Method and device for treating articles in the form of sheet-like material

• US 7,201,340 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2001
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient (Giesecke & Devrient GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Giesecke & Devrient GmbH
• Inventors: Fiedler, Michael, Dietrich, Helmut
• Primary Examiner(s): Larson; Lowell A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pahng; Jason Y
• Application Number:
  US10/398,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,008 Days
• Field of Search: 241/101.2, 241/236, 382/135
• US Class Current: 241/101.2
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/16 Handling of valuable papers within containers G07D11/13
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/30 Tracking or tracing valuable papers or cassettes
• CPC Class Codes: G07D 11/50 Sorting or counting valuable papers
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 19/20 Automatic teller machines [ATMs]

Abstract

The invention relates to an apparatus and corresponding method for processing, i.e. testing, sorting and/or destroying, sheet material, in particular bank notes, comprising a processing device (10) having at least one means (13, 14, 41) for generating information on the processing of individual sheets (12) of sheet material, and at least one monitoring device (20) having at least one memory device (21) for storing the information on the processing of individual sheets (12).

To improve the monitoring of sheet processing, in particular in regard to disturbances in the course of processing, it is provided that the processing device (10) has at least one means (11) for detecting the identity of individual sheets (12) of sheet material and the memory device (21) of the monitoring device (20) is formed for storing the information on the processing of individual sheets (12) together with the identity of the individual sheets (12).

Claims

1. In an apparatus for processing bank notes, including

a bank note processing device having at least one means for generating information on the processing of individual bank notes, said means for generating information comprising at least one light barrier;

and

at least one monitoring device having at least one memory device for storing the generated information on the processing of the individual bank notes, and wherein

the bank note processing device has at least one means for detecting the identity of the individual bank notes, and

the memory device of the monitoring device is formed for storing the generated information on the processing of the individual bank notes together with the identity of the individual bank notes,

the improvement comprising galvanically decoupled connections comprising optical waveguides or optocouplers provided between the processing device and the monitoring device for transferring the identity of the individual bank notes from the bank note processing device to the monitoring device and at least one of said galvanically decoupled connections arranged at least between the at least one light barrier and the monitoring device for transferring the generated information on the processing of the individual bank notes from the bank note processing device to the monitoring device.

2. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the bank note processing device has at least one converting device for demonetizing or destroying particular individual bank notes.

3. The improvement according to claim 2, wherein the converting device has means for checking the demonetizing or destruction of the particular individual bank notes.

4. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the bank note processing device has one or more output devices to which particular individual bank notes are outputted.

5. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the means for generating information on the processing of individual bank notes includes at least one sensor for registering particular bank notes outputted to an output device or transferred to a converting device.

6. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring device has an energy supply device independent of the bank note processing device.

7. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring device is arranged to receive a clock signal and to store the generated information on processing together with the clock signal and/or values derived from the clock signal.

8. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the identity of at least one bank note is provided by image data and/or a serial number of the at least one bank note.

9. The improvement according to claim 8, wherein the monitoring device has an evaluation device for determining the serial number of the at least one bank note from the image data of the at least one bank note.

10. The improvement according to claim 1, wherein the memory device has a volatile and/or nonvolatile storage medium.