Coin sorting system
AssigneeGlory Ltd.
InventorsYushi Hino, Daisuke Hoshino
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The coin sorting system includes a feed unit, a sorting unit, and a passageway member. Each unit has a rotary disc and a stationary member opposed to the disc. Each disc has a rotating axis inclined relative to a horizontal plane. A guide passageway with an outlet thorough which coins are fed one by one as the disc rotates is formed on the stationary member of the feed unit. Provided on the stationary member of the sorting unit are a conveying passageway with an inlet thorough which the coins fed from the outlet are introduced one by one and multiple sorting devices each for selectively ejecting the coins. A rolling-coin passageway is formed on the passageway member extending aslope to cause the coins to roll from the outlet to the inlet under own weight thereof.
Claims12
A coin sorting system, comprising:
- a coin feed unit that includes
- a1) a rotary feed disc having a rotating axis inclined relative to a horizontal plane and
- a2) a stationary guide member opposed to the feed disc, the stationary guide member being formed with a coin guide passageway having an outlet from which coins are fed one by one as the feed disc rotates;
- a coin sorting unit that includes
- b1) a rotary conveyor disc having a rotating axis substantially parallel to the rotating axis of the feed disc, and
- b2) a stationary sorting member opposed to the conveyor disc, the stationary sorting member being formed with (i) a coin conveying passageway through which the coins are conveyed as the conveyor disc rotates, the conveying passageway having an inlet through which the coins fed from the outlet are introduced, and with (ii) a plurality of sorting devices spacedly arranged along the conveying passageway, each of the sorting devices being configured to selectively eject the coins;
- and
- a passageway member formed with a rolling-coin passageway extending aslope to cause the coins to roll from the outlet to the inlet under own weights thereof;
- wherein
- the rolling-coin passageway is defined by:
- c1) a wall surface formed on the passageway member in a form substantially orthogonal to the rotating axis of the feed disc, the wall surface being configured to slidably support the bottom face of each rolling coin;
- and
- c2) a ledge surface formed on the passageway member to extend in a substantially orthogonal direction with respect to the wall surface in addition to extending along a lower edge of the wall surface, the ledge surface being configured to support an edge of each rolling coin;
- and wherein
- at least a part of the ledge surface extends in a substantially orthogonal direction with respect to the wall surface, with a length equal to or less than a dimension equivalent to a thickness of the thinnest coin of a predetermined group of coins which the coin sorting system is configured to receive.
The coin sorting system according to 1, wherein
- the stationary guide member has a large-coin ejection structure configured to sort out large coins of diameters greater than a reference dimension and to eject the large coins;
- the coin sorting system further comprises an ejected-coin receiving unit that receives coins with the coins directly removable to outside the sorting system;
- and
- the ejected-coin receiving unit is configured to receive the large coins that have been ejected by the ejection structure of the stationary guide member and slid-down coins that have not been supported by the ledge surface and have therefore slid down from the rolling-coin passageway.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.