Patent Publication Number: US-11027286-B2

Title: Lottery ticket destroying device

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/713,719 filed Sep. 25, 2017. The entirety of said Application is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (a) Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to shredding technology and more particularly to a lottery ticket destroying device capable of cutting every individual lottery ticket into pieces for easy destruction. 
     (b) Description of the Prior Art 
     Conventional lottery ticket destruction devices, such as Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 85208584, 85204451, and 8520923, all disclose techniques for cutting and destroying lottery tickets. These designs simply use ratchets to cut lottery tickets into three slender curled paper strips but cannot cut off a long string of lottery tickets one by one. Therefore, after cutting, the curled paper strips still have a long curled shape with an increased volume, and the longer the long string of lottery tickets, the greater the degree of curl expansion. After the long string of lottery tickets is destroyed, the waste of the curled paper strips will automatically fall into a collection cylinder. However, the collection cylinder can only store a limited number of destroyed lottery tickets. Therefore, it is necessary to repeatedly clean up the collection cylinder. This will not only increase the lottery tickets destruction work, but also greatly reduce the effectiveness of the work of destroying the lottery tickets. 
     To this end, the inventor of the present invention has proposed an improved lottery destruction device, as shown in the Taiwan Patent Notice M554380, which uses a motor at one side of a machine body to rotate a transmission gear set, two guide rollers and two roller cutters, so that the user can insert a long string of lottery tickets from a top insertion slot through the two guide rollers, enabling the long string of lottery tickets to be sent by the two guide rollers between the two roller cutters below, and the long string of lottery tickets is then cut obliquely into pieces and discharged downward through a shear groove structure on the surface of each of the two roller cutters. 
     However, the two sides of the shear groove of each of the above two roller cutters are perpendicular to the surface of the respective roller cutter, so that after each lottery ticket is cut into pieces, it will not be smoothly discharged in the shear grooves. If too much waste pieces are accumulated in the shear grooves, the cutting operation will not be smooth. In addition, the two roller cutters are driven by two passive wheels of the transmission gear set, so that the cutting edges of the two roller cutters are meshed together, and the cutting edges that are meshed together cannot be relaxed a little regardless of the forward or reverse rotation. Therefore, if two overlapping lottery tickets are accidentally inserted in between the two guide rollers, the cutting edges of the two roller cutters will be stuck by the two overlapping lottery tickets, which must be eliminated through a complicated disassembly process. To this end, how to overcome the shortcomings of the above two roller cutters is the subject of the present invention. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is one object of the present invention to provide a lottery destroying device, which uses two roller cutters in the housing thereof for cutting lottery tickets into pieces, wherein each roller cutter has a plurality of helical shear grooves recessed into the roller cutter surface thereof. Each helical shear groove has a groove bottom surface, a vertical shear surface located on one side of the groove bottom surface and connected to the roller cutter surface and a chip-discharge surface located on an opposite side of the groove bottom surface and connected to the roller cutter surface. The chip-discharge surface can improve the discharge after the lottery ticket is cut into pieces. Thereby, the lottery ticket can be cut into pieces by the vertical shear surfaces of the helical cutter grooves of the two roller cutters, and the chip-discharge surfaces of the helical shear grooves can prevent the lottery ticket chips from being caught in the helical shear grooves and facilitate downward discharge of the lottery ticket chips. The chip-discharge surface may be a sloping or a curved surface. 
     Preferably, the shaft of one of the two roller cutters comprises a mounting portion protruding from one side of the housing and sequentially mounted with a second driven gear of the transmission gear set, an elastic member and a retaining member. The elastic member has one end thereof abutted against the second driven gear and an opposite end thereof abutted against the retaining member. The retaining member is coupled to the mounting portion of the shaft. Thereby, the retaining member is pushed by the elastic force of one end of the elastic member, so that the retaining member pushes the roller cutter, causing one vertical shear surface of the roller cutter to mesh with one vertical shear surface of the other roller cutter. Therefore, the meshed vertical shear surfaces of the two roller cutters have room for flexible activity, which can prevent the jamming caused by two lottery tickets being simultaneously drawn into the two roller cutters. 
     Other advantages and features of the present invention will be fully understood by reference to the following specification in junction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters denote like components of the structure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic first side elevational view of a lottery ticket destroying device in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic second side elevational view of the lottery ticket destroying device in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an opened status of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic perspective view of the first side of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded view of the roller cutters of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic cross-sectional view of the right side of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic cross-sectional view of the roller cutters of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic elevational view of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention with the elastic member thereof shown in exploded view. 
         FIG. 9  is an elevational view of a part of the present invention, showing the structure of the two roller cutters of the lottery ticket destroying device. 
         FIG. 10  is an exploded view of the elastic member and the associated roller cutter of the lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a lottery ticket destroying device of the present invention is a shredding device for installing a lottery destroying machine capable of cutting lottery tickets into pieces for destruction, comprising a housing  10 , two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ mounted in the housing  10  (see  FIG. 4 ) and a transmission gear set  30  mounted on one side of the housing  10 .  FIGS. 3 and 4  further show that the transmission gear set  30  comprises a first driven gear  31  and a second driven gear  32  respectively mounted on the shafts  23  of the roller cutters  20 ′, 20  at one end. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 3 , the housing  10  preferably comprises an upper housing member  11  and a lower housing member  12 , and an pivotal joint is implemented on one end of the upper housing member  11  and the lower housing member  12  so that the other end of the upper housing member  11  can be easily opened from the lower housing member  12 . The upper housing member  11  is provided with an insertion slot  13  at a top side thereof for inserting a string of lottery tickets  100 . A motor  14  is mounted on one side of the lower housing member  12  for driving a drive gear  15  (as shown in  FIG. 2 ). The drive gear  15  drives the transmission gear set  30 , causing the transmission gear set  30  to drive two guide rollers  16 , 16 ′ and the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ in the housing  10  (as shown in  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 ). Thus, the two guide rollers  16 , 16 ′ are able to roll the inserted string of lottery tickets  100  between the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′, enabling the inserted string of lottery tickets  100  to be cut into pieces by the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 , the center of each of the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ is respectively disposed with a shaft  23  protruding from the two ends of the roller cutters  20 , 20 ′. Both ends of the shaft  23  of each of the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ are rotatably disposed in the lower housing member  12  of the housing  10 . Through the transmission gear set  30 , the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ are rotated synchronously. In particular, as shown in  FIG. 7 ,  FIG. 9  and  FIG. 10 , the surface  22  of the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ of the present invention respectively has a plurality of helical shear grooves  21  recessed into the surface  22  of the roller cutters  20 , 20 ′. Each helical shear groove  21  comprises a groove bottom surface  211 , a vertical shear surface  212  located on one side of the groove bottom surface  211  and connected to the roller cutter surface  22 , and a chip-discharge sloping surface  213  located on an opposite side of the groove bottom surface  211  and connected to the roller cutter surface  22 . The chip-discharge sloping surface  213  can also be replaced by a chip-discharge curved surface. Thereby, the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ are rolled by the transmission gear set  30 , so that the inserted string of lottery tickets  100  can be cut by the matching vertical shear surfaces  212  of the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′, and use the chip-discharge sloping surfaces  213  to help discharge the chips of the string of lottery tickets downwards, while preventing the lottery chips from being stuck in the helical shear grooves  21 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 8 ,  FIG. 9  and  FIG. 10 , one end of the shaft  23  of one of the two roller cutters ( 20  as illustrated) of the present invention is provided with a mounting portion  231 . The mounting portion  231  extends to protrude from one side of the housing  10 , and is located on the same side as the transmission gear set  30 , and a second driven gear  32  of the transmission gear set  30 , an elastic member  40  and a retaining member  50  are sequentially mounted on one end of the shaft  23 . The elastic member  40  has one end thereof abutted against the second driven gear  32  and an opposite end thereof abutted against the retaining member  50 . The retaining member  50  is coupled to the mounting portion  231  of the shaft  23 . Thereby, the retaining member  50  is pushed by the elastic force of one end of the elastic member  40 , so that the retaining member  50  pushes the roller cutter  20 , causing one vertical shear surface  212  of the roller cutter  20  to mesh with one vertical shear surface  212  of the other roller cutter  20 ′. Therefore, the meshed vertical shear surfaces  212  of the two roller cutters  20 , 20 ′ have room for flexible activity, which can prevent the jamming caused by two lottery tickets being simultaneously drawn into the two roller cutters. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 8-10 , the outer side of the second driven gear  32  is provided with a stopping portion  321 , and the stopping portion  321  can be a screw attached to the second driven gear  32 . The retaining member  50  is a disc  51  made of plastic. The inner side of the disc  51  has a latching portion  52 . The latching portion  52  can be embodied as a recess recessed into the disc  51 . The elastic member  40  is preferably implemented as a torsion spring  41 . The torsion spring  41  has one end thereof abutted against the stopping portion  321  of the second driven gear  32 , and an opposite end thereof abutted against the latching portion  52 . In addition, a fixing component  60  can be attached to the end surface of the mounting portion  231 . The fixing component  60  can be a screw, and the fixing component  60  can be pressed against an outer side of the retaining member  50  to prevent the retaining member  50  from coming off the mounting portion  231 . 
     Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.