JP3226087B2 - vending machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine for selling cylindrical products such as canned beverages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cylindrical products such as canned beverages are generally sold in vending machines equipped with so-called serpentine-type bend racks (hereinafter referred to as serpen racks). The serpent rack is of a structure that rolls up from the upper input port into the product passage shaped like a winding from top to bottom and stacks and stores the input products in a sideways posture,
At the time of sale, the products are dropped one by one from the lower outlet by the operation of the bend mech onto the shooter. The meandering product passages are usually multiplexed (e.g., five-fold) in front and rear and multiple rows (e.g., five rows) on the left and right, and each row of products is heated or cooled in an insulated product storage. It is heated or cooled by a vessel and stored.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a conventional structure of this kind of vending machine, wherein (A) is an internal front view and (B) is a longitudinal sectional view. In the figure, a vending machine main body having an open front surface is provided with a product storage box 1 surrounded by a heat insulating wall, and a serpent rack 2 is installed therein. The serpent rack 2 has a five-folded front and rear and five rows of right and left meandering merchandise passages 3, and each merchandise passage 3 is rolled in through a not-shown merchandise insertion port through a merchandise insertion plate 4. A large number of products (in this case, canned beverages) 5 are piled up in a sideways posture, and are locked by a bend mech 6 at a lower exit port so as not to drop. The front surface of the vending machine main body is closed by an outer door 7, and a product outlet 8 is provided in this portion. At the time of sale, the products 5 that have been released one by one after being unlocked by the bend mech 6 roll on the shooter 9 and are guided to the product outlet 8.

[0006] As shown in FIG. 6 (A), the product storage 1 is divided into three chambers by a partition wall 1 a, and two rows are formed in each of the left and right chambers, and one row is formed in the center chamber. In these chambers, from the left, a cooler (evaporator) 10, a heater 11, and both the cooler 10 and the heater 11 are installed, and a cooling unit that supplies a refrigerant to the cooler 10 below the product storage 1. A unit 12 is provided. The cooling unit 12 condenses and liquefies the high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor 13 in the condenser 15 cooled by the fan 14. The liquid refrigerant sent to the cooler 10 and evaporated is sucked into the compressor 13 again. . The product 5 in each room where the cooler 10 or the heater 11 is installed passes through the fan 16
Is cooled or heated by the internal air circulated and ventilated. Here, the left room and the center room of the product storage 1 are dedicated to cooling and heating, respectively, while the right room can be switched between cold and hot. In the case of heating, the refrigerant circuit is closed by the solenoid valve 17.

[0005]

The above-mentioned conventional vending machines have the following problems. (1) The product outlet for receiving the goods dropped from the lower outlet must be located at the bottom of the vending machine, so the user must bend down to take out the goods. (2) In order to increase the number of types of products for sale, it is necessary to increase the number of rows and the number of rows of product aisles, and it is unavoidable to increase the size of vending machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine equipped with a serpent rack, in which the number of kinds of sold products can be increased without increasing the size of the vending machine, and the taken-out goods can be easily taken out. It is assumed that.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a method for installing a serpentine
-Installed bend rack, and the product is laid down in the lower half
Multi-tiered stacking rack for direct stacking and storage in multiple layers
And the rack and the bend rack
A product outlet is provided at an intermediate height between
Products sold from Bend Rack to the product exit
Rolled shooter and sold from the directly stacked rack
And an elevator that lifts the product to the product exit
Mounted on a horizontal sliding pin guided vertically
The ends are connected, and the protrusion that protrudes in the shape of a letter at the lower end is shaped
The direction perpendicular to the formed inclined plate and opposite to the protrusion
Flapper with arms that extend to
Horizontal operation with a crank arm connected to the arm
A shaft, and a drive mechanism for rotationally driving the operation shaft.
A ridge crusher is installed at the product discharge end of the directly stacked rack.
The top of the second or higher layer product group in this rack
Attaching the flat body of the flapper to the product
Activate the bend mech according to the sales signal and
When unloading the first product in the bottommost commodity county,
One rotation of the operation shaft of the bridge crusher,
The top product of the product group of the layer or higher is
And lift it up .

[0008]

According to the present invention, a serpent rack and a directly stacked rack are respectively installed in the upper half and the lower half of the merchandise storage, and a merchandise outlet is provided at an intermediate height between the racks, and the merchandise is sold from the serpent rack. The rolled product rolls on the shooter,
In addition, products sold from directly stacked racks are lifted by an elevator and guided to a product outlet. According to such a configuration, by storing different types of products in the multi-stage directly stacked racks, the types of products for sale can be increased, and also in this case, the products for sale are carried out to the product outlet at the intermediate position, and There is no need to bend down for removal.

[0009] On the other hand, since the products are stacked in the direct stacking rack, in order to sell one by one from these products, it is necessary to narrow down the product passage before the bend mech, but in this portion, the products stick together. phenomenon,
A so-called bridge is likely to occur. This bridge is used for direct-loading racks that store products in multiple layers in a lying position.
If a product on the second or higher layer attempts to enter the gap where the first product in the lowermost layer has been carried out, and a bridge occurs, the subsequent product cannot be carried out. Therefore, the bridge crusher having the above configuration is installed, the flapper is driven to rotate when the product is carried out, and the product at the top of the second layer or more contacted by the flapper is lifted up and floated, thereby preventing the occurrence of a bridge. be able to.

[0010]

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a vending machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a direct stacking rack in FIG. In FIG. 1, a serpent rack 2 having the same configuration as that of the related art is installed in an upper half of a product storage 1 and a direct stacking rack 20 is installed in a lower half. The outer door 7 is located at a height between the serpent rack 2 and the directly stacked rack 20.
The merchandise 5 sold at the serpent rack 2 is guided to the merchandise outlet 8 by the shooter 9, and the merchandise 5 sold at the direct stacking rack 20 is guided to the merchandise outlet 8 by the elevator 53. . The portion of the shooter 9 that intersects with the elevator 53 is configured as a door 9a. The product 5 lifted by the bucket 54 is pushed out of the door 9a as shown by an arrow and is carried out to the product outlet 8. According to such a configuration, more types of products 5 can be sold than in the case where the serpent rack 2 is used alone. Further, since the product outlet 8 is located at the intermediate position, it is easy to take out the sold product 5.

[0011] A direct stacking rack 20 in which the commodities 5 are directly stacked side by side on a shelf inclined toward the front side (left side in FIG. 1).
Are installed in four stages above and below. Direct stacking rack 2
In FIG. 2, the products 5 are stacked in three layers as shown in FIG. 2, and a product outlet (not shown) is opened in front of the product 5 at the top of the lowermost layer (the left end in FIG. 2). The leading product 5 is locked by a solenoid-driven bend mech 21 and is prevented from rolling.

In FIG. 2, the first commodity 5a of the commodity group in the lowest layer of the commodity 5 stacked in three layers is Bendmech 2
The flapper 56 of the bridge crusher 55 abuts on the first commodity 5d of the commodity group of the second or higher layer, being locked by 1 and being prevented from rolling. In this embodiment, the bend mech 21 is installed obliquely in the form of an extension of an inclined shelf that supports the product 5, and the receiving plate 21 that appears and disappears by being driven by a solenoid.
a is hitting the top product 5a.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the structure of the bridge crusher 55. FIG. 3 is a side view and FIG. 4 is a plan view. 3 and 4, a bridge crusher 55 includes a flapper 56 and an operation shaft 57 for rotating the flapper 56.
And a drive mechanism 58 that rotationally drives the operation shaft 57. The drive mechanism 58 includes a motor 59 and a reduction gear box 60 integrally connected thereto, and
It is attached to a box-shaped housing 61 via a mounting flange 0 (not shown). The operation shaft 57 is horizontally supported by the housing 61 via a bearing base 62, and crank arms 63 are fixed to both ends. A gear 64 is attached to the operation shaft 57, and the gear 64 meshes with a gear 65 attached to the main force shaft of the drive mechanism 58.

The flapper 56 is bent from an iron plate, and has a curled upper end connected to a sliding pin 66 and a lower end formed with a protrusion 56a projecting in a U-shape on both sides of a flat plate 56b. An arm 56c extending in a direction opposite to the protrusion 56a is provided in a triangular shape. The sliding pin 66 is vertically guided at both ends thereof by vertical elongated holes 67 (FIG. 3) provided on the left and right side walls of the housing 61. The arms 56c on both sides of the flapper 56 are provided with pins 68
Respectively. A disk-shaped cam plate 69 is fixed to the operation shaft 57, and the protrusion 6 on the circumference thereof is fixed.
In order to detect the rotational position of 9a, the micro switch 7
0 is attached to the housing 61.

The bridge crusher 55 having the above-described structure is installed at the product discharge end of the direct stacking rack 20 so that the flat body 56b comes into contact with the product 5d of the second or higher layer. , The projection 69a of the cam plate 69 turns on the micro switch 70, and the motor 59 is stopped. The selling operation of the directly stacked rack 20 provided with such a bridge crusher 55 will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a sales signal is input (step S1), the solenoid of the bend mech 21 is operated by suction (step S2). As a result, the receiving plate 21a is immersed, and the first commodity 5a in the lowermost layer is released and released (step S3). At this time, another receiving plate 21b (shown by a broken line) protrudes, and the second product 5b
Lock.

The bridge crusher motor 59 is started simultaneously with the operation of the bend mech 21 in step S2 (step S4). The rotation of the motor 59 is reduced by the reduction gear box 60, and the operation shaft 57 is rotated by 20 r.p.
It is driven in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3 at a low speed of about m. Operation axis 5
7 rotates, the upper end of the flapper 56 connected to the sliding pin 66 moves up and down along the vertical arrow in FIG.
6a makes an elliptical motion along the elliptical arrow shown in FIG. Accordingly, the top product 5d of the second layer or higher is flapper 56
Especially, it is lifted up by the protrusion 56a. In the meantime, the bend mech 21 which has carried out the leading product 5a causes the receiving plate 21a to protrude and the receiving plate 21b to be immersed by the return of the solenoid, whereby the second product 5b moves to the top and the third product 5c. Moves to the second.

At the time of the movement of the products 5b and 5c, the top product 5d of the second layer or higher is raised,
b and 5c move without being obstructed by the goods 5d. Thereafter, when the rotation of the operation shaft 57 reaches one rotation, the cam plate 6
9 presses the microswitch 70, so that the bridge crusher motor 59 is stopped (Step S).
5). As a result, the first commodity 5d of the second or higher layer is placed on the lowermost commodity 5 again. In the above operation, since the flapper 56 lifts the second layer or more of the products 5d during the unloading of the products, the lowermost layer of the products 5 is smoothly moved, and
Since the goods 5d are agitated during the elliptical movement of the rotation, no bridging occurs due to the striking.

After the product is unloaded at step S3, the product 5b moving from the second to the top is detected by a detection switch (not shown) to determine the occurrence of a sold out (step S6). . On the other hand, if the second product 5b is not detected, the bridge crusher 55 is driven several times (step S7), and the product 5d is further stirred just in case. Thereafter, it is determined whether or not there is a sold-out state (step S8). If the sold-out state has been resolved, the process returns to the stand-by state.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a serpent rack and a directly stacked rack are installed in the upper half and the lower half of the product storage, respectively, and the product outlet is provided at a height between them. In addition, products sold from the serpent rack are rolled on the chute, and products sold from the directly stacked rack are lifted by the elevator and guided to the product exit, thereby increasing the types of products sold and selling It is easy to take out the used product. And, by installing the bridge crusher on the directly stacked rack,
It is possible to prevent a situation in which a sold-out procedure is performed due to the inability to be carried out by the product bridge even though many products remain.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a vending machine showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a direct stacking rack in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view showing a bridge crusher in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a vending operation of the vending machine of FIG. 1;

6A and 6B show a conventional example, wherein FIG. 6A is an internal front view of a vending machine, and FIG. 6B is a longitudinal sectional view of the vending machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Merchandise storage 2 Serpen rack 3 Merchandise passage 5 Merchandise 7 Outer door 8 Merchandise outlet 20 Direct stacking rack 21 Bend Mech 53 Elevator 54 Bucket 55 Bridge crusher 56 Flapper 57 Operation shaft 58 Drive mechanism 63 Crank arm 66 Sliding pin

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Katsutoshi Hashiguchi 1-1 Tanabe Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Koji Kawakami 1st Tanabe Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture No. 1 Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Kakiuchi 1-1, Tanabe Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kimihiro Asahata 1 Tanabe Nitta, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture No. 1 Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-2-214998 (JP, A) JP-A-4-60793 (JP, A) JP-A-3-11494 (JP, A) JP-A-5 -258170 (JP, A) Japanese Utility Model Application Hei 6-4881 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application Utility Model 4-120185 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G07F 11/58 101 G07F 9/10 101 G07F 11/34

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vending machine in which a serpentine-type bend rack comprising multiple and multiple rows of product passages is installed in an insulated product storage , wherein a serpentine-type bend is provided in an upper half portion of the product storage.
A rack is set up, and the product is laid down on the lower half.
Direct stacking racks to store directly in
Intermediate height between the rack and the bend rack
A product outlet is provided at the position
For rolling products sold from
And products sold from the directly stacked rack
An elevator that lifts to the product exit
The upper end is connected to a horizontal sliding pin that is guided
Inclined with a protrusion that protrudes in the shape of a letter at the lower end
Arm extending perpendicular to the flat plate and extending in the direction opposite to the protrusion
And connected to the arm of the flapper
A horizontal operating shaft with a crank arm
A bridge mechanism that has a drive mechanism for rotating the
Install a chassis at the product discharge end of the directly stacked rack, and
The first product in the second or higher layer product group in the stacking rack
The flat plate of the flapper is brought into contact with the
The bottom layer of the rack
When unloading the first product in the product county,
One rotation of the operation shaft of the crusher, the quotient of the second layer or more
Raise the top product of the product group with the flapper protrusion
Automatic vending characterized by being raised
Machine.