1. A currency counting and evaluation device for receiving a stack of currency bills, rapidly counting and evaluating all the bills in the stack, and then re-stacking the bills, said device comprising
a feed mechanism for receiving a stack of currency bills and feeding said bills in the direction of the narrow dimension of the bills, one at a time, to a feed station,
a bill transport mechanism for transporting bills, in the direction of the narrow dimension of the bills, from said feed station to a stacking station, at a rate in excess of about 800 bills per minute.
a stationary optical scanning head located between said feed and stacking stations for scanning a preselected segment of a central portion of each bill transported between said stations by said transport mechanism, said scanning head including at least one light source for illuminating a strip of said preselected segment of a bill, and at least one detector for received reflected light from the illuminated strip on the bill and producing an output signal representing variations in the intensity of the reflected light,
sampling said output signal preselected intervals as a bill is moved across said scanning head in the direction of the narrow dimension of the bill,
a memory for storing characteristic signal samples produced by scanning said preselected segments of bills of different denominations with said scanning head and sampling said output signal at said preselected intervals, and
signal processing means for receiving said signal samples and (1) determining the denomination of each scanned bill by comparing said stored signal samples with said output signal samples produced by the scanning of each bill with said scanning head, (2) counting the number of scanned bills of each denomination, and (3) accumulating the cumulative value of the scanned bills of each denomination.
2. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 which includes an encoder coupled to said transport mechanism for monitoring the movement of each bill by producing a repetitive tracking signal synchronized with incremental movements of said transport mechanism, and means urging each bill into firm engagement with said transport mechanism and said scanning head to ensure a fixed relationship between the increments of movement of each bill and the corresponding increments of movement of said transport mechanism which is synchronized with said encoder.
3. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said transport mechanism is driven at a controllable speed.
4. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said detector in said scanning head is a single photodetector which produces an electrical output signal proportional to the intensity of the light reflected from the scanned bill.
5. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 4 which includes means for sampling said output signal at increments synchronized with said repetitive tracking signal, and at the same increments used in said characteristic signals stored in said memory.
6. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said strips are dimensioned so that at least 50 different strips can be scanned in the direction of the narrow dimension of each bill.
7. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 which includes means for detecting a borderline around the image printed on each bill, and wherein said preselected segment is located inside said borderline, and the scanning of said preselected segment is initiated at a prescribed interval following the detection of said borderline.
8. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said preselected segment of each bill is located in the central region of the bill.
9. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said feeding and stacking stations are both located at the front of said device, and said transport mechanism carries bills rearwardly away from said feed station and then returns the bills forwardly to said stacking station.
10. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 9 wherein said transport mechanism forms a linear path for said bills on the upstream side of said stacking station, and said scanning head is located along said linear path.
11. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said preselected segment of each bill is scanned in less than one tenth of a second.
12. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said light source illuminates said preselected segment of each bill from opposite sides of said detector.
13. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 which includes means for controlling the movement of a selected bill between said scanning head and the stacking station for that bill in response to said determination of the denomination of that bill.
14. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 13 wherein said controlling means stops the movement of said selected bill between said scanning head and the stacking station for that bill.
15. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 13 wherein said controlling means decelerates said selected bill before stopping the movement of that bill.
16. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein the denomination of each bill is determined before the leading edge of that bill reaches the stacking station for that bill.
17. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 wherein said stacking station is spaced from said scanning head by a distance that is less than the width of two of said bills.
18. The currency counting and evaluation device of claim 1 which includes signal processing means responsive to the output signals from said detector for determining the denomination of each scanned bill before that bill has been advanced to a stacking station, and
means responsive to said signal proceeding means for altering the movement of a scanned bill in response to the denomination detection for that bill, before that bill is advanced to a stacking station.
19. An improved method for discriminating between currency bills of different denominations, each currency bill having printed indicia enclosed within a borderline defined thereupon so that the bill surface outside the borderline is substantially blank, comprising the steps of:
illuminating a predetermined section of a currency bill by focusing at least one strip of coherent light thereupon;
detecting the light reflected off said illuminated section of said bill to generate an analog reflectance signal;
generating relative lateral displacement between said strip of coherent light and said currency bill so as to illuminate or optically scan successive sections of said bill along a predetermined dimension thereof and enclosed within said borderline;
obtaining a series of analog reflectance signals corresponding to light reflected from each of said successive bill sections using a first relatively narrow strip of coherent light to detect said borderline as the currency bill moves across said strip by detecting the difference in magnitude of the reflectance signal obtained from the bill surface outside said borderline and the reflectance signal obtained about said borderline itself, and using a second relatively wide strip of coherent light to obtain said reflectance signals representing said characteristic patterns after said borderline has been detected;
digitizing and processing said series of analog reflectance signals to yield a set of digital data samples which, in combination, represent a data pattern characteristic of the currency denomination of said bill;
generating and storing a set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to optical scanning of original bills of each of the different currency denominations to be discriminated; and
comparing the characteristic pattern or a scanned currency bill to each of said stored master patterns to determine the degree of correlation therebetween, and thereby to identify the denomination of said currency bill.
20. An improved method for discriminating between currency bills of different denominations comprising the steps of:
illuminating a predetermined section of a currency bill by focusing at least one strip of coherent light thereupon;
detecting the light reflected off said illuminated section of said bill to generate an analog reflectance signal;
generating relative lateral displacement between said strip of coherent light and said currency bill so as to illuminate or optically scan successive sections of said bill along a predetermined dimension thereof;
obtaining a series of analog reflectance signals corresponding to light reflected from each of said successive bill sections;
digitizing and processing said series of analog reflectance signals to yield a set of digital data samples which, in combination, represent a data pattern characteristic of the currency denomination of said bill;
generating and storing a set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to optical scanning of original bills of each of the different currency denominations to be discriminated;
comparing the characteristic pattern for a scanned currency bill to each of said stored master patterns to determine the degree of correlation therebetween, and thereby to identify the denomination of said currency bill; and
positively identifying said scanned bill as having the denomination corresponding to the stored master pattern which the degree of correlation is found to be the highest and at least equal to a predefined correlation threshold.
21. The improved currency discretion method according to claim 20 wherein any scanned bill which is not positively identified as having a particular currency denomination is identified as having an unidentifiable denomination.
22. Improved apparatus for discriminating and counting currency bills of different denominations comprising:
an input path for receiving currency bills to be discriminated and along which bills may be moved along a first direction;
an output path along which bills may be moved along a second direction;
a curved guideway disposed between said input and output paths and for accepting bills from said input path and guiding them along said second direction onto said output path; and
currency discrimination means located downstream of said curved guideway along sad output path where said bills are guided in a substantially straight manner.
23. The improved currency discrimination apparatus as set forth in claim 22 wherein said currency discrimination means includes:
means for illuminating a predetermined section of a currency bill by focusing at least one strip of coherent light thereupon;
means for detecting the light reflected off said illuminated section of said bill at selected time intervals as the bill is moved across said light strip in order to generate a series of analog reflectance signals;
means for digitizing and processing said reflectance signals to yield a set of digital samples which, in combination, represent a data pattern characteristic of the currency denomination of said bill;
means for generating and storing a set of master characteristic patterns corresponding to optical scanning of original bills of each of the currency denominations to be discriminated; and
means for comparing the characteristic pattern for a scanned currency bill to each of said stored master patterns to determine the degree of correlation therebetween, and thereby to identify the denomination of said currency bill.
24. The improved currency discrimination apparatus as set forth in claim 22 wherein currency bills having a wide dimension and a narrow dimension are moved along said input path, along said curved guideway, and along said output path with their narrow dimension maintained substantially parallel to the direction of movement.
25. The improved currency discrimination apparatus as set forth in claim 23 wherein said currency bills have printed indicia characterizing bill denomination, said indicia being enclosed by a borderline defined thereupon, the bill surface outside said borderline being substantially blank, and further wherein said currency discrimination means generates said characteristic patterns by obtaining said reflectance signals from the bill surface contained within said borderline.
26. The improved currency discrimination apparatus as set forth in claim 25 wherein said currency discrimination means includes means for focusing a first relatively narrow strip of coherent light onto said currency bills in order to detect said borderline as the currency bills move across said strip by detecting the difference in magnitude of the reflectance signal obtained from the bill surface outside said borderline and the reflectance signal obtained about said borderline itself.
27. The improved currency discrimination apparatus as set forth in claim 26 wherein said currency discrimination means includes means for focusing a second relatively wide strip of coherent light upon said currency bills for obtaining said reflectance signals representing said characteristic patterns after said borderline has been detected using said narrow strip of light.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. A gas turbine comprising a moving blade and a blade ring confronting a tip of said moving blade, wherein a cooling passage is provided in said blade ring and an auxiliary boiler and a steam supply source connecting to a steam turbine bottoming cycle are connected to said cooling passage, so that steam of said auxiliary boiler or said steam supply source is flown into said cooling passage for cooling said blade ring and the steam having cooled said blade ring is recovered, and thereby a clearance between said tip of the moving blade and said blade ring is reduced.
2. A gas turbine comprising a moving blade and a blade ring confronting a tip of said moving blade as well as comprising a combustor and a transition piece contained in said combustor, wherein a cooling passage is provided in said blade ring, so that steam of a steam supply source is flown into said cooling passage for cooling said blade ring and the steam having cooled said blade ring is flown into said transition piece via a combustor transition piece connection portion for cooling a wall interior of said transition piece and the steam having cooled said wall interior of the transition piece is recovered into said steam supply source, and thereby a clearance between said tip of the moving blade and said blade ring is reduced.
3. A gas turbine comprising a moving blade and a blade ring confronting a tip of said moving blade as well as comprising a combustor and a transition piece contained in said combustor, wherein a cooling passage is provided in said blade ring, so that steam of a steam supply source is flown in parallel into said cooling passage for cooling said blade ring and into said transition piece via a combustor transition piece connection portion for cooling a wall interior of said transition piece and the steam having cooled said blade ring and said wall interior of the transition piece is recovered into said steam supply source, and thereby a clearance between said tip of the moving blade and said blade ring is reduced.
4. A gas turbine comprising a first stage stationary blade and a first stage moving blade and a blade ring confronting a tip of said first stage moving blade as well as comprising a combustor and a transition piece contained in said combustor, wherein a blade ring cooling passage is provided in said blade ring and a stationary blade cooling passage is provided in said first stage stationary blade so as to connect to said blade ring cooling passage, so that steam of a steam supply source is flown into said blade ring cooling passage for cooling said blade ring and the steam having cooled said blade ring is flown into said stationary blade cooling passage for cooling said first stage stationary blade and the steam having cooled said first stage stationary blade is flown into said transition piece via a combustor transition piece connection portion for cooling a wall interior of said transition piece and the steam having cooled said wall interior of the transition piece is recovered into said steam supply source, and thereby a clearance between said tip of the first stage moving blade and said blade ring is reduced.
5. A gas turbine comprising a first stage stationary blade and a first stage moving blade and a blade ring confronting a tip of said first stage moving blade as well as comprising a combustor and a transition piece contained in said combustor, wherein a blade ring cooling passage is provided in said blade ring and a stationary blade cooling passage is provided in said first stage stationary blade so as to connect to said blade ring cooling passage, so that steam of a steam supply source is flown in parallel into said blade ring cooling passage for cooling said blade ring and into said stationary blade cooling passage for cooling said first stage stationary blade and the steam having cooled said first stage stationary blade is flown into said transition piece via a combustor transition piece connection portion for cooling a wall interior of said transition piece and the steam having cooled said blade ring and said wall interior of the transition piece is recovered into said steam supply source, and thereby a clearance between said tip of the first stage moving blade and said blade ring is reduced.
6. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 2, wherein said blade ring is a blade ring confronting a tip of a first stage moving blade, said combustor is a plurality of combustors arranged in a turbine circumferential direction, there are provided in said blade ring a plurality of blocks protruding in a turbine axial direction from positions of said blade ring corresponding to positions of said plurality of combustors and, in each of said plurality of blocks, there is provided a U-shape passage formed by turbine axial directional and circumferential directional passages, so that steam is flown into said U-shape passage from one end of said U-shape passage for cooling said blade ring and is flown out of the other end of said U-shape passage, and the steam having cooled said blade ring is supplied into said transition piece via said combustor transition piece connection portion.
7. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 2, wherein said blade ring comprises a first blade ring confronting a first stage moving blade and a second blade ring confronting a second stage moving blade, said cooling passage comprises a first cooling passage formed in said first blade ring and a second cooling passage formed in said second blade ring and there are provided a turbine axial directional passage for connecting said first and second cooling passages to each other and a transition piece side passage for connecting said first cooling passage and said combustor transition piece connection portion to each other, so that the steam of said steam supply source is flown sequentially in said second cooling passage, turbine axial directional passage, first cooling passage and transition piece side passage and is then supplied to said combustor transition piece connection portion.
8. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 7, wherein said combustor transition piece connection portion comprises a transition piece cooling inlet connecting to said first cooling passage, a transition piece cooling outlet through which the steam having cooled said transition piece flows out and an outlet pipe manifold connecting to said transition piece cooling outlet.
9. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of said first and second blade rings is formed such that upper and lower two separated semicircular portions of the blade ring are joined together at flanges provided on both side surface portions of the blade ring, there are provided a recessed portion or a protruded portion on an outer circumferential surface portion of the blade ring so as to fit to or fit in a portion of a turbine casing inner wall and another protruded portion on an inner circumferential surface portion of the blade ring so as to support a wall surface confronting said tip of the moving blade and a turbine axial directional cross sectional shape of the blade ring is approximately symmetrical relative to a turbine radial directional central axis in said turbine axial directional cross sectional shape of the blade ring.
10. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of said first and second blade rings is formed such that upper and lower two separated semicircular portions of the blade ring are joined together at flanges provided on both side surface portions of the blade ring and, in horizontal surface portions of said upper and lower semicircular portions of the blade ring so joined at said flanges, the cooling passage provided in said upper semicircular portion of the blade ring is extended so as to be inserted with a predetermined length into the cooling passage provided in said lower semicircular portion of the blade ring and a sealing material is interposed around the cooling passage so extended of said upper semicircular portion of the blade ring.
11. A gas turbine as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said blade ring is formed such that upper and lower two separated semicircular portions of said blade ring are joined together at flanges provided on both side surface portions of said blade ring and there are provided members, having masses substantially equivalent to said flanges thermally, on upper and lower portions of an outer circumferential surface portion of said blade ring.
12. A gas turbine as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said blade ring is provided with a plurality of steam inlets and steam outlets, respectively, arranged substantially evenly in vertical and horizontal directions on an outer circumferential surface portion of said blade ring.
13. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 7, wherein said blade ring is applied to on its surface exposed to a high temperature space with a thermal shield made of a heat insulation material.
14. A gas turbine as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said blade ring is provided therein with a plurality of sensors for sensing said clearance at the tip of the moving blade, said sensors being inserted from outside of a turbine casing to pass through said turbine casing and said blade ring so that sensing portions of said sensors may be exposed on an inner circumferential wall surface confronting said tip of the moving blade, and there are provided a steam temperature controller arranged in a route for supplying said blade ring with steam from said steam supply source, a steam flow control valve arranged between said steam temperature controller and a steam inlet of said blade ring and a control unit taking signals from said sensors for comparison with a predetermined target value and controlling said steam temperature controller and an opening of said steam flow control valve so that said clearance may be approached to said target value.
15. A gas turbine as claimed in claim 14, wherein said sensors are FM electrostatic capacity type sensors.