Patent GB-560756-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in coin testing mechanism for prepayment apparatus
Filed: 1942-07-15
Abstract: 560,756. Coin -- freed mechanism. SODECO SOC. DES COMPTEURS DE GENEVE. July 15, 1942, No. 9855. Convention date, July 26, 1941. [Class 27] In mechanism in which coins of different values may be inserted to obtain different quantities of a commodity, means are provided for testing the diameter, thickness, weight and magnetic properties of the inserted coin. The coin is inserted through a slot 2 normally backed by a closure 5 which can slide upwardly by pressure of the coin. Behind the closure 5 is a plate 10 also vertically slidable between enclosing walls, a pin 11 extending from the plate to rest on top of the closure 5 and rise therewith to admit the coin into a chamber 12 beneath the plate 10. Different coins raise the plate 10 to different extents above its normal level, and slots 42, 43 through the plate 10 are located so as to allow fingers 37 to pass therethrough when a coin of correct diameter is inserted, one slot 42, 43 being provided for each type of coin to be catered for. A nose 19, pivoted from a shaft 20, normally bears against the pin 11, but when this has been raised, and the closure 5 subsequently falls, can pass beneath the pin 11 under the influence of a spring 21 and so, through an arm 27, remove a detent from beneath a pin 28 projecting from a toothed disc 29. This allows through a gear train, a shaft 18 to rotate through a gear drive from a spring drum 23 energized at each manipulation of the apparatus. The nose 19 locks the closure 5 in position during the checking operations. A rack 46 pivoted on an axis 47 is provided with adjustable stops 49, one for each type of coin to be provided for, which coact with extensions 48 of the fingers 37 to swing the rack 46 outward when a coin of normal size allows entry of a finger 37 into a slot 42, 43. About an axis 56 is pivoted another rack 55 having similar stops 57 coacting with the extensions 48. Rigid with the rack 46 is an arm 50, spring-biassed at 51, carrying a pin 54 mounted on a spring blade 52 at its lower end. The pin 54 collaborates with an inclined wall 65 at the outer end of a feeling lever 58 pivoted at 60 and having a touchpoint 62 which is brought by a spring 66 into contact with the coin face, pressing the other face against an abutment 67. The shaft 18, rotating after its release by entry of a finger 37 into a slot 42, 43, rotates through gearing a spindle 70 carrying a slotted disc 68, the rim of which bears against a pin 69 rising from the lever 58. The slot 71, during a brief interval, allows the lever 58 to swing laterally till the pin 54 comes to the rear of the wall 65. If the coin is of the right thickness and diameter the location of the rear edge of the wall 65 will be such that on return of the pin 69 to the circular part of the rim of the disc 68 the pin 54 will be able to pass by spring action inward of the wall 65 and attain its original position shown. With a coin too thick or of the wrong diameter, however, the pin stays outside the wall, thus preventing a pin 106 which rides on a block 53 carrying the pin 54 from falling, and so keeping a spring-urged. liberator lever. pin 104 from moving in due course into a gap in a cam 105 on the shaft 18. This prevents a pawl 9.6 from freeing the end of an arm 94 extending from a shaft 93 carrying a baffle 92 which determines whether the coin eventually falls into the rejection, or acceptance shoot 91 or 90. The coin chamber 12 is then tipped by a, cam 17 acting on an extension 16'to throw the coin into the pan 32 of a balance arm 33 biassed by a spring 59 and counter-weighted at 73. The balance spindle 72 carries a disc 74 having a pin 75 and a slot 78. On a spindle 114 geared to the shaft 18 to rotate pari passu therewith is a cam groove 76 into which the head of the.pin 75 enters, and which serves eventually to tip the pan 32 to transfer the, coin to the duct 89 and then to restore, the. pan. The pin 75 reaches a wide portion of the groove 76 just after the coin drops in the pan 32, and allows the balance arm 33 to attain its position as determined by the weight of the. coin and the tension of the spring 59, this latter being connected at its upper end to the rack 55 and so being differently tensioned according to the type of coin inserted. If the coin is of the right weight the liberator lever 101 can, if not otherwise prevented, swing to tip a lever 80 carrying a pin 79, for this will'then be opposite the slot 78. A permanent magnet 87 is located so as to add to the weight of the coin any magnetic attraction, from zero upwards, that should be inherent in the coin, so that the spring 59 balances weight plus magnetic attraction. If the lever 101 accepts the coin its swing forces aside a spring-held detent 26 which liberates a shaft 24 geared through a differential 25 to the spring drum 23. The full,tilt of the pertinent lever 35 will have brought down. an arm 41 carrying a pinion 111 permanently in gear with a pinion 110 on a control shaft 109. The pinion 111 in its down position engages a mutilated pinion 108 on the shaft 24, the teeth on the pinions 108 corresponding in number to the value of the relative coin.