Currency Sorter Odd Note Retrieval and Diagnostic Banding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing currency sorters face difficulties in efficiently retrieving and diagnosing issues with unbundled currency notes, particularly those with mixed denominations and conditions, leading to cumbersome manual retrieval and unclear malfunction diagnosis.
Innovation Solution
A currency sorter with take-in, discriminating, stacking, bundling, and conveyer means that automatically retrieves odd notes from stacking units and imprints diagnostic information on bundling bands to identify note versions and conditions, simplifying the process and enhancing diagnostic capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If manual retrieval of odd notes from stacking units is performed, then the sorter can handle various denominations, but the operation becomes cumbersome and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyer mechanism automatically retrieves odd notes from stacking units and transports them to the money returning unit without requiring manual intervention. The system serves itself by automating the retrieval process that previously required operator intervention, thereby improving ease of operation while maintaining adaptability to handle various denominations.
2Loss of information
If process information data is printed on bundling bands, then tracking and identification is improved, but malfunction diagnosis becomes difficult due to information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The information on bundling bands is segmented into distinct functional categories: tracking information (serial numbers, timestamps, operator IDs) is separated from diagnostic information (stacking unit identifiers, note condition codes, processing status). This segmentation allows operators to quickly locate and interpret relevant diagnostic information without being overwhelmed by comprehensive tracking data, thereby improving malfunction diagnosis while maintaining complete information recording.
3Productivity
If odd notes are left in stacking units, then bundling efficiency is maintained, but manual evacuation becomes necessary and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyer mechanism is configured to automatically evacuate odd notes from stacking units immediately after the bundling process completes, before the operator needs to manually retrieve them. This preliminary automatic evacuation action eliminates the subsequent manual retrieval step, thereby maintaining bundling efficiency while eliminating the time loss associated with manual evacuation of odd notes.
Data Source
AI summary
A currency sorter has: take-in means (106) for taking currency notes in sorter one by one; discriminating means (105) for discriminating the currency notes; stacking means (111 to 115) for stacking the currency notes according to the discrimination result obtained by said discriminating means; bundling means (200) for bundling a predetermined number of the currency notes; a money returning unit at which an odd currency note which is a fraction of the predetermined number of the currency notes is returned, first conveyer means for conveying the predetermined number of the currency notes from all deposited in said stacking means with grabbing them to the bundling means; and second conveyer means for conveying the odd currency notes left in the stacking means with grabbing them to said money returning unit. The sorter may further have printing means (212) for imprinting predetermined information on a band supplied to said bundling means; and print control means (400) for controlling said printing means imprint information indicating one of stacking means from which the currency notes are derived, whether stacked currency notes are mixture of the new and old versions or discriminatively stacked new or old version or whether the currency notes are mixture of the fit and unfit conditions or discriminatively stacked fit and unfit condition.