Sheet container and sheet dispenser apparatus

A sheet container is detachably attached to a sheet dispenser mechanism. A stack of sheets stored in the sheet container are taken out by take-out rollers and introduced into nip sections defined between feed rollers and frictional separation rollers which are opposed to and pressedly contacted with the feed rollers, and the stack of sheets are separated from one another to be delivered. The take-out rollers and the feed rollers are provided in the sheet dispenser mechanism, while the frictional separation rollers are provided in the sheet container. The sheet container includes a front plate which determines the position of the front part of the stack of sheets therewithin, and a lower end portion of the front plate is formed with projections which protrude toward the stack of sheets. The projections restrict the position of the lower end portion of the front part of the stack of sheets in the nip sections between the feed rollers and the frictional separation rollers. The projections are located substantially between the axes of the take-out rollers and the feed rollers which are projected through the front plate toward the stack of sheets when the sheet container is attached to the sheet dispenser mechanism, and the height of the projections from the front plate is lower than that of a tangent line connecting the outer peripheries of the take-out rollers and the feed rollers which are projected through the front plate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a sheet dispenser apparatus such as an 
automated teller machine and, more particularly, to a sheet container and 
a sheet dispenser apparatus which are light-weight and simplified in 
structure and which can be produced at a low cost. 
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 61-12535 discloses a structure 
in which a sheet container includes a whole mechanism for sheet 
separation. In this structure, means such as gears are necessary for 
transmitting a separation driving force from a main body of a sheet 
dispenser mechanism to the sheet container, and an electromagnetic clutch 
is required for switching the driving force, resulting in a problem that 
the weight and the price of the sheet container are increased. 
Further, Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 62-144844 
discloses a structure in which a sheet separation mechanism is provided in 
a sheet dispenser apparatus at the outside of a sheet container, while a 
sheet delivery mechanism is provided in the sheet container. In this 
structure, when the sheet container is attached to or detached from a main 
body of an apparatus, the operation changes a condition of contact between 
the lower end portion of a stack of sheets and frictional separation means 
so that two or more sheets of paper may be delivered at once or that it 
may become impossible to send a sheet of paper out of the container, 
resulting in difficulty of making the performance reliable. Besides, since 
the sheet delivery mechanism is provided in the sheet container, there are 
problems that means for transmitting a driving force from the main body of 
the apparatus are necessary, and that the weight of the container itself 
is increased. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet container and a 
sheet dispenser apparatus which are light-weight, simplified in structure, 
and reduced in cost and which enable a favorable sheet feeding operation. 
In order to achieve the above object, the invention provides a sheet 
container to be detachably attached to a sheet dispenser mechanism of an 
automated teller machine or the like including a sheet separation 
mechanism in which sheets stored in the sheet container are taken out by 
take-out rollers and introduced into nip sections defined between feed 
rollers and frictional separation rollers which are opposed to and 
pressedly separated from one another to be delivered, 
wherein the take-out rollers and the feed rollers of the sheet separation 
mechanism are provided in the sheet dispenser mechanism, while the 
frictional separation rollers are provided in a main body of the sheet 
container, and a front plate which determines the position of the front 
part of a stack of sheets within the main body of the container is formed 
with projections which restrict the position of the lower end portion of 
the front part of a stack of sheets in the nip sections. 
Further, the invention provides a sheet container to be detachably attached 
to a sheet dispenser mechanism of an automated teller machine or the like 
including a sheet separation mechanism in which a stack of sheets stored 
in the sheet container are taken out by take-out rollers and introduced 
into nip sections defined between feed rollers and frictional separation 
rollers which are opposed to and pressedly contacted with the feed 
rollers, and the sheets are separated from one another to be delivered, 
wherein the take-out rollers and the feed rollers of the sheet separation 
mechanism are provided in the sheet dispenser mechanism, while the 
frictional separation rollers are provided in a main body of the sheet 
container, and a front plate which determines the position of the front 
part of the stack of sheets within the main body of the container is 
formed with projections on the side of the stack of sheets, the 
projections being located substantially between the axes of the take-out 
rollers and the feed rollers which are projected through the front plate 
toward the stack of sheets when the main body of the container is attached 
to the sheet dispenser mechanism, the height of the projections from the 
front plate being lower than that of a tangent line connecting the outer 
peripheries of the take-out rollers and the feed rollers when the main 
body of the container is attached to the sheet dispenser mechanism. 
Moreover, the invention provides a sheet dispenser apparatus in which a 
sheet container is detachably attached to a sheet dispenser mechanism so 
that a stack of sheets stored in the sheet container are taken out by 
take-out rollers and introduced into nip sections defined between feed 
rollers and frictional separation rollers which are opposed to and 
pressedly contacted with the feed rollers, and the sheets are separated 
from one another to be delivered, 
wherein the take-out rollers and the feed rollers are provided in the sheet 
dispenser mechanism, while the frictional separation rollers are provided 
in the sheet container, and a front plate which determines the position of 
the front part of the stack of sheets within the sheet container is formed 
with projections which restrict the position of the lower end portion of 
the front part of the stack of sheets in the nip sections. 
Furthermore, the invention provides a sheet dispenser apparatus in which a 
sheet container is detachably attached to a sheet dispenser mechanism so 
that a stack of sheets stored in the sheet container are taken out by 
take-out rollers and introduced into nip sections defined between feed 
rollers and frictional separation rollers which are opposed to and 
pressedly contacted with the feed rollers, and the sheets are separated 
from one another to be delivered, 
wherein the take-out rollers and the feed rollers are provided in the sheet 
dispenser mechanism, while the frictional separation rollers are provided 
in the sheet container, and a front plate which determines the position of 
the front part of the stack of sheets within the sheet container is formed 
with projections on the side of the stack of sheets, the projections being 
located substantially between the axes of the take-out rollers and the 
feed rollers which are projected through the front plate toward the stack 
of sheets when the sheet container is attached to the sheet dispenser 
mechanism, the height of the projections from the front plate being lower 
than that of a tangent line connecting the outer peripheries of the 
take-out rollers and the feed rollers when the main body of the container 
is attached to the sheet dispenser mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 illustrates a sheet or paper container 2 according to one embodiment 
of the present invention. Its outer covering includes a vertically movable 
shutter 4 to open the container. At the inside of the container, there are 
provided a bottom plate 6 for carrying a stack of sheets or paper P, a 
front plate 8, a plurality of smoothly curved projections 12 formed at the 
lower end of the front plate 8, and a pressing plate 14 for advancing the 
stack of sheets P toward the front plate 8. Gate rollers 10 serving as 
frictional separation means include one-way clutches so that these gate 
rollers will rotate not in a direction of sheet delivery but in its 
opposite direction, with springs 20 causing the gate rollers 10 to be 
opposed to and contacted with feed rollers 22 which function as feed 
means. A guide 24 serves to help each sheet of paper to be smoothly 
delivered to a main body of a sheet dispenser mechanism when it is taken 
out from the stack of sheets P. The projections 12 restrict a lower end 
portion of the stack of sheets P in the same condition as when the gate 
rollers 10 are separated from the front plate 8. The pressing plate 14 is 
guided by a rod 16, and a spring force of a spring 18 is exerted on this 
pressing plate. 
FIG. 2 illustrates a state of the sheet container 2 shown in FIG. 1 when it 
is attached to the main body of the sheet dispenser mechanism. When the 
sheet container 2 is attached to a separation mechanism on the side of the 
main body of the sheet dispenser mechanism, the shutter 4 is first moved 
upwardly and opened by an opening/closing mechanism (not shown). Next, 
pick-up rollers 26 serving as paper taking-out means of the separation 
mechanism on the side of the main body of the sheet dispenser mechanism 
and the feed rollers 22 serving as paper feed means enter into the sheet 
container 2, so that the feed rollers 22 will be opposed to and contacted 
with the gate rollers 10 while pressing them backwardly in a direction 
indicated by an arrow A until the engagement is completed at a certain 
position. In this case, the above-mentioned projections 12 maintain the 
lower end portion of the front part of the stack of sheets P in a 
condition suitable for sheet separation. 
Further, the projections 12 are arranged to have a height smaller than a 
distance between the front plate 8 and a tangent line connecting the outer 
periphery of the pick-up roller 26 and that of the feed roller 22 so as 
not to offer frictional resistance against the delivery when each sheet of 
paper is taken out. The pick-up rollers 26 are each provided with a member 
26a of a material such as rubber having a high frictional coefficient on a 
portion of the outer peripheral surface thereof so that sheets of paper 
will be taken rollers 22 in cooperation with the gate rollers 10 separate 
the sheets from one another when they are taken out by the pick-up rollers 
26. After that, each sheet is held between the feed rollers 22 and pinch 
rollers 28 and transferred to belts 34a, 34c which are respectively 
extended over pulleys 30, 32 on the downstream side. Here, the gate 
rollers 10 are prevented from rotating in the delivery direction by the 
one-way clutches (not shown), the surfaces thereof being made of a 
material having a high frictional coefficient. 
FIG. 3 illustrates the positional relation of the projections 12 with 
respect to the pick-up roller 26, the feed roller 22, and the gate roller 
10, more specifically. 
FIG. 4 illustrates a main body of a sheet dispenser mechanism 36 to which 
the present invention is applied. The main body of the sheet dispenser 
mechanism 36 is provided with upper and lower sheet containers 2, feed 
rollers 22 serving as separation mechanisms, pick-up rollers 26, motors 
SM.sub.1 and SM.sub.2 for driving the separation mechanisms, belt means 34 
for the sheet delivery, a plurality of pulleys 38 over which three belts 
34a, 34b and 34c having different lengths are extended, a plural-sheets 
detector 40 which detects two or more sheets of paper being taken out from 
the separation mechanisms, a motor M for driving the belts 34, timing 
belts 42, and a collecting section 44 in which the delivered sheets of 
paper are accumulated orderly. 
As for the operation, the motors SM.sub.1 and SM.sub.2 can rotate in both 
normal and reverse directions, and they rotate in the normal direction 
when each sheet of paper is separated from the stack of sheets P. Then, 
each sheet from the stack of sheets P which has been held between the feed 
rollers 22 and the pinch rollers 28 is delivered between the belts 34i a 
and 34c or 34b. If any sheets intercept a light beam toward a sensor 
S.sub.1 or S.sub.2 at a location downstream of the separation mechanism, 
the motor SM.sub.1 or SM.sub.2 rotates in the reverse direction to return 
the sheets to the sheet container 2. When the plural-sheets detector 40 
detects more than one sheet, the collecting section 44 is rotated in a 
direction indicated by an arrow B, and sheets accumulated in the 
collecting section 44 are returned to a recovery section 46 of the sheet 
container 2. Reference characters S.sub.1, S.sub.2 and S.sub.3 denote 
sensors for detecting the numbers of sheets. 
FIG. 5 illustrates an appearance of an automated teller machine 60 to which 
the above-described main body of the sheet dispenser mechanism 36 is 
applied. The apparatus 60 is provided with a dispensing opening 48 where 
sheets of paper in the collecting section 44 of the main body of the sheet 
dispenser mechanism 36 are dispensed, an operational instruction 
indicating section 50, operation buttons 52, a card inlet 54, a 
specification slip dispensing opening 56, a customer's information 
indicating section 58 where operable transaction items are indicated, and 
so forth. 
FIG. 6 illustrates the internal structure of the automated teller machine 
60 shown in FIG. 5. The component parts illustrated in FIG. 5 are 
individually connected to a control unit 62, and controlled by it to carry 
out a transaction. 
An on-line control unit 64 is connected with the control unit 62, and the 
on-line control unit 64 communicates with a host processing device (not 
shown) through a communication line 66. 
FIG. 7 illustrates the positional relation of the front plate 8, the 
plurality of smoothly curved projections 12, the bottom plate 6 and the 
like of the sheet container 2 shown in FIG. 1. The projections 12 formed 
on the front plate 8 and the pick-up rollers 26 are separately provided, 
as shown in FIG. 7, so that their positions will not coincide with those 
of inherent folds or wrinkles of sheets of paper. 
Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. 
As operator in charge sets a large number of sheets of paper in the sheet 
container 2 as shown in FIG. 1. In this case, such a stack of sheets P is 
pressed against the front plate 8 by the pressing plate 14, while the 
smoothly curved projections 12 formed on the lower end portion of the 
front plate 8 constantly maintain the lower end portion of the front part 
of the stack of sheets P in a uniform state along the gate rollers 10 and 
a bent portion of the front side of the bottom plate 6. The state in which 
the lower end portion of the stack of sheets P is kept is a condition to 
perform the separation of each sheet from the stack of sheets P favorably. 
When the sheet container 2 is attached to the main body of the sheet 
dispenser mechanism 36 in such a manner as to bring the stack of sheets P 
into the above-described state, the shutter 4 is first upwardly and 
opened, and the pick-up rollers 26 and the feed rollers 22 enter into the 
sheet container 2 without interference. The feed rollers 22 begin to be 
opposed to and contacted with the gate rollers 10 in the course of this 
entering operation. Since the gate rollers 10 are biased toward the feed 
rollers 22 by the springs 20, the pressure of the opposed contact between 
the sheet container 2 and the feed rollers 22 can be constantly maintained 
at a predetermined value irrespective of the amount of wear of the gate 
rollers 10. At this stage, the pick-up rollers 26 are also opposed to and 
contacted with the front of the stack of sheets P so as to press the stack 
of sheets P slightly backwardly. Moreover, as described above, the 
plurality of smoothly curved projections 12 formed on the lower end 
portion of the front plate 8 serve to previously maintain the lower end 
portion of the front part of the stack of sheets P under the predetermined 
condition which will not be influenced whether the pick-up rollers 26 and 
the feed rollers 22 enter or not. Consequently, the positional relation of 
the pick-up rollers 26, the feed rollers 22, the gate rollers 10, the 
front bent portion of the bottom plate 6, the front plate 8 and the 
plurality of smoothly curved projections 12 with respect to the stack of 
sheets P can be constantly kept in the optimum state for separation of the 
sheets. When two sheet containers 2 are attached to the sheet dispenser 
mechanism 36 one above the other, the automated teller machine 60 is 
brought into a waiting condition for transaction. 
After inserting a card into the card inlet 54 of the automated teller 
machine 60 in the waiting condition, a customer inputs the desired sum of 
money to be dispensed according to instructions in the operational 
instruction indicating section 50. In response to the input by the 
customer, the control unit 62 functions so that sheets of the number in 
accordance with the desired sum will be sent out of the upper and lower 
sheet containers 2 of the main body of the sheet dispenser mechanism 36 
shown in FIG. 4. 
Sending a sheet out of the lower sheet container 2 shown in FIG. 4 will now 
be described. 
In response to a command from the control unit 62, the motor SM.sub.2 for 
driving the separation mechanism rotates until taking out a certain number 
of sheets is completed, and the sheets are delivered to a delivery line 
one by one from the stack of sheets P which is contacted with the pick-up 
rollers 26 by the pressing plate 14, and accumulated in the collecting 
section 44. If two or more sheets are delivered at once as a result of the 
taking-out operation by the separation mechanism, the plural-sheets 
detector 40 detects this, and after finishing the taking-out operation by 
the separation mechanism, the sheets in the collecting section 44 which do 
not correspond to the desired sum of money input by the customer are all 
returned to the recovery section 46 of the upper sheet container 2 by 
rotating the collecting section 44. 
On the other hand, when the taking-out operation is accurately performed by 
the separation mechanism, the sheets accumulated in the accumulation 
section 44 are pushed into the dispensing opening 48 (FIG. 5), and then, 
the customer takes these sheets while taking a card specification slip or 
the like from the other dispensing opening as well, thus completing the 
transaction. 
The separation mechanism conducts one-by-one separation in the following 
manner. The pick-up rollers 26, which are contacted with the stack of 
sheets P, and the feed rollers 22 are connected to each of the separation 
mechanism motors SM.sub.1, SM.sub.2 by the timing belts 42, as shown in 
FIG. 4, and when these motors rotate, sheets of paper begin to be taken 
out. First, the pick-up rollers 26 function such that the members 26a 
having a high frictional coefficient formed on the outer peripheral 
surfaces thereof send the sheets to nip sections between the feed rollers 
22 and the gate rollers 10. Owing to a difference between a frictional 
coefficient of the rotating feed rollers 22 and a frictional coefficient 
of the material having a high frictional coefficient on the surfaces of 
the gate rollers 10 which do not rotate in the delivery direction but stop 
and are engaged to the feed rollers 22 by a predetermined pressing force, 
the sheets sent to the nip sections are separated from one another without 
fail. The separated sheets are passed to the pinch rollers 28 one by one, 
fed to the delivery lines on the downstream side, and accumulated in the 
collecting section 44. 
The sheets which are taken out one by one by the separation mechanisms are 
detected by the sensors S.sub.1, S.sub.2 and S.sub.3. After the separation 
mechanisms complete the taking-out operation of the sheets, if any sheets 
intercept the light beam toward the sensor S.sub.1 or S.sub.2, the motor 
SM.sub.1 or SM.sub.2 causes the pick-up rollers 26 and the feed rollers 22 
to rotate in the reverse direction at low speed so as to return the sheets 
to the sheet container 2. 
When the sheet container 2 is detached from the main body of the sheet 
dispenser mechanism 36, the gate rollers 10 are slightly displaced toward 
the feed rollers 22 by the pressing force of the springs 20, contrary to 
the attaching operation described previously, and the shutter 4 is closed 
so that the sheet will not be escaped out of the sheet container 2, and 
that the lower end portion of the front part of the stack of sheets P is 
kept at a certain position by the plurality of smoothly curved projections 
12, thereby completing the operation. 
FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration of projections 12a according to another 
embodiment of the invention. These projections 12a with smooth surfaces 
can be formed by partially press-bending the front plate 8, or integrally 
formed with the front plate 8 by plastic molding, or formed by adhering, 
screw-fastening or press-fitting each projection piece or a plurality of 
projection pieces to the front plate 8. 
Other embodiments of modified projections are shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG. 
9 illustrates projections 12b which extend as far as the level above the 
pick-up rollers 26. FIG. 10 illustrates a semicylindrically shaped 
projection 12c which is formed in one portion of the front plate 8. Since 
each sheet container requires only one member, the cost can be decreased. 
According to the present invention, as described heretofore, only the 
rollers serving as frictional separation means of the separation mechanism 
are provided in the sheet container so that the sheet container can be 
reduced in weight to lessen the labor when the operator in charge carries 
it, and sheets of paper and the like can be stored in the container in an 
unaffected condition whether the sheet container is attached to or 
detached from the sheet dispenser mechanism, thus producing the apparatus 
having a reliable separation performance at a low cost.