Patent ID: 7240780

Claim:
An apparatus for discriminating valuable papers comprising: conveyer means that has lower and upper transfer units to define a passageway between the lower and upper transfer units, centering means that has a pair of pinch jaws positioned on the opposite sides of an inlet of said passageway, said pinch jaws being movable toward and away from each other, an inlet sensor disposed in the vicinity of said inlet for detecting the valuable paper inserted from said inlet between said lower and upper transfer units to produce a detection signal, a trigger sensor disposed behind said inlet sensor along said passageway for detecting the paper moved to a standby position, a validation sensor disposed downstream of said trigger sensor for converting into electric signals a physical feature of the paper passing through the validation sensor, release means for shifting one of said lower and upper transfer units between a contact position wherein said one of said lower and upper transfer units is in contact to the other of said lower and upper transfer units and a separated position wherein said one is apart from the other, and validation control means for controlling each drive of said conveyer means, centering means and release means to conduct the following continuous operations (i) to (xiii): (i) to drive said conveyer means to inwardly move the paper along the passageway when said inlet sensor detects the paper, (ii) to cease driving of said conveyer means to keep the paper in the standby position in the passageway when said trigger sensor detects the paper, (iii) to drive the release means to shift one of said lower and upper transfer units from the contact position to the separated position, (iv) to activate the centering means to centralize the paper along the longitudinal central axis of the passageway, (v) to drive the release means to return said one of said lower and upper transfer units from the separated position to the contact position, (vi) to again drive said conveyer means to further inwardly move the paper, (vii) to authenticate the paper in view of the electric signals received from said validation sensor, (viii) to drive the conveyer means in the adverse direction to return the paper to the standby position when the validation control means does not consider the paper as genuine, (ix) to again drive said release means to shift one of said lower and upper transfer units from the contact position to the separated position, (x) to activate the centering means to centralize the paper along the longitudinal central axis of the passageway, (xi) to drive the release means to return said one of said lower and upper transfer units from the separated position to the contact position, (xii) to again drive said conveyer means to further inwardly move the paper through said validation sensor, and (xiii) to again authenticate the paper in view of the electric signals from said validation sensor.