JP2002251670A - Cap feeder for cup type automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance convenience of cap loading work by improving supply of caps to a cap storing part so it is simple and easy. SOLUTION: A cup feeder is mounted in a cup type automatic vending machine selling beverage prepared inside the machine in a cup and it feeds and fits a cap on an upper face of the cup with beverage. In addition to a selling column 14a storing a multiplicity of caps 10 in a selling position in a stacked state and a cap drop ring 12 cutting out caps one by one from the selling column, a cap storage 14 of the cup feeder is provided with a supply column 15 storing a cap column supplied from outside, a pushing mechanism 16 collectively sending out the cap column loaded in the supply column to the selling column, and a drawing mechanism 18 drawing the supply column from a storage position inside the storage to a supplying position in a side of the storage. The cap column loaded in the supply column from outside at a drawn position is transferred to the selling column by the pushing mechanism.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is mounted on a cup-type vending machine that sells various beverages such as syrup beverages and coffee cooked in the machine in cups, and a cap is provided on the upper surface of the cup containing the beverage after cooking. The present invention relates to a cup supply device adapted to be supplied and adhered.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a cup-type vending machine described above, a cup supply mechanism, a canister for various beverages, a beverage extractor (brewer), a syrup tank, a carbonator for producing carbonated water, a hot / cold water tank, and an ice maker. , And a cup transport mechanism, and the raw material, hot water / cold water are sequentially put into the cup and stirred in the middle of the route in which the cup dispensed from the cup supply mechanism is held by the cup transport mechanism at the time of beverage sale and transported inside the machine. After the beverage is cooked, a cup mixing method in which a cup containing the beverage is delivered to a product outlet, and a powder material and hot water are put into a mixing ball provided in the machine and stirred, and the beverage prepared here is mixed with a mixing ball. There is a well-known mixing ball type cup vending machine that sells by pouring into a cup waiting on the bend stage from That.

[0003] In the above-mentioned cup-type vending machine, a large number of caps are provided inside the machine in order to prevent the user from spilling the beverage when carrying the beverage-containing cup taken out of the product outlet. Is equipped with a cap storage which stores therein the cap, and the cap paid out from the cap storage at the time of sale is attached to the upper surface of the beverage-containing cup. In this case, the cup-mixing type vending machine sets a capping point on the transport route that sends the cooked beverage cup toward the product outlet, and stores it in the cap storage in the machine according to the beverage sales operation Then, a dish-shaped cap (lid) is carried out, and supplied to the above-mentioned capping point via a cap shooter so as to cover the upper surface of the beverage-containing cup. In a mixing ball type vending machine, a cap dispensed from a cap storage is supplied via a shooter or the like to an upper surface of a beverage-containing cup placed on a bend stage so as to cover it.

Next, taking a cup-type vending machine of the above-mentioned cup mixing type as an example, FIGS. 4 to 6 show a conventional configuration of the vending machine and a cap supply device. First, FIG.
In (a) and (b), 1 is a cup supply mechanism, 2 is a powder raw material canister, 3 is a hot water tank, 4 is a beverage cooking unit having stirring blades, 5 is a cup transport mechanism (rectangular coordinate type), and 5a is A cup hand provided on the cup transport mechanism 5, a cup stage 5b, a bend stage 6 leading to a product outlet,
Reference numeral 7 denotes a capping mechanism disposed immediately above a cup transport route between the cooking unit 4 and the bend stage 6, and 8 denotes a cap storage unit. The cap storage unit 8 and the capping mechanism 7 are combined to constitute a cap supply device. ing.

[0005] With such a configuration, at the time of beverage sales, the cup 9 dispensed from the cup supply mechanism 1 is held by the cup hand 5a of the cup transport mechanism 5 waiting at the station I on the cup transport route, and then is held on the transport route. In Station II, the raw material is supplied from the raw material canister 2 to the cup 9,
At the next station III, hot water is added, and
After the beverage is cooked by stirring the ingredients in the cup by the stirring blades installed in the cup, the cup 9 containing the drink is placed in the station.
When the beverage reaches the IV, the cap 10 discharged from the cap storage unit 8 is attached to the upper surface of the beverage cup 9 via the capping mechanism 7 as described later with reference to FIG. 6 to the bend stage.

Next, the conventional structure of the above-described cap supply device 8 and the cap supply operation will be described with reference to FIGS.
That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the cap storage portion 8 is provided with a cap storage tube 11 for loading a large number of caps 10 from the upper surface side and stacking and storing them in a column, and attached to a column outlet end of the cap storage tube 11. The cap drop ring 12 that cuts out the caps 10 one by one is combined, and the cap drop ring 12 is operated based on the beverage sales order, and the caps 10 that are cut out one by one from the column of the cup storage tube 11 are used as cap shooters 13. Is supplied to the capping mechanism 7. In addition,
The cap drop ring 12 is, for example,
The structure is the same as that of the drop ring for carrying out a cup disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 68484.

[0007] Then, the cooked beverage-containing cup 9 is placed in a station IV corresponding to the capping mechanism 7 (see FIG. 4).
Is reached, the cup transport mechanism 5 is temporarily stopped, and then the cup stage 5b on which the beverage-containing cup 8 is placed rises,
Subsequently, the shutter 7a of the capping mechanism 7 is opened, and the cap 10 held by the shutter 7a is
Then, the shutter 8a is closed, the cup 8 is raised, and the cap 9 is pressed against the lower surface of the shutter to adhere to the cup 8.

[0008]

By the way, in the conventional cap storage cylinder shown in FIG. 6, the handleability of the cap storage cylinder, particularly the routeman who patrols the vending machine at the location, replenishes the cap storage cylinder 11 with the cap 10. There is a difficulty in the workability of the loading operation. That is, the caps carried by the rootman are stacked in unit numbers and placed in a packaging bag. On the other hand, the cap storage cylinder 11 provided in the upper part of the vending machine does not have a sufficient working space between the top opening and the ceiling of the vending machine. For this reason, a large number of caps cannot be loaded into the cap storage cylinder at the same time while they are stacked, and the caps are loaded so as to be divided into small portions and dropped into the cup storage cylinder. For this reason, there is a problem that the loading operation of the cap is troublesome, and the loading posture of the cap is disturbed when loading the cap, thereby causing a trouble in the unloading operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, to improve the replenishment of a cap into a cap storage portion so that it can be performed easily and easily, and to facilitate a cap loading operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cap-type vending machine cap supply device with improved performance.

[0010]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a beverage prepared in a machine is mounted on a cup-type vending machine which sells the beverage in a cup, and contains a beverage after cooking. In a cup supply device for supplying a cap to an upper surface of a cup and applying the cap, a sales column for stacking and storing a large number of caps at a sales position in a cap storage serving as a cap storage portion, and a cap from the sales column. It comprises a cap drop ring for cutting out sheets one by one, a replenishment column for accommodating an externally replenished cap row, and an extruding mechanism for simultaneously sending out the cap row loaded in the replenishment column to the sales column. (Claim 1) As a specific embodiment, the supply column is configured as follows.

(1) The replenishing column is formed as a hollow container having a hollow structure with the front surface open to the sales column and the rear surface facing the extrusion mechanism. Is attached so that it can be pulled out from the storage position to the cap supply position (claim 2). (2) In the above paragraph (1), the replenishment column supported by the pull-out mechanism is rotatably mounted from the upright position to the rearward tilt position at the position where the cap is supplied, so that the cap loading operation can be easily performed (claim Item 3).

(3) In the above item (1), a double-opening flapper door urged by a return spring is provided at the front opening of the supply column so that the cap row loaded in the column is held in a stacked posture. (Claim 4). (4) In (1) of the preceding paragraph, a bag removal hole for removing the packing bag of the replenishment cap row loaded in the refill column is opened in the bottom of the replenishment column, and the After loading into the replenishment column, only the packaging bag can be removed from the bag outlet opening at the bottom of the column (claim 5).

With the above configuration, the cap loading operation to the cap storage section can be easily performed without being restricted by the space inside the vending machine. After the cap row loaded in the replenishment column was transferred to the sales column during the cap loading operation, another cap row was additionally replenished to the empty replenishment column, and the sales column was sold in the subsequent beverage sales. When the is empty, if the extrusion mechanism is operated based on the detection signal, careless supply of the cap can be prevented, and the supply of the cap can be continued. Useful for supply management.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
It will be described with reference to the embodiment shown in to 3. In the drawings of the embodiment, members corresponding to those in FIGS. 5 and 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. That is, FIG.
As shown in (c), the cap storage section 8 of the illustrated embodiment defines a sales column 14a for stacking and storing a large number of caps 10 at the sales position in one corner of the cap storage 14 which becomes a box-shaped case. A cap drop ring 12 is mounted on the outlet side, and a supply column 15 and an extruding mechanism 16 are mounted inside the cap storage 14 in line with the sales column 14a. The configuration is such that 16 drive units 17 are incorporated into the base 14b of the cap storage 14.

Here, the supply column 15 is shown in FIGS. 1 (b) and 1 (c).
A hollow cylindrical container 1 with open front and rear surfaces as shown by
5a, a double-door flapper door 15b is provided in an opening on the front side of the front and rear doors, and the flapper door 15b is urged in a closing direction by a return spring (torsion coil spring) 15c. . Further, the bottom of the cylindrical container 15a has a bag extracting hole 1 for pulling out the packaging bag from the bottom side when the cap column is loaded into the supply column 15 as described later.
5d is open, and the cylindrical container 15a is mounted and supported so as to be able to be pulled out sideways from the cap storage 14 via the draw-out mechanism 18. The drawer mechanism 18 has one end hingedly connected to the cap storage 14 and attaches the cylindrical container 15a to the support arm 18a rotatable in the horizontal direction (arrow P) via the support pin 18b. The supply column 15 is supported so as to be tilted in the direction of arrow Q around the pin 18b.

On the other hand, the extruding mechanism 16 has a configuration in which a band-shaped extruding plate 16a extending in the up-down direction is combined with a pantograph-type parallel link mechanism. The plate 16a protrudes inward from the back opening of the supply column 15 so that the cup row accommodated in the supply column is pushed out from behind into the sales column 14a.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. Usually, the cap 1 is placed on the sales column 14a of the cup storage 14.
When the cap supply command is given in this state, the cap drop ring 12 is operated by the operation of the driving unit 17, and the caps are cut out one by one in order from the lowest-ordered cap, as described in FIG. Is carried out to the capping mechanism 7 through the cap shooter 13 as described above.

On the other hand, the sold column 14 which is sold out (empty)
The replenishment of the cap to a is performed in the following procedure. First, the empty supply column 15 is pulled out from the storage position to the side of the cap storage 14 as indicated by the chain line in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the supply column 15 is tilted from the upright posture to the rearward posture with respect to the drawer mechanism 18, and the flapper door 15b is opened toward the user. The cap row is loaded together with the packaging bag in the state where the bags are opened and the bag is opened. Subsequently, the cap packaging bag 19 is pulled out as shown in the drawing through the bag extracting hole 15d opened on the bottom side of the supply column 15. As a result, the entire packing bag can be loaded into the supply column 15 without subdividing the cap row.

Next, the supply column 15 is returned to the upright posture and stored in the cap storage 14, and in this state, FIG.
The pushing mechanism 16 is operated as shown in FIG.
The caps 10 accommodated in the storage column 14 are collectively extruded in a stacked state and transferred to the sales column 14a. That is, when the push-out mechanism 16 is pushed out from the standby state in FIG. 3A, the push-out plate is pushed from behind by the push-out plate as shown in FIG.
When the cup 10 is moved forward, the cup 10 moves to the selling position in the selling column 14a while maintaining the stacked posture and is loaded on the cap drop ring 12 (see FIG. 1).

At the time of the above-described cap loading operation, after the cap row loaded in the supply column 15 is transferred to the sales column 14a by the operation of the extrusion mechanism 16, another cap row is further placed on the empty replenishment column 15. When the sales column 14a is sold out during the subsequent beverage sales, the push-out mechanism 16 is driven via the drive mechanism 17 by the signal of the cap sold-out switch provided on the sales column 14a. As a result, the cap row that has been replenished in the replenishment column 15 can be automatically transferred to the sales column 14a to continuously supply the cap.

[0021]

As described above, according to the structure of the present invention, a sales column for stacking and storing a large number of caps at a sales position in a cap storage, and a cap drop for cutting caps one by one from the sales column. In addition to the ring, the vending machine is equipped with a supply column for accommodating an externally replenished cap row, and an extrusion mechanism for collectively sending out the cap row loaded in the replenishment column to the sales column. Easy loading of caps into cap storage area at location,
Moreover, it can be performed easily and the convenience can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a cap supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) is a side view, (b) is a plan view, and (c) is a perspective view of a supply column.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a cap loading operation to a supply column in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the operation of an extruding mechanism for transferring a cap stored in a supply column to a sales column in the configuration of FIG. 1;
(c) is the transfer process diagram

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the inside of a cup type vending machine equipped with a capping device, (a) is a front view, and (b) is a plan view.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a cap supply device in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional structure of the cap supply cylinder in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cup supply mechanism 2 Raw material canister 4 Cooking part 5 Cup conveyance mechanism 6 Merchandise outlet 7 Capping mechanism 8 Cup storage part 9 Cup 10 Cap 12 Cap drop ring 14 Cap storage 14a Sales column 15 Supply column 15a Cylindrical container 15b Flapper door 15c Return spring 15d Bag take-out hole 16 Push-out mechanism 16a Push-out plate 18 Pull-out mechanism of supply column 18a Support arm 18b Support pin

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cup supply device which is mounted on a cup-type vending machine for putting a beverage produced in the machine into a cup for sale and supplying a cap to an upper surface of a cup containing a beverage and applying the cap thereon. A storage column for storing a large number of caps in a storage position at a selling position, a cap drop ring for cutting out caps one by one from the sales column, and a supply column for storing a cap row supplied from outside; A cap supply device for a cup-type vending machine, comprising an extrusion mechanism for sending out a row of caps loaded in a replenishment column all at once to the sales column. 2. The cap supply device according to claim 1, wherein the replenishment column is a hollow container having a hollow structure having a front surface open toward a sales column and a rear surface facing an extruding mechanism, and via a drawer mechanism. A cap supply device for a cup-type vending machine, wherein the cap supply device is attached so as to be able to be pulled out from a storage position in a cap storage to a cap supply position. 3. The cap supply device according to claim 2, wherein the replenishment column supported by the pull-out mechanism is rotatably mounted from the upright position to the backward tilt position at the pull-out position for replenishing the cap. Vending machine cap feeder. 4. A cap supply device for a cup-type vending machine according to claim 2, wherein a flapper door urged by a return spring is provided at a front opening of the supply column. 5. A cup-type automatic feeding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a bag taking-out hole for opening a packing bag of a replenishing cap row loaded in the refilling column is opened in a bottom surface of the refilling column. Vending machine cap feeder.