Coin dispensing apparatus

A hopper type coin dispensing apparatus has a hopper for holding a supply of coins and a rotary disc for delivering the coins from the hopper one at a time and in desired quantities. The apparatus is particularly suitable for large coins, has a high dispensing efficiency, and is simple in construction. The apparatus according to the present invention prevents the rotary disc from joggling and thus eliminates any interference between a delivery knife and the engaging portions on the rotary disc and/or the coins delivered into an upper delivery zone. The apparatus prevents the inlet of the delivery chute from being blocked by the coins pushed upwardly by the powerful agitating action of an agitator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing coins or 
tokens and more particularly to a hopper type coin dispensing apparatus 
including a hopper for storing coins or tokens in bulk and a rotary disc 
for delivering the coins from the hopper one at a time and in desired 
quantities. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,544 and No. 4,437,478 are illustrative of the prior 
art. There are disclosed a coin dispensing apparatus comprising a hopper 
for holding a supply of coins, a rotary disc rotatably disposed in the 
hopper at an angle to the horizontal, the rotary disc having at the 
central portion a central disc of a diameter depending on a diameter of a 
coin to be dispensed and having at the peripheral portion a plurality of 
coin engaging projections spaced in the peripheral direction, a delivery 
knife having a point being tangential to the upper periphery of the 
central disc and a delivery chute adapted for receiving the coin from the 
rotary disc by the delivery knife. The central disc and the pins define 
coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc. These coin receiving spaces on 
the rotary disc pickup coins from the lower portion of the hopper and 
deliver them to the upper delivery zone one at a time to be passed into 
the delivery chute by the delivery knife when the rotary disc is rotated 
within the hopper. In such a hopper type coin dispensing apparatus, in 
order to improve the coin dispensing efficiency, it is necessary that all 
of the coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc effectively pickup the 
coins from the lower portion of the hopper by the assistance of an 
agitator which can agitate the coins within the hopper sufficiently. 
Furthermore, in order to improve the coin dispensing efficiency, it is also 
necessary to prevent the rotary disc from joggling in the normal direction 
to the plane of rotation caused by the variation of partial load subjected 
to the lower portion of the rotary disc by the coins within the hopper 
since such joggling of the rotary disc results in an interference between 
the delivery knife positioned at the upper delivery zone and/or the 
delivery chute and the engaging projections on the rotary disc and/or the 
coins delivered into the upper delivery zone. It is also important to 
prevent the inlet of the delivery chute from blocking by coins which are 
pushed upwardly by the powerful agitating action of the agitator and 
progressively passed into the upper delivery zone along with the coin 
carried by the engaging projection on the rotary disc. 
In view of the foregoing, various means have been arranged in the hopper 
type coin dispensing apparatus, as the result, the construction of the 
coin dispensing apparatus is complicated and parts of the apparatus are 
increased so that lot of labor is required for assembling and 
manufacturing thereof. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to provide a hopper type coin 
dispensing apparatus, in particular suitable for large coins having a high 
dispensing efficiency with simple construction and without difficulty in 
manufacturing. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a powerful agitating 
means for the coin dispensing apparatus. 
Still another object of the present invention is to provide means for 
preventing the joggling in rotation of the rotary disc. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide coin antidoubling 
means or wiper for preventing coins pushed upwardly by the agitating 
action from passing into the upper delivery zone along with the coin 
carried by the engaging extension on the rotary disc. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a delivery knife 
for preventing the inlet of the delivery chute from blocking by the coins. 
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a delivery 
chute without interference with the engaging projections on the rotary 
disc. 
A feature of the present invention is to provide a coin dispensing 
apparatus comprising a supporting plate inclined to the horizontal, a 
hopper connected to the supporting plate for holding a supply of coins, a 
rotary disc rotatably supported on the supporting plate within the hopper, 
the rotary disc having at the central portion a central disc of a diameter 
depending on a diameter of a coin to be dispensed and having at the 
peripheral portion a plurality of coin engaging projections spaced in the 
peripheral direction, bearing means including a plurality of balls 
interposed between the supporting plate and the outer peripheral portion 
of the rotary disc and spaced to each other in the peripheral direction 
for rotatably supporting the rotary disc on the supporting plate, a drive 
shaft extended through the supporting plate and the rotary disc for 
rotating said rotary disc, a delivery knife secured to the supporting 
plate with a point thereof being tangential to the upper periphery of the 
central disc, a delivery chute adapted for receiving the coins from the 
rotary disc by the delivery knife, antidoubling means for controlling the 
coin passing at the upper delivery zone and agitating means on the central 
disc for agitating coins within the hopper, the agitating means including 
a plurality of coil springs arranged so as to extend radially of the drive 
shaft on the central disc, an elastomer retainer for retaining the inner 
ends of the coil springs resiliently and connecting means being secured to 
the drive shaft for connecting the elastomer retainer in compressed state 
to the rotary disc and for urging resiliently the rotary disc towards the 
supporting plate.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
With reference to drawings illustrating an embodiment according to the 
present invention, it will be seen that on a supporting stand 1, a rotary 
disc supporting plate 2 is fixedly mounted in a position inclined to the 
horizontal and a hopper head 3 is connected to the supporting plate 2 by 
means of bolts 4 to form a hopper 5 for holding a supply of coins. 
Within the hopper 5, a rotary disc 6 is rotatably supported on the inclined 
supporting plate 2 and is provided at the peripheral portion 6a thereof 
with a plurality of coin engaging projections such as pins 8 extruded from 
the top surface of the rotary disc with a height corresponding to 
thickness of a coin to be dispensed and spaced in the peripheral 
direction with a distance corresponding to diameter of the coin. 
Concentrically overlaying the top surface of the rotary disc 2 is also 
provided with a central disc 9. Thus central disc 9 and the pins 8 on the 
rotary disc 2 define a plurality of coin receiving spaces on the rotary 
disc 2. These coin receiving spaces on the rotary disc 2 pickup coins from 
the lower portion of the hopper and deliver them to the upper delivery 
zone 7 one at each of the receiving spaces when the rotary disc is rotated 
within the hopper. 
At the upper delivery zone 7, a delivery knife 10 is secured to the 
supporting plate and is extended across the peripheral portion 6a of the 
rotary disc 2 so that the top surface of the knife point 10a is tangential 
to the upper periphery 9a of the central disc 9 and thereby the coin 
carried by the pin 8 is transferred from the upper periphery 9a of the 
central disc 9 onto the delivery knife 10 at the upper delivery zone 7 to 
pass the coin into the discharge chute 11. 
The delivery knife 10 is made of a flat metal plate as shown in FIG. 2 
having a thin knife point portion 10a of a thickness corresponding to the 
thickness of the coin to be dispensed and a thick portion 51 formed with a 
channel 50 for passing of pin 8. The thin portion is provided with a 
frustoconical deflector 52 secured by means of a set screw 53 and the 
thick portion 51 has a coin discharging rail 10b which is inclined 
downwards within the discharge chute 11. 
Opposite upwardly to the delivery knife 10 is provided with a counter 
roller 13 which is rotatably supported on the free end of a spring loaded 
rocker arm 12 of a coin mounting switch so that the switch is actuated by 
the coin passing between the delivery knife 10 and the counter roller 13. 
At the upper delivery zone, there is at least one antidoubling means or 
wiper 14 for controlling the coin passing to the discharge chute 11 as 
shown in FIG. 2. The antidoubling wiper 14 is made of sheet shaped 
elastomer material and is secured to a mount piece 16 on the supporting 
plate 2 at the upper base portion 14a thereof together with a deflecting 
metal sheet 17 by means of screws 18 so that the wiper 14 is suspended 
from the mount piece 16 over an upper circumferential wall 19 which 
circles the rotary disc to overlay the free end portion 14b of the wiper 
14 on the top surface of the peripheral portion 6a. The free end 14b is 
provided with a conical projection. The intermediate portion 14c of the 
wiper 14 is spaced from the top surface of the peripheral portion 6a to 
provide a clearance 20 for passing of the pin 8. 
Referring to FIG. 3, the rotary disc 6 has a concentric circular race 21 
formed at the peripheral portion on the bottom surface thereof and a 
plurality of balls 22 are rotatably confined in retainers 23, 
respectively, which are spaced in the peripheral direction and interposed 
between the top surface of the supporting plate 2 and the bottom surface 
of the rotary disc 6 for antifriction engaging the surface of the circular 
race 21 so that the rotary disc 6 is rotatably supported at the outer 
peripheral portion thereof on the supporting plate 2 by means of balls 22. 
The rotary disc 6 is resiliently urged at the center portion thereof 
towards the supporting plate 2 as will be mentioned below and as a result 
all of the outer peripheral portion of the rotary disc is pressed onto the 
balls 22 on the supporting plate so that the rotary disc is prevented from 
joggling in the normal direction to the plane of the rotary disc during 
rotation owing to the unbalanced load subjected to the lower portion of 
the rotary disc by the coin within the hopper. 
The rotary disc 6 also has an eccentrically driven pin 27 extruded from the 
bottom surface thereof for engagement by a radially projecting drive pin 
28 secured to the drive shaft 25. When the drive shaft 25 is driven and 
rotated through a reduction gear in the gear box 24 by means of motor, the 
rotary disc 6 is connected operatively to the drive shaft 25 by the drive 
pin 28 in its engagement with the driven pin 27 to rotate the rotary disc 
6. The drive shaft is extended through the supporting plate 2, the rotary 
disc 6 and the central disc 9 on the rotary disc from the reduction gear 
box 24. 
In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, on the central disc 9, three 
agitating coil springs 15 are arranged so as to extend radially of the 
drive shaft 25. Each of these coil springs 15 has at the opposite ends 
hook portions 15a and 15b, respectively and has a reinforcing coil spring 
29 of a short length and a smaller diameter or the like inserted within 
the inner end portion 15c of the coil spring 15 which is resiliently held 
as will be mentioned below. The coil spring 15 has preferable 10 mm 
diameter and is made of a wire of 1.5 mm diameter to provide a desired 
strenth and flexibility. 
These coil springs 15 are resiliently held at the inner end portions 15c on 
the central disc 9 by an elastomer retainer 30 made of elastomer material 
and a connecting piece 31 which are mounted on the extended end portion 
25a of the drive shaft 25. 
The elastomer retainer 30 has a central bore 32 for inserting the extended 
end portion 25a, recesses 33 formed radially for holding the inner end 
portions 15c of the coil springs 15, retaining recesses 34 partially 
extended from the recesses 33 for retaining the inner end hooks 15b, a 
recess 35 for mounting the connecting piece 31 and holes 36 for engaging 
with connecting legs 40 of the connecting piece 31 as illustrated in FIGS. 
5 and 6, and the connecting piece 31 has a center bore 37 for inserting 
the extended end portion 25a of the drive shaft 25, retainer pressing 
upper portion 38, a spring seat 39 for a compression spring 46 and 
connecting legs 40 for engaging with the inner end hook 15b of the coil 
spring 15. The connecting legs 40 are extended through the holes 36 of the 
elastomer retainer 30, the inner holes 41 of the hooks 15b of the coil 
springs 15, holes 42 formed in the central disc 9 and holes 43 formed in 
the rotary disc 6 so as to connect the elastomer retainer 30, the coil 
springs 15, the central disc 9 and the rotary disc 6 integrally. The 
elastomer retainer also has a conical portion 45. 
The coil springs 15, the elastomer retainer 30 and the connecting piece 31 
are assembled on the central disc 9 and the connecting piece 31 is 
retained through a spring 46 interposed between the spring seat 39 and a 
washer 47 by a screw 48 secured to the end of the drive shaft 25. Thus the 
connecting piece 31, the elastomer retainer 30, the inner end portions 15c 
of the coil springs, central disc 9 and the rotary disc 6 are connected 
and also the rotary disc 6 is urged towards the supporting plate 2 so as 
to keep the outer peripheral portion of the rotary disc 6 in pressedly 
contact with the balls 22 on the supporting plate 2. 
Referring to FIGS. 7-9. The delivery chute 11 is consisted of a coin guide 
side plate 55 as ilustrated in FIG. 7 and a covering side plate 56 as 
illustrated in FIG. 8, these two side plates 55 and 56 are spaced to each 
other to define a coin passage 57 between the opposite inner surfaces 55a 
and 56a as shown in FIG. 9. The coin guide side plate 55 is secured to the 
supporting plate 2 together with the covering side plate 56 by means of 
screws 58 so that the inner surface 55a of the coin guide side plate 55 is 
on a level with the surface 6b of the peripheral portion 6a of the rotary 
disc 6 or on a lower level as shown by an imaginary line 55a'. The side 
plate surface 55a has a guide ridge 59 extruded from the surface higher 
than the pin 8 on the rotary disc 6. The guide ridge 59 extends in a coin 
discharge direction, i.e. in parallel with the top edge 10b of the 
delivery knife thick portion 51 inclined downwards so as to contact with 
the side face of a coin A as shown in FIG. 9.