Patent GB-707886-A (GB)
Abstract: 707,886. Ticket printing and issuing machine. RIV-OFFICINE DI VILLAR PEROZA SOC. PER AZIONI. Jan. 26, 1951, No. 2095/51. Class 106 (3) A machine for printing and issuing tickets and summing the prices of the tickets issued, comprises a casing in which drum shaped magazines are rotatable about a common axis and are formed with radial seatings receiving supporting frames carrying blocks for printing the ticket and actuating members for entering into a totalizer the price of the ticket, a set of setting levers equalling in number the magazines carried by the casing and adapted to rotate the magazines in order to cause any seating to come in front of an outlet opening formed in the casing at each magazine, a slide mounted on guides carried by the casing for displacement parallel to the axis of rotation of the magazines and adapted to be brought in front of each outlet opening, means within the slide for seizing the frame in said pre-selected seating, introducing it into the slide, printing by means of the printing block the data on a ticket blank introduced into the slide and returning the frame into the magazine, and a totalizer contained in the slide and adapted to be actuated by the actuating members carried by the frame on movement of the frame within the slide. The invention is described as applied to a machine for printing and issuing railway tickets and comprises a body A, Fig. 1, a base 48 having drawers 2 and a slide 1 manually movable along a guide surface 9 of a support shelf 39. Within the body A are ten co-axially mounted drum magazines 16, Fig. 3, each containing fifty radially arranged printing block frames 45, Figs. 5 and 18, and each having a gear 16a, Fig. 3, which may be rotated by a gear segment 17 carried by an arm 18 rotatable on a spindle 53 and having an external handle 6. Each handle 6 carries a pointer 38, Fig. 8, movable over an adjacent station scale 7, Fig. 1, so that upon rotation of a lever 18 until the pointer 38 is over the required arrival station the corresponding frame 45 is brought into alignment with a corresponding opening 8 in the body A. The lever 18, Fig. 3, is retained in its set position by the engagement of a spring-loaded finger 31 on the lever 18 with the appropriate slot in an arcuate retaining member 30. Each magazine 16 has a toothed segment which actuates a centrifugal brake 25 and a sprocket wheel 33, Fig. 6, which drives a chain 32 over pulleys 32a, 32b, 32c. The chain 32 carries a contact member 34 which prepares for actuation, when a switch 22, Fig. 3, is subsequently closed, the appropriate one of a set of relay type counters 26 carried by a board 4. There is one counter 26 for each station on the scales 7. If desired the counters may be of a mechanical type actuated by a parallel linkage mechanism, Fig. 15 (not shown). Each printing block frame 45, Fig. 18, carries at 45b removable fare printing blocks and a removable plate 66, Fig. 17, having removable fare representing racks 65 which serve to operate a totalizer in the slide 1 as described later. The printing slide 1 comprises a set of gear wheels 80, Fig. 24, actuated through a gear train from the main cam-shaft to step-on a serial number indicating counter 81, and a serial number record strip printing mechanism 253, Fig. 39. The record strip 83, Fig. 24, is mounted in a pivoted frame 109, Fig. 26, and is wound from a reel 73, Fig. 24, on to a reel 118 on a spindle 124 by a pawl and ratchet feed mechanism 122, 119, Fig. 26, actuated when the frame 109 is rocked about its pivot every machine cycle. At the same time the serial number and the ticket price are printed on the record strip from the serial number counter 253 on the shaft 82a, Fig. 24, and from the type on the frame 45, Fig. 26, by a pressure roller 111. If the frame 109 is incorrectly positioned or if a feeler 126, Fig. 26, moves due to strip breakage or exhaustion a slide 128 is locked to prevent rotation of a shaft 86, Fig. 36, and operation of the machine. Each of the ten slots 8, Fig. 1, is normally blocked by a link 19, Fig. 3, pivoted to a lever 21 which is pivoted at one end on a shaft 63 and which, at the other end, projects into the support 39, Fig. 10, and carries a latch member 44 which normally engages a member 49 on the support 39. When the slide 1 has been moved along the guide 9, Fig. 1, to the desired slot 8 the corresponding latch member 44, Fig. 10, is embraced by a forked lever 43 carried by a shaft 43a. On depression of an actuating button 11, Figs. 1, 36, against a spring, a slide 286, Fig. 36, is moved to the left and through a link 84, a lever 85, gear segments 85a, 85b, a shaft 86 is rotated counter-clockwise, at the same time a cam 148, Fig. 29, is freed to close the switch of the driving electric motor. The machine may also be hand operated by a crank handle. The shaft 86, Fig. 24, carries a gear segment 87 which through gearing 88, 89, 90, 91, 92 moves a slide 93 which, in turn, moves a slide 93a, Fig. 25, which through gearing 338, 339 rotates a stub shaft 342 which is connected through bevel gearing 50, 51, Fig. 10, to the forked lever 43 which is thereupon moved counter-clockwise so that an extension 46 thereof passes through the appropriate one of ten slots 47a in a plate 47 and the lever 21 is rocked clockwise the latch 44 leaving the member 49. The switch 22, Fig. 3, is closed by the lever 21 and the appropriate counter 26 is actuated. The corresponding link 19 is lowered so that its slot F coincides with the slot 8. At the end of a machine cycle a cam 97 on the main cam shaft 219, Fig. 24, effects the return of the slide 93 through the levers 99, 96 and gearing 95, 94. Insertion of the ticket blank through the slot 10; Fig. 1, into the slide carrier 157, Fig. 30, moves a lever 161 clockwise against spring pressure. The lever 161 is connected through the linkage shown in Fig. 36, to a link 510 which has a hook 511a which normally locks the slide 286 and the machine but which is lifted upon the above clockwise movement of the lever 161 to free the slide 286. Near the end of a machine cycle a cam 168, Fig. 30, on the main shaft 219 effects withdrawal of the ticket blank retaining finger 160 and the printed ticket is expelled from the slot 10, Fig. 1, by the lever 161, Fig. 30. When the machine starts a frame 159, attached to the ticket blank carrier 157, Fig. 41, in the' slide is moved to the left by the double cam 234, Fig. 33, through the illustrated gear train, and then transversely through the gearing 198, 200, 310, 312, Figs. 31 and 41. In the movement of the frame 159 to the left the inking rollers 176 ink the wheels for printing the date and serial number on the ticket and the wheels for printing the serial number on the record strip. At the same time a slide 138, Figs. 35 and 40, is also moved towards the opening 8 through a gear train controlled by a double cam 273, Fig. 35, on the shaft 219 and a slide 233 is also moved in the same direction so that a tooth 303, Fig. 40, thereon rotates a gear 304 which moves a latch 272 into engagement with the hook 74, Fig. 18, of the selected printing block frame 45 which is then withdrawn from the magazine into the slide, Fig. 29. The slide 286, Fig. 36, is spring returned to its initial position at the end of each machine cycle when a pin 287 is moved away from the inner end of the button 11 through linkage by a cam 263 on the shaft 219. Ticket printing.-The price type on the block carried by the selected frame 45 is printed on the ticket blank by the hammer 139, Fig. 29, controlled by a cam 141, not shown. The date, as set on wheels 177, Fig. 30, and the serial number, on the wheels 154, are printed on the blank by the hammer 180 actuated by a cam on the shaft 219. At the beginning and end of his period of operation the machine operator inserts a card into the slide through a slot 12, Fig. 1, into a holder 330, Fig. 45, so that the total on the totalizer 102 and the serial numbers on the wheels 153 may be printed on the card by the manually operated hammer 298. The totalizer is of the type disclosed in Specifications 470,265, and 490,199. As the printing block frame 45 is, as described above, retracted from the magazine and moved within the slide the totalizer carrying frame 105, Fig. 26, is rocked through linkage by a cam on the shaft 219 so that the gears 104, Fig. 26, are differentially rotated by the price representing racks 65 to actuate the totalizer 102.