US3135270A - Coin sorting apparatus - Google Patents

Description

June 2, 1964 w, P, ARNOLD 3,135,270

COIN SORTING APPARATUS Filed April l2, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 4

lNvENroR kx WENDE/ IN P. ARNOLD BY gmt QW' ATTORNEYS June 2, 1964 w. P. ARNOLD COIN SORTING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 12, 1962 FIG. 3

/NvENToR WENDEL/N R ARNOLD BY- Q ATTORNEYS `passing thereover to `a larger aperture.

This invention relates generally to apparatus for sorting coils into their respective denominations according to diametral size. n

A coin of one V,denomination usually differs ,in diametral size from a coin of smalldenomination, especially in the coinage of any one given country. Therefore, these coins may be distinguished and separated from each other according to their respective sizes. Devices that have been developed to yachieve such separation comprises in general a flat plate having a plurality of circular apertures, oneaperture beingnprovided for each` g United States Patent O size of coin to be sorted. The plate is usually inclined 'to the horizontal and is provided with'a guide means sok that the coins when placed on an upper portion of the plate will pass along the surface thereof, in contact with the guide means, bygravity. The circular apertures abut the guide means and are arranged in the order of p increasing size in the direction of travel of the coins.

Thus, when the coins pass along the plate, the smallest coins drop through the first and smallest aperture, the next larger coins will pass over the first aperture to drop through the second aperture, and so on. VA receptacle is usually provided beneath each aperture for collecting thelcoins passed therethrough.`

Suchsorting devices, however, are limited in their use because of the slow speedat which the coins must pass along the plate to achieve smooth and accurate separation. When a coin reaches its aperture, it does not fallV straight through` the aperture but follows a trajectory v determined byy its'weight and speed. Also, the circular aperture has a diameter only slightlyglarger than" that of the coin so that it will not affect thenext larger coins Accordingly, each coin must travel very slowly in order that its trajectory isA almost negligible, otherwise the coin may Vstrike the trailing end of the aperture and rebound-or may even over-shoot it. High coin speeds, therefore, cause coins to interrupt or jam the flow of coins by rebounding into the path ofthe following coins. High `speeds also cause misiires, that is, coins over-shooting their respective apertures to pass through a larger aperture into the wrong receptacle.

Attempts have-been` made `to overcome this disadvantage of speed limitation but have resulted only in adding another. These attempts have been to provide additional guide means for each of the circular apertures to ensure that each coin drops only into its respective .aperture ,while permitting larger coins to pass thereover.

VIn certain cases, abutments-have been employed on the trailing end of each aperture so that a coin is brought to a full stop before it drops through its aperture. However, the only significant results are that the sorting plates have become very complicated with numerous projections which ,may deflect a coin yfrom its path Vand thereby disrupt the flow ofcoin.

It is, therefore, an object ofthe present invention to provide a sorting `apparatus for coins or the like which is of greatly simplified construction compared with prior sortingdevices and capable of sorting coins or the like j at much higher speeds than hitherto known.

AThe essence of the invention is the use in a sortin apparatus for coins of a plate having elongated apertures and a surface devoid of obstructions to impede Y the passage of coins thereoveri Guide means are pro- Vless than the diameter of the next larger coin.

alassio Patented June 2, 1964 vided to guide thecoins to the apertures which are arranged successively in the order of increasing size in the direction of travel ofthe coins. Each aperture is located adjacent theguide means but with its adjacent edge spaced therefrom a distance less than the radius of the coin to be passed therethrough. The remote edge of each aperture ,is spaced from the guide means a distance just greater than the diameter of thel coin but The elongation of each aperture is defined by a leading and a trailing end spaced apart in the direction of travel of the coins a sufcient distance to prevent the coin from striking the trailing end as it passes through the aperture.

Coin sorting devices according to the present invention have proven to be extremely successful in the high speed sorting of large amounts of unseparated coinage such as the receipts of newspaper publishing companies, bottling companies, recreational centers, etc. Not only does the simplicity of these devices result in such greatly increased sorting speeds but also inl very high sorting accuracies required for the subsequent counting and wrapping of the sorted coins.

Two embodiments ,of the present invention are described below with reference to the attached drawings in which: f

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a coin sorter according to this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

`FlGURE 3 is a plan view of the coin-sorting plate and its mounting means, and

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a second Vembodiment of a coin sorter according to this invention.

' The embodiment shown in FIGURE 1 comprises a casing 4designated-generally at 10 having a base plate 11, end walls 12 and 13 and a rear wall 14. Supported at the top ends of the end walls 12 and 13 and the rear wall 14 is a hopper indicated generally at 15 having a sloping oor 16 inclined downwardly away from a flat portion 17 towards a steeply inclined end wall 18. The sides of the hopper are` dened by steeply inclined side walls 19 and 20. The sloping floor 16 has a chute 21 extending beyond the end wall 18and is spaced from the bottom edge of the end wall 18 to forrn `a slot 22 as shown in FIGURE 2. The chute 21 of the sloping oor 16 has upwardly extending flanges 23 along both sides *thereof which are extensions of the side walls 19 and 2t). f f

Disposed 0n the base 11 of the casing 10 is a frame 24 having upwardly extending end walls 25 and 26 which support at their upper ends a longitudinally and trans* versely inclined plate 27, hereinafter referred to as slide 27. The upper endof the slide 27 has side ang'es, 28

and 29 which extend along the remaining portion of theV issubstantially at and has arranged therealong adjacent the guide flange'30 a succession of apertures 35 to 39 of successively larger Vsizes from aperture 35 to aperture 39. Betweenv the ` end walls 25 and 26 `of the frame 24 is a sloping shelf 4t! having partitions 41 defining a plurality of compartments. A plurality of receptacles 42 to 46. are removably positioned within these compartments beneath the apertures 35 to 39,respectively.

Before :the apertures 35 to 39 are described in greater detail, the operation of the sorting device will be described brietly with reference to FIGURE 2. The coins are rst placed on the flat portion It' of the hopper 15 and are' then pushed by hand onto the'sloping floor 16 when they slide by gravity through the slot 22 and down the chute4 21. The flanges 23 insure that the coins slide tothe free end of the chute 21 from where they fall onto the curved plate 32 of the slide 27.

The slot 22 prevents too many coins falling onto the plate 32 at one time, by limiting the passage of the coins therethrough. The deector 33 between the side anges 28 and 29 ensures that the coins lie dat as they slide by gravity downthe curved plate 32 onto the surface 34. Because of the longitudinal and transverse inclination of the slide 27 the coins slide on their flat surfaces along the surface 34V in contact with the guide flange 30. Each coin will slidey or roll down surface 34 until it reaches the aperture through which it isY intended to pass. -The coin then falls through that aperture into the receptacle underneath where all the coins of the same denomination are collected.

As shown in FIGURES l, 2 and 3 live apertures are provided, one each for ten cent, one cent, tive cent, twenty-tive cent and fifty cent pieces in that order. Any coin largerthan the lifty cent piece, such as a silver dollar, will travel all the way down the slide 27 and drop over the end thereof into a suitable container (not shown in this first embodiment) which may be provided for this purpose. With reference to FIGURES 2 and 3, it will be noted that each aperture is in the shape of a trapezoid and is spaced from the guide ilange 30 against which the coins are in contact when they travel down the slide 27. The apertures are successively larger in size inthe direction of` passage of the coins down the slide 27. As exemplilied by aperture 39, each aperture is defined by an` edge 4'7 adjacent to the guide flange 39,V a remote edge 48, a leading end 49 and a trailing end Sil. The adjacent edge 47 is spaced from the guide ange 30 by a web 51. which is wide enough to support the near edge of a coin passing thereover but is not as wide asthe radius of the, coin intended to pass through the aperture. The remote edge 48 of each aperture is spaced from the guide rail 30 a distance just greater than the diameter of the coin which is to pass through the aperture but less than the. diameter of the next larger coin.

A coin thatwill pass. through the aperture 39, in this case a fifty cent piece, will slide over thek other apertures` until it reachesA aperture 39. The coin then begins to fall downwardly about its edge which is supported on the web 51. The coin, however, does not drop directly down into its receptacle 46, .but follows a slight trajectory. Because of this trajectory the trailing end 50 is spaced from the leading end 49 a distance suilicient to permit the leading edge of the coin to dropk below the surface 34 without` striking the trailinglend 50, The leading end 49 is provided. with a downwardly sloping lip-52 which guides the coin. smoothly into its trajectory and prevents the coin tipping sharply and obstructing the owv of the following coins.k Each of the other apertures tol 3@ is similarly adapted to allow passage therethrough of the coins of the respective diametral. sizes and denominations.l It should be noted, however, that the apertures do not need to have the exact Yconfiguration shown in the preferred embodiment described above, they may assume other similar shapes so long astheyv fulllthe general requirements noted; For example, the aperturescould be rectangular and. need notA have the lip 52 on the leading end 49 thereof.

FIGURE 4` illustrates a second embodiment of the invention which issimilar to the iirst embodiment but` is adapted for handling greater numbers of coins. In,`

this embodiment, a double slide 53 is provided having surfaces 54 and 55 inclined to the horizontal in the same longitudinal manner but inclined in opposite directions to each other in the transverse direction and joined together at their uppermost longitudinal edges. The surfaces 54 and 5S have guide flanges 56 and 57 disposed along their lowermost longitudinal edges, respectively, and have corresponding rows of apertures adjacent to these flanges as described with reference to the rst embodiment. A common receptacle is located below each of the corresponding pairs of apertures to receive the coins passed therethrough.Y A hopper 58 is arranged similarly to the hopper of the embodiment of FIGURE 1 except that it is provided` with a central partition 59 to divide the flow of coins from the flat surface 60 onto the two surfaces 54 Land 55 of the double slidey 53. In this particular embodiment only four different sized apertures are provided in each surface "j 54 and 5S with the largest coins to be sorted sliding down the length of these surfaces and dropping over the ends thereof into a receptacle suitably positioned thereunder. A double deilector 61 is located betweenthe upper ends of the anges 56 and 57 to deflect the' coins on each part of the slide 53 in a manner similar to that of the dellector 33 in the first embodiment.

The apparatus according to this invention has been described throughout as a coin sorting apparatus. Itl is not to be limited to such however, as it would lind g use in any application requiring the sorting of disk-like objects similar-to coins according to their diametral sizes.

What I claim as my invention is: l Apparatus for the high speed sorting of coins according to diametral size comprising a hopper having a flat portion ontowhich coins to be'sorted may be dumped,

a downwardly inclined tapered portion onto which coins may be pushed by hand from said at portion, a wall facing said downwardly inclined tapered portion and terminating above the latter to dene al coin passage therebetween, side walls extending upwardly from said downwardly inclined tapered portion to confine the coinsv thereon, a concave plate arranged infront of said coin passage but spaced therefrom such that coins passing through said passage will strike said plate to eliminate riding of one coin or another and will have their direction of movement reversed, a at plate alongl which,` said coins travel from said concave plate, said llat plate being downwardly inclined longitudinally and transversely and having a succession of variously-sized apertures and Vguide means along the lower longitudinal edge of so that said coin in passing through the aperture willV not strike said trailing end':

References Citedv in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,346,457 Leia July 13, 1920 2,487,163 Miconi Nov. 8, 1949' 2,764,990' Pick Oct. 2, 1956 FOREIGN Parrainsy 9,639 GreatBritain Apr. 17, 1912 .65,896l ,Norway Aug. 9, 1943y

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