Patent ID: 7335903

Claim:
A detachable bill acceptor mounting arrangement comprising: a face panel of a vending machine, said face panel having a bill slot for the insertion of a bill and a bill passage backwardly extending from said bill slot to a back side of said face panel, and a bill acceptor detachably mounted on the back side of said face panel, said bill acceptor comprising a lower unit, an upper unit mounted on said lower unit, a bill path defined between said lower unit and said upper unit in communication with said bill passage, a bill conveyer mounted in said lower unit for carrying a bill from said bill passage through said bill path, and a bill validator adapted to verify the authenticity of the bill being carried by said bill conveyer through said bill path; wherein: said lower unit comprises two upright side panels, said upright side panels each having an outer wall, an inner wall opposite to said outer wall, a pivot hole on said inner wall, a recessed locating portion on said outer wall, a plurality of stub guide rods suspending in said recessed locating portion, and a retaining slot cut through said outer wall and said inner wall near a rear side; said upper unit is set between said two upright side panels of said lower unit, comprising two flat pivot rods respectively extended from two opposite lateral sides thereof near a front side and respectively pivotally coupled to said pivot holes on said upright side panels of said lower unit, a plurality of locating blocks at a front side thereof, and two hooks respectively extended from the two opposite lateral sides of said upper unit near a rear side for engaging said retaining slots of said lower unit; said face panel comprises two protruding locating plates backwardly extending from two opposite lateral sides for engaging into said recessed location portions of said lower unit of said bill acceptor, said protruding locating plates each having guide groove means for receiving said stub guide rods of said lower unit to secure said lower unit to said face panel, and a plurality of retaining grooves on the back side above said bill passage for receiving said locating blocks of said upper unit of said bill acceptor.