US 12,697,540 B1Granted

Methods of operating a roller scraper system

AssigneeJackpocket LLC

InventorsEric Parker, Eli Shieber, Allan Norico, Matthew Pichette, Elias Bachaalany, Imad Maalouf, Farid Hage

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Abstract

Systems and methods for mechanically processing physical media elements, e.g., automatically scratching scratch-off lottery tickets, may include receiving a batch of tickets at an input chute of a scratching system. Tickets may be serially fed through the scratching system that includes a series of roller scratching mechanisms. Pressure rollers may be individually adjustable to set a pressure of the scratching mechanisms. One or more scanners may obtain information from the tickets before and/or after scratching. A pair of parallel plates may be used to form a feed path to guide tickets through the system. A vacuum manifold may isolate some elements of the system from debris, and remove the debris from the system via negative pressure. One or more presence sensor may detect presence of a current ticket to control operation of feed motors. Various functions or elements of the system may be distributed over a plurality of removable modules.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method for processing a ticket for an entry into a game of chance by a scratching system having a plurality of modules, the method comprising:

separating, by a first module, the ticket from a set of tickets in an input area of the first module by:
driving a first roller configured to convey tickets out of the input area;
and
operating a clutch configured to disengage the driving of the first roller, such that the ticket is conveyed out from the input area by the roller without a next ticket in the set of tickets being conveyed out of the input area by the first roller;
removing, by a second module, at least a portion of a layer of material from the ticket;
and
obtaining, by a third module, information that had been masked by the layer of material, by
activating a scanner positioned in the third module upon detecting a presence of the ticket in the third module via a pair of fork sensors;
and
operating the scanner to capture the information on the ticket;
wherein the first module, the second module, and the third module are physically detachable from each other via respective locking mechanisms.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.