JP2001006042A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine which is adoptive to the diversification of the taste of a consumer and realizes sales increase by enabling the automatic vending machine to sell a cup beverage as well as a box-type commodity such as chocolate without considerably changing an existing cup-type beverage automatic vending machine. SOLUTION: A cup-type beverage automatic vending machine putting a beverage prepare in a machine in a cup and selling it is provided with a commodity storage rack for selling box-type commodity 7 at one corner of a case in a cabinet 1 with front door. A commodity take-out port 8 only for the box- type commodity is made by detaching it from a commodity take-out port to the vend stage 2 of the cup beverage, which is installed in a case side. Then, the same machine can sell the cup beverage and the box-type commodity.

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 box-shaped products such as chocolates and snacks in connection with the sale of cup beverages.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a vending machine for selling hot or cold beverages in cups, a cup-type beverage vending machine as shown in FIG. 5 is well known. As is well known, this cup-type beverage vending machine includes a beverage mechanism for producing powdered beverages such as coffee, a syrup beverage, a cup supply mechanism, a hot water tank, Equipped with auxiliary equipment such as an ice machine, a cooling water tank, and a carbon dioxide gas cylinder. The cup is transported to a bend stage 2 installed at the center of the front of the warehouse based on a sales order, and then the beverage produced inside the machine is converted to a cup. The product is supplied for sale, and a product outlet 4 communicating with the bend stage is opened in the front door 3 of the main body cabinet.

[0003]

The conventional cup-type beverage vending machine sells only cup beverages, but recently, as a measure to respond to the diversification of consumer preferences and to increase sales of vending machines. Users have demanded a vending machine that can also sell products such as chocolates and snacks as beverage-related products sold by cup beverage vending machines.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, a cup-type beverage vending machine does not have a product storage rack for cutting out and carrying out products one by one like other vending machines, and furthermore, a main body cabinet. Various devices for selling cup beverages are laid out in the whole area of the refrigerator. For this reason, to incorporate a product storage rack used in a conventional box-shaped product vending machine that sells paper-packed products,
In addition to requiring significant changes such as partitioning a separate room in the refrigerator due to space restrictions, vending machines are also large and impractical because they can be sold together with cup beverages and box-shaped products until now. At present, vending machines have not been commercialized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has been made in view of the above circumstances. Accordingly, a conventional cup-type beverage vending machine can be sold with cup-shaped beverages and box-shaped products such as chocolates without significant changes. It is another object of the present invention to provide a vending machine that is expected to increase sales as well as respond to diversification of consumer preferences.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a vending machine equipped with a cup beverage selling mechanism in the machine. A product storage rack for products is provided, and a product outlet for exclusive use of a box-shaped product is provided on the door separately from the product outlet for cup beverages (Claim 1).
Specifically, a product storage rack for box-shaped products is configured in the following manner.

(1) An external air guide duct communicating with the outside of the cabinet of the cabinet is connected to the box-shaped product storage rack, and the outside air having a lower temperature than the inside air temperature heated by a hot water tank or the like is supplied. It is introduced into a product storage rack to prevent the quality of box-shaped products such as chocolate from deteriorating.

(2) A product storage rack of a box-shaped product is provided with a vertically elongated rack case with a door, a vertically movable product cradle arranged in the rack case, and the product cradle is urged upward. A drive spring and a rotary cam type product cutout mechanism installed on the top of the rack case, and cut out in order from the topmost box-shaped product stacked and stored in the product receiving tray based on a sales order to form a box-shaped product. The product storage rack is reduced in size by paying it out to a dedicated product outlet, thereby saving space (claim 3).

(3) In the product storage rack of the box-shaped product, the product cradle pulled down to the lowest product loading position with the rack door open is locked at that position, and interlocked with the closing operation of the rack door. A stopper mechanism of a product receiving stand for releasing the lock is provided to improve workability at the time of product loading.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on illustrated embodiments. It should be noted that FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to members corresponding to, and description thereof will be omitted. First, FIGS. 1 and 2 show the overall structure of a vending machine.
That is, in this embodiment, the main body cabinet 1
A bend stage 2 corresponding to a cup beverage and a cup supply mechanism 5, a cup shooter 6 and the like are installed above the inside of the cabinet, and are arranged on the left side thereof at one corner of the inside of the cabinet, particularly a bend stage. 2. Using the empty space remaining on the side of the cup shooter 6, a product storage rack 7 for selling box-shaped products according to the present invention is newly provided here. On the front door 3 of the main body cabinet 1, a product outlet 8 for box-shaped products is opened independently of the product outlet 4 for cup beverages.
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 9 denotes a display illuminating plate on which a product for sale is displayed, and 10 denotes a product selection button.

Next, the detailed structure of the product storage rack 7 will be described with reference to FIGS. This product storage rack 7
In order to reduce the space occupied in the refrigerator as much as possible and to save space, the box-shaped products 11 are stacked and stored in a line up and down, and are cut out one by one from the top by a rotating cam type discharge mechanism. The structure is such that the product is paid out to the product outlet 8.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 3 (a) and 3 (b), the product storage rack 7 is provided in a vertically long box-type rack case 7b provided with a rack door 7a on the front and a rack case 7b. A vertically movable product receiving tray 7c on which the box-shaped products 11 are stacked one above the other and mounted thereon, and the product receiving tray 7c is suspended between the product receiving tray and the rack case via a pulley so as to drive the product receiving tray 7c upward. The passed coil spring 7d and the rack case 7
The configuration is such that the product carrying-out mechanism 7e installed at the top of b is a main part. Further, the rack case 7b is connected to an air guide duct 7f that communicates with the outside of the cabinet of the main body cabinet 1, and introduces a relatively low temperature outside air into the rack case 7b by combining a fan or the like so that chocolate or the like can be obtained. To prevent the products from softening.

Here, the product unloading mechanism 7e comprises a drive motor 7e-1 and a rotary product cutting cam 7e-2 connected to the drive motor. The cam shape is shown in FIG.
A box-shaped product 11 having a shape as shown in (b), which makes one turn clockwise from the standby position shown for each selling operation, and in which the cam projections projecting downward from the periphery of the cam in the first half of the turn are at the top. Is pushed out of the sales standby position in the direction of arrow P and paid out in front of the rack case 7b, and then returns to the standby position again by a half rotation in the latter half. Further, when the box-shaped product 11 is dispensed, the product receiving table 7c is moved upward by the bias of the coil spring 7d, and the second product is pushed up to the highest position with this movement, and stands by. become.

As described above, by using a rotary product cutting cam 7e-2 as the product carrying mechanism 7,
This eliminates the need for a mechanism that converts the rotation of the drive motor into linear motion, unlike the pusher type unloading mechanism used in conventional product storage racks, and the cam itself can be made thinner, which is advantageous in saving space. is there.

Further, since the box-shaped products 11 stacked and stored in the rack case 7b are paid out from the topmost product, the product storage rack 7 is laid out at a low position in the warehouse as shown in FIG. Even in the case where the product is taken out, the product outlet 8 can be opened at a position at the middle height of the front door 3 so that the customer can easily take out the product.

The product storage rack 7 contains a box-shaped product 1.
As a measure for improving workability when loading (supplying) 1, there is provided a stopper mechanism for locking and holding the vertically movable commodity receiving table 7 c at a predetermined position during the loading operation as described below. That is, in the configuration described with reference to FIG.
When loading the box-shaped product 11 into the rack case 7b by opening the rack door 7a of the product storage rack 7, it is necessary to pull down the product receiving pedestal 11 to the lowest position and hold it at this position. . Thus, in the illustrated embodiment, FIG.
As shown in (b), a strike 7 is provided on the back side of the product receiving tray 7c.
c-1 is provided, and a stopper 7g protruding and retracting from the side is provided on the movement route. The stopper 7g is composed of a swinging lever that has one end pivotally supported, has a guide portion that is inclined obliquely upward on the inner edge side, and is further subjected to the spring force of a biasing spring (torsion coil spring) 7g-1. It is biased toward the locked position. The rack door 7a of the product storage rack 7 (see FIG. 3A) faces the lever end of the stopper 7g.
An actuator piece 7a-1 is provided to move the stopper 7g to the locked and released position in conjunction with the opening and closing operation of the door.

With this configuration, when the rack door 7a of the product storage rack 7 is closed, the actuator piece 7
a-1 is at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 4B, and the stopper 7g is retracted to the position indicated by the chain line. Therefore, the product receiving tray 7b is not restricted by the stopper 7g. On the other hand, when the rack door 7a is opened when loading a box-shaped product, the actuator piece 7a-1 moves to the dashed line position, and accordingly, the stopper 7g moves to the solid line position by the bias of the spring, and the vertical position of the product cradle 7b rises and falls. We come to protrude on movement route. In this state, when the empty product receiving tray 7b is pulled down to the lowest position in order to perform product loading, the strike 7c-1 of the product receiving tray strikes the inclined guide portion of the stopper 7g at its end position, and the stopper 7g is laterally moved. After that, the stopper 7g engages with the strike 7c-1 as shown by the solid line in FIG. When the rack door 7a is closed after stacking and storing the box-shaped products on the product receiving tray 7b, the actuator piece 7a-1 retreats the stopper 7g from the solid line position to the chain line position. As a result, the lock of the product receiving tray 7a is released, and the product returns to the steady state.

With the provision of the stopper mechanism for the product receiving tray 7b, the operator can automatically lock the product receiving tray 7b by pulling it down to the loading position when loading the product, and the rack door 7a after the product loading operation. Is closed, the lock of the product receiving tray 7b can be automatically released, so that the product loading operation can be easily performed without an operation error of forgetting to remove the lock on the product receiving tray 7b. In addition, the stopper mechanism of the commodity receiving tray described above is not limited to the structure of the illustrated embodiment, and can be implemented in various forms.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a conventional cup-type beverage vending machine can be used as a cup beverage and a related product of the cup beverage, such as chocolate and snack confectionery, without making significant changes. Can be sold at the same time, and it is expected that sales of vending machines will increase in addition to responding to diversification of consumer preferences.

Further, by constructing the product storage rack of the box-shaped product mounted on the vending machine as claimed in claims 2 to 4, the quality of the box-shaped product is maintained, the space of the rack is reduced, and the work of loading the product is performed. Excellent effect in terms of properties and the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing the internal structure of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front external view of the vending machine of FIG.

3 is a configuration diagram of a box-shaped product storage rack mounted on the vending machine of FIG. 1, (a) is a side view of the rack, (b)
(A) is a plan view illustrating the product cutting operation of the rotary product cutting cam adopted in the product carrying mechanism of (a).

4 (a) is a side view and FIG. 4 (b) is a plan view of the structure and operation of a stopper mechanism of a product receiving tray mounted on the product storage rack of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a conventional cup-type beverage vending machine with a door open showing an internal structure of the machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main cabinet 2 Bend stage for cup beverage 3 Front door 4 Product outlet for cup beverage 7 Product storage rack for box-shaped product 7a Rack door 7b Rack case 7c Product receiving stand 7d Coil spring (drive spring) 7e Product unloading mechanism 7e- 1 Drive motor 7e-2 Product cutting cam 7f Air guide duct 7g Stopper of product receiving stand 8 Box product outlet 11 Box product

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3E046 BA01 BB02 CA11 DA02 EA20 EB01 EB10 GA02 GA10 HA08 HA10 3E047 CC01 FA01 GA04 GA09 GA10

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine equipped with a cup beverage selling mechanism inside the machine, a box-shaped product storage rack is provided in a corner of a cabinet with a front door, and a cup beverage product outlet is provided on the door. A vending machine characterized by providing a product outlet for box-shaped products separately from the vending machine. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein an outside air guide duct communicating with the outside of the cabinet is connected to the box for storing the box-shaped goods. 3. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein said box-shaped product storage rack includes a vertically long rack case with a door, a vertically movable product receiving stand disposed in said rack case, and said product storage rack. A drive spring that pulls up and urges the cradle upward,
Composed of a rotating cam type product cutting mechanism installed at the top of the rack case, and cut out from the topmost box-shaped products stacked and stored on the product receiving base in order based on the sales order, and cut out forward in order from the box-shaped products only. A vending machine characterized by paying out to an outlet. 4. The vending machine according to claim 3, wherein the commodity receiving rack which has been pulled down to the lowest commodity loading position with the rack door opened is locked in the commodity storage rack for box-shaped commodities. A vending machine having a stopper mechanism for a product receiving tray that releases a lock in conjunction with the door when the door is closed.