Device for transporting flat items e.g. coins or tokens

Abstract: A rotating disk (10) is horizontally rotated to feed coins placed thereon toward a rotating body (20). The rotating body (20) is formed with a spiral groove (20a) in which the periphery of each coin is inserted and a guide barrel (21) is disposed in such a manner as to enclose the rotating body. The coins, the periphery of which are engaged in the spiral groove (20a), are received by the guide barrel (21) and lifted in that state according to the rotation of the rotating body and then discharged outside from a discharging port (21b) formed at an upper portion of the guide barrel. A rubber roller (18) is adapted to push the periphery of coins thereby to ensure the insertion of the coins into the spiral groove (20a).

Description: This invention relates to a device for transporting flat items e.g. coins or tokens (hereinafter referred to as "coin lifting device") and more particularly to a device, in which an item e.g. a coin or token) is held at its edge by a helical groove and transported while oriented extending outwardly from the groove. As described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 61-17925, there have been known coin lifting devices which comprises a hopper with a rotating disk disposed at angles within a bucket, and a sleeve-shaped shute connected to an outlet port of the hopper, coins fed one by one from the hopper being pushed into the shute, thereby to push up coins standing in a row within the shute one by one. Japanese Patent Application Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 61-288288 also discloses a coin lifting device which comprises a vertically disposed rotating body with a spiral ridge formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and a cylindrical housing covering the rotating body. In this device, a coin insertion slit is formed in a lower part of the cylindrical housing and vertically oriented coins which are passed through the slit enter into a narrow space defined by the spiral ridge and housing. Upon rotation of the rotating body within the cylindrical housing, the coins vertically held in the space defined by the spiral ridge are lifted by the spiral ridge. In the first-mentioned conventional coin lifting device, the upper part of the shute is vertical but the lower part thereof is inclined to form the same plane as the rotating disk of the hopper. In order that the coins are erected gradually within the shute, the shute is curved at its lower part to form a generally J-shape. This inevitably requires a large installation space for the shute. Therefore, the conventional coin lifting device of this type tends to be large. On the other hand, in the second-mentioned conventional coin lifting device, coins are lifted in their standing posture. Therefore, it is difficult to handle a high number of coins per unit time and the speed of discharging coins is slow. DE-A-2 556 865 discloses a device for transporting flat items such as coins comprising: means for feeding the items one-by-one to a conveyor body having at least one helical conveyor groove in the periphery thereof and rotatable about an axis, so that a peripheral edge of the item engages the helical groove on the peripheral surface of the body; and guide means extending lengthwise of the conveyor body for constraining the movement of an item once its peripheral edge is engaged in the groove such that subsequent rotation of the conveyor body causes the article to be propelled lengthwise of the body engaged with and extending outwardly from the grooves until the item reaches a discharge port remote from the feeding means. The device of the invention includes the further features set out in the characterising portion of claim 1. Preferably, the guide means guides the items in the helical groove so that they do not orbit around the conveyor body with the rotation of the conveyor body, and a discharging port is formed in an upper portion of the guide surface. With the present invention, the items may be fed by a conveyor body, which may be horizontally rotated, and are inserted in a helical groove of a preferably substantially vertically disposed conveyor body so that they are vertically lifted in a substantially horizontal orientation, and so the device can be made small in size. Moreover, since each item is lifted oriented horizontally relative to the rotatable body, the device need not be bulky and a large quantity of items can be lifted in a short time. The present invention will be further described by way of non-limitative example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an important portion of the embodiment of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a front view showing an upper portion of a rotating column; and Fig. 4 is a schematic view showing a use example of the embodiment of Fig. 1. In Fig. 1, a coin lifting device 1 is provided with a horizontal base plate 2 and a motor 13 mounted on the under surface of the base plate 2. The motor 13 is provided with a gear 12 secured to its shaft. Gears 11 and 14 mesh with the gear 12 from opposite sides. The gear 11 is connected with a rotating disk 10 through a shaft 9. The gear 14 is provided with a roller 19 secured thereto. The roller 19 is provided at its periphery with a tyre 18 of rubber having a high coefficient of friction and an excellent durability. As is shown in Fig. 2, the base plate 2 is formed at the central portion of its upper surface with a circular recess 3 and a passageway 4 (Fig 1), both of which have a flat bottom surface 3a. The circular recess 3 is formed at its central portion with a circular recess 5 laid deeper therein. The rotating disk 10 is mounted in the recess 5 as such that the upper surface of the rotating disk 10 is coplanar with the bottom surface 3a of the circular recess 3. The roller 19 is disposed at the border between the circular recess 3 and the passageway 4. A rotating column 20 is mounted at the corner within the passageway 4 in such a manner as to be rotatable with respect to the base plate 2 about a vertical axis. The rotating column 20 is coaxial with a gear 15 which meshes with the gear 14 and is rotated by the motor 13 together with the rotating disk 10. The rotating column is preferably hollow inside in order to reduce the weight. The rotating column 20 is formed with a helical groove having a width slightly larger than the thickness of a coin so that a part of the periphery of the coin fits therein. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, four helical grooves 20a, 20b, 20c and 20d are formed, and a coin 8 is lifted by a distance ℓ corresponding to one pitch while the rotating column 20 makes one rotation. Adjacent to the rotating column 20, a guide barrel 21 is mounted on the base plate 2. The guide barrel 21 has a wall surface 21a which is not concentric with the column 20 and thereby prevents the coin 8, which is engaged in the groove, from orbiting around the rotating column 20 with the rotation of the rotating column 20 and, at the same time, acts as a guide when the coin 8 is lifted. The guide barrel 21 is provided at its upper portion with a discharging port 21b for discharging the coin 8 lifted. The guide barrel 21 is provided with a ceiling plate 22 mounted on its upper end. The ceiling plate 22 acts as a bearing for a shaft 23 of the rotating column 20. In Fig. 2, in order to form the passageway 4, there is provided a step 24 having a guide surface 24a high enough to allow one coin through the passageway in a horizontal orientation. The step 24 is provided with a gradually expanding regulating plate 25 secured to its upper surface by a screw 26 so that the coin 8 cannot jump up. This also secures a leaf spring plate 27 onto the regulating plate. If the regulating plate 25 extends nearly as far as the rotating column 20, the orientation of the coin 8 coming from the rotating column 20 can be more effectively regulated. However, if it is too near, since the helical groove of the rotating column 20 is inclined to the horizontal, the coin 8 is unable to enter smoothly into the helical groove. To this end, a space is provided between the regulating plate 25 and the rotating column 20. A free end of the spring 27 is disposed between the regulating plate 25 and the rotating column 20 to press on the coin so that it will not jump up excessively. At the same time as the coin 8 is slowly inserted into the helical groove, the spring 27 is deformed upwardly in accordance with the degree of inclination. When biting of the coins takes place on the rotating disk 10, the motor 13 is caused to rotate in reverse. At this time, if the rotating column 20 is rotated in reverse, the coins 20 are disengaged from the groove and dropped on the base portion of the rotating column 20. And, since these coins bite into the rotating column 20, etc., coin clog is possible. Therefore, when biting of the coins 8 takes place on the rotating disk 10, it is preferable that only the rotating disk 10 is rotated in reverse and the rotating column 20 is not reversed. To this end, a one-way clutch 16 is disposed between the gear 15 and the rotating column 20. The coin lifting device 1 according to the present invention is installed within, for example, a money exchanger 30 as shown in Fig. 4. Ball lending machines 41 for lending game balls are each disposed between the adjacent game machines such as, for example, pinball game machines 40. Under the ball lending machines 41, a belt conveyor 42 is disposed. When coins 8 are put into the ball lending machine 41 in order to obtain game balls, these coins 8 are dropped on the belt conveyor 42, transferred by belt conveyor 42, and dropped on the rotating disk 10 of the coin lifting device 1. The rotating disk 10 is provided at its upper portion with a bucket having an opening at its bottom. Since the coins 8 transferred by the belt conveyor 32 are flowed down along the bucket, a proper quantity of coins 8 is fed onto the upper surface of the rotating disk 10. The function of the above-mentioned embodiment will now be described. When the gear 12 is rotated by the motor 13, the rotating disk 10 is rotated counterclockwise through the gear 11 meshing with the gear 12. The rubber tyred roller 19 is rotated counterclockwise through the gears 12 and 14, and the rotating column 20 is rotated clockwise through the gears 14 and 15. The coins 8 supplied by the belt conveyor 32 are dropped onto the rotating disk 10 and then moved toward the peripheral side of the rotating disk 10 due to the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the rotating disc 10. After the periphery of each coin 8 is received by the wall of the circular recess 3, the coins 8 are rotated along the wall of the circular recess 3 together with the rotating disk 10. When the coins 8 which were moved along the wall of the circular recess 3, arrive at the guide surface 24a continuously formed from the wall of the circular recess 3, they are guided by the guide surface 24a and regulating plate 25 into the passageway 4. The coins 8, which have entered into the passageway 4, are pushed out by the rubber roller tyre 18 rotating counterclockwise in the peripheral direction of the clockwise rotating disk 10, and the periphery of each coin 8 is pushed into the helical groove of the rotating column 20. Since the helical groove is inclined with respect to the base plate 2, the slightly inclined coins 8 are inserted into the helical groove of the rotating column 20. At this time, the spring plate 27 pressurises the upper surface of each coin 8 so that the coin 8 will not jump up, and is pushed up, depending on the degree of inclination of the coin 8, so that the coin 8 is not prevented from engaging in the helical groove of the rotating column 20. After being slightly rotated according to the rotation of the rotating column 20, the coins 8 inserted in the helical groove of the rotating column 20 are received by the wall surface 21a of the guide barrel 21, which, as explained above, is non-concentric relative to the axis of the column 20. Since the rotating column 20 is rotated clockwise, the coins 8 inserted in the helical groove of the rotating column 20 are normally abutted against the non-concentric wall surface 21a and lifted in that configuration. Since four helical groove starts are formed in the rotating column 20 as shown in Fig. 3, the coins 8 are lifted by the height ℓ corresponding to four starts of the groove during one rotation of the rotating column 20. The coins 8 lifted up to the upper portion of the rotating column 20 in the manner described are discharged from the discharging port 21b which is formed at the upper portion of the guide barrel 21. The discharged coins 8, as shown in Fig. 4, are pooled in a hopper 31 disposed immediately under the discharging port 21b. Upon operation of the money exchanger 30, a predetermined number of coins among coins pooled in the hopper 31 are flowed downward through a chute 32 provided at the bottom portion of the hopper 31 and paid out onto a coin receiver 33. In the above-mentioned embodiment, four helical grooves are formed in the rotating column. However, a different number of grooves can be used.

Claims: A device for transporting flat items (8) such as coins comprising: means (10) for feeding the items (8) one-by-one to a conveyor body (20) having at least one helical conveyor groove (20a) in the periphery thereof and being rotatable about an axis, so that a peripheral edge of the item (8) engages the helical groove (20a) on the peripheral surface of the body; and guide means (21) extending lengthwise of the conveyor body (20) for constraining the movement of an item (8) once its peripheral edge is engaged in the conveyor groove (20a) such that subsequent rotation of the conveyor body (20) causes the item (8) to be propelled lengthwise of the body (20) while engaged with and extending outwardly from the groove (20a) until the item (8) reaches a discharge port (21b) remote from the feeding means; characterised in that the feeding means (10) comprises: a rotatable disk (10), which is, in use, rotated so as to feed items (8) placed thereon towards its edge and into the helical groove (20a). A transporting device according to claim 1, wherein said guide means (21) has a wall surface non-concentric relative to the axis of the conveyor body (20) and thereby abutting an item (8) engaged in the groove (20a) to prevent the item (8) from orbiting around the conveyor body. A transporting device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the discharge port (21b) is formed in a portion of said guide means (21) remote from the rotatable disk (10). A transporting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, which further includes a base plate (2) having a circular recess (3) and said rotatable disk (10) is rotatably disposed in said circular recess (3). A transporting device according to claim 4, wherein said base plate (2) is formed with a passageway (4) connected to said recess (3), said passageway (4) being of such a size to pass only one item (8) which is moved on said rotatable disk (10) due to centrifugal force. A transporting device according to claim 5, which further includes a roller (19) having a rubber-like surface (18) and which is, in use, rotated, said roller (19) being disposed such that said passageway (4) lies between said roller (19) and said conveyor body (20) and items entered into said passageway (4) are urged toward said conveyor body (20) by the rubber-like surface (18). A transporting device according to claim 6, which further includes a spring plate (27), said spring plate (27) being adapted to prevent items from jumping from between said roller (19) and said conveyor body (20). A transporting device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein said rotatable disk (10), said conveyor body (20) and said roller (19) are driven by one motor (13), said conveyor body (20) being preferably driven by a one-way clutch. A transporting device as claimed in claim 8, wherein said rotatable disk (10) and said roller (19) are rotated in a first direction and said conveyor body (20) is rotated in a second direction. A transporting device according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said conveyor body (20) is formed with a plurality of said helical grooves (20a,b,c,d).

Inventors: ITO TSUYOSHI, SHIRASAWA MASAHARU, ITO, TSUYOSHI, SHIRASAWA, MASAHARU
Applicants: UNIVERSAL KK, KABUSHIKI KAISHA UNIVERSAL
Application year: 1988
Main classification: G07D9
IPC codes: G07D9