JP2001143150A - Article carrying mechanism for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely attain each merchandise conveying operation when continuously conveying a plurality of articles, and to shorten the conveying time of the whole article by realizing a high speed in the restoring operation of the conveying members while ensuring high torque when conveying articles. SOLUTION: This article conveying mechanism is provided with a driving shaft 33 equipped with a ball screw 40 capable of moving back and forth and a conveying member 31 moving back and forth according to the operation of the ball screw 4 accompanying the rotation of the driving shaft 33. When the bass screw 40 is moved forward, the conveying member 31 is moved forward so that merchandise A can be conveyed, and when moving the ball screw backward, the conveying member 31 is restored to an initial position. A screw pitch P1 of a reciprocating part 41 of the ball screw 40 is set so that torque requested at the conveying of merchandise can be ensured. A screen pitch P2 of a reciprocating part 42 of the ball screw 40 is set so as to be larger than P1 so that a restoring speed requested in the restoring operation of the conveying member 31 can be ensured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a merchandise discharging mechanism for a vending machine, and more particularly to a merchandise discharging mechanism of a type in which a discharging member is moved using a reciprocating ball screw.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of merchandise unloading mechanisms of vending machines have been conventionally developed and proposed. Among them, a mechanism for engaging a drive shaft provided with a ball screw by rotating the drive shaft is provided. 2. Description of the Related Art A product unloading mechanism of a type that reciprocates a discharged unloading member is widely used because it can realize reliable and sufficient unloading performance with a simple configuration using a motor.

A mechanism using a drive shaft provided with a reciprocally movable ball screw as a product discharge mechanism of this type is as follows.
It can be configured to be small and simple, and is suitable as a mechanism for vending machines with limited space. As this type of product carrying mechanism, for example, a technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H4-175897 is known.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a product carrying mechanism of the type using a ball screw capable of reciprocating as described above. As shown in FIG. 3, the product storage unit 20 and the unloading mechanism unit 3 are located above and below the horizontal plate 11 of the base member 10.
0 is configured, and the product A in the storage room 21 of the product storage unit 20 is pushed forward (X1 direction in the drawing) by the unloading member 31 of the unloading mechanism 30. Hereinafter, the configurations of the product storage unit 20 and the unloading mechanism unit 30 will be briefly described.

[0005] First, the product storage section 20 is capable of stacking and storing products A having a predetermined size and shape in a storage room 21 extending in a vertical direction. An outlet 22 for carrying out the product and an insertion opening 23 for inserting the carrying-out member are provided on a front surface and a rear surface of a lower end portion of the product storage portion 20, respectively.

On the other hand, the carry-out mechanism 30 includes a drive motor 32, a drive shaft 33, and a guide block 34 in addition to the carry-out member 31 described above. The carrying-out member 31 reciprocates on the horizontal plate 11 of the base member 10 in the front-rear direction (the X-axis direction in the drawing). The drive shaft 33 is horizontally arranged in the front-rear direction (the X-axis direction in the figure), and rotates by the rotational driving force from the drive motor 32. A ball screw 35 that can reciprocate is provided on the outer periphery of the drive shaft 33. FIG. 4 shows this ball screw 35.
It is an enlarged view showing 36, 36 is a forward movement part, and 37 is a return movement part.

A guide block 34 is engaged with such a ball screw 35, and the guide block 34 reciprocates in the front-rear direction (X-axis direction in the drawing) according to the operation of the ball screw 35. The carry-out member 31 is configured to operate integrally with the guide block 34 as the guide block 34 reciprocates.

When the drive motor 32 is driven to rotate by a predetermined amount in accordance with a product discharge command in the product discharge mechanism of FIG. 3 having the above-described structure, the guide block 34 and the discharge block are driven in accordance with the operation of the ball screw 35 caused by the rotation of the drive shaft 33. The member 31 makes one reciprocating movement integrally. In other words, the carry-out member 31 advances from the initial position in the rear (X2 direction in FIG. 3) indicated by the solid line in FIG. 3 to the advanced position in the front (X1 direction in FIG. 3) indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. Product storage section 2
The lowermost product A in the storage room 21 is pushed forward.
As a result, the product A is carried out of the storage room 21 from the carry-out port 22. Thereafter, the carrying-out member 31 retreats from the forward position and stops when returning to the initial position.

[0009]

By the way, in the reciprocating product transport mechanism as shown in FIG. 3, when a plurality of products A are continuously delivered, the delivery member 31 that has delivered one product A is provided. Is returned to the initial position, and then the next product A is carried out, so that the carry-out time of the entire product is extended by the time required for the carry-out member 31 to return to the initial position.

In order to shorten the return time of the carry-out member 31, a method of increasing the speed by reducing the torque at the time of the return operation can be considered. In this case, not only the return operation of the carry-out member but also the product discharge The torque at the time also decreases, and it becomes easy to hinder the product export.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to secure a high torque at the time of unloading a product and a high speed at the time of returning operation of the unloading member. By realizing
To provide a product unloading mechanism which can reliably carry out an individual product unloading operation when a plurality of products are unloaded continuously, and which can reduce the unloading time of the entire product, and which is excellent in operation reliability and unloading efficiency. It is.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a drive shaft provided with a ball screw capable of reciprocating operation, and a discharge member reciprocating by the operation of the ball screw accompanying rotation of the drive shaft. In a product discharging mechanism of a vending machine configured to advance the carry-out member at the time of the forward movement of the ball screw to carry out the product and to return the carry-out member to the initial position at the time of the backward movement of the ball screw, the configuration of the ball screw is adopted. It has features.

The invention described in claim 1 is characterized in that the screw pitch for the forward movement and the screw pitch for the backward movement of the ball screw are individually set to be different from each other. According to this configuration, since the screw pitch for the forward movement and the screw pitch for the backward movement of the ball screw can be set independently, by setting the screw pitch for the backward movement appropriately, the torque at the time of carrying out the product is not affected at all. The speed at the time of the returning operation of the carrying-out member can be increased without exerting the influence.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the screw pitch for the forward movement of the ball screw is set so as to secure the torque required at the time of carrying out the product, and the screw pitch for the backward movement of the ball screw is set. Are set so that the required return speed at the time of the return operation of the carrying-out member can be secured. According to this configuration, by appropriately setting the screw pitch of the ball screw for the forward movement and for the backward movement, it is possible to reliably realize the high torque required at the time of unloading the product and to return the unloading member. High speed required during operation can be reliably realized.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment to which a product carrying mechanism of a vending machine according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

(1) Configuration FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a product carrying-out mechanism according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a product storage unit 20 and an unloading mechanism unit 30 are provided above and below a horizontal plate 11 of a base member 10.
Are respectively configured, and the storage room 2 of the product storage unit 20 is provided.
1 is pushed forward (in the X1 direction in the figure) by the unloading member 31 of the unloading mechanism 30.
Hereinafter, the configurations of the product storage unit 20 and the unloading mechanism unit 30 will be sequentially described.

First, the product storage section 20 forms a storage room 21 extending in the vertical direction, and products A having a predetermined size and shape can be stacked and stored in the storage room 21. An outlet 22 for carrying out the product and an insertion opening 23 for inserting the carrying-out member are provided on the front and rear surfaces of the lower end portion of the product storage portion 20, respectively. Of these, the opening size of the carry-out port 22 is slightly larger than the vertical cross-sectional dimension of the product A so that the product A can be smoothly carried out. In addition, the opening size of the insertion port 23 is made smaller than the vertical cross-sectional dimension of the product A in order to prevent the product A from inadvertently popping out, and the vertical dimension of the delivery member 31 is set so that the delivery member 31 can be inserted smoothly. It is larger than the cross-sectional dimension.

On the other hand, the unloading mechanism 30 includes a drive motor 32, a drive shaft 33, and a guide block 34 in addition to the unloading member 31 described above. Among these, the carrying-out member 31 is horizontally arranged on the horizontal plate 11 of the base member 10, and reciprocates on the horizontal plate 11 with the front-back direction (X-axis direction in the drawing) as the operation axis direction. I have.

The drive motor 32 is fixed to the rear end of the base member 10 and applies a rotational driving force to the drive shaft 33. The drive shaft 33 extends forward from the drive motor 32 and is horizontally arranged with the front-rear direction (X-axis direction in the drawing) as the axial direction, and a reciprocating ball screw 40 is provided on the outer periphery thereof. . FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing the ball screw 40.

As shown in FIG. 2, the screw pitch P1 of the forward movement section 41 of the ball screw 40 and the screw pitch P2 of the return movement section 42 are set independently of each other. That is, the thread pitch P1 of the outward movement section 41 of the ball screw 40 is set so as to secure the torque required when the product is carried out. On the other hand, the screw pitch P2 of the return path operation unit 42 of the ball screw 40 is
1 is set larger than P1 so that the required return speed at the time of the return operation of No. 1 can be secured. FIG. 2 shows a case where the ratio P2 / P1 is set to 2 as an example. Note that, in FIG.
2 is hatched from the viewpoint of clearly indicating “2”.

The guide block 34 is engaged with the ball screw 40 of the drive shaft 33, and the guide block 34 is moved in the front-rear direction (X in the drawing) according to the operation of the ball screw 35 due to the rotation of the drive shaft 33. (Axial direction). Further, a carry-out member 31 is attached to the upper portion of the guide block 34, and the carry-out member 31 reciprocates integrally with the guide block 34 in the front-rear direction (the X-axis direction in the drawing) with the reciprocation of the guide block 34. It has become.

(2) Operation / Effect The operation of the commodity carrying-out mechanism of the present embodiment having the above configuration is as follows. First, when the user of the vending machine performs a product selection operation, such as pressing a product selection button, and issues a product carry-out command, the drive motor 32 is driven to rotate by a predetermined amount, and the ball screw is rotated by the drive shaft 33. According to the operation 40, the guide block 34 and the carrying-out member 31 make one reciprocating movement integrally.

That is, the forward movement section 4 of the ball screw 40
3, the carry-out member 31 advances from the initial position in the rear (X2 direction in the figure) shown by the solid line in FIG. 3 to the advance position in the front (X1 direction in the figure) shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. , The lowest product A in the storage room 21 of the product storage unit 20
Push forward. As a result, this product A is delivered to the exit 22
From the storage room 21. During the unloading operation of the unloading member 31 as described above, the screw pitch P1 of the forward movement unit 41 of the ball screw 40 is set so as to secure the torque, and thus the high torque required for unloading the product is reduced. As a result, the unloading operation can be performed with high reliability.

After the unloading operation, the unloading member 31 is retracted from its forward position by the return path operation section 41 of the ball screw 40, and stops when it returns to the initial position. At the time of such a returning operation of the carrying-out member 31, as described above,
The screw pitch P2 of the return path operation unit 42 of the ball screw 40 is
Since the return speed required for the return operation of the carrying-out member 31 is set to be secured, the high speed required for the return operation can be reliably realized, and the time required for the return operation can be reduced. it can.

Specifically, in the present embodiment, since the P2 / P1 ratio between the screw pitch P1 of the forward movement section 41 of the ball screw 40 and the screw pitch P2 of the return movement section 42 is set to 2, the carry-out member 31 is provided. Can be reduced to half of the time required for the forward operation. Therefore, the outward movement section 4 of the ball screw 40 of the present embodiment
When the screw pitch P1 of one is equal to the uniform screw pitch of the conventional ball screw 35 as shown in FIG. 4, the time required for one reciprocating movement of the carrying-out member 31 by the ball screw 40 of the present embodiment is as shown in FIG. This can be reduced to ／ compared with the case where the ball screw 35 is used.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the screw pitch of the ball screw 40 is appropriately set individually in the forward movement section 41 and the backward movement section 42, thereby ensuring a high torque at the time of carrying out the product. In addition, high speed can be realized during the returning operation of the carrying-out member. Therefore, when a plurality of commodities are successively carried out, the carry-out operation of the whole commodities can be significantly shortened as compared with the conventional art, while performing the carry-out operation of each commodity reliably.

(3) Other Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various other modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention.

First, the specific dimensions of the thread pitch for the forward movement and the backward movement of the ball screw can be freely set, but generally, the torque required at the time of carrying out the product and the torque required at the time of the return operation. It is set appropriately according to the return speed. Alternatively, it is also possible to take into account the torque required at the time of unloading the goods or to simply design the conventional screw pitch for the forward movement, and freely select only the screw pitch for the return movement.

Further, specific configurations of the product storage section and the unloading mechanism section can be freely selected. That is, the present invention
In the product discharging mechanism using the ball screw, the screw pitch for the forward movement and the return movement of the ball screw are individually set to be different from each other, so that the discharging member is reciprocated by the reciprocating operation of the ball screw. The present invention can be similarly applied to a general product carrying mechanism configured to carry out a product by using the same, and similarly excellent effects can be obtained.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By individually setting the screw pitch for the forward movement and the screw pitch for the return movement of the ball screw to be different from each other, it is possible to achieve high speed during the return operation of the unloading member while securing high torque when unloading the product. The present invention provides a product unloading mechanism excellent in operation reliability and unloading efficiency that can reliably carry out an individual product unloading operation when continuously unloading a plurality of products, and can shorten the unloading time of the entire product. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a product unloading mechanism according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing the ball screw of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a conventional product unloading mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view showing the ball screw of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Base member 11 ... Horizontal plate 20 ... Product storage part 21 ... Storage room 22 ... Unloading port 23 ... Insertion port 30 ... Unloading mechanism part 31 ... Unloading member 32 ... Drive motor 33 ... Drive shaft 34 ... Guide blocks 35, 40 ... Ball screw 36, 41 ... forward operation unit 37, 42 ... return operation unit A ... products P1, P2 ... screw pitch

Claims (2)

[Claims] A drive shaft provided with a reciprocally movable ball screw; and a carry-out member reciprocating by the operation of the ball screw accompanying rotation of the drive shaft. In the product unloading mechanism of a vending machine configured to return the unloading member to the initial position at the time of the backward movement of the ball screw, the screw pitch for the forward movement and the screw pitch for the backward movement of the ball screw are individually different from each other. A product unloading mechanism of a vending machine, wherein the mechanism is set to: 2. The screw pitch for the forward movement of the ball screw is set so as to secure the torque required at the time of unloading the product, and the screw pitch for the return movement of the ball screw is required at the time of the return operation of the unloading member. 2. The merchandise unloading mechanism of a vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the merchandise unloading mechanism is set so as to secure a return speed.