Patent Application
20240212412
This application is based on Italian patent application IT102022000026247 filed on Dec. 21, 2022, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by way of reference.
The present invention relates to a process for self-recovering from document processing disturbances in a flexible document receiving and dispensing device comprising one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules, wherein each one of said one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules is configured to store a respective group of flexible documents, such as banknotes and paper documents, that allows in a simple, reliable and effective way to recovery from any misplacement of the flexible documents during document processing, such as jams in storing or dispensing operation and manual insertion of flexible documents into or withdrawal of one or more flexible documents from any of the flexible document storing and dispensing modules which causes uncertainty on the number of flexible documents currently stored in the flexible document storing and dispensing module concerned.
In the following of the present description, reference will be mainly made to banknotes as flexible documents. However, it should be noted that the process for self-recovering from document processing disturbances according to the invention, as well the related flexible document storing and dispensing module and flexible document receiving and dispensing device, are applicable to any other type of flexible documents, including paper documents such as checks, notes, certificates and licenses, still remaining within the scope of protection of the present invention defined by the attached claims.
Equipment for automatic deposit and withdrawal of banknotes are used not only in banking sites but also in retail sites, as help for teller or as customer-operated machine.
This kind of equipment includes banknote storing and dispensing modules, having function of recycling, each one being removably mountable within a respective housing so as to allow replacement, wherein each module is provided with a seat associated to a given type of banknotes, also depending on the size thereof. In particular, each module can include a storage cassette where the stored banknotes are stacked or a storage roller onto which the stored banknotes are wrapped.
The number of employed housings and modules determines denominations and/or types of banknotes to be handled, as well as dimensions and cost of the equipment.
During storing and dispensing banknotes, banknote processing disturbances can occur. For instance, jams in storing or dispensing operation, such as when banknotes overlap, can be detected in prior art equipment by means of sensors distributed along the banknote transport path. Other banknote processing disturbances include the case where an operator unduly manually insert banknotes in a storage cassette or manually withdraws banknotes therefrom.
Prior art equipment suffers from the drawback that, when banknote processing disturbances occur, the number of banknotes currently stored in the banknote storing and dispensing module is uncertain. In this case, an operator needs to manually remove all the banknote from the banknote storing and dispensing module affected by the disturbance and to re-store them therein. This operator's intervention takes long time, during which the equipment is not available for normal operation, and it also entails manipulations of the equipment and its modules that may cause wear and possible damages.
Some prior art equipment has been proposed to solve such problems, like those disclosed in documents US2009001157A1, US2009229947A1, US2013001039A1, US2013046407A1, US2016364937A1, WO2016063589A1 and US2016335830A1 the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties. However, even these prior art equipment entail long operator intervention to recover from banknote processing disturbances.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to allow in a simple, reliable and effective way to recovery from document processing disturbances in a flexible document receiving and dispensing device comprising one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules, ensuring the consistency of the flexible document stored, saving operator's intervention time, reducing the risk of damages and wear for the device.
It is specific subject matter of the present invention a process for self-recovering from document processing disturbances in a flexible document receiving and dispensing device comprising one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules, wherein each one of said one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules is configured to store a respective group of flexible documents, wherein each flexible document is individually identified by a univocal code associated thereto, wherein the process comprises the following steps:
According to another aspect of the invention, N can be not larger than 5, i.e. N≤5.
According to a further aspect of the invention, step B.3, when the comparison at step B.2 results in the univocal code read at step B.1 being different from the expected univocal code, can be executed for a maximum number M of flexible documents stored in the respective flexible document storing and dispensing module, wherein M is larger than N, i.e. M>N, optionally not larger than 20, i.e. M≤20, more optionally not larger than 10, i.e. M≤10.
According to an additional aspect of the invention, when at step B.3 it is recognized that no subsequence of N univocal codes read from the discarded flexible documents is identical to a subsequence of N expected univocal codes in the expected code dispensing sequence starting from a position following the position corresponding to the position of the univocal code read at step B.1 in the code reading sequence, the dispensing operation can be terminated.
According to another aspect of the invention, the process can further include, when at step B.3 it is recognized that a subsequence of N univocal codes read from the discarded flexible documents is identical to a subsequence of N expected univocal codes in the expected code dispensing sequence starting from a position following the position corresponding to the position of the univocal code read at step B.1 in the code reading sequence, the following step:
According to a further aspect of the invention, said flexible documents can comprise or consist of banknotes.
According to an additional aspect of the invention, said univocal codes can comprise or consist of banknote serial numbers printed on said banknotes.
It is also specific subject matter of the present invention a flexible document storing and dispensing module, configured to store in and dispense from a storage unit a group of flexible documents under control of an external processing unit, wherein each one of said flexible documents is individually identified by a univocal code associated thereto, wherein the flexible document storing and dispensing module includes a memory unit that:
According to another aspect of the invention, said memory unit can be configured to receive the univocal code of each one of said at least N flexible documents from a reading device or said external processing unit.
According to a further aspect of the invention, said flexible documents can comprise or consist of banknotes.
According to an additional aspect of the invention, said univocal codes can comprise or consist of banknote serial numbers printed on said banknotes.
According to another aspect of the invention, said storage unit can comprise or consist of a storage cassette configured to store said flexible documents in at least one stack.
According to a further aspect of the invention, said storage unit can comprise or consist of at least one storage roller configured to store said flexible documents wrapped onto the storage roller.
It is further specific subject matter of the present invention a flexible document receiving and dispensing device comprising:
According to another aspect of the invention, the flexible document receiving, and dispensing device can further comprise a recycling station within which said processing unit is configured to execute step B and the sub step C.1 of the process for self-recovering from document processing disturbances in one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules as illustrated above.
The advantages offered by the invention are evident.
In fact, the process according to the invention allows in a simple, reliable and effective way to recovery from document processing disturbances in a flexible document receiving and dispensing device comprising one or more flexible document storing and dispensing modules.
Also, the process according to the invention ensures the consistency of the flexible document stored in each flexible document storing and dispensing module of the flexible document receiving and dispensing device, saving operator's intervention time.
Furthermore, by greatly reducing the manual interventions of operators on the flexible document receiving and dispensing device to recover from document processing disturbances, the process according to the invention reduces the risk of damages and wear for the device and its modules.
The present invention will will be now described, by way of illustration and not by way of limitation, according to its preferred embodiments, by particularly referring to the Figures of the attached drawings, in which:
With reference to
The banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 also comprises a bottom body assembly 120 for storing banknotes that comprises a safe having six lodgments and a transport mechanism for storing and dispensing banknote. In particular, said six lodgments include respective six banknote storing and dispensing modules 125A-125F, each of which is configured to store a respective group of banknotes, e.g., a respective denominations or types of banknotes. Each one of said banknote is individually identified by a serial number printed onto the same banknote. Each one of said six banknote storing and dispensing modules 125A-125F includes a storage unit that comprises or consists of a storage cassette, configured to store said banknotes in at least one stack, or that comprises or consists of at least one storage roller configured to store said banknotes wrapped onto the storage roller.
The banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 further comprises a processing unit, not shown in the Figures, operatively connected to the input reading device 113 and to the output reading device 116.
Each one of the six banknote storing and dispensing modules 125A-125F comprises a memory unit operatively connected to the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100.
It must be noted that other embodiments of the banknote receiving and dispensing device according to the invention may comprise only one reading device arranged in a section of the banknote transport path that is run by the banknotes during both the storing and dispensing operations, still remaining within the scope of protection of the attached claims.
Making reference to
At step 310, for each banknote entering the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 at the top body assembly 110, on the basis of data sensed by the input reading device 113, and possibly by other sensors, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 recognizes the group to which each one of said banknotes belongs: also, the input reading device 113 reads the serial number of the entering banknote. In other words, the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 reads sequentially the serial numbers of the banknotes input at top body assembly 110 and recognizes the group to which each one of said banknotes belongs.
With reference to
Advantageously, the memory unit is a non-volatile memory unit of each one of the banknotes storing and dispensing modules 125A-125F. In this case, since the code storage sequence and the expected code dispensing sequence univocally associated thereto are stored in the memory unit of each one of the banknote storing and dispensing modules 125A-125F, any one of these modules can be moved to a similar banknote receiving and dispensing device, or it can be replaced by another similar banknote storing and dispensing module, without affecting the operation of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100. In fact, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 can read the code storage sequence and the expected code dispensing sequence, as well as the respective group or type of banknotes, from the memory unit of this substitute banknote storing and dispensing module, even in the case where the latter stores banknotes.
Making reference to
At step 420, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 compares the serial number read at step 410 with the expected serial number in the position of the expected code dispensing sequence of the respective banknote storing and dispensing module 125A corresponding to the position of the serial number read at step 410 in the code reading sequence 210.
When the comparison at step 420 results in the serial number read at step 410 being equal to the expected serial number, at step 440 the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 causes the related banknote to be dispensed. Also, as shown in
Otherwise, when the comparison at step 420 results in the serial number read at step 410 being different from the expected serial number of the respective banknote storing and dispensing module 125A, at step 430 the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 causes the banknote to be discarded, because it recognizes the occurrence of a banknote processing disturbance. Afterwards, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 continues to discard the subsequent banknotes of the concerned banknote storing and dispensing module 125A, by reading the serial numbers of the discarded banknotes by means of the output reading device 116, until such processing unit recognizes that a subsequence of N serial numbers read from the discarded banknotes, with N≥3, is identical to a subsequence of N expected serial numbers in the expected code dispensing sequence of the concerned banknote storing and dispensing module 125A starting from a position following the position corresponding to the position of the serial number read at step 410 in the code reading sequence 210. If the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 recognizes that a subsequence of N serial numbers read from the discarded banknotes is identical to a subsequence of N expected serial numbers in the expected code dispensing sequence, then such processing unit terminates to discard the banknotes and start to dispense them as illustrated above: in other words, the processing unit returns to execute step 410. This implies that, after having identified the occurrence of a banknote processing disturbance, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 discards the banknotes seeking for a subsequence of N serial numbers read from the discarded banknotes that is identical to a subsequence of N expected serial numbers stored in the expected code dispensing sequence, i.e. a subsequence of N serial numbers read from the discarded banknotes that corresponds to a known subsequence of N serial numbers of banknotes stored in the expected code dispensing sequence: if the processing unit finds such known subsequence of N serial numbers in the discarded banknotes, then it starts again to dispense banknotes.
Otherwise, if the processing unit does not find such known subsequence of N serial numbers in the discarded banknotes, then it can terminate the dispensing operation, as shown in
It should be noted that in other embodiments of the process according to the invention, step 430 can be executed not for all the banknotes stored in the banknote storing and dispensing module affected by the disturbance, but only for a subset of them, namely for a maximum number M of banknotes, among which the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 seeks for such known subsequence of N serial numbers, still remaining in the scope of protection of the attached claims. In particular, M is larger than N, i.e. M>N, optionally not larger than 20, i.e. M≤20, more optionally not larger than 10, i.e. M≤10.
In further embodiments of the process according to the invention, when at step 430 the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 finds such known subsequence of N serial numbers in the discarded banknotes, and thus it starts to dispense banknotes again, such processing unit can store the discarded banknotes back in the respective banknote storing and dispensing modules corresponding to the groups to which the discarded banknotes belong. In particular, for each previously discarded banknote, on the basis of data sensed by a reading device, possibly one of the two reading devices 113 and 116, and possibly by other sensors, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 recognizes the group to which each one of said previously discarded banknotes belongs and, through such reading device, possibly one of the two reading devices 113 and 116, the serial numbers of the previously discarded banknotes are read. Then, for each group, e.g. for each denomination, of banknotes recognised for the previously discarded banknotes, the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 stores the serial number in the memory unit, e.g. in the array, i.e. in the code storage sequence, of the banknote storing and dispensing module corresponding to the group to which the previously discarded banknote belongs: such array is updated by progressively populating it with the serial numbers of the previously discarded banknotes, belonging to the respective group. As mentioned, such code storage sequence is univocally associated to the corresponding expected code dispensing sequence of expected univocal codes.
In particular, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 can store the discarded banknotes back in the respective banknote storing and dispensing modules either before or after returning to executing step 410, when it starts to dispense banknotes again.
In other embodiments of the process according to the invention, the processing unit of the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 can execute step 400, and possibly the step of recognizing the group to which each one of the discarded banknotes belongs and reading sequentially the serial number from each one of the discarded banknotes in a recycling station, possibly provided with at least one reading device, with which the banknote receiving and dispensing device 100 is provided.
As already mentioned, the process for self-recovering from document processing disturbances according to the invention, as well the related flexible document storing and dispensing module and flexible document receiving and dispensing device, are applicable not only to banknotes, but also to any other type of flexible documents, including paper documents such as checks, notes, certificates and licenses, still remaining within the scope of protection of the present invention defined by the attached claims.
Also, the univocal code by which each flexible document, e.g., a banknote, is individually identified can be also different from a serial number, for instance it can be any univocal symbol readable by optically or magnetically or electronically or radiofrequency reading device.
The preferred embodiments of this invention have been described and a number of variations have been suggested hereinbefore, but it should be understood that those skilled in the art can make other variations and changes without so departing from the scope of protection thereof, as defined by the attached claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102022000026247 | Dec 2022 | IT | national |
