Ncr Corporation

David J McMillan

Andrew Lynch

John A Peebles

James D Swinton

Timothy Wiggins

William Rice

Derek S Bell

An image forming apparatus uses a plurality of image forming units that are arranged rotatable in a vertical plane such that the image forming units that shifted sequentially to an image forming position. Each image forming unit has a translucent toner detection window on its outer periphery for detecting the remaining amount of toner in a toner hopper. The image forming units will have a replacing position in which it will face an opening for allowing replacement of the image forming unit. The translucent detection window will face the opening when the image forming unit is in the replacing position.

Machine for dispensing media

A belt (28) is moved into contact with a sheet (70) to be fed from the stack (18) under the control of a solenoid (48), which when energized causes pivoting of a crank mechanism (42) and an pulley (26) which supports the belt (28). The belt (28) frictionally engages the sheet (70) as to separate it from the stack (18) and move it into engagement with feed rollers (56) of a transport mechanism. The belt (28) is then retracted from the sheet (70) which is moved away from the stack (18) by the feed rollers (56). After a predetermined time period, the belt (28) is moved into contact with the next sheet of the stack (18) to be fed and the process is repeated until the desired number of sheets have been fed from the stack (18). The belt (28) is driven so that it rotates continuously during the pick operation and is brought to rest on retraction of the belt (28) after the final sheet has been picked from the stack (18).

Sheet feeding apparatus

A belt displacement operation is periodically carried by the pick mechanism 11 of a sheet feeding apparatus, when the number of sheets fed has reaches a predetermined value. The motor 34 is driven in reverse for a predetermined time, so as to cause rotation of the belt 28 in the opposite direction to that during feeding. Since the pick pulley 26 is supported on the shaft 38 by means of a one-way clutch 40 so that it does not rotate during the reverse rotation of the belt 28, displacement of the belt 28 occurs relative to the pick pulley 26, so that in subsequent pick operations, a different portion of the belt 28 engages the stack 18 so as to pick a sheet, than had displacement of the belt 28 not occurred. This reduces the risk of localized portions of the belt 28 becoming more worn than others, due to more frequent engagement with the stack 18.

An automated financial system (6) includes a plurality of wall-mounted user interface units (10, 12, 14) and a central module system (8), including a plurality of modules (40, 42, 46, 48) such as may be employed in a conventional ATM, located in a safe area remote from the interface units (10, 12 or 14). A track (20) connects each interface unit (10, 12 or 14) to the central module system (8). A motor-driven carriage (24) rides on each track (20) and has a cassette (26) fixed thereto, which is capable of carrying currency or other media between the respective interface unit (10, 12 or 14) and the central module system (8). A receptacle (18) for holding small amounts of currency is associated with each interface unit (10, 12 or 14) for supplying small amounts of currency to a user without the need for obtaining such currency from the central module system (8). A central track (32) with a carriage-mounted cassette (38) thereon is associated with the central module system (8), this cassette (38) having the capability of transferring media to, or receiving media from, one of the other cassettes (26).

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Glasgow, United Kingdom

David J McMillan