Patent GB-917816-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in parking meters
IPC: G07F17/24
Filed: 1961-11-28
Abstract: 917,816. Parking meters. VEB. TACHOMETER WERKE ADOLF SCHINDLING G.m.b.H. Nov. 28, 1961 [Jan. 3, 1961], No. 42528/61. Class 27. A multi-coin parking meter has a lever arm 43 which is positioned according to the diameter of an inserted coin 54 so that a pin 42 on a pointersetting lever 32 can enter one of several slots a, b, c in the arm 43 and the slots have lengths corresponding to the different coin values so that the movement of the lever 32 gives correspond ing settings of the time pointer 31. Adjustment of the slot lengths may be made by adjustable stops or by interchange of the arm. The coin 54 depresses a lever 17 hinged at 16 to a lever 12 and an arm 24 is lifted clear of the free end of a coil spring 25 on the shaft of a pinion 27 so that a clockwork gear train 28, 9, 6 is free to rotate. The counterclockwise rotation of a cam plate 10 on the pinion 9 first removes a pin 47 from below the part 46 of a selector arm 45 and the arm swings down about its pivot 44 until a nose 50 on a selector plate 48 adjustably secured on the arm gauges the diameter of the coin 54. The lever arm 43 is then positioned so that the pin 42 is opposite an appropriate slot a, b or c. When the cam plate 10 has rotated sufficiently to bring a recess 53 under a bolt 35 on the lever 32, a spring 34 rotates the lever, thus moving the pin 42 into the selected slot and, through a gear 37 and one-way pawl arm 38, setting the pointer 31. After the setting adjustment, the radial face 54 of the cam 10 returns the lever 32 to its initial position and a surface 55 on a control member 11 on the pinion 9 engages a catch 56 on the coin lever 17 and tilts it about the hinge 16 so that the coin falls to a separating device 91. After the fall of the coin, the selector arm rotates under its own weight until its part 46 engages a stop 46a below the gear train and the pin 47 on the cam 10 later engages the face 47a of the part 46 and returns the arm to its initial position. As the cam plate 10 returns to initial position, the arm 23 of the lever 12 moves off the constant radius section of the cam and the arm 24 again blocks the spring 25 and the drive by the gear train. If two coins are inserted, the flange 49 on which the gauging nose 50 is formed inserts itself between the coin and holds up the second coin until the setting according to the first coin has been effected. The coin separating device 91 comprises bottom and side outlets 60, 61 closed respectively by the inturned ends of flaps 63, 64. A coin falling from the lever 17 is retained in the device until, immediately after the start of the next operation, an arm 72 of the control member 11 engages an extension 71 of the flap 63 and moves it so that the coin is released through the slot 60 to a coin box. The arm 71 engages a part 86 of the other flap 64 to open it also and engage an arm 81 behind a shoulder on a catch 82 so that it is held open when the first flap returns to blocking position. If the coin now on the lever 17 is an acceptable coin, the setting movement of the lever 32 will cause its nose 85 to release the catch 82 and allow the flap 64 to return to blocking position but if the coin is unacceptable none of the slots a, b or c come opposite the pin 42 and the lever 32 does not move so that the outlet slot 61 is still open when the coin falls from the lever and it passes to a special container or falls out of the meter housing.