| 摘要 |
A vertical conveyor (1) conveys coins from a hopper (2) upwards and into a coin sorting or counting machine (not shown) via a guide tube (4). The vertical conveyor (1) comprises a plurality of bucket-like containers (6) each having an opening (9) and being pivotally coupled to each adjacent container, the containers being arranged to move in a loop in the direction of arrow (7), with the opening (9) of each container (6) lying in the loop. The body of each of the container (6) extends outwardly from the loop and is preferably raked rearwardly relative to the direction of motion of the containers. The hopper (2) comprises a sloping surface (10) arranged to guide the coins towards the interior of the loop of the conveyor to form a reservoir of coins therein. Thus, as the containers (6) move around the loop and empty containers pass through the bottom portion of the conveyor (1), they are filled with coins from the reservoir. Movement of the containers around the loop causes the coins to tumble within the reservoir and so fill the containers. As each container (6) passes the bottom portion of the loop and starts the upward motion, the body of the container lies at an angle of 45 DEG to the vertical and any excess coins in the container drop through the aperture (9) of the container and back to the reservoir. As the containers (6) reach the upper portion of the conveyor (1) and the containers move around at the top of the loop, the coins start to fall out through the aperture (9) of the container (6) and into a respective sector of a cam wheel (17) bounded by two radial vanes (18) and the surface of a substantially frusto-conical portion (19) from where they are guided away to the coin sorting machine. |
