Bill Acceptors in Vending Machines

Bill acceptors were developed in the late 1960’s to make the selling sodas and candy bars from the vending machine much easier. They would accept the money that the customer has placed in the machine, for the purchase of product. Bill acceptors are used in vending machines such as those provided by Antares Corporation.

The first generation of machines used a magnetic head, like those in audio cassette player, to read the ink on the dollar bill. The ink used by the Treasury has high ink content so it makes this process possible. For the process to work the magnet heads need to be in contact with the bills. At times the bills would become fouled with grime and lint.

As recently as seven years ago, some people would try to fool vending machines with black and white photocopy of a bill. These days newer magnetic readers float above the surface of the bill and can distinguish between copier ink and treasury ink by measuring the magnetic field and the pattern of magnetic particles within the ink, which serves as a sort of fingerprint. All vending machines, including Antares machines all use these bill acceptors.

There are some problems that your Antares vending machine can face with the bill acceptor, so it’s important that you keep a check on that. The most major problem is poor acceptance. This is because the magnetic reader heads become worn and are unable to read the bills. You can prevent this problem with your Antares vending machine by keeping the bill acceptor clean using Qtips and alcohol. If the bill acceptor is taken in bills without returning change that means that the magnetic heads are so worn that you will have to send in the bill acceptor for servicing. If the acceptor is not pulling in bills, that is caused by a bad front sensor.

As an Antares vending operator you need to take care of the maintenance of your bill acceptor because every time a bill passes through the transport it leaves a trace of ink. A coin leaves a trail of metal flakes. For these reasons you should periodically disassemble and clean the validator, paying particular attention to the bill path, sensors and belts. Inspect the belts for any deterioration and damage.

By keeping a check on the functioning of your Antares vending machine’s validator, you can be assured of smooth running of the device.