A unit for feeding and applying seals to security cassettes for banknotes

摘要

Banknotes are placed for transportation purposes in cassettes (3) comprising a container (4) and a hinged lid (5), made secure by applying a seal (2) composed of two parts (14, 15) that can be coupled non-releasably and are provided with latch elements appearing as curved teeth (27) positioned to locate in the holes (13) of lugs (12) associated with the container (4) and with the lid (5). The seals (2), loaded into a magazine (29) with the two parts (14, 15) spread, are fed and applied to the cassettes (3) by a unit (1)comprising a clamp assembly (42) with retaining pins (50, 51) designed to pick up the seals (2) from an outlet (34) of the magazine (29) and transfer them to a gripper head (54) presenting a pair of arms (55) by which the two parts (14, 15) are taken up and restrained; the two arms (55) are mounted to respective pivots (56) on the gripper head (54) so that when the head is made to assume a final operating position adjacent to the lugs (12) on the cassette (3), the arms (55) can be rotated toward one another, causing the two parts (14, 15) of the seal (2) to couple together with the curved teeth (27) engaging the holes (13) of the lugs, securing the cassette (3).