This invention relates to a secure bag for use in banknote deposit machines, a bank note deposit machine and a method to fill such a bag with banknotes and securing the bag. Background to the invention

Banknote deposit machines are used by merchants and businesses which collects cash. Typically the machine takes deposits of banknotes for temporary safe keeping and counts the notes and keeps an automatic audit trail of all moneys deposited. A qualified person can then, when needed, order that the bag be sealed for collection by cash in transit (CIT) personnel or for safe keeping in a vault or safe.

The inventor is aware of the use of secure bags of the type to be used with banknote deposit machines, typically a canvas or a plastic bag, and the notes are received therein in a jumbled fashion. This causes the size of the bag to be to be relatively large compared to the number of notes stored therein. This makes safe and secure handling of the banknotes difficult and the bags needs to be carried by CIT personnel to a secure vehicle or a large secure holder needs to be used, which exposes the CIT personnel to criminal risk.

It is an object of the invention to provide a secure bag for receiving bank notes in a stacked and compact manner and in the same sequence as received by a bank note deposit machine.

General description of the invention

According to the invention there is provided a bag for receiving bank notes in a deposit machine, which bag is elongate and configured to have a rectangular cross sectional profile, which is dimensioned to be slightly larger than the plan view dimensions of the bank notes to be received in the bag.

The bag may include an elongate hollow tubular insert with rectangular cross sectional profile, which is dimensioned to be slightly larger than the plan view dimensions of the bank notes to be received in the bag.

The insert may be of paper with sufficient stiffness to maintain the bag's rectangular cross sectional profile and may be erectable from a folded state. The insert is also referred to as an inner erectable structure. The walls of the insert may be perforated or provided with holes to allow a person to see some of the content within the bag. The perforations also assist with the prevention of the tumbling of notes when the notes are dropped into the bag. The bag may preferably be of heat sealable plastics material and may preferably be see through. The bag may then be of sufficient length to extend past the insert to be heat sealed by a heat sealing arrangement in a bank note deposit machine. The invention also extends to a bank note deposit machine of the type mentioned above, which machine includes:

a drop mechanism which includes two trap doors for dropping a stack of bank notes into a bag as described above. The drop mechanism may also include a means for determining or sensing the height or weight of a stack of notes and may then be configured to drop the stack of notes once a predetermined height or weight of stacked bank notes on the trap doors is reached. The bank note counter of the deposit machine may also be used to determine the height of the stack or predetermined number of notes.

The bank note deposit machine may also be provided with a carousel configured to hold the bag in an upright orientation and the trap doors may be configured to open into the bag to also keep the bag open during dropping of bank notes.

The bank note deposit machine may also be provided with a sealing mechanism for sealing the bag, preferably heat sealing. The carousel may then be configure to rotate the upright bag from a money receiving position to a position underneath the sealing mechanism.

The sealing mechanism may include two opposed sealer bars which are provided with heat elements and configured to be movable towards each other to clamp and seal and release the bag.

The sealing mechanism may further include a pair of opposed bag opening and flattening levers for fully opening the bag and flattening the opening which is then ready for sealing.

The bank note deposit machine may also include a sensor for sensing the depth in the bag to determine when the bag has reached its full threshold capacity.

The invention also extends to a method for filling a bank note deposit bag for use with a bank note deposit machine, which method includes the steps of:

holding a bag, as described above, in an upright and open orientation; assembling a stack of notes of a predetermined number;

dropping the stack of notes into the bag by means of a trap door mechanism;

when full, moving the bag in an upright position to underneath a sealing mechanism; and

sealing the bag. Detailed description of the invention

The invention is now described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure A shows a top perspective view of a drop mechanism of the bank note deposit machine, in accordance with the invention;

Figure B shows a top front perspective view of the drop mechanism of the bank note deposit machine;

Figure C shows a front perspective view of the sealing mechanism of the bank note deposit machine, in accordance with the invention;

Figure D shows a rear perspective view of the sealing mechanism of the bank note deposit machine, ready to seal, in accordance with the invention; and Figure E shows a rear perspective view of the sealing mechanism of the bank note deposit machine, sealing the bag.

Definitions:

Drawing

Term Explanation

Reference

A mechanism that houses the BAGS. This mechanism

CAROUSEL rotates a BAG between the position where banknotes

MECHANISM N/A

are dropped into the BAG to the position where the

BAG is sealed.

Figure C

SEALING

The mechanism that seals the BAG.

MECHANISM Figure D

Figure E

Operated by an ACTUATOR, the BAG OPENING

LEVERS are two levers hidden inside the SEALING

MECHANISM. When the BAG is ready to be sealed,

these BAG OPENING LEVERS shoot out of their

BAG OPENING Figure C, hidden positions into the opening of the BAG, pulling

LEVERS C1 , C2

the BAG flat and tight, ensuring it is in the correct

position to achieve a perfect seal. When the sealing of

the BAG starts, the two BAG OPENING LEVERS

retract to their initial position.

SEALER BARS Two bars that clamp the BAG'S opening in the correct Figure D, position for it to be sealed. D1, D2

IMPULSE HEAT The mechanism that does the actual sealing of the

Figure D, BAG, once the BAG is in position. It seals the BAG by

SEAL ELEMENT D3 & D4 means of a heat impulse.

A Person who deposits money into the banknote

DEPOSITOR N/A

deposit machine.

A number set to control the amount of banknotes

BATCH SIZE N/A

dropped into the BAG.

The BAGS are tamper evident; this means that if

someone tampers with the BAG or tries to access the

TAMPER EVIDENT banknotes inside, it will be evident. N/A

This adds an extra measure of security for the merchant.

Banknotes are deposited into a deposit machine that counts, and safely stores the notes until it is collected by CIT. After the banknotes have been fed into the machine, and counted by the banknote counting device, it is automatically placed into the gravity DROP MECHANISM.

The GRAVITY DROP mechanism has two TRAP DOORS that open as soon as a predefined batch size is reached; when this happens the banknotes are dropped into a rectangular-shaped BAG below. The BAG is upright inside of a CAROUSEL MECHANISM. When the banknotes are dropped into the BAG, the TRAP DOORS open into the BAG, ensuring that the BAG is open and without obstruction so that the banknotes can be dropped in a neatly stacked pile. When the BAG is full, and/or upon supervision initiation, the CAROUSEL MECHANISM rotates so that the BAG'S position is directly underneath the SEAL MECHANISM. The SEAL MECHANISM extends out two BAG OPENING LEVERS that prepare the BAG to be sealed by urging the BAG'S opening in a fully rectangular open position. Once the BAG is ready, two SEALER BARS moves into the sealing position and clamps the opening of the BAG closed. The IMPULSE HEAT SEAL ELEMENT now seals the BAG. After a few seconds the seal has been cured and the BAG is now ready for collection by CIT.

Unique Features:

- Tamper-evident CIT approved BAG with an inner erectable structure - GRAVITY DROP and STACKING mechanism

- Multiple BAGS in a machine that allow for continued operation of banknote depositing after one BAG has been filled, rotated and sealed

- Sealer mechanism that uses BAG OPENING LEVERS to prepare the BAG for a perfect seal

- Bag sealing mechanism that seals the tightly stacked notes in a tamper evident manner

DROP MECHANISM (figures A & B) A DEPOSITOR deposits banknotes (figure A, A1) into the banknote deposit machine. These notes are fed into the gravity DROP MECHANISM (figure A) by the multi-currency banknote counting / verification counter device. After the banknotes have been fed into the DROP MECHANISM (figure B, B5), they are GRAVITY DROPPED (figure B, B4) when the ACTUATOR-operated (see figure B, B1) TRAP DOORS (figure B, B2 & B3) briefly and simultaneously open (figure B). This drop operation is activated by setting a banknote BATCH SIZE in the deposit software. As soon as the BATCH SIZE is reached during the deposit, or when a BAG seal is initiated, the TRAP DOORS open and the money is dropped into the BAG. With each GRAVITY DROP, the TRAP DOORS open with a downward movement, each TRAP DOOR moving from its initial horizontal position to a vertical position inside the BAG (figure B), thus effectively opening into the BAG. This action ensures that the BAG is completely open, which, in turn, guarantees that the banknote bundle is dropped into the BAG in an unobstructed way. This process allows for the effective STACKING of the banknotes.

A DEPTH MEASURING SENSOR (figure A, A2) is employed in the drop mechanism to allow the system to measure and control how full the BAG is, and how much it can be filled.

BAG

The CIT approved BAG (figure A, A3) is tamper-evident and has an inner erectable structure (figure A, A4) that provides the BAG with a maintained rectangular shape. This maintained shape enables the effective neat STACKING of banknotes inside the BAG.

CAROUSEL MECHANISM

The erected BAGS are placed inside a CAROUSEL MECHANISM that positions the BAG directly underneath the DROP MECHANISM that will STACK the banknotes in the BAG. When the CAROUSEL MECHANISM is rotated, the position of the BAG changes to be directly underneath the SEALING MECHANISM that allows the BAG to be heat-sealed.

SEAL PREPARATION: (figure C)

Once the BAG is filled with banknotes (or during supervisor initiation) the BAG is sealed by the SEAL MECHANISM (figures C, D & E). The SEAL MECHANISM has an integrated mechanism in the pivot line of the sealer that allows for the action of the two hidden BAG OPENING LEVERS (figure C, C1 & C2), driven by the ACTUATOR (figure B, B1), to be activated simultaneously in order to pull the BAG opening fully rectangular open and tight in preparation for the sealing of the BAG. This preparation makes it possible to achieve a perfect seal.

SEAL MECHANISM: (figures D & E)

After the BAG has been prepared by the BAG OPENING LEVERS (figure C, C1 & C2), the sealer motor drives the two SEALER BARS (figure D, D1 & D2) closer together. The initial position of the SEALER BARS is in a straight horizontal angle above the BAG (figure C), but the SEALER BARS now moves to be in a vertical position - about 90° perpendicular to each other (figure E) - ready to clamp the BAG. Once the SEALER BARS are activated, the BAG OPENING LEVERS retract to their hidden position - out of the way of the two SEALING BARS. The SEALER BARS are urged together, thus clamping the opening of the plastic BAG. Once the BAG is clamped into place, the IMPULSE HEAT SEAL ELEMENT (figure D, D3 & D4) is activated for about 2 seconds after which the SEALER BARS are held together for an additional 8 seconds allowing the seal to cure and cool down. The BAG is now sealed (figure E), and ready to be collected by CIT once the supervisor gives them access to the machine. It shall be understood that the examples are provided for illustrating the invention further and to assist a person skilled in the art with understanding the invention and are not meant to be construed as unduly limiting the reasonable scope of the invention.