Abstract:
A sheet-type medium deviation correction device comprises an upper holding plate, a lower holding plate, a front guide wheel set, a front end position detecting element, a lateral border position detecting unit, a deviation correction assembly, and a delivery assembly. The deviation correction assembly comprises a belt and a pair of belt pulleys. The delivery direction of the belt is perpendicular to the lateral border of the upper holding plate or the lower holding plate. The delivery assembly comprises a pair of delivery wheels. The delivery direction of the delivery wheels is perpendicular to that of the belt. The belt is used for delivering a sheet-type medium to the border of the belt to be aligned with the lateral border of the holding plate, thereby achieving the deviation correction purpose.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201410203320.7 titled “SHEET-TYPE MEDIUM SKEW-CORRECTION DEVICE AND AUTOMATIC TELLER MACHINE”, filed with the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office on May 14, 2014, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
       FIELD 
       [0002]    This application relates to skew-correction devices, and more particularly to a transmission device configured to align sheet-type mediums having various sizes, such as banknotes, checks or other similar objects, along a certain side wall. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    In a deposit process of an ATM (abbreviation for the Automatic Teller Machine), banknotes are often placed askew at a deposit opening of the ATM by a user, thus, the banknotes are required to be corrected by a skew-correction device before entering into the ATM. 
         [0004]    Thus, the skew-correction device is mainly used in an apparatus which has a special requirement on the position of mediums in a conveying passage. For example, in a depositing/withdrawing apparatus, it is required to scan a magnetic stripe of a check, and in the case that banknotes and checks with various sizes are mixed together and deposited, sheet-type mediums at any positions in the passage are aligned along a certain side wall, which facilitates the recognition of the mediums subsequently. 
         [0005]    A conventional skew-correction device generally includes a set of skew wheels and an adjusting wheel. An axis direction of the set of skew wheels is at a certain angle (greater than 0 degree and smaller than 90 degrees) with respect to a side wall, which allows moving tracks of the mediums to be gradually close to a certain side wall. An axis direction of the adjusting wheel is perpendicular to the side wall, and is mounted close to the certain side wall along which the mediums are to be aligned, which plays an adjusting and correcting function in the skew-correcting of the mediums. This skew-correction device may achieve a good skew-correcting effect to hard and new mediums, but when correcting soft mediums having been circulated in the market for a long time, the following two issues often present. One issue is that banknote is jammed, in which the medium having skewed towards the direction of the skew wheels is not corrected after being conveyed by the skew wheel assembly, and further bump the side wall of the passage when being moved out of the skew-correction mechanism, thus causing the banknote jamming. The other issue is that the medium is moved out of a skew-correction track before the skew-correction is complete, and some mediums are moved out of the skew-correction assembly even before the positions to be corrected. 
         [0006]    Thus, it is necessary to provide a new skew-correction device for correcting sheet-type mediums, which allows the sheet-type mediums to be aligned along a side of a side wall of a passage, and more importantly, and the skew-correction device is adapted to the correct various material mediums, various sizes, and various skewing states, so as to overcome the defects of the conventional technology. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    To address an issue that a skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums in the conventional technology insufficiently or excessively corrects sheet-type mediums of different materials and with different sizes, a skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums is provided according to the present application, which is adapted to correct mediums of various materials, various sizes, and various skewing states. 
         [0008]    The skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to the present application includes: an upper holding plate and a lower holding plate for holding the following parts and forming a conveying passage for sheet-type mediums, a front guide wheel set at least including one front guide wheel, in which the one front guide wheel is mounted at a front end of the upper holding plate or a front end of the lower holding plate for guiding the mediums into the conveying passage, a front end position detecting element located at the front end of each of the upper holding plate and the lower holding plate for detecting whether a medium has entered into the conveying passage, a side edge position detecting unit including at least two position detectors, in which the at least two position detectors are distributed at a certain interval on side edges of the upper holding plate and the lower holding plate, and the at least two position detectors are arranged in a direction parallel to the side edges, the at least two position detectors are configured to detect whether an edge of the medium is aligned along the side edge of the upper holding plate or the side edge of the lower holding plate, at least one skew-correction assembly including a belt and a pair of pulleys, in which a conveying direction of the belt is perpendicular to the side edge of the upper holding plate or the side edge of the lower holding plate, and at least one conveying assembly including a pair of conveying wheels, in which a conveying direction of the conveying wheels is perpendicular to the conveying direction of the belt. 
         [0009]    Preferably, the skew-correction assembly is located between the conveying assembly and the front guide wheel set. 
         [0010]    Optionally, two sets of skew-correction assemblies are provided, and two sets of conveying assemblies are provided, specifically, one set of skew-correction assembly is located between one set of conveying assembly and the front guide wheel set, and the other skew-correction assembly is located between the two sets of conveying assemblies. That is to say, the skew-correction assemblies and the conveying assemblies are arranged alternately, and the skew-correction assemblies are closer to the front guide wheel set, which achieves the purpose of skew-correcting first and then conveying. 
         [0011]    Preferably, each pulley of the skew-correction assembly is a drum-shaped wheel, and the drum-shaped wheel is fixed to the upper holding plate and/or the lower holding plate by a shaft. 
         [0012]    An automatic teller machine having the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums is further provided according to the present application. 
         [0013]    In the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to the present application, the sheet-type medium is guided into the medium conveying passage by the front guide wheel set, and when the font end position detecting element has detected that a medium has entered into the conveying passage, and the skew-correction assembly starts to operate, and the belt conveys the medium to a position close to a side edge of each of the upper holding plate and the lower holding plate. The side edge position detecting unit arranged at the side edge includes at least two position detectors, and the two position detectors are spaced apart a certain distance, thus in the case that each of the two position detectors has detected the medium, it is proved that the medium is not skew anymore, and then the conveying assembly is started to convey the sheet-type medium passing through the skew-correction device, which achieves the purpose of skew-correction. In the present application, the skew-correction assembly and the conveying assembly with conveying directions perpendicular to each other are employed to transmit the medium, and the side edge position detecting unit is employed to detect the edge of the medium, and when the two position detectors both have detected the medium, that is, the skew-correction is completed, the conveying assembly is started then to convey the medium passing through the skew-correction device, avoiding an issue that a medium is moved out of the skew-correction track before the skew-correction of which finishes. In addition, the conveying assembly is started immediately after both of the two position detectors have detected the medium, thus, no issue of excessively skew-correction occurs, and the banknote jamming is avoided. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view showing the structures of various parts mounted on an upper holding plate of a skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to a preferred embodiment of the present application; and 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view showing the structures of various parts mounted on a lower holding plate of the corresponding skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums in  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0016]    The technical solutions according to the present application are described in detail hereinafter in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Apparently, the embodiments described are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all of other embodiments, made by the person skilled in the art without any creative efforts, fall into the scope of the present application. 
         [0017]    Reference is made to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . A skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to this embodiment includes an upper holding plate  11  and a lower holding plate  12 . The upper holding plate  11  and the lower holding plate  12  are configured to support the following parts and form a conveying passage for sheet-type mediums. As shown in  FIG. 1 , a pair of front guide wheels  21  is mounted at a front end of the upper holding plate  11 , and correspondingly, a pair of conveying wheels  22  in cooperation with the front guide wheels  21  is mounted at a front end of the lower holding plate  12 . The pair of front guide wheels  21  is cooperated with the pair of conveying wheels  22  to form a front guide wheel set. The front guide wheel set is configured to guide the mediums into the conveying passage constructed by the upper holding plate  11  and the lower holding plate  12 . The positions of the conveying wheels  22  and the front guide wheels  21  can be exchanged with each other up and down. That is to say, the front guide wheels  21  may also be mounted at the front end of the lower holding plate  12 . 
         [0018]    A front end position detecting element is further provided at a front end of each of the upper holding plate  11  and the lower holding plate  12 . The front end position detecting element includes two position detectors  81  and  82  located to be spaced apart by a certain distance for detecting whether a medium has been entered into the conveying passage. The skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to this embodiment especially further includes a side edge position detecting unit, which includes at least two position detectors  91  and  92 . The at least two position detectors  91  and  92  are distributed at a certain interval on same side edges of the upper holding plate  11  and the lower holding plate  12 , and the at least two position detectors  91  and  92  are located in a direction parallel to the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  or the lower holding plate  12 . The at least two position detectors  91  and  92  are configured to detect whether an edge of the medium is aligned along the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  or the lower holding plate  12 . That is to say, in the case that the medium is detected by each of the two position detectors  91  and  92 , the edge of the medium has aligned along the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  or the lower holding plate  12 , and the medium is considered to have been corrected. 
         [0019]    Further and necessarily, the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to this embodiment at least includes a skew-correction assembly, and the skew-correction assembly includes a belt  51  and a pair of pulleys  41  mounted in the upper holding plate  11  and a belt  52  and a pair of pulleys  42  mounted in the lower holding plate  12 . The belt  51  is rotated about the pair of pulleys  41 , and the belt  52  is rotated about the pair of pulleys  42 . The conveying direction of the belt  51  and the belt  52  are perpendicular to the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  or the lower holding plate  12 . Thus, the belt  51  and the belt  52  cooperate to clamp and convey the sheet-type mediums to move the sheet-type mediums towards the side edges of the upper holding plate  11  and the lower holding plate  12  where the side edge position detecting unit is mounted, which allows the edges of the sheet-type mediums to be aligned along the side edges, and achieves the purpose of skew-correction. As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the pulleys  41  and  42  of the skew-correction assembly according to this embodiment are drum-shaped wheels, and the drum-shaped wheels  41  and  42  are mounted to the upper holding plate  11  and/or the lower holding plate  12  via shafts  31  and  32 . 
         [0020]    Necessarily, the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to this embodiment includes at least one conveying assembly. As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the conveying assembly includes two pairs of conveying wheels  71  and  72  distributed in parallel. The conveying wheels  71  are mounted to the upper holding plate  11 , and the conveying wheels  72  are mounted to the lower holding plate  12 . The conveying wheels  71  is cooperated with the conveying wheels  72 , and the conveying direction of the conveying wheels  71  and  72  are perpendicular to the conveying direction of the belts  51  and  52 . The function of a conveying wheel set is to continue to convey forward the sheet-type mediums which have been corrected. Thus, the skew-correction assembly is located between the conveying assembly and the front guide wheel set. That is to say, the sheet-type mediums being guided into the conveying passage by the front guide wheel set are first conveyed to the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  and/or the lower holding plate  12  by a skew-correction wheel set, which allow the edges of the sheet-type mediums to be aligned along the side edge of the upper holding plate  11  and/or the lower holding plate  12  and are not skew anymore and then are continually conveyed by a conveying wheel set into the conveying passage. 
         [0021]    In this embodiment, two sets of skew-correction assemblies are provided, that is, two sets of belt pulley assemblies (each set of belt pulley assembly includes a belt  51  and two drum-shaped wheels  41 ) in the upper holding plate  11 , and two sets of belt pulley assemblies (each set of belt pulley assembly includes a belt  52  and two drum-shaped wheels  42 ) in the lower holding plate  12  in cooperation with the two sets of belt pulley assemblies in the upper holding plate  11 . Also two sets of conveying assemblies are provided, that is, four conveying wheels  71  in the upper holding plate  11  and four conveying wheels  72  in the lower holding plate  12  cooperated with the four conveying wheels  71  in the upper holding plate  11 . Specifically, two pairs of conveying wheels distributed in parallel are one set. The set of skew-correction assembly closer to the front guide wheels  21  is located between a set of conveying assembly and the front guide wheel set, and the other set of skew-correction assembly is located between the two sets of conveying assemblies. That is to say, the skew-correction assemblies and the conveying assemblies are arranged alternately, and the skew-correction assemblies are closer to the front guide wheel set, which achieves the purpose of skew-correcting first and then conveying. 
         [0022]    In the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to this embodiment, the sheet-type medium is guided into the medium conveying passage by the front guide wheel set, and when the font end position detecting element has detected that a medium has entered into the conveying passage, the information is fed back to the controller, and an instruction is sent by the controller and thus the skew-correction assembly starts to operate, and the belt conveys the medium to a position close to the side edges of the upper holding plate and the lower holding plate. The side edge position detecting unit located at the side edges includes at least two position detectors, which are spaced apart a certain distance and arranged in a direction parallel to the side edges, thus in the case that both of the two position detectors have detected the medium (are covered by the medium), it is indicated that the medium is not skew anymore, and a signal is fed back by the position detectors to the controller, and at this time, the controller starts up the conveying assembly, and the conveying assembly continues to convey the sheet-type medium forward to the skew-correction device, so as to achieve the purpose of skew correction. In the present application, the skew-correction assembly and the conveying assembly with conveying directions perpendicular to each other are employed to deliver the medium, and the side edge position detecting unit is employed to detect the edge of the medium. After the two position detectors have both detected the medium, that is, after the skew-correction is completed, the conveying assembly is started up to convey the medium passing through the skew-correction device, which avoids the issue that a medium is moved out of the skew-correction track before the skew-correction is completed. In addition, the conveying assembly is started up immediately after both of the two position detectors have detected the medium, thus, excessively skew-correction and the banknote jamming are avoided. 
         [0023]    An automatic teller machine is further provided according to an embodiment of the present application, and the automatic teller machine has the skew-correction device for sheet-type mediums according to the above embodiments. 
         [0024]    The above are only preferable embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present application. Any equivalent variations made based on the specification and drawings of the present application should be deemed to fall into the protection scope of the present application.