Patent ID: 7648138
Filing Date: 2010-01-19
Classification: B65H

Abstract:
1. A sheet handling apparatus comprising: a pay-in and pay-out mouth through which a paper note is paid in or paid out; conveyance means, including a conveyance belt, for conveying a paper note; a discrimination part to discriminate authenticity and denomination of a conveyed paper note; a temporary hold part to temporarily hold a discriminated paper note; a storing part to store the discriminated paper note which was temporarily held in the temporary hold part and supplied therefrom for storage in the storing part; shift means to shift position of a paper note in a width direction of conveyance; wherein the shift means is provided on a conveyance path of the discriminated paper note connecting the temporary hold part and the discrimination part; wherein the shift means rotates in a direction inclined relative to a direction of conveyance of the paper note and comes into contact with the discriminated paper note to shift a position of the discriminated paper note in a widthwise direction of conveyance; and the shift means includes shift presence and absence switching means for switching between a shift execution state, in which shift of the discriminated paper note is executed by the shift means, and a shift non-execution state, in which the shift is not executed by the shift means; and at least a part of that contact portion of the shift means, which comes into contact with a surface of the discriminated paper note, is positioned at a shift direction side relative to the conveyance means, which has a conveyance force during shift, and a frictional force of the shift means on the discriminated paper note at the time of execution of shift is set to be larger than that of the conveyance means on the discriminated paper note; and wherein the conveyance belt is provided opposingly on upper and lower sides to have conveyance surfaces abutting against each other to form a conveyance belt pair, the conveyance belt pair is provided two in juxtaposition in a widthwise direction of conveyance, the respective conveyance belt pairs are provided with pushing-force switching means for switching of a pushing force on the conveyance surface, the shift means comprises four pairs of bodies of rotation with the bodies of rotation provided opposingly on upper and lower sides and with directions of rotations inclined inward relative to the direction of conveyance, the respective pairs of bodies of rotation are arranged in positions, in which the conveyance belt pair is interposed between two pairs of bodies of rotation in the widthwise direction of conveyance, for the respective conveyance belt pairs, the shift presence and absence switching means is constructed to switch every two pairs of bodies of rotation, which interpose therebetween the conveyance belt pair, between a shift execution state, in which the upper and lower bodies of rotation are caused to approach each other to execute shift of the discriminated paper note, and a shift non-execution state, in which the upper and lower bodies of rotation are separated from each other not to execute shift of the discriminated paper note, and when the discriminated paper note on a right side is to be put to a center, two pairs of bodies of rotation, which interpose therebetween the conveyance belt pair on the right side, is switched over to the shift execution state and a pushing force of the conveyance belt pair on left side is decreased, and when the discriminated paper note on the left side is to be put to the center, two pairs of bodies of rotation, which interpose therebetween the conveyance belt pair on the left side, is switched over to the shift execution state and a pushing force of the conveyance belt pair on the right side is decreased.