TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an arrangement for feeding valuable documents to a storage space, and more particularly, although not exclusively, to an arrangement for feeding valuable documents, such as banknotes, cheques and the like, from an externally accessible infeed opening to the storage space.

The arrangement comprises:

detecting means located in the proximity of a transport path extending between the infeed opening and the afore­said space, for detecting and examining valuable documents passing sequentially in series along the transport path, and for controlling the transportation of the valuable documents within the arrangement; and

a plurality of mutually separate storage locations arranged within the storage space and each provided with an indi­vidual infeed means, the infeed means of all of the stor­age locations together forming a part of the transport path.

BACKGROUND PRIOR ART

Combined banknote infeed and outfeed arrangement (e.g. so-called autobanks) are previously known, for example, from U.K. Patent Specification 2 094 531.

In this known arrangement, banknotes deposited or inser­ted thereinto are transported, one after the other, past a detecting means and thence to temporary storage loca­tions intended for banknotes of differing denominations. Subsequent to the customer acknowledging satisfaction with the depositing or infeed procedure, the documents are conveyed further to respective banknote-collecting boxes. These banknotes can then be dispensed to other customers, therewith minimizing the number of banknotes with which the apparatus need be filled, by the bank, for example, in order to meet a plurality of transactions.

A similar arrangement is illustrated and described in European Patent Application No. 024 704, in which a bundle of banknotes deposited by a customer in the arrange­ment are fed, in a similar manner, to temporary collect­ing locations for differing banknote denominations, or to a separate or general collecting chamber for banknotes of all denominations. Subsequent to the customer accept­ing the transaction, the banknotes are transferred from the temporary storage locations to secure banknote loca­tions for banknotes of differing denominations. The bank­notes can be sorted from this general collecting chamber into the aforesaid banknote collecting locations.

An arrangement of somewhat different construction is described and illustrated in US Patent Specification No. 4,253,016. This arrangement is also a combined bank­note, or document, infeed and outfeed arrangement, al­though in this case the various banknotes contained in a bundle of banknotes deposited in the machine are trans­ported to one single magazine or, if the customer has a change of mind, to the withdrawal openings of the arrangement, via transport means provided in both the infeed and the outfeed mechanism of the arrangement.

The aforementioned arrangements, and similar arrangements are often complicated and bulky, and are not sufficiently flexible for use under differing conditions. However, a major drawback with the aforesaid known arrangements is that they are too slow in operation to meet the require­ments placed on such apparatus under present day circum­stances and conditions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the aforesaid drawbacks, and to provide such an arrangement, or apparatus, which will operate reliably and quickly so as to shorten the queues which present day cash points or autobanks tend to generate. This object is achieved, inter alia, with an arrangement which comprises two mutual­ly separated parts, of which the one part includes the infeed opening, the detector means and a part of the transport path arranged to convey banknotes in the direc­tion of their longitudinal axis, and of which the other part includes the storage locations, which are of modular construction and incorporate cassettes, together with the remaining part of the transport path, this remaining part of the path being constructed for document transport in the direction of the transverse axis of the document. A gripping means is arranged to grip the valuable documents for transfer from the transport path in said arrangement part to the transport path in said other arrangement path in response to the result obtained from the detecting means and the measuring result obtained from the measuring means, so that transportation of valuable documents changes from transport in the direction of their longitudinal axes to transport in the direction of their transverse axis, and so that the remaining part of said transportation along said path is effected with the centre lines of all documents similarly oriented irrespective of the size of said documents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which

• Figure 1 is a top plan view of an upper part of an arrange­ment according to the invention;
• Figure 2 is a side view of a lower part of the arrangement illustrated in Figure 1;
• Figure 3 illustrates a conceivable embodiment of trans­port means incorporated in the arrangement illustrated in Figures 1-2;
• Figure 4 illustrates parts of documents straightening or aligning means;
• Figure 5 illustrates gripping means for moving valuable documents from the upper part of the arrangement to the lower part thereof;
• Figure 6 illustrates elements located in the vicinity of an infeed opening; and
• Figure 7 is a block schematic illustrating means for determining the centre line of a document.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

An infeed arrangement according to the invention includes two preferably superposed parts, of which the upper part, i.e. the processing part, incorporates an infeed opening 61, an outfeed opening 62 for such valuable documents as those which might be returned to the customer (or cashier), detecting means (121,122,123 and a part of a transport path.

The lower part of the arrangement includes, inter alia, cassettes 26', 27', a collecting location 22, the remain­der of the transport path, and feed means 24 located between the collecting location 22 and the cassettes 26',27'. The aforesaid parts of the arrangement may also be placed side-by-side.

A bundle 10 of valuable documents placed in the infeed opening 61 by a customer (or cashier) is manipulated by a feed mechanism 11 in a known manner (vide Figure 1) such as to feed the documents singly in their longitudi­nal direction (short end first) into a transport path, comprising rollers, belts, guide rails, etc., at a rate of about 10 documents per second, causing the documents to pass detectors 121,122,123, which examine each docu­ment in order to ascertain its value and whether it is genuine or not; document straightening or aligning means 13 for straightening the documents and bringing them into correct alignment prior to passing a size-measuring device 14; a printing means 15 for the optimal printing of data on certain types of document, e.g. cheques; a guide and control means 16 for establishing the passage of respective documents and for controlling a subsequent gripping means 17 operative in transferring documents from the transport path in the upper part of the arrange­ment to the transport path in the lower part thereof, in dependence on the result obtained from the detectors 121,122,123 for establishing the denominational value of the document and its genuiness, and in dependence on the action of the guide and control means 16. Valuable documents which pass the gripping means 17 without being transferred to the transport path in the bottom part of the apparatus are passed to a re-feed or return location 18, from where they are returned to the customer.

For the sake of clarity, and to facilitate the further description of the arrangement according to the inven­tion, no description will be made, or any illustration given, of the various rollers, belts, aligning/straighte­ning devices etc. required in apparatus or arrangements of this kind, since such transport path constructions are well known per se and are exemplified, inter alia, in the patent literature, such as the aforementioned patent specifications for example.

At the top of Figure 2 there is illustrated a bundle of banknotes 10 placed in the arrangement, a feed mechanism 11, the aforementioned gripping means 17 and the re-feed or return location 18, in which there is located a small bundle of documents to be returned to the customer (cashier).

A document which has been found to be genuine and its value established by the detecting means 121-123 is gripped by the gripping means 17 and transferred, in its transverse direction (long side first), from the transport path in the upper part of the arrangement to the transport path in the lower part thereof, the beginning of which transport path is represented by mutually co-acting rollers 201-202, 203-204. The sequentially incoming series of documents are bundled together in a collecting location 22 by means of a so-called stacker wheel 21. When all the documents in a bundle have been collected in the collect­ing location - with the possible exception of rejected documents, which are always located in the re-feed or return location 18 - the customer awaits further instruc­tions. If the customer does not with to proceed with his/­her deposit, the bundle is returned to the outfeed ope­ning by means of a transport device comprising, for example, a reciprocatingly movable roller chain 230 and a toothed arm 232 having a plate 233. The roller chain, which follows an arcuate path, is driven clockwise, there­with engaging the toothed arm 232 and lifting the same vertically, together with the plate 233, into abutment with the pivotable bottom of the collecting location. The bottom of the collecting location is then swung to one side, and as the roller chain continues to move, the bundle of documents is lifted up through the upper part of the arrangement, and deposited in the outfeed opening.

Should the customer wish to finalize the infeed, or deposit­ing procedure, the toothed arm 232 is not raised by moved to one side.

Instead, a gripping means 231 attached to the roller chain 230 is moved upwardly and to the left into the aforesaid collecting location, and grips the bundle of documents lo­cated therein, whereafter the pivotable bottom of the collecting location 22 is moved to one side and the bundle is moved by the roller chain, downwardly and to the right, and deposited on a feed means 24. Subsequent to this transfer of the document bundle, so that the collecting location is empty, and subsequent to returning the bottom of the collecting location to its starting position, the arrangement is clear for handling the next bundle of docu­ ments, despite the fact that the documents contained in the preceding bundle have still not yet reached their respective final destinations, i.e. have not yet been fed into the respective cassettes.

Due to the particular construction and action of the gripping means 23, there is afforded the additional advantage that the bundle formed by the stacker wheel 21 in the collecting location, and given an even side surface against the bottom of said location, i.e. all documents flush along at least one side of the bundle, is transported and delivered to the feed means 24 while retaining the said smooth side surface of the bundle, this side surface being its leading side surface, which is a basic prerequisite for correct outfeeding of the documents by means of the belt conveyor 250, particularly when the bundle contains a mixture of documents of various dimensions (banknotes of different denominations and size).

The feed means 24 has a lifting device 241 arranged for rapid lifting of the feed means with a bundle of documents thereon through a distance corresponding to a suitable lifting height for a bundle containing a given number of documents, e.g. 100, and thereafter for successively lifting the bundle through distances corresponding to the documents fed to the transport path. Figure 2 illu­strates how a document bundle 10 has been moved upwards, in the direction of the arrow, to a position 10' adjacent a belt conveyor 250 at the input of the transport path leading to the cassettes in the storage locations 26,27. Each of the cassettes incorporated in the storage loca­tions 26,27, which are of module construction, is provi­ded with its respective individual infeed means 260 and 270, which together form the terminus of the transport path. The documents are guided down into the correct cassette, according to value and type, by means of respec­tive gates 2601 and 2701 located in the transport path.

The gates are supplied with control signals from the size-measuring means 14. The infeed means include res­pective stacker wheels 2602 and 2702, from which docu­ments are cleared with the aid of the raised lid 2603 or 2703 of respective cassettes. Each cassette has an asso­ciated, separate packing means 2604, 2704 which, upon completing each infeed procedure with respect to a complete bundle, is rotated clockwise and displaced downwardly, therewith to pack the contents of the respec­tive cassette, while simultaneously sending a control sig­nal to means for lowering a respective document support platen 2605 and 2705 provided in its associated cassette.

When the apparatus is to be used solely for document sorting purposes, e.g. internally within a bank, the faci­lity affording temporary storage in the collecting loca­tion 22 is dispensed with, since no decision is required as to whether documents should be transported further or not. In this case, it is convenient to transfer the docu­ments from the upper part of the apparatus directly to the transport path incorporating the cassette infeed means 260, 270. This is effected with the aid of a path or route selector 205 arranged between the roller pairs 201-202 and 203-204. In Figure 2 the transport route from the roll pairs is shown in full lines to the left and in broken lines to the right, corresponding respectively to a customer operated function with an initial collection of documents at the collecting location 22, and to a bank sorting function in which documents are transferred direc­tly to the storage locations 26,27.

The devices required to issue instructions, drive the various motors, supply power to detectors and signal producing means, etc. are housed together in a compart­ment 28 provided in the bottom part of the apparatus, as is also the software for controlling the various functions of the apparatus, these functions commencing with the programming of desired functions by a customer/bank offi­cial, through an instruction or command means, and the initiation of these programmed functions, e.g. by means of a keyboard, and terminating with the distribution of the documents into their respective cassettes in the manner intended, or, in exceptional circumstances, the return of rejected or non-acceptable documents to the out­feed or withdrawal opening of the apparatus.

When depositing, for example, banknotes, in the apparatus according to the invention, the modular construction of the storage locations, including the cassettes, and asso­ciated infeed devices, together with the programmable co-action between the detector means (with pattern recog­nition), the transport path and the cassettes, enables one to sort:

• a) banknotes of all denominations into one and the same cassette;
• b) banknotes of mutually different denomination into different cassettes;
• c) banknotes of one denomination oriented in four mutual­ly different ways into four different cassettes, thus with the same pattern of orientation in respective casset­tes.

In addition, the apparatus enables cheques to be sorted into one cassette, banknotes into another, etc.

The transport means 23 illustrated in Figure 2 will now be described in somewhat more detail with reference to Figure 3. The roller chain 230 is extended between three wheels 31,32,33 and firmly carries the gripping means 231. The chain 230 also co-acts with the toothed arm 232. The illustration of Figure 3a shows the aforesaid ele­ments and also illustrates walls 221 and 222 and the bot­tom 220 of the collecting location 22, and the belt con­veyor 250, and the stacker wheel 21, the feed means 24, the walls and bottom defining the collecting location being pivotally arranged. The Figure illustrates the situation in which the collecting location is prepared for receiving documents from the bundle of documents fed into the apparatus. In this operational stage the wall 21 leans slightly to the left and serves to support docu­ments delivered via the feed wheels 203-204 and the stacker wheel 21, these documents resting edgewise on the pivotable bottom 220 of the collecting location. The other wall 222 of the collecting location 22 is pivoted far to the right, as seen in the drawing, and constitutes in this position means for stripping from the stacker wheel 21 documents carried thereby towards the collecting location.

Figure 3b illustrates the situation in which a customer does not wish to finalize a deposit transaction. In this case all the documents concerned have collected in the collecting location 22 and the walls 221 and 222 have been rotated clockwise and anticlockwise respectively to their upright positions and the bottom 220 has been rota­ted anticlockwise, away from the walls, so that the docu­ment now rests on the plate 233 on the toothed arm 232.

Figure 3e illustrates the operational mode in which the arm 232 has been driven upwards, through the collecting location, by the roller chain 230, this movement of the arm continuing until the bundle has passed through the upper, processing part of the arrangement and protrudes slightly from the outfeed opening, from where it can be withdrawn by the customer (the cashier).

Figure 3d illustrates the infeed, finalizing mode, in which the walls 221 and 222 have been moved to the same upright positions as those described with reference to Figure 3b, and the gripping means 231 has been moved by the roller chain 230 to a position closely adjacent the bottom 220 of the collecting location 22, the toothed arm 232 in this case having been moved laterally to a position 232'.

Figure 3e illustrates the gripping means 231 in grip­ping engagement with the document bundle, and the walls 221 and 222 subsequently rotate anticlockwise and clock­wise respectively, to the respective position 221' and 222', and the bottom 220 rotated anticlockwise to the position 220'. As shown in the Figure, the documents are well held together in the bundle, while retaining a smooth and even bottom bundle-surface, this flush and even placement of the bottom edges of respective documents being achieved by abutment with the bottom 220.

Figure 3f illustrates the operational mode in which the gripping means 231, holding the document bundle, is moved to the feed means 24 by the roller chain 230. In this operational stage, the walls 221,222 and the bottom 220 have been returned to their respective starting positions, illustrated in Figure 3a, and the bundling of a further series of documents has commenced in the collecting location 22.

In the illustration of Figure 3g the roller chain has moved the gripping means 231 further to the right, to the starting position shown in Figure 3a, and the lifting means 241 has lifted the feed means 24 together with the docu­ment bundle against the belt conveyor 250, this lifting of the feed means being effected rapidly. Documents can now be conveyed singly, via the infeed means 260,270, into the cassettes of the storage locations 26,27. In this case the bundle is raised towards the conveyor to the trans­port path, the lifting means 241 acting in response to control impulses produced by a detector means 124 on the input side of the storage locations 26,27.

The straightening or aligning means 13 illustrated in Figure 1 will now be described in slightly more detail with reference to the part-figures 4a-d of Figure 4. As shown in Figure 1, the means 13 comprises a cylindrical drum, referenced 130 in Figure 4, against which bear three alignment wheels 131,132,133 the peripheries of which are slotted radially to provide a plurality of finger-like elements which are relatively rigid in the peripheral direction and relatively slender in the radial direction. Arranged immediately beneath the wheels 131-133 are further aligning wheels 131', 132' and 133', which are carried on the same shaft as the wheels 131-133.

Part-figure 4a is a plan view of part of the drum 130 and the aligning wheel 131. The wheel 131 is carried on a shaft 1310, which extends parallel with the drive shaft (not shown in Figure 4a) of the drum 130.

As shown in part-figure 4b, the aligning wheel 131 has a circular conical shape. Two of the finger-like elements are illustrated, and referenced 1311 and 1312. The hori­zontal arrow indicated a force which acts upon the finger-­like element 1311 when brought into abutment with the drum 130 as the wheel rotates. During this rotation of the wheel, the aforesaid force causes a part of the finger-like element to twist downwards, provided that there is located between the drum 130 and the finger-like element 1311 a document which can be displaced (twisted) downwardly, i.e. a document which lies incorrectly, or out of alignment, in the path.

This situation is illustrated in part-figure 4c. The finger-like element 1311 is shown to be deflected down­wards, carrying with it the interlying document 40. When the finger-like element 1311 has passed beyond the drum 130, it returns to the position shown in Figure 4b. If the document is still not positioned correctly in the transport path (with the long sides horizontal) the next finger-like element will make a corresponding posi­tional adjustment. When the document has been brought into correct alignment with the transport path, by which is meant that one long side of the document lies against a lower slide surface 1301 on the drum 130, a passing finger-like element can no longer be bent downwards, but is instead displaced radially inwards, as indicated in part-figure 4d with the wheel 131', which is the lower-­most and final wheel when seen in the transport direction past the drum 130. It is important that both the drum 130 and the document aligning wheels 131-133 and 131'-133' are directly driven on their respective shafts, thereby to eliminate to a large extent the risk of faulty feeding.

The gripping means 17 illustrated in Figure 2 will now be described in more detail with reference to Figure 5. The gripping means comprises two mutually co-acting wheels or like elements 171, 172, the rotational axes of which are roughly at right angles to the movement direction of the transport path (= the direction shown by the lower, left-hand arrow), two mutually co-acting rollers or like elements 174, 174', the rotational axes of which are sub­stantially parallel with the direction of movement of the transport path, a movable link 173, in which the wheel 171 is journalled, and a bridge element 175 which is movably journalled to the movable link 173 and in which the roller 174 is journalled.

At the site of the gripping means 17, the transport path comprises two movable belts 51,52 which lie loosely in abutment with one another and between which documents are transported, either to the refeed or return location 18, or from the upper arrangement part (the processing part) to the lower arrangement part, in response to the control signals received from the guide and control means 16.

When returning documents to the return location 18, the wheels 171,172 press the belts 51,52 against one another and the rollers 174,174' are located a certain distance apart, and documents are transported in the direction shown by the lower, left-hand arrow.

When documents are to be transported to the lower part of the arrangement, the control means 16 sends a signal to a solenoid 53, which subsequently attracts the link. bridge 175, and therewith breaks the co-action between the wheels 171 and 172. During its movement towards the solenoid 53, the link 173 comes into contact with a stop 176, whereupon solely the bridge 175 is rotated, to some slight extent, thereby bringing the roller 174 into position for co-action with the roller 174'. The document located between the rollers at that particular moment will then be transported in a different direction along the belts 51,52 to a direction at right angles thereto, as shown by the curved arrow at the top of the Figure. Not only is the document transported in a diffe­rent direction, but it also changes from being transported lengthwise ( a short side first) to being transported sideways (a long side first).The time over which the sole­noid is energized is adapted so that the rollers 174, 174' remain active for a period sufficiently long for the document to be transported to the lower arrangement part. The various components of the gripping means then return to their respective starting positions.

The co-action between the rollers 174,174' is initiated with the aid of signals (impulses) from the aforesaid measuring means 16 precisely at the moment when the centre-point normal of a document is located at a pre­determined point on the transport path, which results in a well centered position for all valuable documents - irrespective of individual lengths - during their trans­portation in the lower part of the arrangement, up to the storage locations, which further ensures correct document feed.

Figure 6a is a schematic view of the apparatus from above, and illustrates the infeed opening 61, the outfeed ope­ ning 62, a lamp and display screen or panel 63, and command means (keyboard) 64 for operating (controlling) the arrangement.

Figure 6b is a sectional side view of a portion of the uppermost part of the arrangement, and illustrates the infeed opening 62 for top feeding a bundle of documents; a further infeed opening 66 for sideways feeding of docu­ments from cassette 26', and feed mechanism 11, which is used both for bundle infeed and for cassette infeed respectively.

Bundle infeed implies that the customer places a bundle of valuable documents (banknotes) into a feed box 65 from above, this box being located in an upper position, shown in full lines in the Figure. (The infeed opening is optionally covered initially by a horizontal cover plate 67, which is moved automatically to one side, when the customer punches a code on the keyboard 64).

When the customer presses the start button on the key­board 64, the box 65 is moved down to the position shown in broken lines, adjacent the feed mechanism 11, and therewith initiates the procedure of ascertaining the denominational value of the respective banknotes and whether they are genuine or not, etc. The result of this examining procedure, together with any questions (commands) which might be asked of the customer is, or are, displayed on the table or screen 63, and the transactional procedure continues in the manner aforedescribed.

Cassette infeed implies that a bank employee (optionally a customer) places a cassette 26' from one side into the opening 66, which is initially covered by a plate 68 which, similar to the aforementioned cover plate 67, is moved to one side, for example when punching a given code into the keyboard 64. When the cassette has been inserted to a locked position, the cassette is automati­ cally opened and the valuable papers contained therein fed into the apparatus by means of the feed mechanism 11.

The location of the centre line or midway point of a banknote, or document, in transportation, can be establi­shed in many ways, all known per se. However, for the sake of completeness one expedient method of determining the centre lines of a succession of banknotes will be described hereinafter in more detail with reference to Figure 7, which illustrates an arrangement incorporating the size-measuring device 14, the guide and control means 16, the gripping means 17 and a data processor 280.

The size-measuring device 14 establishes the length of a passing banknote, or document, by counting the number of pulses (n = Δtl) delivered from the moment that a pulse source is activated by the leading edge of the banknote to the moment that said source is deactivated or stopped by the trailing edge of the banknote. This pulse number is entered into the data processor 280, located in the aforesaid compartment 28 provided in the bottom part of the apparatus. When the leading edge of the banknote has passed the guide and control means 16, a start-time-signal is sent to the data processor (at time t₀), which adds to the time signal t₀ firstly a constant (Δt2) which corres­ponds to the time, common to all banknotes, taken for transport of the banknote to the gripping means 17, more specifically until the leading edge of the banknote has reached the gripping means 17, and secondly a pulse increment (time increment Δt3 = 1/2 .Δt1) which is indi­vidual for each banknote and which corresponds to the time taken for half the banknote to pass the gripping means 17, which thus corresponds to half the number of pulses measured by the measuring device 14. Subsequent tot he passage of time Δt2 + 1/2 · Δt1 from the start time t₀, the data processor sends an activating signal to the gripping means 17, which therewith grips the bank­note and transports it to the transport path in the lower arrangement part. The said time includes, of course, inevitable delays caused by, for example, a certain inertia of the drive means of the gripping means 17.