Patent Grant
9284156
An embodiment described herein relates generally to a paper sheet handling apparatus which handles paper sheets such as bills and securities.
In recent years, a large amount of bills have been handled in banks, large-scale retailers and the like on a daily basis, and a business has been present which classifies and arranges these bills in accordance with money types and wearing states (degrees of damage of the bills). Usually, when the amount of the bills increases, the bills are managed in a state where they are bound with a bundling tape every 100 bills. Therefore, as an apparatus which automates such an arrangement business of the bills, a bill arrangement apparatus has been suggested. This bill handling apparatus includes a hopper section which stacks and receives unclassified bills, a conveyance mechanism which picks up and conveys the bills one by one from this hopper section, an inspecting section which inspects types and damage degrees of the conveyed bills, a plurality of pocket sections which classify and accumulate the inspected bills in accordance with the money types or the like, and a strapping section which binds the accumulated bills every 100 bills with the tape or paper band.
For example, in financial institutions and the like, there has broadly prevailed an automatic teller machine (hereinafter referred to as the ATM) which enables customers to automatically perform the payment, remittance and the like of transaction mediums such as the bills and coins, and the number of the installed machines keeps on increasing. The ATM includes a loading storage such as an ATM cassette or a loading cassette which receives the bills as the transaction mediums, and through this loading storage, the bills are paid to the customers, or the bills deposited by the customers are accumulated in the loading storage. It is necessary to resupply and collect the bills to and from such an ATM in accordance with a use situation thereof. Therefore, there has been suggested a cash handling system including a loading storage having a function of automatically resupplying and collecting the bills to and from a plurality of ATMs.
In the above cash handling system, it is necessary to newly prepare the loading storage to be exclusively used for the resupply and the collection of the bills, which increases cost. Moreover, it is necessary to provide a space where the loading storage is disposed in each ATM, which enlarges the ATM.
Moreover, for the hopper section, there has been suggested a device which vertically stacks and picks up about 1000 paper sheets at maximum at a time. However, when the 1000 or more paper sheets are stacked, a frictional force between the paper sheets increases owing to the gravity of the stacked paper sheets. In consequence, when the paper sheets are taken out of the hopper section, a separation force is defeated by the frictional force at the time of the pick up, so that the paper sheets cannot stably be taken out. That is, there take place the slippage of the paper sheets, the pick up of double sheets, the dragging of the sheets, and the like. Furthermore, the coins or foreign matters are carried together with the taken paper sheets sometimes. If these matters are conveyed to the inspecting section, the inspecting section might break down.
A general architecture that implements the various features of the embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate the embodiments and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Various embodiments will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment, a paper sheet handling apparatus comprises:
a supply unit comprising a support surface which tilts from a vertical direction, and a mounting surface substantially perpendicular to the support surface, and configured to receive a plurality of paper sheets which tilt along the support surface and are stacked on the mounting surface;
a pick up mechanism configured to pick up the paper sheets from a mounting surface side of the supply unit;
a conveyance path configured to convey the picked up paper sheet;
an inspection device configured to inspect the conveyed paper sheet; and
an accumulation unit configured to accumulate the inspected paper sheets.
As shown in
As shown in
The main control unit 12 is connected to an operation unit 17 which inputs various pieces of information into the apparatus, and a monitor 15 as a display device which displays input information, an operation state and a processing state of the apparatus and the like. The loading module 30 and the three strapping modules 60a, 60b and 60c include sub-control units 31a and 61a which control the operations of the modules, respectively, and these sub-control units are LAN-connected to the main control unit 12 of the main module 10 via an interface and a cable (not shown). The main control unit 12 is connected to a host computer (not shown), transmits and receives the information to and from the host computer, and performs information organization.
By an operator's operation through the operation unit 17 connected to the main control unit 12, there are performed various operation settings of the handling apparatus, for example, the setting of a transaction method such as a deposit operation or an organization operation, the setting of loading processing into a loading storage, inspection processing of the bills in the loading storage and an accumulation storage to store handled paper sheets P, the setting of strapping processing, the setting of a wearing level which is a bill judgment level and the like.
Moreover, the main control unit 12 calculates the management information including a processing efficiency of a unit time, a processing efficiency of each of a plurality of days, a processing efficiency of each operator ID, a total number of the handled sheets and a total operation time in accordance with processing information from an inspection device 18, and the main control unit stores the information in the memory 12b, and displays the information in the monitor 15.
As shown in
As shown in
In the supply unit 11, a plurality of, for example, 2000 or more bills P can be mounted in the stacked state. In the stacked bills P, the lowermost bill is mounted on the mounting surface 11b, and for example, in a state where long-side edges of the bills are mounted on the support surface 11a, the bills tilt along the support surface, and are mounted in the supply unit 11. The stacked bills P are taken in the apparatus through the pick up port 11e one by one in order from the lowermost bill P by the pick up mechanism 14.
The tilt angle θ of the support surface 11a is set to, for example, a range of 30 to 40 degrees in a range of 25 to 75 degrees. It is to be noted that the support surface 11a is disposed rotatably with respect to the apparatus main body, and the tilt angle θ of the surface may be regulated.
On the other hand, when the tilt angle of the support surface 11a is increased to decrease the pick up angle of the bills P, the weight of the bills P to be added to the support surface 11a increases (F1<F2), and the friction between the side edge of each bill P and the support surface 11a increases. This degree of the increase of the added weight has only little influence on the pick up of the bills P. In the present embodiment, however, to further lower the friction, as shown in
As shown in
It is to be noted that the paper sheets mounted on the supply unit 11 may include a batch card 116 as shown in
As shown in
When the pickup rollers 24 rotate, the lowermost bill P is taken out by the pickup rollers 24, and fed through the pick up port 11e to the conveyance path 16. In this case, by the separation roller 25, the second and following bills P are separated from the taken bill. In consequence, the bills P are, one by one, taken out of the supply unit 11 and fed to the conveyance path 16.
The main control unit 12 regulates a bill take-in amount and take-in speed of the pick up mechanism 14 in a plurality of steps in accordance with the mounted amount of the stacked bills P or an input instruction from the operator. That is, the main control unit 12 regulates the rotation speed of the pickup rollers 24 by the driving motor 26, to set the take-in amount to, for example, 1000 bills, 800 bills or 600 bills per minute. Moreover, the main control unit 12 regulates the take-in amount of the bills P in accordance with an inspection state of the inspection device 18 described later. For example, when the inspection device 18 does not satisfactorily inspect the bills P, the main control unit 12 decreases the take-in amount from 1000 bills per minute to 800 bills per minute. Furthermore, when the inspection device 18 detects the pick up of double sheets or a short pitch of the bills P, the main control unit 12 temporarily stops or reverses the pickup rollers 24, to prevent the pick up of double sheets of the bills P and normalize a feed pitch of the bills P.
It is to be noted that in the vicinity of the pick up port 11e, a sensor (not shown) which detects the presence/absence of the bills P on the mounting surface 11b. When the batch card 116 is used, an RGB sensor 23 is provided to face the mounting surface 11b as shown in
As shown in
The conveyance path 16 once extends downwardly from the pick up mechanism 14 and the pick up port 11e, obliquely tilts from the vertical direction, and then extends upwardly from the downside to the inspection device 18. According to the present embodiment, the conveyance path 16 tilts and extends substantially along the support surface 11a of the supply unit 11, i.e., in the same manner as in the support surface 11a.
It is to be noted that the conveyance path 16 may not once lower from the pick up port 11e but may immediately extend obliquely upwardly from the pick up port. Moreover, the inspection device 18 also obliquely tilts and is provided along the conveyance path 16.
The conveyance path 16 is tilted and extended from the downside to the upside in this manner, whereby when foreign matters such as clips, coins or pins are picked together with the bills P from the supply unit 11 in the conveyance path 16, the foreign matters drop down along the conveyance path 16 to the lowermost portion of the conveyance path owing to gravity. In consequence, the foreign matters are removed before entering the inspection device 18, and the damage of the inspection device 18 due to the foreign matters can be prevented in advance.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Moreover, the processed notes indicate that the bills P are judged to be true and new notes or true and worn notes by the inspection device 18. The processed notes are fed to and accumulated in the accumulation storages 22a to 22d. For example, the processed notes of each money type are sorted and accumulated in any of the accumulation storages 22a to 22d, and the worn notes are collectively accumulated in one accumulation storage.
When the batch card 116 is used, the batch card 116 passes through the inspection device 18 and the barcode reader 19, and is then fed to and accumulated in the rejecting section 20a or 20b.
The conveyance path 16 is connected to the loading module 30 described later. When the loading module 30 loads the bills in the loading storage, part or all of the processed notes inspected by the inspection device 18 of the main module 10 are conveyed to the loading module 30 through the conveyance path 16.
It is to be noted that the main module 10 includes a driving mechanism and a power source (not shown) to drive the pick up mechanism 14, the inspection device 18, a conveyance mechanism and the like, and additionally includes various sensors.
As shown in
As the loading storage 32 attached to the attaching section 34, there is attached a loading storage which enables only the loading of the bills (deposit), a loading storage which enables only the pick up of the bills (withdrawal) or a loading storage which enables the loading and pick up of the bills (deposit/withdrawal). Here, the loading storage 32 is configured to enable the loading of a large number of bills and the pick up of the bills from the loading storage. Moreover, the loading storage 32 includes a sensor which detects the loading and pick up of the bills, and a memory which stores information such as the note types of the loaded bills, the amount of money (the present amount), operator information, ID of the loading storage 32 (a branch number or an index indicating the corresponding loading storage), machine body number and the like.
In the main body 200, there are arranged a bill handling device 214 for the users to deposit and withdraw the bills through the bill deposit/withdrawal port 210, a coin handling device 216 to deposit and withdraw coins through the coin deposit/withdrawal port 212, a control unit 218, a passbook printer 220, a card/slip processing device 222 and the like.
The rear surface of the main body 200 is provided with an openable/closable door 224 which enables the pick up of the bill handling device 214 and the coin handling device 216 from the main body. In the door 224, an insertion port 226 is formed to face a bill carrying-in/out section of the bill handling device 214 described later, and the insertion port 226 is opened and closed with a vertically openable door 228. Moreover, the rear surface of the bill handling device 214 is provided with a connector 230 which faces the insertion port 226.
As shown in
As shown in
The loading/pick up mechanism 36 of the loading module 30 includes a pick up roller which takes the bills one by one from the loading storage 32, a loading roller which loads the bills in the loading storage 32, a conveyance belt and the like.
The inspection device 38 detects the money types, shapes, thicknesses, front and back surfaces, authenticities, wearing states, the pick up of double sheets, bill serial numbers and the like of the bills taken out of the loading storage 32. Here, the detection of the wearing states indicates the detection of the new notes which can be re-circulated and the worn notes which have the dirt, damage and the like and cannot be re-circulated. The worn notes also include strapped bills. The authenticity detection can use, for example, magnetic detection, image detection, or fluorescence detection in which fluorescence is emitted to read reflected light. Moreover, the inspection device 38 counts the taken bills, to calculate the number of the bills and the present amount. Inspection results such as the present amount and the number of the bills detected by the inspection device 18 are sent to the main control unit 12, stored therein and displayed in the monitor 15.
The rejection storage 40 is provided on a downstream side of the inspection device 38 in the conveyance direction of the bills. The bills P which have passed through the inspection device 38 are sorted into the rejected notes and the processed notes by a gate (not shown). The rejected notes are the notes judged to be the false notes, or the notes judged to be the notes which cannot be identified owing to the fold, break, skew, the pick up of double sheets, and the like, by the inspection device 18. The rejected notes are fed to and accumulated in the rejection storage 40. Moreover, beforehand under the control of the main control unit 12, one or a plurality of the accumulation storages 22a to 22d of the main module 10 is set as the rejection storage, and the rejected note discharged from the loading module 30 may be fed to and accumulated in the rejection storage of the main module 10. Furthermore, among the rejected notes which have passed through the inspection device 38, the rejected notes judged to be the false notes and the other rejected notes may be divided and accumulated in separate rejection storages.
The processed notes are the bills P which are judged to be the true and new notes or the true and worn notes by the inspection device 38. The new notes are returned to the loading storage 32 through the conveyance path 44b and the alignment mechanism 42, and loaded in the loading storage 32 by the pick up/loading mechanism 36. Beforehand under the control of the main control unit 12, one or a plurality of the accumulation storages 22a to 22d of the main module 10 is set as a worn note storage, whereby the worn notes discharged from the loading module 30 are fed to and accumulated in the worn note storage of the main module 10.
As to the new notes taken out of the loading storage 32, the notes preset for each money type may be accumulated in the accumulation storages 22a to 22d of the main module 10 every arbitrarily designated number thereof. Moreover, when the number of the sheets to be accumulated in the loading storage 32, for example, 2000 sheets are set, a shortage can be recognized from the number of the new notes detected by the inspection device 38 as described above, whereby the bills to compensate for the shortage are supplied from the main module 10 to the loading module 30, and loaded in the loading storage 32 through the alignment mechanism 42 and the conveyance path 44. When the loading storage 32 is attached to the attaching section 34 of the loading module 30, the present amount of the bills in the loading storage 32 is automatically sent to the main control unit 12. Therefore, when the main control unit 12 judges that the sent present amount is smaller than the desirable present amount, the shortage bills may automatically be supplied to and loaded in the loading storage 32 from the main module 10.
The information of the bills loaded in the loading storage 32 from the main module 10 is stored in the memory of the loading storage 32, and electronically sealed. When the loading storage 32 is taken out of the loading module 30 and a lid thereof is opened, door opening information and date/time are stored in the memory. As the electronic seal, a password or an IC card can be used. When the door of the loading storage 32 is opened, an electronic key or the IC card is used. In this case, the information of the operator using the key or the like is also stored in the memory. In consequence, security properties of the loading storage 32 can be enhanced.
Moreover, information obtained from the loading storage 32, for example, information such as ATM store number, the operator information, the note type, the amount of the money, a loading direction, the amount of the loaded bills and a transport route of the loading storage are sent to the main control unit 12, and recorded and totaled in the main control unit 12. The operator information includes an operator on the side of the ATM store, and an accepting operator who sets the loading storage 32 to the bill handling apparatus. When the information of the loading storage 32 is managed by the main control unit 12, the security properties can be enhanced.
On the other hand, when the strapping processing of the bills is set, the new notes taken out of the loading storage 32 are conveyed to the strapping module 60a through the conveyance path 44 and the alignment mechanism 42, and the notes are strapped every predetermined number thereof. The alignment mechanism 42 aligns the center of each bill conveyed through the conveyance path 44 with the center of the conveyance path, or corrects the skewed bills so as to direct one side of each bill orthogonally to the conveyance direction.
The correction roller 50B is a roller which corrects belt positions of the conveyance belts 50D1 to 50D3, and is constituted of three correction rollers 50B1 to 50B3 corresponding to the conveyance belts 50D1 to 50D3, and the rollers are idle rollers. Here, the rollers are generically referred to as the correction roller 50B.
The conveyance roller 50C is a driving roller which drives a conveyance belt 50D, and is constituted of three conveyance rollers (50C1 to 50C3) (not shown) corresponding to the conveyance belts 50D1 to 50D3. Here, the rollers are generically referred to as the conveyance roller 50C. This also applies to the other conveyance rollers.
These conveyance rollers are supported in a cantilever manner by a unit base 50F of the alignment mechanism 42, and the rollers disposed away from the unit base more easily bend. The alignment mechanism 42 includes the correction roller 50B, a rotary shaft around which the correction roller 50B is coaxially arranged, a base 50E2 which holds this rotary shaft, and a stay 50E3 which fixes the base 50E2 to the unit base 50F.
In the correction rollers 50B1 to 50B3, the center of the surface of each roller is formed into a crown shape having the center which is higher than both end portions (the shape having a diameter which becomes larger than a diameter of each end of the roller closer to the center of the roller). Moreover, the three correction rollers 50B1 to 50B3 are fixed to a rotary shaft including a bearing disposed around the same axis, and arranged to outwardly come in contact with the conveyance belts 50D1 to 50D3, respectively. Both ends of this rotary shaft are fixed to the base 50E2 by a holder 50E1.
The base 50E2 is fixed to the rod-like stay 50E3 projecting from the unit base 50F via screws BIS1 and BIS3. When a screw BIS2 which is a rotary shaft of the alignment mechanism 42 is rotated, the base 50E2 rotates around the screw BIS2 which is the rotary shaft, so that the positions of the correction rollers 50B1 to 50B3 can be moved as shown in
A method of aligning the conveyed bills P by the alignment mechanism 42 will be described. Since the conveyance rollers 50A to 50C are supported by the unit base 50F in the cantilever manner as described above, portions of the rollers disposed away from the unit base 50F more easily bend. Owing to the influence of this bend, the conveyance belt 50D meanders in a direction shown by an arrow A50, i.e., from a proximal side to a distal side (the side of the unit base 50F). With this meandering, the bills P held by the conveyance belt 50D similarly shift from the proximal side to the distal side. When the bills P having this state are accumulated in the loading storage 32, an accumulated state of the bills worsens.
To solve the problem, when the screw BIS2 is rotated in a (counterclockwise) direction shown by an arrow A51 in
When the screw BIS2 is rotated in the direction shown by the arrow A51 in the diagram, the roller center of the correction roller having the above crown shape is raised, and hence this raised roller center moves from the unit base 50F to the proximal side. It is known that the conveyance belt 50D moves toward this high position of the roller center, and on the basis of this principle, the conveyance belt 50D is corrected. In this case, the conveyance belt 50D1 is corrected from the unit base 50F side to the proximal side, and the conveyance belt 50D3 is similarly corrected from the proximal side to the unit base 50F side.
The alignment mechanism 42 has a major function of preventing the generation of bill sliding due to the belt meandering, and aligning the center of each bill with the center of the conveyance path. Moreover, when a plurality of modules are interconnected to lengthen the conveyance path, the bills gradually shift owing to the belt meandering during the conveyance. The alignment mechanism 42 corrects this bill shifting, to align the bills with the center of the conveyance path. The alignment mechanism 42 beforehand detects the skewing and sliding amounts of the bills by an inspection line sensor, and determines a correction amount, thereby tilting the rollers to forcibly correct the bills.
The alignment mechanism 42 obtains a large effect, when the mechanism is disposed in a portion where the apparatus is most influenced by the positional shifts of the conveyance belts. For example, in the present embodiment, the alignment mechanism is provided at a position before the bills P are fed to the loading storage 32 and before the bills are fed to the strapping module 60a as shown in
As shown in
Each of the first and second accumulation devices 64a and 64b includes a temporary accumulating section 65, and an impeller accumulation device 66 which accumulates the predetermined number of the conveyed bills P one by one in the temporary accumulating section 65. An impeller 66a of the impeller accumulation device 66 has a plurality of blades incorporated around a rotary shaft, and is rotated synchronously with the conveyance of the bills so that each conveyed bill P is received between the blades. By using the impeller 66a, the bills are accumulated in the temporary accumulating section 65 while absorbing movement energy of the bills P conveyed at a high speed and while aligning the bills P.
The strapping module 60a includes a conveyance tray 70 which is movable in rising/lowering and traverse directions to receive the accumulated bills from the first and second accumulation devices 64a and 64b, respectively, thereby conveying the bills to the strapping device 68.
The strapping device 68 includes a tape supply section 71 which supplies a binding tape (a first tape) B for strapping the bundle of 100 bills conveyed via the conveyance tray 70, a printing device 72 which prints desirable information on the supplied binding tape, a tape winding mechanism 73 which winds a printed binding tape B1 around the bill bundle, and a regulation mechanism 76 which regulates a winding position of the binding tape B1 around the bill bundle.
As the printing device 72, an ink jet printer, a dot printer, a laser printer or the like can be used. The printing device 72 prints, on the binding tape B1, arbitrary information input by the operator, or the operator ID, date/time, serial number, assigned information, bank logo, manager signature image and the like stored in the memory 12b, with an arbitrary language font under the control of the main control unit 12 and the sub-control unit 61a.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The large bundle 140 shown in
According to the bill handling apparatus, ten small bundles prepared by the strapping module (ten small bundles) are collected and bound with the large tapes to strap the large bundle by the large-bundle strapping device, and the radio tag (RFID) in which the information from the bill handling apparatus is stored is attached to the large bundle, whereby the information may be linked between the bill handling apparatus and the large bundle.
As shown in
On the most downstream side of all the modules, a safety pocket 74 is provided. When there is a bill which cannot be processed during the conveyance through the respective modules, this bill is discharged to the safety pocket 74, and removed from the apparatus.
It is to be noted that after the handling, the loading storage 32 from or to which the bills are accumulated or resupplied by the bill handling apparatus as described above is removed from the loading module 30, and attached to the corresponding ATM.
Batch processing of a bill group by use of the batch card 116 is performed as follows.
For example, when a first stacked bill group (a first batch) and a second stacked bill group (a second batch) are processed, as shown in
As shown in
The inspection device 18 detects the passage of the batch card 116, and recognizes a boundary between the deposit batches to count the amount of the corresponding deposit money amount. The batch card 116 passes through the inspection device 18 and the barcode reader 19, and is fed to and accumulated in the rejecting section 20a or 20b. Consequently, the rejected bills rejected during the processing are accumulated between the batch card 116 of the belonging deposit batch and the batch card 116 of the immediately previous batch, and hence the belonging batch of each rejected bill can be identified. In the batch processing, the rejected bills can be resupplied to the supply unit 11 (mechanical recounting) after the first counting is completed.
The batch processing is constituted of two selectable types of a secure mode and a continuous mode.
In the secure continuous mode, the batch card is inserted into the rearmost end of the bill group, whereby continuous processing is performed without stopping processing operations among a plurality of batches if possible. After the batch card is detected, the take-in of the next batch is stopped until the counting is determined.
In the continuous mode, the batch card is inserted into the rearmost end of the bill group, whereby the continuous processing is performed without stopping the processing among the plurality of batches if possible. Even if the batch card is detected, the next take-in is not stopped.
The preparation station registers an account number, the batch card number and a slip money amount, sends these account number, batch card number and slip money amount to the database server, and instructs the loading of the bill group in the supply unit 11. The rejection manual input station performs the manual input of the information of the rejected notes, difference calculation processing, the input of the false note information, the manual input of the batch card number, and the like, and sends the input batch card number and a manual input coefficient to the database server.
The database server performs coefficient collating of the batch card number and machine coefficient data sent from the main control unit 12 of the bill handling apparatus, the account number, batch card number and slip money amount sent from the preparation station, and the batch card number and manual input coefficient input from the rejection manual input station, to send the collating results to the preparation station and the rejection manual input station. In consequence, it is monitored, in accordance with the batch card number, whether or not the mechanical counting of the bill group subjected to the batch processing is correctly performed.
On the other hand, when the jamming of the bills occurs in any step of the above bill handling, jam processing is performed as follows. The following requirement is incorporated in order to form burdens on 10 the operator at the occurrence of the jamming.
At the occurrence of the jamming, the conveyance of the bills is not stopped in a portion where the conveyance can be continued among the accumulation storages 22a to 22d of the main module 10 and the strapping modules 60a, 60b and 60c, and the conveyance up to the accumulation storage and strapping accumulation is completed. In the strapping modules, when the accumulation of 100 bills is completed, a strapping operation is performed. A shift mistake is regarded as the conveyance jamming of a portion where the jamming has occurred.
In the strapping module, when the bills which have entered the module can completely be conveyed to the strapping accumulation or can be accumulated in the strapping accumulation, and when the conveyance path of the strapping module on the downstream side can be operated for the bills to be conveyed to the strapping module on the downstream, the conveyance of all the bills is completed. When the number of the bills accumulated in the strapping accumulation section reaches 100, the strapping operation is performed, and then stopped. If there is even one bill that cannot completely be conveyed, the conveyance is immediately stopped, and the bills have to be brought back.
The bills accumulated in the strapping module are securely reflected in the coefficient. When the jamming occurs during the strapping conveyance, the strapping conveyance is immediately stopped. The strapping mechanism section completes the strapping operation, when the predetermined number of the bills or 100 bills are accumulated, and the section stops after discharging the bills. The completely strapped bills and discharged bills are reflected in the counting.
After the operator removes the remaining bills due to the jamming during the strapping conveyance, the bills in the strapping conveyance are automatically conveyed to the safety pocket by operator's teller operation, and the bills accumulated in the safety pocket and both the strapping accumulations are collected. When the jamming occurs outside the strapping conveyance, when the completion of the conveyance to the strapping accumulation is enabled and the strapping accumulation is enabled and when the conveyance path of the strapping module on the downstream side can be operated for the bills to be conveyed to the strapping module on the downstream side, the conveyance of all the bills is completed. When the number of the bills accumulated in the strapping accumulation section reaches 100, the strapping operation is performed, and then stopped. At this time, the conveyance timing of the bills after the occurrence of the jamming is checked. When the bills are conveyed for a time which is longer than an estimated time, it is judged that the jamming has occurred. In this case, the bills accumulated in the strapping accumulation are brought back.
If there is even one bill that cannot completely be conveyed, the conveyance path is immediately stopped, and the bills in the strapping module are brought back. If the accumulation cannot be performed, however, the strapping conveyance is immediately stopped. After a cause for the jamming is removed, the remaining bills in the strapping conveyance are automatically conveyed to the strapping accumulation by the operator's teller operation, and the bills accumulated in both the strapping accumulations are collected.
In order to decrease the operator's operation after the jamming processing, the remaining bills may automatically be discharged. In this case, the operator performs the jamming processing of the portion where the conveyance jamming has occurred. Afterward, while the remaining bills are left in the conveyance path, the bills are conveyed at a usual speed, and accumulated in any of the rejection storage, the accumulation storage and the safety pocket. In this case, all the bills accumulated in the temporary storage are brought back. The operation is performed by the operator's teller operation after the cancellation of the jamming. An operation of opening the door of the portion where the conveyance jamming has occurred and monitoring the conveyance is performed during the conveyance so that a trouble such as the detaching of the conveyance belts does not occur.
According to the bill handling apparatus having the above constitution, the loading storage 32 removed from the ATM is attached to the attaching section 34 of the loading module 30, whereby the bills in the loading storage can automatically be taken and arranged in the bill handling apparatus. Moreover, when the bills taken out of the loading storage 32 are passed through the inspection device 38, the note types, the authenticities, the wearing states and the like can be judged. When the bills are returned to the loading storage, the present amount in the loading storage can be detected. That is, it is possible to perform inspection processing of inspecting the bills in the loading storage 32 and returning the bills to the loading storage again. When the bills taken out of the loading storage 32 are fed to the strapping modules 60a to 60c, a small bundle of 100 bills can be subjected to the strapping processing. Furthermore, when the loading storage 32 of the automatic teller machine has a loading function, the loading storage 32 is set to the bill handling apparatus, whereby the desirable number of the bills of the desirable note type introduced into the main module 10 can automatically be loaded in the loading storage. Moreover, various types of processing can be performed without opening the lid of the loading storage 32, and hence the security properties can be enhanced. The loading storage 32 can receive and transmit the information from and to the bill handling apparatus, and the present amount can bidirectionally be managed. Furthermore, a journal printer to print and output a transaction journal is provided in the loading module 30 if necessary, and this transaction journal may be attached to the loading storage 32.
When the loading storage 32 attached to the loading module 30 is a loading storage for exclusive use in withdrawal, the bills cannot directly be loaded in the loading storage by the pick up loading mechanism. In this case, the loading module 30 is provided with a temporary accumulating section which accumulates the bills taken out of the loading storage or the bills fed from the main module 10, and a robot hand which grasps, for example, 500 bills accumulated in this temporary accumulating section to load the bills in the loading storage 32, whereby loading processing can be performed.
Since the supply unit 11 of the main module 10 is provided to tilt from the vertical direction, the friction between the mounted stacked bills is lowered, and it is possible to prevent the slippage, the dragging of additional sheets, the pick up of double sheets, or the like during the pick up of the bills. In consequence, even when a large amount of bills are stacked and arranged, the bills can stably be taken out and handled one by one, which can enhance reliability. Moreover, since the supply unit 11 is provided at a comparatively low position in the apparatus main body, the loading operation of the paper sheets in the supply unit 11 can easily be performed.
Furthermore, even when the foreign matters are taken in, the foreign matters can be discharged and removed before carried into the inspection device, whereby it is possible to prevent the damage of the inspection device due to the foreign matters and to enhance the reliability of the bill handling apparatus.
Next, bill handling apparatuses according to the other embodiments will be described.
The main module 10, the loading module 30 and the strapping module 60a have a constitution which is similar to the first embodiment. The alignment module 80 interposed between the main module 10 and the loading module 30 includes a conveyance path 81 through which bills P fed from the main module 10 are conveyed, an alignment mechanism 82 provided on an upstream side of the conveyance path 81, an inverting device 84 provided on a downstream side of the alignment mechanism 82 along the conveyance path 81, and a plurality of accumulation storages 86a, 86b, 86c and 86d arranged side by side along the conveyance path 81.
The alignment mechanism 82 has a constitution which is similar to the alignment mechanism 42 of the loading module 30, and the mechanism aligns the center of each bill P conveyed through the conveyance path 81 with the center of the conveyance path, and corrects each skewed bill so that one side of the bill is directed orthogonally to a conveyance direction. The inverting device 84 inverts the bill P conveyed through the conveyance path 81, to align front surfaces, back surfaces, a forward direction and a rearward direction of the bills in arbitrarily designated directions, thereby feeding the bills.
As shown in
The inverting device 84 includes an idler roller 324 provided in the center of each of the twisted belts 321, and this idler roller applies a holding force to the bills P. On the downstream side of the twisted conveyance path 320, a roller 325 for forming a horizontal conveyance path 326 is provided.
The bills P fed from the alignment mechanism 82 to 10 the inverting device 84 pass through the twisted conveyance path 320 to invert the front and back surfaces of the bills, and the bills further pass through the horizontal conveyance path 326 so as to correct the twisted states thereof, and are discharged to the downstream side. In this case, both ends of the bills P in the longitudinal direction thereof are guided between the guide members 323a and 323b and between the guide members 323c and 323d, and hence four folds and a half fold can be prevented. Moreover, even when the bills P having low elasticity are inverted at a high speed, both the ends of the bills P are backed up by the twisted guides, and hence the generation of the fold or skew due to a wind pressure can be prevented.
25 As shown in
In bill loading processing in a loading storage 32, the bills P having the aligned directions and fed out of the inverting device 84 are conveyed through the conveyance path 81 to the loading module 30 and loaded in the loading storage 32. In this case, the inverting device 84 positively and alternately invert the front and back surfaces of the bills to feed out the bills, and the bills may be accumulated in the loading storage 32 so that the front and back surfaces of the bills are alternately arranged. In this case, the bills are prevented from being easily influenced by friction between the accumulated bills and depressed surfaces of the bills, whereby the bills can easily be taken out of the loading storage 32.
Moreover, the accumulation storages 86a to 86d of the alignment module 80 can be used as accumulation storages to accumulate the bills taken out of the loading storage 32 and sorted in accordance with each money type, or can be used as rejected note storage or worn note storage to accumulate rejected notes or worn notes taken out of the loading storage 32.
The large-capacity accumulation module 90 is connected to the downstream side of the strapping module 60a. The large-capacity accumulation module 90 includes a conveyance path 91 through which the bills P fed from the strapping module 60a are conveyed, and large-capacity accumulation storages 96a and 96b which can accumulate a predetermined amount of the bills conveyed through the conveyance path 91, respectively. When the predetermined amount of the bills are manually loaded in the loading storage 32, the beforehand set predetermined amount of the bills fed from the main module 10 or the loading storage 32 are accumulated in the accumulation storages 96a and 96b. Then, the accumulated bills are collectively taken out of the large-capacity accumulation storages 96a and 96b, and manually loaded in the loading storage 32. In consequence, the predetermined amount of the bills can easily be loaded in the loading storage 32.
According to the bill handling apparatus having the above constitution, the loading storage 32 can be subjected to various types of processing such as the collecting, loading and the like of the bills in the same manner as in the first embodiment. Moreover, since the alignment module 80 is provided, the bills having the arbitrarily set directions can be accumulated, loaded or strapped.
10 The main module 10, the alignment module 80 and the strapping module 60a have a constitution which is similar to the first and second embodiments. The loading module 110 connected to the downstream side of the strapping module 60a includes an attaching section 34 to which a loading storage of ATM for exclusive use in deposit or a loading storage which enables the deposit and withdrawal is detachably attached, a conveyance path 112 through which bills sent from a strapping module 60a side are conveyed, and a take-in mechanism 114 which loads the bills conveyed through the conveyance path 112 in a loading storage 32. Bills P supplied to the main module 10 are fed through the main module 10, the alignment module 80 and the strapping module 60a to the loading module 110, and loaded in the loading storage 32.
According to the bill handling apparatus having the above constitution, an inspection device 18 of the main module 10 inspects the bills P, and the bills can then be accumulated and strapped or loaded in the loading storage 32 for exclusive use in the deposit. Moreover, the bills can be supplied to and loaded in the loading storage 32 for exclusive use in the deposit. Additionally, a function and an effect which are similar to those of the first and second embodiments can be obtained also in the third embodiment.
The main module 10, the alignment module 80, the strapping module 60a and the loading module 110 have a constitution which is similar to the first to third embodiments. The pick up module 100 provided on an upstream side of the main module 10 includes an attaching section 34 to which a loading storage of ATM for exclusive use in withdrawal or a loading storage which enables deposit and the withdrawal is detachably attached, a pick up mechanism 102 which picks up the bills from a loading storage 32, and a conveyance path through which the taken bills are conveyed. The conveyance path of the pick up module 100 communicates with a conveyance path 104 provided on the side of a pick up mechanism 14 of the main module 10. The bills taken out of the loading storage 32 are conveyed through the conveyance path 104 of the main module 10 to an inspection device 18. After inspection, new notes and worn notes are accumulated in accumulation storages 22a to 22d, or fed through the alignment module to the strapping module 60a or the loading module 110.
The loading module 110 connected to the downstream side of the strapping module 60a includes an attaching section 34 to which a loading storage of ATM for exclusive use in deposit or a loading storage which enables the deposit and the withdrawal is detachably attached, a conveyance path 112 through which bills sent from a strapping module 60a side are conveyed, and a take-in mechanism 114 which loads the bills conveyed through the conveyance path 112 in a loading storage 32. The bills supplied to the main module 10 or the bills taken out of the loading storage 32 by the pick up module 100 are fed through the main module 10, the alignment module 80 and the strapping module 60a to the loading module 110, and loaded in the loading storage 32.
According to the bill handling apparatus having the above constitution, the bills are taken out of the loading storage 32 for exclusive use in the withdrawal, are inspected by the inspection device 18 of the main module 10, and can be accumulated and strapped or loaded in the loading storage for exclusive use in the deposit. Moreover, the bills can be resupplied to and loaded in the loading storage for exclusive use in the deposit.
The pick up module 100, the main module 10, the alignment module 80 and the strapping module 60a have a 25 constitution which is similar to the fourth embodiment. The large-capacity accumulation module 90 has a constitution which is similar to the second embodiment.
According to the bill handling apparatus having the above constitution, bills taken out of a loading storage 32 by the pick up module 100 are conveyed through a conveyance path 104 of the main module 10 to an inspection device 18. After inspection, new notes and worn notes are accumulated in accumulation storages 22a to 22d, or fed through the alignment module 80 to the strapping module 60a or the large-capacity accumulation module 90.
When a predetermined amount of the bills are manually loaded in the loading storage 32, the beforehand set predetermined amount of the bills fed from the main module 10 or the bills taken out of the loading storage 32 are accumulated in accumulation storages 92a and 92b, respectively. Then, the accumulated bills are collectively taken out of the large-capacity accumulation storages 92a and 92b, and manually loaded in the loading storage 32. In consequence, the predetermined amount of the bills can easily be loaded in the loading storage 32.
In the above embodiments, there has been described the constitution in which a plurality of modules of the bill handling apparatus are arranged side by side in one row, but the present invention is not limited to this constitution, and the plurality of modules may be arranged side by side in an L-shape or a U-shape.
According to a sixth embodiment as shown in
According to a seventh embodiment as shown in
According to the sixth and seventh embodiments, even when the bill handling apparatus includes a large number of modules, the plurality of modules are arranged side by side in the L-shape or the U-shape, whereby the plurality of modules can be arranged comparatively closer to one another, and operability can be enhanced.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
For example, in the first to seventh embodiments, the number of the modules to be connected is not limited to the embodiments, the number can be increased or decreased if necessary, and the types of the modules can variously be selected.
According to the above plurality of embodiments, it is possible to provide a paper sheet handling apparatus which can stably take out and handle loaded paper sheets and has an enhanced reliability.
The paper sheets to be handled are not limited to bills and batch cards, and may be applied to paper sheets such as casino cards and securities.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-061556 | Mar 2011 | JP | national |
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/233,689 filed on Sep. 15, 2011, which claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-061556, filed Mar. 18, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20140008858 A1 | Jan 2014 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13233689 | Sep 2011 | US |
| Child | 14023894 | US |
