Sheet handling machine

• US 20050056694A1
• Filed: 09/16/2004
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi-Omron Terminal Solutions Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Katou, Riichi, Kako, Yutaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,140,610 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2220/01 indicating an entity as a function of which control, adjustment or change is performed, i.e. input
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2220/03 indicating an entity which is measured, estimated, evaluated, calculated or determined but which does not constitute an entity which is adjusted or changed by the control process per se
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2220/11 indicating that the input or output entities exclusively relate to machine elements
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/13 Thickness
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/212 Rotary position
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/22 Distance
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/30 Numbers, e.g. of windings or rotations
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/521 Presence of foreign object or undesirable material, i.e. material of another nature than the handled material
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2511/524 Multiple articles, e.g. double feed
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2553/61 Mechanical means, e.g. contact arms
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2701/1912 Banknotes, bills and cheques or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 7/02 by feelers or detectors

Abstract

There is disclosed a sheet handling machine capable of surely verifying whether the number of bills is one or not based on the kind of a bill even when bills different in thickness are inserted, handling the bills of different thickness mixed in, dealing with new bills issued in recent years using various novel feature technologies for bill forgery prevention, and detecting the presence of a foreign object in the bill surface. The kind of each of bills successively fed in is specified by bill checking means for identifying the kind of a bill, and reference thickness information regarding the sheet of a specified kind is read from a reference thickness table recording a bill kind and the thickness information of a bill full surface. This reference thickness information is compared with the information of thickness actually measured by a plurality of bill thickness means installed to obtain information for a plurality of places of a sheet, and thereby verification is made as to whether the number of sheets is one or not, and as to the presence of a foreign object.

Claims

1-20. -20. (Canceled)

21. A sheet handling machine for handling sheets, comprising:

a conveying path for conveying the sheets;

sheet checking means disposed along said conveying path to specify the kind of a sheet;

a plurality of thickness checking means disposed side by side with respect to a bill carried on said conveying path to obtain information regarding a thickness of a sheet;

storing means for a storing thickness information of a plurality of places of a sheet; and

control means for comparing actually measured thickness information of the conveyed sheet at a plurality of places, obtained by said thickness checking means, with reference thickness information read from said storing means,

wherein the reading processing from said storing means is executed based on the kind of a sheet specified by said sheet checking means.

22. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein each of said thickness checking means includes a reference roller attached rotatably around a support shaft, and a detecting roller placed oppositely to the reference roller and changed according to a thickness of a bill, and pluralities of said reference rollers and said detecting rollers are disposed side by side.

23. A sheet handling machine according to claim 22, wherein each of said thickness checking means includes an arm for supporting the detecting roller rotatably around a fulcrum, and a spring attached to the arm.

24. A sheet handling machine according to claim 22, wherein each of said thickness checking means includes a displacement sensor for detecting the changing of the detecting roller.

25. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said storing means prestores thickness information of a plurality of places of the sheet in a table form corresponding to a issuing country of a bill or the kind of a bill.

26. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said control means determines the number of sheets to be one if a difference between the reference thickness information stored in said storing means and the thickness information measured by said thickness checking means is within a predetermined range, and to be other than one if the difference is outside the predetermined range.

27. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said control means determines a presence of a foreign object in the sheet based on a result of the comparison determination between the reference thickness information stored in said storing means and the thickness information measured by said thickness checking means.

28. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein a plurality of said thickness checking means are disposed side by side in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of the sheet carried on said conveying path.

29. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said thickness checking means measures a sectional area of the sheet, and the reference thickness information stored in said storing means regards a sectional area corresponding to the kind of sheet.

30. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said plurality of thickness checking means measure a sectional area of the sheet at a plurality of places, and said storing means stores thickness information of a sectional area as a reference for a plurality of places of the sheet.

31. A sheet handling machine according to claim 21, wherein said storing means stores the reference thickness information as a reference for the sheet, and specific thickness information as a reference for a specific portion added to the sheet for each kind of a sheet.

32. A sheet handling machine according to claim 31, wherein the specific thickness information contains position and thickness information of the specific portion inherent in the sheet, and permissible error information regarding a sheet thickness.