JP2000182134A - Cooling and heating controller of automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent articles from deteriorating owing abrupt temperature variation when heating is switched to cooling. SOLUTION: The automatic vending machine is equipped with a cooler 4 and a heater 5 together in the same article storage chamber 2 and when the cooling is switched to the heating, the operation of the cooler 4 is not started immediately after the operation of the heater 5 is stopped, but the operation of the cooler 4 is started after the article temperature drops almost to room temperature after a certain cooling-down time set and inputted to a storage part 13. Consequently, abrupt temperature variation of the articles is reduced to evade the deterioration of canned drink.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the cooling and heating of vending machines which sell and cool and heat articles such as canned beverages.
The present invention relates to a heating control device, and more particularly to a cooling / heating control device of a vending machine in which a cooler and a heater are provided in the same product storage room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vending machine in which a cooler and a heater are provided side by side in the same product storage room, a selection is made to select either one of them according to whether the product in the product storage room is cooled or heated. The operation of the cooler or the heater is controlled by the cooling / heating control device in accordance with the switching operation of the means (hereinafter referred to as the cooling / heating switching means). In that case, the conventional vending machine,
When the cooling / heating switching means is switched during operation in one mode of cooling or heating, the operation is started immediately in the other mode.

[0003]

On the other hand, beverages containing a large amount of easily separable components, such as milk drinks, may be separated when rapidly cooled from a heated state. Therefore, conventionally, for example, when the operation mode is switched from heating to cooling depending on the season, there is a risk that beverage components are separated due to a sharp decrease in the product temperature, and that a product of reduced quality is sold. As a countermeasure, there is a method of taking out the heated product from the product storage room, cooling it to room temperature for a certain period of time, and then cooling it. There was such a problem. An object of the present invention is to prevent deterioration of a product when switching a vending machine from a heating operation to a cooling operation without taking time and effort.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides means for setting a cooling time for cooling a heated product, and cooling time counting means for counting the elapse of the cooling time. And, when the cooling / heating switching means is switched from the heating operation to the cooling operation, the operation of the heater is stopped, while checking whether or not the cooling time is set, and if it is set, the cooling time counting means is set. And a control means for starting up and starting the operation of the cooler after the cooling time has elapsed (claim 1).

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the operation of the cooler is not started immediately after the cooling / heating switching means is switched from the heating operation to the cooling operation, but is started after a predetermined cooling time has elapsed. In the meantime, the quality of the product does not decrease even if the product is slowly cooled down to a certain low temperature and the cooling operation is started thereafter. Since the mode of quality change associated with switching from heating to cooling differs depending on the product, the cooling time is appropriately set according to the type of the product.

[0006] In the cooling and heating control device of the first aspect,
Sold-out display means for displaying the sold-out of the goods, and when the cooling / heating switching means is switched from the heating operation to the cooling operation, the sold-out display of the goods corresponding to the sold-out display means until the cooling time elapses. If display means and control means for stopping the sale of the product are provided (claim 2), the sale of the product while it is being cooled can be prohibited.

Further, in the cooling / heating control device according to claim 2, means for setting an appropriate temperature waiting time required for cooling the product to an appropriate temperature, an appropriate temperature waiting time counting means for counting the elapse of the appropriate temperature waiting time, When the operation of the cooler is started, it is checked whether or not the appropriate temperature waiting time is set, and if it is set, the appropriate temperature waiting time counting means is activated and the sold out display means corresponds to the appropriate temperature waiting time until the appropriate temperature waiting time elapses. If a control means for stopping the sale of the product and displaying the sold-out of the product is provided (claim 3), the sale can be prohibited until the product cools down to an appropriate temperature.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS.
An embodiment of the present invention in a canned beverage vending machine will be described. Here, FIG. 1 is a front view of the vending machine with its front door open, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the cooling / heating control operation of the vending machine of FIG. First, in FIG. 1, in a main body 1 of a vending machine, three product storage rooms 2 (2-1 to 2-3) surrounded by a heat insulating wall are formed side by side on the left and right. Is a so-called serpentine-type merchandise sales shelf 3 having a meandering merchandise path, for example, in a front and rear triple.
Are installed, and a large number of different types of products (not shown) are stored in each product path.

The left two rows of product storage rooms 2 (2-
The evaporator 4 (4-1, 4-1) as a cooler is provided in (1, 2-2).
4-2) and a heater 5 (5-1, 5-2) as a heater
And the heater 5 (5-3) alone is installed in the commodity storage room 2-3 on the right side. That is, the products in the two rows of product storage rooms 2-1 and 2-2 on the left side are cooled or heated, and the products in the product storage room 2-3 on the right side are exclusively heated. Further, an in-compartment fan 6 for circulating the in-compartment air is installed in each of the commodity storage rooms 2. A condensing unit 7 for supplying a refrigerant to the evaporator 4 is provided below the product storage chamber 2. The refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor 8 is condensed by the condenser 9, and the generated liquid refrigerant is supplied to the solenoid valve 10 (10 -1, 10-2) via the evaporator 4 (4-
1, 4-2).

A control unit 12 is disposed on the back surface of the front door 11 that closes the front surface of the main body 1.
The vending machine vending machine and the operation control of the evaporator 4 and the heater 5 are controlled based on the program and the data stored in the evacuation machine. A keyboard 14 is connected to the control unit 12, and various data set and input from the keyboard 14 are transmitted to the control unit 12.
Is stored in the storage unit 13 via the. On the other hand, with respect to the two rows of product storage chambers 2 on the left where the evaporator 4 and the heater 5 are arranged side by side, a cold / hot changeover switch 15 (15-1, 1) as cold / hot changeover means for switching the operation mode between cooling and heating.
5-2) are provided for each product storage room, and the switching signal is input to the control unit 12. Further, the control unit 12 is provided with a timer 16 as time counting means for counting elapsed time. Further, a sold-out indicator 1 that indicates whether or not the product is sold out so that it can be seen from the front of the front door 11.
7 is installed and connected to the control unit 12.

Here, as will be described later, a cooling time T _C required to cool the heated product from the keyboard 14 to near normal temperature, and an appropriate temperature required to cool the cooled product to a suitable temperature for sale. The waiting time T _S is set and input,
It is stored in the storage unit 13. The cooling time T _C is different between, for example, a dairy beverage having a large amount of separated components and, for example, a tea beverage having a small amount of such components, and is set for each product, for example, in a range of 1 hour to 24 hours. On the other hand, the appropriate temperature waiting time T _S is, for example, 8
Set to about an hour. The storage unit 13 also inputs from the keyboard 14 whether or not to display the sold-out display during the cooling time T _C and further during the appropriate temperature waiting time T _S to stop selling the product. Next, the cooling / heating control operation of the vending machine of FIG. 1 according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 2, when the vending machine starts,
The control unit 12 operates in a previously set operation mode, for example, FIG.
As shown in (1), the evaporator 4 and the heater 5 are operated in the mode of heating, cooling, and heating from the left of the product storage room 2 (S1).
In this case, the heaters 5-1 and 5-3 are energized, the solenoid valve 10-1 is closed, and the solenoid valve 10-2 is open.
The compressor 8 stops when the solenoid valves 10-1 and 10-2 are both closed. During the operation, the control unit 12 constantly checks whether or not the cold / hot changeover switch 15 has been operated (S2). If no operation has been performed, the control unit 12 returns to S1 and continues the operation as it is. Check (S3). Then, if the switching is not heating → cooling, that is, if cooling → heating, the process returns to S1 to immediately operate in the operation mode (heating).

However, if the switching in S3 is heating → cooling, the heating operation is stopped (S4), and then the presence or absence of the sold-out display / sale stop setting in the storage unit 13 is checked (S5).
Then, if there is a setting, the sold-out display is displayed at the corresponding location on the sold-out display 17, and the sale of the product is stopped (S
6). Then, it is checked whether the setting of the time T _C cooled in the storage unit 13 (S7), the timer 1 if there is set
Set the time T _C cooled to 6 to start the count,
Wait for the count up (S8). If there is no sale-out display / sale stop setting in S5, the process immediately proceeds to S7.

[0014] Until cooled in S8 time T _C has elapsed, (commodity storage chamber 2-1 present case) commodity storage chamber 2 is cooled also not be heated, has been in a high temperature state by heating during The product is cooled down to near normal temperature. ). Thereafter, when cooling time T _C is passed (in this case, open the solenoid valve 10-1, starting the supply of the liquid refrigerant for the evaporator 4-1) starts a cooling operation to (S9). If there is no set time T _C quenched with S7, immediately proceeds to S9. Then
It is checked whether or not the appropriate temperature waiting time T _S is set in the storage unit 13 (S10). If there is an appropriate temperature waiting time T _S , the appropriate temperature waiting time T _S is set in the timer 16 to start counting, and the count up is waited (S11). Then, after the appropriate temperature waiting time T _S has elapsed, the sold-out display / suspension is released (S12), and S1
Return to and continue driving. In S10, the appropriate temperature waiting time T
_{If S} is not set, the process immediately proceeds to S12. In the above-described embodiment, an example of a canned beverage vending machine has been described. However, it is a matter of course that the present invention can be applied to a general vending machine that handles a product that is likely to be deteriorated when rapidly cooled from a heated state.

[0015]

According to the present invention, when the product is switched from heating to cooling, the temperature of the product is slowly lowered by providing a constant cooling time period in which neither cooling nor heating is performed, and then the operation of the cooler is started. By cooling to an appropriate temperature, rapid changes in temperature can be mitigated to prevent deterioration of the product, and the product can be cooled while being stored in the product storage room, so that there is no trouble. In that case, the cooling time can be set according to the product, and during the cooling time, selling off the product can be avoided by taking measures to stop the sale and display the sales. Thereafter, by taking measures to stop the sale and display the sale until the product is cooled to the appropriate temperature, only the product cooled to the appropriate temperature can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention with a front door opened.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a cooling / heating control operation of the vending machine of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vending machine main body 2 Product storage room 3 Product sales shelf 4 Cooler (evaporator) 5 Heater (heater) 6 Inside fan 7 Condensing unit 8 Compressor 9 Condenser 10 Solenoid valve 11 Front door 12 Control part 13 Storage part 14 Keyboard 15 Cold / hot changeover switch 16 Timer 17 Sold-out indicator

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine which is used in a vending machine in which a cooler and a heater are provided in the same product storage room, and which controls the operation of the cooler or the heater in accordance with a switching operation of a cooling / heating switching means. In the cooling / heating control device, means for setting a cooling time for cooling the heated product, cooling time counting means for counting the elapse of the cooling time, and cooling / heating switching means for switching from heating operation to cooling operation. When the operation is switched, the operation of the heater is stopped, and whether or not the cooling time is set is checked.If the cooling time is set, the cooling time counting means is activated, and the cooling is performed after the cooling time has elapsed. And a control means for starting the operation of the vending machine. 2. The sold-out display means for displaying the sold-out of the product, and the sold-out display means corresponds to the sold-out display means until the cooling time elapses when the cooling / heating switching means is switched from the heating operation to the cooling operation. 2. The cooling / heating control device for a vending machine according to claim 1, further comprising control means for displaying the sold-out of the product and stopping the sale of the product. 3. A means for setting an appropriate temperature waiting time required for cooling a product to an appropriate temperature, an appropriate temperature waiting time counting means for counting the elapse of the appropriate temperature waiting time, and an appropriate temperature waiting time when the operation of the cooler is started. Check whether the waiting time is set, and if it is set, activate the appropriate temperature waiting time counting means and display the sold-out of the corresponding product on the sold-out display means until the appropriate temperature waiting time elapses. 3. The cooling / heating control device for a vending machine according to claim 2, further comprising control means for stopping sales of the product.