Lottery Ticket Burster Alignment Using Reflective Form Mark Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lottery ticket vending machines often miscut tickets due to improper positioning and alignment of tickets, leading to misalignment of tickets as they are fed into the burster, which compounds registration issues and results in undesired ticket separation.
Innovation Solution
A lottery ticket vending machine equipped with a reflective sensor to detect form marks on each ticket, determining proper positioning and taking corrective actions or alerts to ensure accurate separation, using a controller to analyze form mark signals and adjust machine components as needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a reflective sensor and controller are added to detect form mark signals and determine ticket positioning, then manufacturing precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The reflective sensor detects the form mark on the lottery ticket before the cutting action occurs. The controller receives the form mark signal and determines ticket positioning in advance, allowing corrective actions to be taken before the actual separation, thus preventing miscuts from occurring in the first place
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop where the reflective sensor continuously monitors ticket position via form mark detection, and the controller adjusts the cutting operation based on this real-time information. This closed-loop control ensures precise ticket separation while maintaining system reliability
2Reliability
If form mark detection is performed before cutting, then reliability is improved, but loss of time occurs due to additional detection steps
Solution Approach 1:
The form mark detection is performed as a preliminary step immediately before cutting, allowing the system to verify ticket positioning and make adjustments in advance. This prevents the need for rework or corrective actions after cutting, which would consume more time
Solution Approach 2:
The reflective sensor and controller are configured to perform detection and positioning verification in a rapid, continuous manner that integrates with the existing cutting cycle. The system skips unnecessary intermediate steps and performs detection efficiently, minimizing the time added to the overall process while ensuring reliability
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Prevents miscutting by ensuring accurate ticket separation, maintaining ticket quality and redeemability, and maintaining the dispensing process within predefined specifications.
Implementation Method 1
a reflective sensor supported by the ticket burster and configured to create a form mark signal based on a form mark of a lottery ticket
Data Source
AI summary
A lottery ticket vending machine configured to determine if its ticket bursters are improperly separating the lottery tickets received from the ticket drawers of the ticket drawer columns, and to make one or more adjustments and/or alert an operator if its ticket bursters are improperly separating the lottery tickets. In various embodiments, each of the tickets bursters includes a suitable reflective sensor configured to sense at least one form mark of each lottery ticket received in such ticket burster. In various embodiments, the lottery ticket vending machine includes one or more controllers configured to receive form mark signals from the reflective sensors and make such determinations regarding any adjustments and/or alerts, and to cause any such adjustments and/or alerts.