Automatic Shuffling Machine

• US 20090267296A1
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Published: 10/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Fulgent Enterprise Co Limited (Taiwan Fulgent Enterprise)
• Original Assignee: Taiwan Fulgent Enterprise Co Limited (Taiwan Fulgent Enterprise)
• Inventors: HO, Cai-Shiang
• Granted Patent: US 7,753,374 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/149.R
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers

Abstract

An automatic shuffling machine has a shuffling wheel and a card input mounted adjacent to the shuffling wheel for conveying and inserting cards into slots formed in the shuffling wheel. An insertion panel is mounted securely between the card input and the shuffling wheel, may be a curved shape corresponding to the shuffling wheel and has a tangent surface opposite to the shuffling wheel and an abutting portion disposed between an inlet passage of the card input and one corresponding card slot of the shuffling wheel. Thus, by controlling the rotation of the shuffling wheel, the automatic shuffling machine input the cards in a simple and efficient manner.

Claims

1. An automatic shuffling machine comprising

a base having

a rotary driver being mounted on the base and having a drive gear rotatably mounted thereon;

and

a controller being mounted securely on the base and controlling the rotary driver; and

a shuffling wheel being mounted rotatably on the stage, being driven by the rotary driver to selectively rotate a random number of degrees and having multiple card slots being formed radially around the shuffling wheel;

a card input being mounted adjacent to the shuffling wheel and having

a conveyor being mounted in the card input and having at multiple active rollers being mounted in pairs in the card input and having an input gap formed therebetween that selectively aligns with the card slots of the shuffling wheel;

a separator being mounted in the card input and having

a driven roller being rotatably mounted adjacent to the conveyor and having a frictional surface formed around which; and

a resilient element being mounted adjacent to the driven roller and selectively pressing against the driven roller; and

a drive system being mounted in the card input and connecting to and driving each active roller and driven roller to rotate; and

at least one insertion panel being securely mounted adjacent to the card input and the shuffling wheel and having at least one tangent surface being formed on the insertion panel, adjacent to and protruding at a tangent from the shuffling wheel.

2. The automatic shuffling machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the insertion panel further has

two mounting tabs protruding perpendicularly from the sides of the insertion panel;

two fasteners mounted respectively through the mounting tabs and being mounted securely in the card input to fasten the insertion panel on the card input.

3. The automatic shuffling machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the rotary driver of the shuffling wheel further has a drive gear being mounted rotatably on the base;

and

the shuffling wheel further has multiple teeth being formed around the shuffling wheel and engaging the drive gear of the rotary driver of the base.

4. The automatic shuffling machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the shuffling wheel further has multiple retainers being mounted respectively in the card slots, and each retainer is pushed by a resilient element.