so that the rollers (r2) of the second scraping roll (RA1) remove the paint not removed from the rollers (r2) of the first scraping roll (RA2) and vice versa, so as to completely scrape the paint off the ticket (20). In accordance with a ninth embodiment of the present invention, the third embodiment or the fourth embodiment is further modified so that the at least two contrast and drawing rolls (RB1, RB2) comprise a plurality of flat rollers (r1) spaced between each other and attached to a shaft (B1, B2). In accordance with a tenth embodiment of the present invention, the ninth embodiment is further modified so that the rollers (r1) of the contrast and drawing rolls (RB1, RB2) are made of a soft material. In accordance with a tenth embodiment of the present invention, the ninth embodiment or the tenth embodiment is further modified so that the arrangement of the contrast and drawing rollers (r1) is a specular copy of the arrangement of the scraping toothed rollers (r2).
In accordance with an eleventh embodiment of the present invention, the first embodiment, the second embodiment, the third embodiment, the fourth embodiment, the fifth embodiment, the sixth embodiment, the seventh embodiment, the eighth embodiment, the ninth embodiment, and the tenth embodiment are further modified so that the scraping device (R) and the contrast and drawing device (T) are connected by means of an adjustable contrast screw-spring mechanism (2.8), which enables the adjustment of the scraping device (R) with respect to the contrast and drawing device (T). In accordance with a twelfth embodiment of the present invention, the third embodiment is further modified so that it comprises two independent devices, namely, a scraping device (R) containing a pair of scraping rolls (RA1,RA2) with a respective motorization and a contrast and drawing device (T) containing a pair of contrast and drawing rolls (RB1, RB2) with a respective motorization, joined together by means of an adjustable contrast screw-spring mechanism (2.8), wherein the ticket passes between the two devices (R,T), which due to their contemporaneous action clean the ticket of the removable paint. In accordance with a thirteenth embodiment of the present invention, the first embodiment, the second embodiment, the third embodiment, the fourth embodiment, the fifth embodiment, the sixth embodiment, the seventh embodiment, the eighth embodiment, the ninth embodiment, the tenth embodiment, the eleventh embodiment, and the twelfth embodiment are further modified so that it comprises control means (L1, L2) of the motorization (MR) of the at least one scraping roll (RA1, RA2), wherein the control means (L1, L2) is able to reverse the direction of rotation of the scraping rolls (RA1, RA2). In accordance with a fourteenth embodiment of the present invention, the thirteenth embodiment is further modified so that the control means (L1, L2) reverse the direction of rotation (M3) of the scraping rolls (RA1, RA2) with respect to the starting direction (M2) of rotation when the ticket passes through. In accordance with a fifteenth embodiment of the present invention, the first embodiment, the second embodiment, the third embodiment, the fourth embodiment, the fifth embodiment, the sixth embodiment, the seventh embodiment, the eighth embodiment, the ninth embodiment, the tenth embodiment, the eleventh embodiment, the twelfth embodiment, the thirteenth embodiment, and the fourteenth embodiment are further modified so that the scraping device (R) and the contrast and drawing device (T) have a reversed position from that described and shown above, that is, the scraping device (R) is positioned underneath the contrast and drawing device (T).
An embodiment of invention will be described as follows, simply by way of example, with reference to the following drawings wherein:
In the description, the following symbols will be used:
For the sake of clarity, we call scraping rolls RA1 and RA2 a multiple series of metallic rollers r2 (
The machine 10 includes a base BS, two lower side frames FI and two upper side frames FS. From
A scraping device R of the ticket 20 is interposed between the two upper side frames FS. The scraping device R includes a first and a second scraping roll RA1 and RA2, wherein each scraping roll comprises, respectively, a first and a second scraping shaft A1 and A2, wherein each scraping shaft has a plurality of rollers r2 spaced between each other by distance d1. Each scraping shaft A1 and A2 is attached to a first gear IAR, which both engage with a second gear IMR attached to a scraping motor MR.
From
Similarly, the rollers r1 of the second contrast and drawing shaft B2 are in front of the gaps that separate the rollers r1 of the first contrast and drawing shaft B1, and their width are equal or nearly equal to the distance d1 that separates the rollers r1 arranged on the first contrast and drawing shaft B1. Similarly, from
From
The machine 10 has an entry side A (
Once the initial portion of the ticket passes over the centre of the second pair of rolls RA2, RB2, the contact of the ticket with the second microswitch L2 (
Some considerations regarding the difficulties for cleaning these coupons or tickets are due to the fact that: (a) not all paints have the same characteristics, (b) paints have different thickness depending on the type of the ticket, (c) sometimes areas to be cleaned are scattered in several places and sometimes they are discontinuous, (d) graphics of tickets are a few hundredths of a millimetre higher than the surface to be scraped, so that a long and hard scraping element fails to scratch the paint perfectly due to higher thickness of the graphics, which should not to be removed, (e) it is necessary to remove the paint without damaging the graphics underneath, and (f) there are several ticket sizes. This means that it is delicate and complex to remove this particular coat of paint precisely and quickly. All these problems have been solved through the simultaneous interaction of two mechanisms, namely, the scraping device R that acts on the graphics to be removed, while the contrast and drawing device T acts on the opposite side of the ticket. The inventive concept is embodied in both of these two devices T and R, in their parts, in their function, and how they interact with each other.
The scraping device R is placed in the upper part of the machine 10, and the contrast and drawing device T is placed in the lower part of the machine 10, so the ticket passes between them, and the two devices T and R are connected through the side frames FS and FI (
Scraping device R consists of two scraping rolls RA1 and RA2 (described above), placed parallel and subsequent to each other (
The contrast and drawing device T consists of two contrast and drawing rolls RB1 and RB2 (described above) formed by flat rollers r1 in a suitable material for drawing paper, mounted on two shafts B1 and B2, acting on the lower part of the ticket. These rollers r1 have a double function: (a) drawing the ticket, and (b) contrasting the scraping toothed rollers r2, which are above, for this reason, they have the same identical position (specular arrangement) of the above rollers in order to allow them to scrape, wherein the arrangement of the pair of drawing shafts B1, B2 is shown in
In
At the precise moment that the ticket is very close to the first microswitch L1, the motor MT is operated and rotates the contrast and drawing rolls RB1 and RB2 with speed V1 and direction of rotation M1, and the motor MR is operated and rotates the scraping rolls RA1, RA2 with speed V2 (different from V1) and direction of rotation M2; subsequently, the scraping rolls RA1, RA2 and contrast and drawing rolls RB1, RB2 start to rotate and process the ticket 20. At the precise moment the toothed rollers r2 come in contact with the surface of the ticket, they begin the cleaning operation scraping off the removable paint without altering the graphics, which are not to be removed. The effect mentioned above is obtained by the type of construction of the rollers r2 and the level of distribution of the rollers r2, so as to clean small areas. This process is further optimized when the scraping rolls reverse the direction of rotation M3 as the ticket passes, and this occurs at the precise instant the coupon or ticket comes out from the second pair of rolls RA2, RB2, and operates the microswitch L2, instantly, through a reverser, changing the direction of rotation of the rolls. At this point, the toothed rollers r2 become counter revolving with respect to the forward direction of the ticket, consequently, their cleaning action is increased; moreover, the ticket always maintain its forward direction due to the unchanged motion of the contrast and drawing rolls RB1 and RB2.
Thanks to the machine of the present invention, the protective film that covers certain tickets, such as scratch tickets, can be quickly and entirely removed. The advantageous feature of having two scraping rolls, each comprising a plurality of rollers, can also be noted. In this way, the effectiveness of the removal of the coating film increases. The reversal of the direction of the scraping rolls RA1 and RA2, when the ticket passes, allows for the effective scraping of the protective film.
Thus, the system, according to the present invention, is a machine made up of an upper scraping device R (
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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MC2009A000153 | Jun 2009 | IT | national |
This is a National Phase Application in the United States of International Patent Application No. PCT/IT2010/000280 filed Jun. 24, 2010, which claims priority on Italian Patent Application No. MC2009A000153, filed Jun. 25, 2009. The entire disclosures of the above patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/IT2010/000280 | 6/24/2010 | WO | 00 | 12/23/2011 |