US3497047A - Coin chute - Google Patents

Description

c. A. MOBLEY Feb. 24, 1970 COIN CHUTE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 12, 1967 INVENTOR. GEORGE A. MOBLEY MKM ATTORNEY Feb. 24, 1970 Filed Oct. 12, 1967 G. A. MOBLEY COIN CHUTE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

GEORG E A. MOBLEY BY M Q "M ATTORN EY United States Patent 3,497,047 COIN CHUTE George A. Mobley, Spartanburg, S.C., assignor to Clemson Industries, Inc., Spartanburg, S.C., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 12, 1967, Ser. No. 674,920 Int. Cl. B65g 11/00, 45/00 US. Cl. 193-18 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Currently a great deal of manual manipulation is employed in the handling of coins wrapped in rolls. As is well known, whenever manual operation is employed the cost of such operation is usually higher and the chances of error are greater. Furthermore, such manual operation is often tedious and boring and the operators tend to be indifferent to their job.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus to automate one phase of the coin handling operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive coin handling apparatus to handle rolls of coins by receiving them in one direction and automatically transferring them to another apparatus located in a different plane.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will become clearly apparent as the specification proceeds to describe the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the coin handling apparatus with the transfer chute in normal position;

FIGURE 2 is a side view of the main coin handling chute shown in FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 3 is a View similar to FIGURE 1 except the transfer chute is shown in the transfer position.

Looking now to the drawings the numeral represents a roll of coins wrapped in a shrink film bag. In the preferred form of the invention the transfer chute 12 is located between a chute 14 which is delivering coins from a coin wrapping machine (not shown) to a shrink oven 16 in which the film wrapping around the coins will be shrunk tightly thereabout to form a compact package of wrapped coins.

The transfer chute 12 consists of four basic components; namely, the fixed chute 18, the movable chute 20, the counterweight 22 and the guide chute 24.

The fixed chute 18 and the movable chute 20 in FIG- URES 1 and 2 are at an angle of approximately 45 to the horizontal to provide sufficient incline so that the gravitational force on the roll of coins 10 will cause the roll 10 to slide down the fixed chute 18 into the movable chute 20.

The fixed chute 18 consists of a pair of lower rod members 26 and upper rod members 28 held in position by suitable cross-braces 30. The movable chute 20 is rotatably supported on shaft 32 through end plates 34 and 36 mounted in suitable bearings 38 located on the 3,497,047 Patented Feb. 24, 1970 shaft 32. Connected to the end plate 36 is a counterweight 22 which tends to rotate the movable chute counterclockwise and maintain it aligned with the fixed chute 18. The counterweight is of sufficient weight to overcome the weight of the empty movable chute 20 but will be overcome by the additional weight of a roll of coins 10 in the movable chute 20. The movable chute consists of lower rod members 39 which coincide with the lower rod members 26 of the fixed chute 18 and one upper rod member 40 which coincides with rear rod member 28 of the fixed chute.

The shaft 32 is suitably connected to a plate member 42 which is secured in position by bolt 44 which projects through plate 46 which in turn is welded or otherwise secured to the fixed chute 18.

The guide chute 24 is suitably supported in the position shown by a flange portion 48 welded or otherwise secured to the support plate 42. Guide chute 24 preferably is supported so that the axis of the chute portion 50 is at an angle of substantially 45 to a plane through the longitudinal axis of the transfer chute 12.

Looking at FIGURE 3 it can be seen that the movable chute 20 pivots to a position which also is at an angle of 45 with a plane through the longitudinal axis of the fixed chute 18. This angle provides proper positioning of the movable chute 20 so that the coin roll 10 will readily fall into correct position in the guide chute 24.

Operation The operation of the disclosed apparatus is fairly straightforward in that a wrapped roll of coins drops into the fixed chute 18 from the chute 14 so that its longitudinal axis coincides with the longitudinal axis of the chute 18. The roll of coins 10 will then slide down the transfer chute 12 into the movable chute 20 where the combined weight of the roll of coins and the movable chute 20 will pivot the chute 20 against the bias of counterweight 22 to the position shown in FIGURE 3. As pointed out above the chute 20 has only one upper rod member 40 which is on the side of the chute 20 away from the guide chute 24 thereby allowing the roll of coins 10 to readily fall into position into the chute 24 between the side walls 52 thereof. From the guide chute 24 the coins will roll into a conveyor (not shown) in the shrink oven 16 wherein the completed package of coins is obtained.

The herein disclosed apparatus provides a simple and inexpensive system to automatically receive a roll of coins from one source and transfer such roll of coins to another source which extends in a different direction without the use of manual labor during the transfer.

Although I have described in detail the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is contemplated that many changes may be made without departing from the scope or spirit of my invention and I desire to be limited only by the claims.

I claim:

1. A coin handling apparatus comprising: a coin chute, means to supply a roll of coins to said chute and coin receiving means operably associated with said chute and located at an angle thereto, said chute including a pivotally mounted transfer chute biased by a counterweight to a position in alignment with said chute and pivots to a transfer position when a roll of coins is deposited therein, said transfer chute having the side thereof facing said coin receiving means lower than the other side of said chute to allow ready transfer of coins from said chute into said coin receiving means.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein the axis of said 3 coin receiving means is at an angle of substantially 45 2,413,767 1/19 7 Hyde 198-27 to the longitudinal axis of said coin chute. 2,755,978 7/1956 Schoenewolf 53-244 References Cited ANDRES H. NIELSEN, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 US. CL XR- 571,389 11/1896 Pancoast 193-27 198 27 1,741,782 12/1929 LaRocque 198-27

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