Paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus

In a paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus, a low-friction paper sheet guide member (18) is located in a parallel relationship to a paper sheet advancing direction, and a rotating spiral contact (19) having an axis inclined with respect to a horizontal plane toward an upstream side from the line perpendicular to the paper sheet advancing direction and passing on the upstream side of the paper sheet guide member (18), is rotated with a distal end (19a) frictionally contacting the surface of the paper sheet guide member (18) so as to move the paper sheet downwardly away from the one end of a conveyer. The paper sheet is thereby turned from a horizontal posture to a vertical posture by a minimal turning operation.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus 
meant to be used with a conveyer which successively conveys paper sheets 
sideways in an upright posture. It is located adjacent to one end of the 
conveyer to let the successive paper sheets, which are inserted from the 
conveyer, fall after arranging them. This apparatus is used for collecting 
paper currency notes, for example. 
BACKGROUND OF THE RELATED TECHNOLOGY 
In a conventional paper sheet conveying system in which paper sheets 
supplied from a conveyer are finally properly arranged and stacked in a 
stacker, there is installed, as shown in FIG. 6, a contact 1, engageable 
with the supplied paper sheets for transferring them in a predetermined 
direction, to a shaft 2 perpendicular to a paper sheet advancing direction 
A. 
However, since the contact 1 extends perpendicularly to the paper sheet 
advancing direction A, the distal end of the contact 1 acts at a point a 
in FIG. 6 so as to urge a paper sheet M downwardly and acts at a point b, 
on the contrary, so as to flap a paper sheet M upwardly, thus causing 
complicated movements of the paper sheets M. Therefore the original 
intended operation of the apparatus, i.e., letting paper sheets M, which 
have been inserted in a horizontal posture, fall into a vertical posture 
is difficult to achieve. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
With the foregoing problem of the conventional art in mind, it is an object 
of this invention to provide a paper sheet conveying and arranging 
apparatus in which paper sheets inserted in a horizontal posture can be 
discharged so as to fall into a vertical posture reliably and without 
difficulty. 
According to one aspect of this invention, the above object can be 
accomplished by a paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus adapted to 
be used with a conveyer which moves a paper sheet in an upright posture , 
i.e. not flat, in the direction of its length and adapted to be located 
adjacent to one end of the conveyer for properly arranging the paper 
sheets, which are received from the conveyer, and allowing the paper 
sheets to be conveyed in a proper arrangement, the apparatus comprising: a 
low-friction guide member adapted to be located adjacent to the end of the 
conveyer, from which the paper sheets are successively conveyed, the guide 
member being disposed to have a surface in a parallel relationship to a 
paper sheet advancing direction; and a spiral contact having an axis of 
spiral inclined with respect to a horizontal plane toward the upstream 
side from the line perpendicular to the paper sheet advancing direction 
and passing on the upstream side of the guide member, the contact being 
adapted to be driven for rotation, with its distal end frictionally 
contacting the surface of the guide member, so as to move the paper sheet 
downwardly away from the one end of the conveyer. 
In operation, paper sheets are conveyed in a horizontal posture by a 
conveyer to arrive at an inlet of the paper sheet conveying and arranging 
apparatus. 
Paper sheets, which have been conveyed while they partially overlap one 
another, are brought to a guide member by the action of a spiral contact 
and are then advanced in contact with the surface of the guide member. 
Partly since the spiral contact has an axis of spiral inclined with respect 
to a horizontal plane toward the upstream side from the line perpendicular 
to the paper sheet advancing direction and partly since the distal end of 
the spiral contact is frictionally engageable with the surface of the 
paper sheet guide member, the distal end of the spiral contact reliably 
turns the horizontal paper sheets into a vertical posture to move them 
downwardly, without causing complicated movements of paper sheets, such as 
pressing a paper sheet beyond the plane including the surface of the guide 
member before the paper sheet arrives at the guide member and contacting 
the trailing end of the paper sheet to cause the paper sheet to flap 
upwards after the leading end of the paper sheet arrives at the guide 
member. 
In this paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus, partly since the 
low-friction guide member is located parallel to the paper sheet advancing 
direction and partly since the spiral contact has an axis of spiral 
inclined with respect to a horizontal plane toward the upstream side from 
the line perpendicular to the paper sheet advancing direction, the distal 
end of the spiral contact frictionally engages the surface of the guide 
member so as to bring a paper sheet away from the end of the conveyer and 
turn it so that it falls. As a result, the paper sheet is turned from a 
horizontal posture into a vertical posture by a minimal turning operation 
and is hence not subjected to any unnecessarily large turn which might, 
for example, cause the paper sheet to be easily folded back on itself.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The preferred embodiment of this invention will now be described with 
reference to the accompanying drawings. 
FIG. 1 shows a paper sheet conveying system to which a paper sheet 
conveying and arranging apparatus of the invention is applied. This system 
comprises an upper conveying unit 30, a receiving unit 15 for receiving 
paper sheets, which are inserted from individual non-illustrated 
terminals, and discharging them to the conveying unit downstream, a 
separating unit 40 disposed adjacent to an inlet of the conveying unit 30, 
a stacking unit 70 from which the paper sheets piled neatly are to be 
taken out, and a drive unit 60. 
The paper sheet conveying and arranging apparatus 10, as shown in FIG. 2, 
comprises a paper sheet receiving unit or a collecting and dispensing unit 
15 to which paper sheets are to be conveyed from individual 
non-illustrated terminals by a conveyer H of FIG. 5, the conveying unit 30 
for conveying paper sheets by conveyer belts, and the separating unit 40 
for separating successive paper sheets from one another. 
The collecting and dispensing unit 15, as best seen in FIG. 3, has an inlet 
16 for receiving sheets from one end E of the conveyer H, which conveys 
the paper sheets from the individual terminals of FIG. 5, and also has a 
small-width dispensing unit cover 17 for receiving the introduced paper 
sheets. 
The width h of the dispensing unit cover 17 is sufficiently small to 
prevent the received paper sheets from being curled or folded. 
On the cover 17 at one surface parallel to a paper sheet advancing 
direction A, a paper sheet guide member 18 for guiding paper sheets is 
mounted as shown in FIG. 3. The paper sheet guide member 18 is made of a 
low-friction material such as synthetic resin. 
From the cover's wall opposite to the paper sheet guide member 18, a spiral 
contact 19 extends to shake down paper sheets. 
The spiral contact 19 is driven by a driving motor 20 and has an axis K of 
spiral inclined with respect to a horizontal plane toward the upstream 
side from the line perpendicular to the paper sheet advancing direction A 
by an angle .theta.. The value of .theta. may be selected optionally, for 
example, according to the number of windings of the spiral, and is 12 
degrees in the illustrated embodiment. Preferably it should be selected in 
such a manner that the spiral contact can adequately receive the inserted 
paper sheets. 
A point P at which the axis K crosses the cover's wall on which the paper 
sheet guide member 18 is mounted is disposed upstream of the guide member 
18. As shown in FIG. 4, when the distal end 19a of the contact 19 is 
located in such a phase as to shake down paper sheets, it comes into 
contact with the paper sheet guide member 18. 
The conveying unit 30 includes, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of pulleys 
31, 32 and a plurality of conveyer belts 33, 34, 35 wound on the pulleys 
31, 32 and is driven, upon receipt of power from a non-illustrated drive 
means, to convey paper sheets to the right in FIG. 2. 
A support roller 36 is disposed in confronting relationship with a 
below-described separator roller 41, as shown in FIG. 2. 
At a midportion of the conveyer belt 35, first and second sensors 37, 38 
are located, with a space L in between them, for counting the number of 
separated paper sheets. 
The distance L is slightly larger than the length of a single paper sheet 
and smaller than the total length of two paper sheets. 
Coaxially connected with a drive roller 42 of the separating unit 40 is a 
gear 45 meshing with a gear 46 for transmitting a one-way rotating force 
by the non-illustrated drive means. 
There is defined between the separator roller 41 and the drive roller 42 a 
very small predetermined gap g, which is larger than the thickness of a 
single paper sheet and smaller than the total thickness of two paper 
sheets. 
The separator roller 41 has an elongated axial hole 41a so that the 
separator roller 41 is movable within the predetermined gap g about a 
pivot 47 to come into contact with either the conveyer belt 34 or the 
drive roller 42, but only one at a time. 
There is provided a setting cam plate 50 serving as a means for adjustably 
setting the predetermined gap g. 
The setting cam plate 50 is angularly movable about a cam axis 51 and has a 
cam surface 50a which moves down pressing against a contact surface 44a of 
a support arm 44. One end of the support arm 44 is normally energized 
upwardly in FIG. 2 by a non-illustrated energizing means, and in the other 
end, symmetric with a pivot 43, an elongated hole 44b is provided, through 
which a small screw 52 is fitted for fastening. 
The setting cam plate 50 has a series of markings 50b for reading the value 
of the setting. 
The operation of this apparatus will now be described. 
Successive paper sheets partially overlap one another as they are conveyed. 
The paper sheets are brought to the paper sheet guide member 18 by the 
action of the spiral contact 19 and are then discharged downwardly by the 
distal end 19a of the contact 19 in contact with the surface of the paper 
sheet guide member 18. 
Assuming that the contact 19 is turned clockwise in FIG. 4, since the axis 
K of spiral of the contact 19 is inclined toward the upstream side by an 
angle 0 as shown in FIG. 3, the distal end 19a of the contact 19 comes 
into contact with a paper sheet only in the phase of the paper sheet guide 
member 18 so that the paper sheet inserted in a direction A in a 
horizontal posture M.sub.1 will be turned into a vertical posture M.sub.2 
by a minimal turn. If there was no inclination and the axis K of the 
contact 19 was perpendicular to the paper sheet advancing direction A, the 
contact 19 would have contacted the paper sheet not only at a point "a" in 
FIG. 4 but also at a point "b" where the paper sheet would have been 
caused to flap up, thus resulting in a large turning motion of the paper 
sheet as indicated by M.sub.3. This large turn would have caused the paper 
sheet to unfavorably knock on the wall of the cover and once again giving 
it the tendency to become curled or folded. 
In the separating unit 40, the drive roller 42 is coaxially connected with 
the gear 45 meshing with the gear 46, which is operatively connected to 
the non-illustrated drive means for rotation in one direction. Thus the 
drive roller 42 is at all times rotating counterclockwise in FIG. 2. 
Then when a single paper sheet is inserted under the separator roller 41, 
the separator roller 41 will be raised to an extent corresponding to the 
thickness of a single paper sheet. At that time, because the predetermined 
gap "g" between the separator roller 41 and the drive roller 42 is larger 
than the thickness of a single paper sheet, these two rollers 41, 42 will 
not come into contact with one another and so will continue to convey the 
paper sheet to the downstream side by the conveyer belt 46. 
If two or more paper sheets are inserted, the separator roller 41 will come 
into contact with the drive roller 42 to rotate clockwise as shown in FIG. 
2, because the predetermined gap "g" is smaller than the thickness of two 
sheets of paper. Then the upper paper sheet contacting the separator 
roller 41 will be pushed back upstream, while only the first i.e., lower 
paper sheet contacting the conveyer belt 46 will be conveyed downstream. 
The first and second sensors 37, 38 located in the conveying path count the 
number of separated paper sheets, discriminating whether or not any 
multi-sheet conveying has occured. 
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in 
detail, it should be clearly understood that the same is by way of 
illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, 
the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the 
terms of the appended claims.