JPH0426930Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a jam release device in a coin counting machine for recognizing a coin jam in a conveyance path of the coin counting machine and quickly responding to the jam.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, coin counters have been commonly used in stores, financial services, and the like as devices for counting the number of coins in sales proceeds by denomination.

As this conventional coin counting machine, there is one shown in FIG. 5, for example. In the figure, 1 is a rotary disk that is a coin storage section, C ₅₀₀ is a 500 yen coin, C ₁₀₀ is a 100 yen coin, 2 is a conveyance path through which the coins sent out from the top of the rotary disk 1 are sequentially sent out, and 3 is this conveyance path 2 4 is a fixed guide on one side of the conveyance path 2; 5 is a movable guide for course width selection provided opposite the fixed guide 4; 6 is this movable guide 5.
7 is a return spring of the movable guide 5; 8 is a polygonal cam provided on the conveying path 2 on the downstream side of the discharge port 3; A metal sensor is used for counting, 9 and 10 are pulleys provided on the inlet and outlet sides of the conveyance path 2, and 11 is the pulley 9 and 10.
It is a feed belt that spans the area.

In other words, in this coin counting machine, a plurality of coins of different denominations are placed on the rotary disk 1, and the cam 6 is manually rotated sequentially, so that the coins are separated by denomination on the conveyance path 2. Passing coins are detected via a metal sensor 8 and counted.

To select the denomination to be counted, adjust the setting position of the cam 6 to the coin with the largest diameter (for coins passing through Japan,
500 yen coin), by sequentially switching to positions corresponding to smaller diameter coins.

That is, initially, the cam 6 is set at a position for sorting 500 yen coins. As a result, the movable guide 5 elastically supported by the return spring 7 moves, and the width of the conveyance path 2 is set to match the diameter of the 500 yen coin _C500 . At the same time, the width of the discharge port 3 provided in the middle of the conveyance path 2 is set to a width that allows only the 500 yen coin C ₅₀₀ to pass through.

As the turntable 1 rotates, the coins enter the conveying path 2 due to centrifugal force, and move along the conveying path 2 as the feed belt 11 stretched between pulleys 9 and 10 on the conveying path 2 moves.

At this time, the 500 yen coin C ₅₀₀ can pass through the transport path 2, but the 100 yen coin C ₁₀₀ and other coins fall downward from the discharge opening 3 and are stored in a reservoir (not shown).

The 500 yen coin C ₅₀₀ that has passed through the conveyance path 2 is detected by the metal sensor 8 and then stored in another reservoir.

In this way, when the coins on the rotary disk 1 run out, the display on the display (not shown) becomes the number of 500 yen coins.

Next, manually switch the cam 6 and
It is set at the sorting position for the coin with the second largest diameter, that is, the 10 yen coin.

Then, on the rotary disk 1, the coins dropped from the discharge port 3, that is, the coins excluding the 500 yen coin C ₅₀₀ , are placed.

This time, the width of the transport path 2 is adapted to the diameter of a 10 yen coin, and only 10 yen coins pass through the transport path 2 and are counted. Other coins are dropped from the outlet 3.

Thereafter, by manually switching the cam 6, counting is performed for each denomination in the order of 100 yen coins, 5 yen coins, 50 yen coins, and 1 yen coins.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, in the conventional coin counter described above, if the accuracy of the cam is low or if the coins to be counted are deformed, multiple coins may interlock on the conveyance path 2. As a result, so-called jamming may occur.

When this jam occurs, in conventional devices, the device housing must be removed and the jammed coins must be manually removed. Moreover, even if an attempt is made to rotate the cam 6 in order to remove the jammed coins, the movable guide 5 gets in the way, making it impossible to widen the width of the conveying path 2. Furthermore, if you try to rotate the cam 6, the angle of the cam 6 will bite into the movable guide 5, making it impossible to rotate it easily. If you try to rotate the cam 6 forcibly, there is a risk that the angle of the cam 6 will collapse. There was also a problem. The purpose of the present invention is to automatically detect and deal with the jamming of coins in the conveyance path.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, an ejection port is formed in the middle of the coin storage section, which is made up of a rotary disk, through which coins with a diameter smaller than the hole width drop out, and an outlet is formed on the outside of the coin storage section. The material is sequentially fed into the conveyor path by rotating the rotary disk,
A jam release device for a coin counting machine that counts coins that have passed through a conveyance path without falling out of the discharge port and coins that have fallen out of the discharge port, wherein the conveyance path is configured with a fixed guide and a movable guide; A course width selection means that fixes a movable guide to a feed screw shaft for course width selection, transmits the rotational force of a step motor to the feed screw shaft, and makes it possible to adjust the course width of the conveyance path by the rotation angle of the motor; A home position sensor that detects the origin position where the course width is approximately the maximum, based on the movement position of the feed screw shaft, and a first metal sensor that is located at a position facing the conveyance path in the coin storage section and detects the storage state of coins. a second metal sensor disposed in the conveyance path to detect the passing state of coins in the conveyance path; a first metal sensor to detect the accommodation state of coins in the coin storage section; When the passage of the coin is not detected, a jammed coin in the conveyance path is detected, and the step motor is driven until the home position sensor detects the origin position of the feed screw shaft. The controller is configured to be able to release the information.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, when coin jamming occurs in the conveyance path, the first metal sensor detects the coin storage state in the coin storage section,
In addition, since the second metal sensor does not detect coins in the conveyance path, the controller can automatically recognize the state in which coins are clogged in the conveyance path. Furthermore, based on this recognition state, the controller drives the step motor, and the motor drives until the home position sensor detects the feed screw shaft, and the course width is expanded to almost the maximum, automatically removing jammed coins. It becomes possible to cancel the release. As a result, it becomes possible to cancel jamming without any complicated work required in the past.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. In the figure, the same reference numerals as those mentioned above indicate equivalent parts.

In this embodiment, a feed screw shaft 12 is fixedly provided on the movable guide 5 so as to be perpendicular to the movable guide 5, and a nut 13 screwed onto the feed screw shaft 12 is attached to the fixing member of the device (see FIG. The nut 13 is provided rotatably with respect to a bearing 14 (not shown), and a gear 15 is provided integrally with the nut 13. Further, a home position sensor 16 is provided at a predetermined position near the extension line of the tip of the feed screw shaft 12, and a sensor plate 17 is provided at the tip of the feed screw shaft 12. Whether or not the movable guide 5 is at its original position (home position) is detected based on whether or not the light inside is blocked. That is, the detection state of light interruption by the home position sensor 16 is set at a position where the course width between the fixed guide 4 and the movable guide 5 is approximately at its maximum.

Further, 18 is a step motor which can be driven by electronic control by a computer, and 19 is a gear fixed to the shaft of this step motor 18, which meshes with the gear 15. The rotation angle of this step motor 18 is controlled by a controller (width adjustment mechanism control circuit) 20.

Further, in this embodiment, a metal sensor 8a detects whether or not a coin is present on the rotary disk 1.
(first metal sensor) is provided.

As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 20 is mainly composed of an arithmetic processing unit (hereinafter referred to as "CPU") 21 such as a microcomputer, and receives a switch signal S ₄ from a manual selection switch 22 and an automatic selection switch. switch signal S ₅ from 23, detection signal S ₁ from home position sensor 16 input via sensor buffer 24, detection signal S ₂ from metal sensors 8 and 8a, and
S ₆ and a switch signal S ₇ from the jamming release switch 29 are input.

Further, the CPU 21 outputs a drive control signal D ₃ for the step motor 18 , and this drive control signal D ₃ is a pulse current signal applied to the step motor 18 in the step motor drive circuit 28 .
It is converted to _S3 and output.

Furthermore, the CPU 21 outputs count value data D ₁ and total amount data D ₂ of the coins being sorted.
The contents of these data D ₁ and D ₂ are displayed on the count value display 27 and the amount display 26.

3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the processing executed by the CPU 21, and the processing shown in FIG.
The process shown in the figure is a process for removing coins stuck on the conveyance path 2 (jamming release process).

First, the denomination selection and counting process shown in FIG. 3 will be explained.

In step 31, the manual selection switch 2
It is determined whether or not the denomination to be sorted has been selected by the operation in step 2. Manual selection switch 2
2 is a switch for inputting a command to that effect when the operator desires to sort a specific denomination (for example, when wanting to sort only 100 yen coins).

When the manual selection switch 22 is operated, steps 41 to 44 and 53 are executed, and the designated denomination is selected and the coin count and total amount are displayed.

In steps 41 and 42, in accordance with the denomination designated by the manual selection switch 22, the width of the conveying path 2 is set to a width approximately equal to the diameter of the coin of the designated denomination. The data corresponding to the specified denomination is read from the data of the width of the conveyance path 2 corresponding to the diameter of each denomination stored in the memory in advance, and the rotation angle of the step motor 18 corresponding to this is read out. The pulse number data to be obtained is determined and output as the drive control signal _D3 . When a predetermined number of pulses are input to the step motor 18 by this signal _D3 , the step motor 18 rotates by a predetermined angle, and this rotation is transmitted to the nut 13 via the gears 19 and 15. The movable guide 5 is connected via the feed screw shaft 12 screwed with the
moves in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1 to set the width of the transport path 2 to a predetermined width.

When the width of the transport path 2 has been set, step 43
Through the process, the number of coins detected by the metal sensor 8 (second metal sensor) is counted.

In step 44, if the coin is not detected by the metal sensor 8 even after a certain period of time has elapsed,
It is determined that there are no coins on the rotary disk 1, and the counting process is terminated.

Then, in step 53, the total amount of coins counted from the counted value from the process of step 43 and the specified denomination is calculated, and this total amount and the counted value are displayed on the amount display 26 and the counted value display 27. do.

Next, a case where the automatic selection switch 23 is turned on will be explained.

When the automatic selection switch 23 is turned on, the determination in step 32 becomes YES, and the process in step 33 is performed.

In this step 33, data corresponding to the largest diameter coin (500 yen coin in the case of Japan) is read out of the width data of the conveyance path 2 corresponding to the diameter of each denomination stored in the memory. Then, the pulse number data for obtaining the corresponding rotation angle of the step motor 18 is obtained, and this is output as the drive control signal _D3 .

As a result, the width of the conveyance path 2 is set to be approximately equal to the diameter of the 500 yen coin, and the width of the discharge port 3 is set to a width that allows coins other than the 500 yen coin to fall out.

When the width of the conveyance path 2 is set, the rotary disk 1 and the pulleys 9 and 10 start rotating, and a plurality of coins of different denominations on the rotary disk 1 are sequentially fed into the conveyance path 2. It will be done.

Then, only the 500 yen coin C ₅₀₀ passes through the conveyance path 2 without falling off from the discharge port 3, and is detected by the metal sensor 8 (second metal sensor). Detected by this metal sensor 8 (second metal sensor)
The 500 yen coins C ₅₀₀ are counted in step 34.

The process at step 35 is the same as step 44, and is a process of detecting that there are no more coins on the rotary disk 1 and stopping the counting operation.

If the judgment in step 35 is YES, then step 36 is performed, and the coin with the next largest diameter (10
The sorting process for yen coins is carried out in substantially the same manner as the processes in steps 33-35.

That is, data on the width of the conveyance path 2 corresponding to a 10 yen coin is obtained from the memory, the rotation of the step motor 18 is controlled so as to set the width of the conveyance path 2 to this width, and then the rotation of the step motor 18 is controlled to set the width of the conveyance path 2 to this width. , 10 are rotated to count the 10 yen coins C ₁₀ that have passed through the conveyance path 2.

Here, on the turntable 1 is the 500 yen coin C _500.
Through the sorting operation, coins that have fallen out of the discharge port 3 and are accommodated in a reservoir (not shown) are placed.
In other words, there are no 500 yen coins.

When the counting of 10 yen coins is completed, the next largest diameter coins (100 yen coins) are sorted in the same way. Sorting processing is performed in order of 1 yen.

When the counting of the smallest diameter coins (1 yen coins) is completed (steps 51 and 52), the count value for each denomination and the total amount (total amount of all coins and each total amount for each species).

In this way, in this embodiment, coins with the next largest diameter are sorted sequentially starting from the largest coin, and at this time, the movable guide 5 is automatically displaced to reduce the width of the conveyance path 2 and the discharge port 3. The width is automatically set to correspond to the coins to be sorted.

Note that the processing performed in steps 35, 44, 52, etc. described above is based on the detection signal _S6 of the other metal sensor 8a (first metal sensor), which indicates that there are no more coins on the rotary disk 1. This can also be done by sensing.

Next, the jamming cancellation process shown in FIG. 4 will be explained.

Step 61 is a process for determining whether or not the jamming release switch 29 has been operated. The jamming release switch 29 is for forcibly executing a jamming release operation, which will be described later, by a switch operation.

For example, if coins are jammed on the transport path 2 and coins cannot be sorted due to jamming, the metal sensor 8a (first metal sensor) may not be able to detect this because it does not work properly. , used when you want to go just in case.

Furthermore, through the processes of steps 62 and 63, a process of detecting the occurrence of a coin jam is automatically performed. That is, in step 62, it is determined whether or not there are still coins on the rotary disk 1, depending on whether the output of the metal sensor 8a (first metal sensor) is ON, and in step 63, the output of the metal sensor 8a (first metal sensor) is determined to be ON. 2 metal sensor) depending on whether the output is OFF or not.
It is determined whether or not there are no coins on the conveyance path 2.

As a result, if coins are not conveyed to the conveyance path 2 even though there are coins on the rotary disk 1, this means that a coin jam has occurred on the upstream side of the conveyance path 2.

When the jamming release switch 29 is turned on, and when a coin jam is detected through all steps 62 and 63, the jamming release process of steps 64 to 67 is executed.

Step 64 outputs a drive control signal _D3 for the step motor 18 to move the movable guide 5 upward in FIG. 1, thereby expanding the width of the conveyance path 2.

In step 65, based on the output signal _S1 of the home position sensor 16, it is determined whether the movable guide 5 has been extended to the home position.

Therefore, through the processing of steps 64 and 65, the movable guide 5 is expanded to the home position. Here, the rotation of the rotary disk 1 continues, but the rotation of the pulleys 9 and 10 is stopped.

As a result, the coins stuck on the transport path 2 are freed by the expansion of the movable guide 5 and removed by the rotation of the rotary disk 1. Also, pulley 9,
10 is at rest, no coins will enter onto the transport path 2 during this time.

As mentioned above, after moving the movable guide 5 to the home position, after a certain period of time, steps 66,
67 is executed to return the movable guide 5 to the position immediately before the expansion operation of the movable guide 5 is performed. When this operation is completed, the stopped pulleys 9 and 10 start rotating, and the denomination sorting operation is automatically restarted.

In the above embodiment, an example of sorting Japanese coins was shown, but it goes without saying that the present device can also be applied to a device that sorts and counts foreign coins or medals by denomination or type.

Furthermore, if coins or the like become clogged at the entrance of the conveyance path, it is more effective to reverse the apparatus and clear the jam.

[Effect of idea]

As described above, in the present invention, even if coin jamming occurs on the conveyance path 2, the jamming can be automatically detected.
Based on the detection signal, the movable guide 5 can be automatically moved immediately and the width of the conveyance path 2 can be expanded, so that the complicated work required in the past is completely unnecessary for canceling jamming. It has excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the controller in FIG. 1, and FIGS.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing executed by the CPU, and is a block diagram of a conventional device. 1... Turntable, 2... Conveyance path, 3... Discharge port,
4... Fixed guide, 5... Movable guide, 8... Metal sensor (first metal sensor), 8a... Metal sensor (second metal sensor), 9, 10... Pulley, 11... Feed belt, 12... ...Feed screw shaft, 13... Nut, 14... Bearing, 15...
Gear, 16... Home position sensor, 17...
...Sensor plate, 18...Step motor, 1
9...Gear, 20...Controller.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] An ejection port is formed in the middle of the coins stored in the coin accommodating part composed of a rotary disk and allows coins with a diameter smaller than the hole width to fall out, and is located outside the coin accommodating part. A jam release device for a coin counting machine that sequentially feeds coins into a conveyance path by rotation of a rotary disk and counts coins that have passed through the conveyance path without falling out of the discharge port and coins that have fallen off from the discharge port, the device comprising: consists of a fixed guide and a movable guide, this movable guide is fixed to a feed screw shaft for course width selection, and the rotational force of the step motor is transmitted to the feed screw shaft to adjust the course width of the conveyance path by the rotation of the motor. A course width selection means that can be adjusted by angle; a home position sensor that detects the origin position at which the course width opens approximately to its maximum based on the movement position of the feed screw shaft; , a first metal sensor that detects the storage state of coins; a second metal sensor that is disposed in the conveyance path and detects the passage state of the coins in the conveyance path; and a first metal sensor that detects the storage state of coins in the coin storage section. condition is detected, and the passage of the coin is not detected by the second metal sensor, and the step continues until a jammed state of the coin in the conveyance path is detected and the home position sensor detects the origin position of the feed screw shaft. A jam release device for a coin counting machine, comprising: a controller that drives a motor to release coin jams in a conveyance path;