1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improvement of a bill processor used for automatic vending machines, money-changing machines, or service equipment such as pinball dispensing machines and token dispensing machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, some of automatic vending machines, money-changing machines, and service equipment such as pinball dispensing machines and token dispensing machines are provided with a so-called bill processor, which determines truth or falsehood of inserted bills and accumulates genuine bills in a stacker.
FIG. 13 is a schematic side view of a conventional bill processor described above.
This conventional bill processor 1 sends a bill inserted through a bill insertion port 3 along an inverted U-shaped bill passage 12 (a dash and dotted line) by bill conveying means 15, determines truth or falsehood of the inserted bill by bill identification means 31, and if it is judged that the inserted bill is counterfeit, reverses the bill conveying means 15 to return the inserted bill through the bill insertion port 3, but if it is judged by the bill identification means 31 that the inserted bill is not counterfeit, keeps driving the bill conveying means 15 to send the bill downward of a machine body 6, and accumulates the bill into an unillustrated stacker.
The above-described conventional bill processor 1 comprises the machine body 6 consisting of a housing, the bill conveying means 15, which is disposed in the machine body 6, consists of a conveying belt 25 for conveying a bill along the bill passage 12 formed in the machine body 6 and is supported by a shaft 21 to be freely rotatable toward a front 6a of the machine body 6, a front mask 2 having the bill insertion port 3 and detachably mounted on the front 6a of the machine body 6, and the bill identification means 31 such as a photosensor disposed on the bill passage 12.
The front mask 2 has the bill insertion port 3 on its front to communicate with the bill passage 12 and a pair of first idle rollers 4 freely rotatably supported on its back side so to be forcedly contacted to the conveying belt 25 running around a pair of vertically mounted pulleys 23, 24 to configure the bill conveying means 15.
The front mask 2 is directly mounted on the front 6a of the machine body 6 by screws 5 with a tool such as a screwdriver.
In the machine body 6 consisting of the housing are disposed a holder 8 which is supported by a shaft 7 to be freely rotatable toward the backside of the machine body 6 and an unillustrated stacker for accommodating bills sent from downstream of the inverted U-shaped bill passage 12.
A drive motor 9 is disposed in the holder 8 to drive the bill conveying means 15, and a pair of second idle rollers 10 are also freely rotatably supported to be forcedly contacted to the conveying belt 25 of the bill conveying means 15.
The holder 8 is, in its initial position as shown in FIG. 13, positioned and supported at the upper part of the machine body 6 by latch means 11 which is disposed on the top of the machine body 6.
Unillustrated power transmitting means is disposed in the above-described machine body 6 to transmit a drive force of the drive motor 9 disposed in the holder 8 to the lower pulley 24 of the bill conveying means 15.
The bill conveying means 15 comprises the upper pulley 23 and the lower pulley 24 which are disposed on a supporting plate 22 supported by the shaft 21 to be freely pivotable toward the front 6a of the machine body 6 and the conveying belt 25 running around the upper pulley 23 and the lower pulley 24. And, the supporting plate 22 in its initial position as shown in FIG. 13 is positioned and supported at the middle position of the machine body 6 by the unillustrated latch means.
According to the bill conveying means 15 as described above, the drive motor 9 in the holder 8 is driven to transmit the power to the lower pulley 24 through the unillustrated power transmitting means of the machine body 6, the conveying belt 25 is rotated in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, and the first idle rollers 4 and the second idle rollers 10 which are in forced contact with the conveying belt 25 are also rotated in a counterclockwise or clockwise direction according to the rotation of the conveying belt 25.
Therefore, when the drive motor 9 is driven, a bill held between the conveying belt 25 of the bill conveying means 15 and the first idle rollers 4 or between the conveying belt 25 and the second idle rollers 10 is conveyed along the bill passage 12 to downstream or upstream of the bill passage 12.
The bill identification means 31 is a photosensor for judging truth or falsehood of the bill while it is passing and comprises a light emitting diode 31a disposed between the upper pulley 23 and the lower pulley 24 and a light receiving diode 31b disposed between the second idle rollers 10.
The light emitting diode 31a and the light receiving diode 31b are opposed to each other with the bill passage 12 therebetween and are partly exposed to the bill passage 12.
Meanwhile, in the bill processor 1, the conveying belt 25 holds the bill with the first idle rollers 4 and the second idle rollers 10 to convey it and worn due to friction with the bills. If the conveyor belt 25 is worn excessively, the bills are not conveyed at a stable speed, and the bill may be stuck or not accurately judged to be truth or falsehood.
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, the above-described conventional bill processor 1 is configured so that maintenance and inspection works can be performed as required by removing the front mask 2 from the machine body 6 with a tool such as a screwdriver, exposing the bill conveying means 15 by pivoting the supporting plate 22 about the shaft 21 in a counterclockwise direction, and replacing the conveying belt 25 configuring the bill conveying means 15 or cleaning the photosensor as the bill identification means 31.
Since the above-described conventional bill processor 1 is configured to have the front mask 2 directly mounted on the machine body 6 by screws 5 or the like, the maintenance or inspection work to replace the conveyor belt 25 of the bill conveying means 15 is troublesome, because it is necessary to use a tool such as a screwdriver to remove the screws 5 in order to remove the front mask 2 from the machine body 6 as shown in FIG. 14.
As shown in FIG. 15, when the bill identification means 31 is cleaned by pivoting the holder 8 in a clockwise direction about the shaft 7 with the front mask 2 mounted on the machine body 6 to expose the bill passage 12, a work space provided above the bill passage 12 is not large enough to insert a cleaning tool such as a cotton swab to remove dirt from the light emitting diode 31a and the light receiving diode 31b and to fully clean them.
Conventional bill processors include a so-called single escrow type bill processor which, similar to the above-described conventional bill processor, holds one bill in the bill passage until merchandise is dispensed and stores the held bill in the stacker, and a so-called three escrow type bill processor which holds three bills until merchandise is dispensed and stores the held bills into the stacker.
There is also a so-called payment type bill processor which can dispense bills from those accumulated in a stacker through a bill conveying port.
These various types of bill processors have a different size depending on their functions. And, they are configured, for example, as shown in FIG. 13 through FIG. 15, that the front mask 2 having the bill insertion port 3 and the machine body 6 having various functions such as the above-described temporary holding, stacking of bills, and dispensing of bills from the unillustrated stacker are fixed into one body.
According to these conventional various types of bill processors, when the bill processor mounted on the service equipment was to be changed to a different type, for example, when the one escrow type bill processor was changed to the three escrow type bill processor, since these two types of bill processors had a different size, the front door of the service equipment to which the bill processor was mounted must be changed to a type suitable for the individual type of bill processor, and such a job was troublesome.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds