Kabushiki Kaisha Nippon Coinco

Nippon Coinco Co., Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Nippon Conlux

Kabushiki Kaisha Nippon Coicno

Yukichi Hayashi

Osamu Sugimoto

Masaki Akagawa

Mitsugu Mikami

Eiji Itako

Yasuyuki Kodama

Tadashi Hatamachi

Makoto Yamamoto

Masayoshi Takizawa

Masayuki Tamura

Tatsujiro Nishioka

Toshihiko Kasuya

Masahiro Yasuhara

Osamu Kobayashi

Yonezo Furuya

Ichiroh Fukuda

Yutaka Yokohda

Shinichi Kobayashi

Yoshikazu Mori

Masanori Tanaka

Hideaki Onda

Kenzo Yoshihara

Seiu Sakai

Masauuki Tamura

Masayuki Tamara

Kazuyuki Akai

Masayuki Watanabe

Kenjiro Kachi

Yutaka Yokoda

A bill processor for use in a bill handling machine comprises a first bill transport passage for guiding a bill inserted in a direction substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of bills stacked in a stacker toward substantially middle of interior of the main body of the bill handling machine, and a second bill transport passage for guiding the bill from the termination end of the first bill transport passage along the longitudinal direction of the stacked bills, wherein the first bill transport passage is formed in a meandering form along the longitudinal direction of the stacked bills, whereby the depth of the bill processor can be made small.

Bill processor

A coin selecting apparatus includes a coin detection coil disposed in a coin channel for outputting a coin detection signal having a waveform changing gradually as the coin passes in the channel and uniquely accordance with the kind of the coin, and window device having a plurality of different windows for corresponding coins to be detected for producing a pulse signal when the coin detection signal is in a window. A timer device monitors the time duration of the pulse signal to thereby determine the validation and kind of the coin in accordance with the output from the timer device. A counter counts pulse signals produced by the window device to thereby determine the validation and kind of the coin in accordance with the count therein.

Coin selecting apparatus

This vending machine system comprises a single master vendor including a coin mechanism and a vend possible judgement circuit and a plurality of slave vendors controlled by this master vendor. The master vendor comprises a master control unit for controlling the operation of the respective slave vendors. Each of the slave vendors comprises a subcontrol unit which performs transmission and receiving of information relative to the master control unit and controls the article vending operation in response to the information provided from the master control unit. The transmission and receiving of the information between the subcontrol units and the master control unit is exclusively performed in accordance with a request issued from the side of the master control unit.

Vending machine having slave dispensing units

A coin separator having a first coin passage along which coins are guided, a coin detector disposed in the first coin passage for discriminating whether coins passing therethrough are true or false and to which group belong coins which are discriminated as true and outputting a signal relative to whether the coins are true or false and a group signal indicative of the group to which the discriminated coins belong, a true coin passage and a false coin passage each connected to the first coin passage, a first dividing mechanism for introducing the coins passing through the first coin passage into either the true coin passage or the false coin passage in response to the signal outputted from the coin detector, a plurality of second coin passages connected to the true coin passage, a second dividing mechanism for introducing the coins passed through the true coin passage into one of the plurality of second coin passages in response to the group signal outputted from the coin detector, and a third dividing mechanism for dividing the coins passed through each of the second coin passages into a plurality of groups with the third dividing mechanism being provided in each of the plurality of second coin passages.

Coin separator

This gift certificate has information recorded thereon for identifying a total face value vendible by the gift certificate and a predetermined base amount equal to or smaller than the total face value. The information recorded on a deposited gift certificate is read by a reading device. A validation device validates the total face value and the base amount of the deposited gift certificate in response to the read information. A vending permission judgement device prohibits, in reponse to an output of the validation device, at least vending of an article to which a vend price below the base amount has been assigned. By virtue of this arrangement, a purchaser of an article from a vending machine by using a gift certificate is not forced to make purchase of the entire total face value but has only to make purchase above the base amount in which case a change preferably is paid out.

Control device for a vending machine and gift certificate for use thereon

An automatic vending machine is provided which has a continuous sale controller for continuously selling a plurality of products within a total amount of coins inserted therein for a single purchase. Until the outstanding balance becomes zero single sale operations are stored in a single sale operation memory. When a count of a counter reaches a reference number while the single sale operations are being stored, a reference number detector generates an output. The regular sales price supplied from a product sales price generator to the continuous sale controller is updated to a discount price when an output is generated from the reference number detector.

Automatic vending machine with discount function

A gift coupon detectable by a bill sorter, comprising a rectangular paper having a width capable of being inserted into a travelling path of the bill sorter and also having predetermined characters and design, the gift coupon further having: a first data train comprising data units formed by a magnetic ink and arranged in a row at predetermined intervals, and a second data train comprising data units corresponding respectively to the data units of the first data train, formed by a magnetic ink and arranged in a row, data units in predetermined positions of the second data train being cut off to provide blank units to record data required for the gift coupon such as the significance of an amount of money, the name of commodity to be exchanged, etc. according to the arrangement of the blank units, the first and second data trains being disposed in positions capable of being detected by two magnetic detection heads for bill sorting provided in the bill sorter during travel of the gift coupon along the travelling path.

Gift coupon detectable by bill sorter

Sales management data such as sold product number data, sales data, unsold product number data, unit price data and sales condition data of a vending machine and individual columns are stored. When a given column and given sales management data are selected, the given column is displayed on a column display unit, and the sales management data of the given column is displayed on a data display unit. The sales management data can be set or updated. When a failure occurs in the vending machine, a failure position is displayed on the data display unit.

Control and monitoring apparatus for vending machines

Sending and receiving of information between a coinmech control section performing controls relating to receiving and paying out of coins and a vendor control section performing controls relating to selection and vending of an article are made under the leadership of the vendor control section. Multiple kinds of information to be sent and received are previously classified into a plurality of modes and a mode including necessary information to be sent and received is designated on the side of the vendor control section by a mode selection code. Responsive to contents of the mode selection code, one of the coinmech control section and the vendor control section is brought into an information sending state and the other into an information receiving state whereby a group of information for this mode is sent and received.

Control device and a method for sending and receiving information in a

Identical products are stored in a plurality of columns. Dispensing product numbers of the respective columns are calculated in accordance with the numbers of products stored in the respective columns. The calculated dispensing product numbers are set in corresponding counters. The counters are decremented every time a product or products is/are dispensed from each column. When all the counts of the counters are set to '0', the calculated dispensing product numbers are set again in the corresponding counters, and the above operation is repeated, thereby dispensing the products on the FIFO basis.

Automatic vending machine with rotational dispensing function

An up-down counter of a vending machine performs upcounting and downcounting in accordance with deposition and pay-out of coins and collection of a vend price, thereby producing a balance of an amount of deposited coins. The count of this up-down counter is indicated by a money amount indicator. A total sales summing device introduces, through a connector, money amount indication data provided from the up-down counter to the money amount indicator and performs a sales amount summing processing in accordance with this money amount indication data. This summing device detects the increment and decrement of the money amount indication data, performs upcounting and downcounting in response to this increment and decrement and prohibits downcounting of the decrement in the money amount indication data when the decrement has been caused by collection of the vend price. By virtue of the count prohibition control the difference between the amount of the deposited coins and the paid out coins, i.e., the price of the vended article, is left whereby summing of the sales amount is made possible. In a case where the vending machine has a plurality of article dispensing columns, a sales amount may be summed up for each column by receiving a vend mode signal representing one of the columns which has entered a vend mode.

Total sales summing device for a vending machine

A coin changer comprises a coin changer main part and an electronic type coin discrimination device which can be readily mounted to and detached from the coin changer main part. The electronic type coin discrimination device includes a detection coil for detecting characteristics of a deposited coin, a discrimination circuit for judging whether the deposited coin is a true coin or a counterfeit one in response to the output of the detection coil and produces a sole kind of discrimination signal representative of trueness or falsity of the coin regardless of the denomination of the coin, a true coin passage and a counterfeit coin passage provided behind the detection coil and a mechanical coin sort-out device provided in the true coin passage for sorting out coins by denomination. The coin changer main part comprises coin switches for detecting coins of respective denominations having been sorted out by the sort-out device, a coin receiving device for receiving the coins which have passed through the coin switches, a control circuit for effecting control operations including a money amount counting control, a vend control and a change payout control, and an electromagnetic device for distributing the deposited coin to either the true coin passage or the counterfeit coin passage in the coin discrimination device in response to the output of the discrimination circuit. This electromagnetic device distributes the coins by projecting or withdrawing a reject pin into or from a bifurcation of the true coin passage and the counterfeit coin passage.

Coin changer for a vending machine

An inventory device which is used for a route-man to take all the coins out of the coin containing cylinders of an automatic vending machine. With the inventory device, the coin containing cylinders are caused one after another to dispense the coins merely by operating a single switch. The inventory device comprises: the single switch; a shift register; and a coin dispensation control section connected to the bit output of the shift register. The signal '1' is successively shifted in the shift register in response to the operation of the single switch, to operate the coin dispensation control section, thereby to dispense the coins out of the coin containing cylinders.

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Sakado, Japan

Yukichi Hayashi