AND COUNTING APPARATUS

TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to improvements in coin-sorting and counting apparatus.

BACKGROUND ART The large and increasing volume of coin- operated machines makes the rapid and accurate sorting and counting of coins economically necessary. Vending machines, metropolitan area transit systems, pay tele¬ phones, and other coin-operated devices have expanded the use of coins and the requirements for economical counting of coins beyond all expectations.

Several machines have been designed for this purpose, exemplified by those disclosed in U.S. Letters Patent 3,795,252 to Black, 4,068,928, to Ristvedt et al., and 4,111,216 to Brisebarre. Each has coin sort- ing by centrifugal force according to denomination, counting of the individual denominations by some type of sensing, and storing and display of the information about the counts during the process. Each also pro¬ vides for storing and removal of the coins during counting.

The Black patent sorts coins by having them captured in tapered radial slots where, under the in¬ fluence of centrifugal force, they move outward until they reach the point at which the slot has the dimen- sions of the coin diameter, at which point they are ejected into collecting chutes, where they are counted and directed into coin bags or other receptacles. Sorting and counting speeds of 4,000 coins per minute are claimed at a rotational speed of 1,500 rpm. The Ristvedt et al. patent discloses a machine to sort coins by subjecting them to a "queue¬ ing" head which directs the mixture of coins into a "queue" from which they are sorted denominationally

and counted and bagged by a process similar to that disclosed by Black. Any improvement in performance of Ristvedt et al. over Black may be due primarily to the design of the queueing head which forms the coins into a queue before sorting and counting. Although speeds of 7,500 to 8,000 coins per minute are claimed in the patent, in actual practice these claims are somewhat optimistic, relating primarily to single-coin batches. With multiple coin batches, the best that can be ob- tained consistently is about 4,500 coins per minute with a four-coin mix.

The Brisebarre patent discloses a machine similar to that of Ristvedt et al. and, although the operating speed is not specified, it will give, in actual operation, about the same performance with the same coin mix.

Several problems have been encountered with previous machines, including those described above. The problem of fastening empty coin bags to the machine and removing them when full has presented limitations on the number of coins that can be processed in a given time since it limits the number of machines that can be handled by one attendant. Previous techniques include tying the bags to the chutes, clamping them in place, etc. Even though provisions are made to switch the flow of coins from a full bag to an empty one, the longer it takes to insert and remove the bags, the fewer machines can be taken care of in a given time. Another problem relates to the ease of changing programs. Those machines which have change¬ able programs are "hard-wired" so that programs can be changed with difficulty, if at all. Present machines typically give printouts that indicate date of trans¬ action, batch or transaction number, account number, machine number, number of coins and value for each denomination processed, coin sub-total, currency sub¬ total and batch total. Some choice of format of the printout is available. Such machines offer a small

keyboard which permits the operator to choose from among the available types of formats, programs, etc. Displays are available which not only give the above information in readout form, but which prompt the operator in setting up a particular program. However, changing the programs beyond those offered is not possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is designed to allevi¬ ate the above-mentioned problems and increase the speed of sorting, reduce the amount of time necessary to mount and unmount the coin-bags, and increase the ver¬ satility of the apparatus in its data display, collec- tion, retention, and in its programmability.

As coins are poured into the coin-receiving hopper of the machine they are funneled onto a rotating surface which is covered with a resilient, frictional pad. The rotation causes the coins to be subject to centrifugal force which directs them radially toward the outer edge of the rotating surface where they encounter a first peripheral barrier. The rotating surface itself- has its outer edge elevated at an angle of about 4" with respect to the center, as disclosed in U.S. Patent 4,086,928, and the center has formed therein a raised portion to prevent one or more coins from becoming centered thereat and being thereby pre¬ vented from being moved outwardly by the centrifugal force. The rotating surface has spaced a short dis¬ tance above it an improved queueing head means which has incorporated onto its surface multiple guide means defining a number of channels and areas thereon: a queueing channel, a recirculation channel, a sorting channel and an exit area. One of the guide means also acts as a position retainer which has the function of retaining coins ^' in their radial position until they can be injected into the recirculation channel. The

queueing head means is spaced above the rotating sur¬ face slightly less than the thickness of a new half- dollar, but more than the thickness of a badly worn half-dollar. This spacing permits all single coins to enter the space between the rotating surface and the queueing head freely under the influence of centrifugal force, but it also permits some coins stacked face-to- face to enter, requiring special measures to remove the top coins, as described below. (Such stacking will hereinafter be referred to as "face stacking.") In addition to the face-to-face stacking, coins will also "stack" edge-to-edge under the influence of centrifugal force and will lock into position if they have milled edges (with which all U.S. coins except the penny and nickel are fabricated). Because the milled edges interlock, it is easy for three coins to become locked in a triangular relationship and some way must be pro¬ vided to break up such formations. (Such formation will hereinafter be referred to as "edge stacking.") The multiple guide means are shaped and arranged on the surface of the queueing head in such a way as to channel the mix of coins into a queue to be sorted. However, stacked coins are not sorted but are returned either to the central loading area or into the ^' recirculation channel.

The queueing channel is defined by a peri¬ pheral barrier, a first guide means and a second guide means. Said first guide means has multiple functions which will be explained in greater detail below: - forcing the outermost group of coins into a queue;

— forcing the innermost group of coins back into the loading area;

— forcing some coins, intermediate in location between the outermost and inner¬ most coins above, underneath the guide to be held in fixed radial position until they exit into the recirculation channel; and

- performing a first separation of some face stacked coins. The first guide means is separated from the peripheral barrier by a distance which is slightly more than the diameter of the largest coin to be processed, but slightly less than 3 times the diameter of the smallest coin to be processed. The reason for this latter distance is that such milled coins can become locked together in an equilateral triangular arrange- ment and could block the queueing channel, causing a jam. A channel width slightly less than this amount will cause the innermost coin to be captured underneath the guide and be carried around into the recirculation channel. The entry tip of the second guide means is encountered by the queue approximately halfway along the length of the first guide means, but on the oppo¬ site side of the queueing channel. The peripheral barrier ends here and the second guide means starts. It permits the coins, under the influence of centri¬ fugal force, to move outward in a controlled manner until they encounter a second peripheral barrier spaced about the width of the queueing channel outward from the radial distance of where the first peripheral bar- rier would be. At this point, the queue enters the exit area, defined by the exit tip of the second guide means, the first exit tip of the first guide means, the second peripheral barrier and the entry and exit tips of the third guide barrier. The entry tip of the third guide barrier is shaped to match the position and loca¬ tion of the cross-sectional shape of the second peri¬ pheral barrier, but as the shape of the third guide means slants across the path of the queue, the spacing of the barrier above the surface of the rotating sur- face decreases rapidly permitting single coins to squeeze under the exit barrier but forcing face-stacked coins to be swept around out of the exit area into the recirculation channel and back to the queueing channel.

This is the second and final separation of stacked coins in the separation process.

Those coins which exit into the sorting channel encounter sorters as described by U.S. Patents 4,086,928 and 4,111,216 and are thrown off of the ro¬ tating surface, counted by means such as disclosed in U.S. Patents 3,795,252, 4,086,928 and 4,111,216, and channeled to the coin bags. Those coins not exited are recirculated and end up being queued with the rest of the coins.

As stated earlier above, some coins will encounter edge stacking, and the combinations will range in size from three half-dollars to three dimes, as well as various combinations in between. Each of these combinations needs to be broken up permitting only a single line, or queue, of coins to be presented to the exit guide means. It is the function of the first guide means to effect this separation. Those coins whose centers do not fall outside of the center line of the entry tip of the first guide barrier will be captured by said first guide means and will pass underneath, retaining their radial distance from the center until they exit from beneath the guide means into the recirculation area. All other coins will be deflected back into the loading area to go through the process once again.

Those coins which have been counted are chan¬ neled into chutes which carry them into the coin bags. Because it is costly in time to shut down the machine each time that a coin bag becomes full or has reached the count desired, devices to deflect the stream of coins from a full coin bag into an empty one have been developed. Such deflectors are shown in the aforemen¬ tioned patents and will not be dealt with further here. However, even when alternate coin bags are provided, the time required to detach the bag, place it in storage and attach another bag in its place can be time-consuming. Such attachments have heretofore been

by tying or by some kind of clamp. Even clamps require maneuvering of the clamp and the bag, and severely limit the number of machines one attendant can oversee since each machine may have up to 12 bags (and more for sorters of foreign coins).

The present invention provides a quick and easy way to change coin bags. It provides a container which can be used as a bulk container, in addition to holding a coin bag upright and open to receive coins, while permitting the coin bag to be removed quickly and replaced with little time and effort expended. In practice, the bag is simply inserted into the con¬ tainer, one side of the mouth of the bag is placed over a bracket means which will hold that portion of the mouth in an open condition, and the opposite side of the mouth of the bag is then placed over another, pref¬ erably spring-loaded, bracket of similar design which holds the bag open to receive coins. The operation is extremely simple and quick in execution. If desired, several bags can be mounted on their containers ahead of time so that full bags can be replaced merely by withdrawing the full container and inserting an empty one. The containers are provided with wheels so that insertion and withdrawal are easy. The display board of the terminal (described below) has a visual indica¬ tion (as well as an audible alarm) that a container is full, and the containers have visible indicator means associated with them to indicate which container needs to be changed. The containers have handles to facili- tate withdrawal and insertion.

In order to overcome this problem of obtain¬ ing more flexible programming of such machines, the apparatus of the invention incorporates a computer terminal by means of which the existing operating pro- gramming of the machine can be modified or erased and rewritten. The program is written on an erasable, programmable, read-only memory (EPROM), and thus can be modified as desired directly from the machine. This

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gives an enormous advantage when dealing with many dif¬ ferent types of coin-sorting and counting situations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a general view of a high-speed coin sorter and counter as embodied in the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a general view of the coin bag receiving receptacle of the invention. FIG. 3 shows a general view of the queueing head of the invention, with its queue forming guides and separators.

FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of coins in the space between the rotating surface and the queueing head.

FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 3 along the lines 3B.

FIG. 4 shows a closeup view of the control panel of the invention, revealing the display panel and the keyboard.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Turning now to FIG. 1, a general view of the apparatus 10 which includes the improvements which are the subject matter of the invention is shown. An undifferentiated mix of coins is poured into the load¬ ing tray 12 and is moved into the hopper 14 located immediately above the queueing head 30, described below more completely. In this area they are sepa- rated, sorted, counted and distributed into coin bags which are mounted in the coin-bag holding receptacles 20, of which there are at least two for each denomina¬ tion. When a coin bag is full or has the desired num¬ ber of coins in it, the flow of coins is switched into an adjacent coin bag, an alarm sounds, an indicator 23 lights up, the receptacle 20 containing the full bag is withdrawn, and a new receptacle 20 containing an empty bag is inserted into the vacant space. The visual

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indicators 23 and 25 show the state of the individual coin bags held by the receptacles immediately below them, and the display panel 27 also has visual indica¬ tors which show that a coin bag needs attention. The display panel 27 shows the number of coins of each denomination which has been counted in a particular batch; the value of the counted coins; the subtotal for a particular bag of a batch, and the total for the batch. In addition, a character printer prints out the information concerning a particular bag, batch or run as desired. It reaches into the microprocessor memory to match up the information of present batches to that of other batches for a particular customer, and helps to protect all parties involved in a particular transaction from error or fraud.

A display panel 42 is associated with a com¬ puter terminal keyboard 40, which is used to program a specific sorting and counting program desired for a particular batch of coins. The keyboard 40, in addi- tion to being connected to an internal microprocessor (not shown), may also be connected via bus 44 and con¬ nector 46 to an external computer. The external con¬ nectors are RS232C compatible. Counters 16 and 18 provide work space. Turning now to FIG. 2, we see a cutaway view of one of the coin-bag holding receptacles 20. The coin bag 22 is held in fixed, open position as shown by brackets 24. One or the other or both of brackets 24 can be hinged and retractably spring-loaded to keep the mouth of the bag open and in some tension by any of several well-known means. If one of the brackets 24 is not so hinged, it can be fastened rigidly to the end of the receptacle 20. The receptacle 20 can be mounted on wheels 26, to facilitate ease of withdrawal and inser- tion. It can also have a handle 28 for the same pur¬ poses.

To operate, the portion of the coin bag 22, which is folded over the retractable bracket 24,

pressed inward and lifted off the bracket. The other side of the bag 22 then can be lifted from its bracket easily, the bag can be lifted our and further dealth with. A new bag 22 is then inserted in the receptacle 20, one side folded over one of the brackets 24, and the other bracket 24 depressed far enough so that the bag can be folded over as before. It can be seen that the operation is simple and rapid. No clamps or ties have to be manipulated, and the whole operation can be conducted at a convenient location.

Turning now to FIG. 3, we see the bottom face of the queueing head.30. It is to be remembered in the description which follows that the viewer is facing up and that the rotating surface (not shown) is spaced toward the viewer slightly less than the thickness of a new half-dollar. As the coins come through the loading opening L, they encounter the centrifugal force gener¬ ated by the rotating surface which is covered with a resilient frictional pad, rotating in the direction shown by the arrow. Consequently, they tend to move in a spiral direction from the center of the loading area L underneath the surface of the queueing head 30 into the recirculation area R, which extends around to the entry point of the guide C. They are free to do this except in the area occupied by the guide C. As the coins move around and outward they encounter the first peripheral barrier F which prevents them from flying off the rotating surface. A line, or queue, of coins starts to form against the first peripheral barrier F, with other coins edge-stacked against them inwardly of the queue. When the queue reaches the dotted line 34, which marks the entrance to the queueing channel Q, the coins edge-stacked against them encounter the entry tip P of the guide C and either are thrown back into the loading area , as illustrated by coin 36, or pass under the tapered tip P of the guide C, as illustrated by coin 38, and are held in their radial position by the pressure of the guide C against the coin 66 on

and the pressure of the resilient pad 39 underneath, as shown in FIG. 3A, until they pass into the recircula¬ tion channel R, as illustrated by coin 64.

As the queue encounters entry tip 50 of guide B, they are not longer restrained by first peripheral barrier F and start to slide outward by centrifugal force, as illustrated by coins 52 and 54 and succeeding coins, as guide B is tapered downwardly in an outward direction from the level of the queueing channel Q to the level of the rotating surface at the outer edge.

Eventually, as the coins are urged forward by the rota¬ tion of- the rotating surface, they encounter second peripheral barrier G near the exit tip 56 of guide B. They then are guided along until they encounter the entry tip T of exit guide A. Exit guide A is shaped at that point to match the shape of second peripheral bar¬ rier G, as shown in cross-sectional shape in FIG. 3B. The curve of the entry tip T of guide A is substan¬ tially greater than the diameter of the largest coin to be processed so that the edge of the coin is captured under the entry tip T of guide A. Because of the com¬ bined pressure of the rotating surface and the centri¬ fugal force, the coin is pressed downward into the resilient, frictional surface 39 and passes under guide A into sorter channel S and passed on to the sorters (not shown) which separate them denominationally after which they are counted.

However, it sometimes happens that two coins which are face-stacked arrive at entry tip T of guide A. To prevent both coins being passed under guide A into sorting channel S, the edge 62 of guide A is rapidly (with respect to the movement of a coin) moved down into the space between the surface of queueing head 30 toward the level of the rotating surface, thus capturing the stacked coin 60 and moving it out of the exit area E and into the recirculation channel R.

Turning now to FIG. 4, we see a depiction of the display panel 42 and the terminal keyboard 40

the invention. The addition of this feature permits modifying of the sorting and counting programs directly from the machine. Present machines require that new microprocessor chips be inserted in place of the old in order to change programs. However, with this feature, it is possible to change programs right from the ma¬ chine with the modifying of the EPROM chip being done in the machine itself. The advantages for permitting future modes of operation not yet conceived can be seen.

The display panel 42 associated with the key¬ board 40 includes visual indicators 68 of the state of the coin bags and audible alarms 70 for calling an at¬ tendant when coin bags are full. It also includes an alpha-numeric display 72 which permits the programmer to enter information into the system and receive response to queries.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications in the inven- tion described herein could be made without departing from the spirit or intent of the invention. Accord¬ ingly, it is determined that the scope of the invention and the protection afforded by this patent are to be . determined solely by the claims herein.