COIN DISPENSING APPARATUS

Abstract: A coin dispensing apparatus comprises a magazine (25) for storing rolls of coin (1), a lifting conveyor (2) having a plurality of hods (3) which are driven by the lifting conveyor (2) and interact with the outlet of the magazine (25) to receive coin rolls (1) therefrom. A transporting conveyor (13) has a plurality of hods (14) which are driven by the transporting conveyor (13) and which interact with the hods (3) of the lifting conveyor (2) for transfer of rolls of coin (1) from the lifting conveyor (2) to the transporting conveyor (13). A dispensing outlet cooperates with the hods (14) of the transporting conveyor (13) to receive rolls of coin (1) transported thereby.

Description: COIN DISPENSING APPARATUS This invention relates to a coin dispensing apparatus and more particularly to an apparatus for the storage and dispensing of wrapped rolls of coin Current coin dispensing machines are normally of the hopper storage type which require the coin to be stored in bulk which creates problems for the operator loading the hopper because of the considerable weight of the coin involved and the physical effort required to load the hopper. E.xisting hopper delivery systems require the coin or coin rolls to be loaded at the top of the hopper and the coin rolls are delivered at the bottom of the hopper This has a disadvantage in that the coin rolls are not delivered at a convenient height to the operator because it is impractical to mount the coin dispensing apparatus at a high level due to the considerable weight of coin involved and the need to lift the coin up to a high level when loading the hopper An aim of the present invention is to overcome the above described problem and disadvantages According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a coin dispensing apparatus comprising a lifting conveyor with a plurality of hods incrementally driven by the conveyor, a transporting conveyor having a plurality of hods incrementally driven by the conveyor, the hods of each conveyor combining with each other and at least one magazine the outlet of which interfaces with the hods of the lifting conveyor to transfer rolls of coin stored in the or each magazine to the said hods and thereafter transfer them to the hods of the transporting conveyor for ' delivery to a dispensing outlet Conveniently the conveyors, are both driven by a single electric motor, alternatively each conveyor may be driven by a separate electric motor In a preferred construction the magazine or magazines have an automatically operated chock at their outlet end to release the flow of rolls of coin from the or each magazine, when placed in the apparatus and is automatically closed before the or each magazine is removed from the apparatus The chock can conveniently be operated from a releasable locking mechanism at the rear of the magazine The magazine may include a tensator spring connected with a slidable packing plate at the rear of the magazine to apply pressure to the rolls of coin in the magazine to urge them towards the magazine outlet According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a coin change dispenser housing a coin dispensing apparatus as set forth in any of the five preceding paragraphs. In a preferred construction the coin change dispenser housing is divided into two parts, a lower armour plated secure safe for the coin dispensing apparatus and an upper part for housing a computer controlled means for accepting and delivering bank notes and delivering the coin rolls Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with references to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a coin dispensing apparatus according to the invention, Figure 2 is a fragmentary cross-section showing a detailed view of a second embodiment of the coin roll transporting hod, Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1 , Figure 4 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 1 , Figure 5 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line 5-5 of Figure 1 , Figure 6 is an enlarged cross-section taken along the line 6-6 of Figure 1 , Figure 7 is a plan view of a wrapped coin roll magazine, Figure 8 is a longitudinal cross-section of the magazine shown in Figure 7, Figure 9 is an underneath plan view of the magazine shown in Figures 7 and 8, Figure 10 is an enlarged end view of the magazine shown in Figures 7 to 9, Figure 1 1 is an enlarged fragmentary detail of the coin roll chock and its operating mechanism; Figure 12 is a perspective view of a change dispensing cabinet incorporating the coin dispensing apparatus of the present invention, and Figure 13 is a front elevation of the cabinet shown in Figure 12. The storage and dispensing apparatus for dispensing wrapped rolls of coin 1 comprises a lifting conveyor generally indicated at 2 with a plurality of hods 3 driven by an endless chain 4 driving two chain wheels 5 and 6 The chain wheel 5 is driven from an electric motor 7 via a chain drive 8 The hods 3 comprise a U-shaped member 9 the underside of which is linked to the endless chain 4 by brackets 10 see the enlarged detail views in Figures 3 and 4 The hods 3 are guided by side rails 1 1 and slide on supporting rails 12 which have a low friction coating to accommodate the weight of the coin rolls 1 carried by the hods 3 A second embodiment of the hods 3 is shown in Figure 2 where the sides of the U-shaped member 9 are located at an angle sloping upwards in the direction of travel arrow "A" of the lifting conveyor 2 Located at an angle to the conveyor 2 is a transporting conveyor, generally indicated at 13 This conveyor is of similar construction to the lifting conveyor 2 comprising a plurality of hod carriers 14 driven by an endless chain 15 driving chain wheels 16 and 17 The chain wheel 16 is driven by an electric motor 18 via chain drive 19 encircling chain wheels 20 and 21 The hod carriers 14 are chair-shaped each carrier being connected by a link 22 to the conveyor chain 15, see Figure 5 The hod carriers 14 are guided by side rails 23 and slide on supporting rails 24 provided with a low friction coating to accommodate the weight The electric motors 7 and 18 are connected with sensing devices 7 1 and 18' which control the drive of the lifting and transporting conveyors respectively, to sense whether the rolls of coin 1 are present within their respective hods to prime the conveyor systems to ensure that the correct dispense is made Mounted below the conveyor 13 are a series of removable magazines 25, four of which are shown, which securely carry a supply of coin rolls The magazines 25 slope at an angle downwardly towards the hods 3 of conveyor 2 Figure 6 illustrates an enlarged fragment section through two magazines in a tier comprising support blocks 26 and containing side plates 27 for each tier with adjacent magazines 28 for a coinage of different, i e smaller dimensions The magazines having pivotable chock devices 29 at their leading end or outlet, a detail of which is shown in Figure 1 1 These chocks can be automatically opened when inserted in the apparatus and automatically closed before removal from the apparatus Maintaining security of the coin rolls in the magazines. The magazine has a main body fabricated from an aluminum alloy extrusion although it could instead be manufactured from steel. Each magazine comprises side walls 30 the upper edges of which are bent inwards at 31, a base plate 32 with a packing plate 33 at its rear end tensioned by a tensator spring 34 to urge the plate against the rolls of coin The base plate 32 slides in a dovetail 35, see Figure 10, while the tensator spring 34 drives the packing plate 33 to apply pressure to the rolls of coin 1 ensuring their delivery to the lifting conveyor 2 These rolls are prevented from falling out of the forward end of the magazine by the chocks device 29 Until it is inserted in the apparatus, the chock device 29 is operated by a release mechanism as shown in the underneath plan in Figure 9 and in side view in Figure 1 1 A lever 36 has a spring-loaded pivot 37 which permits one end 38 of lever 36 to move in a gate 39 The other end 40 of lever 36 is connected to the chock device by a link 41 to operate the chock 29 from a closed to an open position Movement of the lever 36 pulls on the link 41 the other end of which moves in a cam-track 42 which when moved in the direction of arrow "B" pushes the cross-rod 43 pivoting the chock 29 lowering the end of the chock and allowing the free passage for the next roll of coin to enter an aligned hod 3 of conveyor 2 When a fully loaded magazine is placed in the dispenser, the lever 36 cannot be moved to the open position until an interlocking link 44 attached to lever 36 is located opposite and can engage in a slot 45 in the supporting blo'ck 26, See Figure 9 The magazine cannot be withdrawn until the lever 36 has been moved back with the chock 29 into the closed position, this prevents the inadvertent escape of coin rolls into the dispenser mechanism In operation the coins are pre-loaded into the magazine, each magazine holding e g in the case of USA quarters (SO 25) 14 or 16 rolls each roll containing 40 coins The weight of each loaded magazine should be less than 5 KG ( 1 1 lbs) The magazines containing the same denomination of coinage are mounted in tiers, 13 or 14 magazines to each tier, the number of magazines is variable to suit the particular application The separate tiers of magazines can be placed side by side thus allowing for a variety of coinage to be dispensed For example, for the USA four tiers with quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies When the magazines are loaded into the dispenser, the coin rolls are then released from the controlling chock in the magazine and the hods 3 of the lifting conveyor 2 are filled When dispensing, the hods 3 move upwards in steps of one magazine pitch increment. The rolls 1 are transferred to the transporting conveyor 13 which also moves in steps of one increment until the delivery to a change dispensing cabinet, as will be hereinafter described, will be complete The sensor 7 l checks the presence or absence of a roll of coin in the uppermost hod 3 and the electric motor 7 is allowed to operate the chain wheel 5 Similarly, the sensor 18 1 checks that the transporting conveyor 13 is fully primed with rolls of coin before any dispense is made along a dispensing path as indicated by arrow B to the coin change dispenser An alternative dispensing path is provided at the top left hand side of Figure 1 as indicated by the arrow "C" In this embodiment the coin rolls 1 are carried by the hods 3 over the chain wheel 5 to the dispensing path, arrow "C" Once the hods of the lifting conveyor and those of the transporting conveyor are primed the dispensing cycle is speedily completed The essence of the secure and reliable operation of the coin dispensing apparatus is the smooth incremental interface of the magazine outlets with the hods 3 of the lifting conveyor 2 The arrangement of the magazines is such that the lower magazine empties first and then progresses upwards to empty the next magazine immediately above Sensors, not shown, can be placed in appropriate positions in the transport to give indication of the low condition of coin rolls in each magazine to facilitate the replenishment of empty magazines The rolls of coin, although released by the chock will be held back by the bent edges 31 of the hods 3 until an empty hod is aligned with a coin roll 1 which, under pressure of the tensator spring .34 pushes a coin roll into the empty hod This provides an automatic and secure handling of the coin within the reinforced safe area of the dispenser If a magazine is withdrawn before it is completely empty an interlock mechanism on the chock device prevents the remaining rolls in the magazine from falling out of the magazine into the dispenser By pulling the packing plate 33 back against the stop 46 see Figure 7, a loading gap 47 is formed to enable further coin rolls to be fed into the magazine, the open top 48 of the magazine, see Figure 10, allows complete access to the magazine to permit an ordered and neat loading of the magazine. Each magazine may be provided with a carrying handle 49 one of which is shown in chain dotted line in Figure 8. An embodiment of a change dispensing cabinet for housing the coin dispensing apparatus according to the present invention is shown in Figures 12 and 13 The cabinet 50 has two main parts, a lower secure part 51 for housing the coin dispensing apparatus This housing is made from armour plate material, as used in bank safes The upper parts 52 is made from sheet steel or other rigid material and houses computer controlled receipt and delivery mechanisms for receiving bank notes to be changed and delivering bank notes to the customer to compliment the coin changing apparatus The upper housing part 52 may include one of the available bank note handling apparatuses with e.g. a touch sensitive video screen 53 to display messages and to receive information concerning the money changing transaction A PIN-type card reader slot 54, a receipt delivery slot 55 and a bank note acceptor slot 56 are monitored by a conventional printed circuit (not shown) The front of the lower housing part 51 has a coin delivery slot 57 through which the coin rolls are dispensed into a tray 58 Adjacent the coin dispensing slot is a bank note delivery slot 59 below which is a tray 60 into which the dispensed notes fall. Located above the delivery slot 59 is a receptacle 61 for receiving notes fed into the bank note acceptor slot 56 To operate the change dispenser, the customer' places his bankers card bearing his PIN number into the slot 54 to identify himself A large denomination bank note for which small change is required is fed into the bank note acceptor slot 56 The screen 53 with the touch sensitive areas is programmed with the denomination of change required and the transaction is carried out dispensing the requested number of rolls of coin and if appropriate the balance in smaller denomination bank notes from a bank note dispenser located within the lower secure housing part 51 The transaction is recorded on a receipt, if requested, which is dispensed from slot 55 As the cabinet is divided into two parts, the lower secure housing 51 and an upper less secure housing, servicing of the computer control circuit can be carried out without emptying the money from the secure housing 51. Another advantage is that all the heavy coin rolls are stored in magazines at a low level so that the operator can replenish the coin dispensing apparatus without having to lift the magazines loaded with coin rolls to a great height as is the case with hopper fed dispensing apparatus.

Claims: CLAIMS 1 A coin dispensing apparatus comprising a magazine for storing rolls of coin, a lifting conveyor having a plurality of hods which are driven by the lifting conveyor and interact with the outlet of the magazine to receive coin rolls therefrom, a transporting conveyor having a plurality of hods which are driven by the transporting conveyor and interact with the hods of the lifting conveyor for transfer of rolls of coin from the lifting conveyor to the transporting conveyor and a dispensing outlet cooperating with the hods of the transporting conveyor to receive rolls of coin transported thereby 2 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 , wherein the conveyors are driven by at least one electric motor 3 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, wherein each conveyor is driven by a separate electric motor 4 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the low condition of the rolls of coin in the magazine is controlled by sensors 5 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the hods of the lifting conveyor are U-shaped 6 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the sides of the U- shaped hods are at an angle parallel to each other, and slope in the direction of travel of the conveyor 7 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the magazine or magazines have an automatically operated chock at outlet end to release the flow of rolls of coin from the or each magazine, when placed in the apparatus and is automatically closed before the or each magazine is removed from the apparatus 8 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the chock is operated from a releasable locking mechanism at the rear of the magazine. 9 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a tensator spring is connected with a slidable packing plate at the rear of the magazine to apply pressure to the rolls of. coin in the magazine to urge them towards the magazine outlet 10 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the hods are connected to an endless chain drive to incrementally transport them along their conveyor 1 1 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the chain drawn hods of the lifting conveyor run between side guide rails and the coin rolls are slidably supported on rails having a low friction surface coating 12 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the chain drawn hods of the lifting conveyor run between side guide rails, the ends of the hods being slidably supported on rails with a low friction coating. 13 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the or each magazine is or are mounted in side support rails having guide blocks, a plurality of magazines are stacked in tiers beside one another 14 A coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 13, wherein the apparatus is under microprocessor control 15 A coin change dispenser, housing a coin dispensing apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim 16 A coin change dispenser as claimed in Claim 15, wherein the dispenser housing is divided into two parts, a lower armour plated secure safe for the coin dispensing apparatus and an upper part for housing a computer controlled means for accepting and delivering bank notes and delivering the coin rolls 17 A coin change dispenser as claimed in Claim 15 or 16, wherein the lower part may also house a bank note dispensing machine 18 A coin change dispenser as claimed in Claims 16 or 17, wherein the upper part of the housing has a touch responsive video screen to initiate a money changing transaction 19 A coin dispensing apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 1 , and 3 to 1 1 or * Figure 2, of the accompanying drawings 20 A coin change dispenser substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 12 or 13 of the accompanying drawings

Inventors: HUCKLE RALPH EDWARD, JENKINS STUART MCEWEN, HUCKLE, RALPH, EDWARD, JENKINS, STUART, MCEWEN
Applicants: CEJAY ENG INC, HUCKLE RALPH EDWARD, JENKINS STUART MCEWEN, CEJAY ENGINEERING INC., HUCKLE, RALPH, EDWARD, JENKINS, STUART, MCEWEN
Application year: 1997
Main classification: G07D1
IPC codes: G07D1, G07F11, G07F19