Device for sorting coins, tokens, chips and the like

Abstract

An apparatus is provided for sorting coins, tokens, chips and the like having a chute which has at least one inlet and a plurality of outlets and which possesses a flat, substantially rectangular cross-section, in which a movable shunt is associated with at least one of the outlets, the shunt being movable between a channeling away position engaging into the chute and a passage position. It is proposed to provide the chute with at least three or also more outlets and to arrange them in a special manner in order to achieve a compact construction without any larger height losses despite the increased number of outlets. The chute has at least two flat side outlets which are arranged above one another in the falling direction through the chute and which branch off the chute at a flat side of the chute and which also have a base outlet which substantially branches off the chute in the falling direction, with a respective shunt being associated with the flat side outlets. The flat side of the chute in this respect is the chute side which is disposed opposite one of the two flat sides of the coins falling through the chute. The chute advantageously has a pressed flat cross-section which is preferably rectangular, has two oppositely disposed wide flat sides and two oppositely disposed narrow sides and forces the coins falling or sliding through the chute into a predetermined direction. The flat sides are in this respect not disposed opposite the cylindrical jacket surfaces of the coins and/or tokens or chips, but opposite the flat sides showing the coin embossing such as value numbers or heads. The coins are accordingly channeled away transversely to their flat sides via the flat side outlets. The plurality of flat side outlets arranged above on another have the great advantage in this respect that the coin sorting body can be made in particularly compact form since the flat side outlets can be arranged very closely above one another independently of the coin diameter and the shunts associated with the flat side outlets also only require a very limited switch path which can be a great deal smaller than it could be if the coins were channeled off via their jacket surface sides. In addition, the small required switch paths permit very short switch times for the shunts, whereby a high throughput can be achieved.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.