JP2002279518A - Water supply and drain circuit for cup type automatic vending machine direct-coupled to water piping - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the pollution of tap water that results from a failure or malfunction of a non-return valve inside an automatic vending machine. SOLUTION: A water supply circuit 2 has one end direct-coupled to a water piping to be fed with the tap water and communicates with fluid, having different physical and chemical properties from those of the tap water, at a pipe end or in a pipeline, and a non-return valve is inserted in the water supply circuit 2 to prevent backflow of the fluid. The non-return valve in particular is formed of a non-return drain valve 1 having an openable atmospheric air release port 12 between an upstream valve element and a downstream valve element, and a detecting means 4 for the fluid is connected to a drain circuit 3 connected to the atmospheric air release port 12. Even if the non-return drain valve malfunctions, the upstream valve element closes, and the atmospheric air release port discharges the downstream fluid, whereby the backflow is prevented, and an abnormality is transmitted to the outside of the machine immediately for prompt treatment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cup-type vending machine, and more particularly, to a water supply / drain circuit of a cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are vending machines that can purchase drinks and noodles anywhere in a city or in a suburb, regardless of time, and the number of vending machines is 24 in Japan.
It is said to be 100,000, of which 600,000 are cup-type vending machines. Of these cup-type vending machines, beverage vending machines use tap water for diluting a concentrated liquid or producing carbonated water using carbon dioxide gas.

Conventionally, tap water is supplied from a water pipe so that a constant amount of water is always stored in a water supply tank provided in a vending machine. In this tank system, an elevated water tank of a multi-storey building is used. Insufficient maintenance and inspection lead to intrusion of pollutants,
The problem is similar to that of a social problem caused by pollution of drinking water or deterioration of water quality due to long-term residence. That is, according to the sanitary standards of tap water, the number of general bacteria is 100 or less per milliliter. On the other hand, it is said that the number of bacteria in the water supply tank of a cup-type vending machine may reach two to three times or more of the sanitary standard of tap water when conditions are poor. For this reason, bacteria are generated in the water supply tank during the operation frequency of the vending machine is low, such as a holiday, and the danger of food poisoning especially at the dawn of a hot and humid season cannot be denied.

[0004] In order to extinguish the possibility of water quality deterioration during such tank stagnation, in recent years, instead of this water supply tank system, a water supply circuit directly connected to a water supply pipe has been connected, and fresh tap water has to be purchased each time. Is being converted to a water supply directly connected water supply circuit that receives water directly and adjusts it to a desired beverage.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a typical flow of the cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply. The tap water directly collected from a water supply pipe (not shown) is supplied to a dispenser D of the vending machine. Into one branch and one is a cooling water tank 1
05. The cooling water tank 105 contains cooling coils 151, 152, 153 for tap water, carbonated water, and concentrated beverage liquid into which carbon dioxide gas has been blown, and a cooling device (not shown). The other branched tap water is pressurized by a pump 125, cooled by the cooling coil 151, and supplied to the carbonated water producing apparatus 107. Further, carbon dioxide gas is blown into the carbonated water producing apparatus 107 from a carbon dioxide gas cylinder (not shown), and after mixing both, it becomes carbonated water and is cooled by the cooling coil 152. A check valve 101 is interposed so that the carbonated water does not flow backward from the carbonated water producing apparatus to the tap water supply circuit 102. Further, the carbonated concentrated beverage liquid is cooled by the cooling coil 153 through the concentrated beverage liquid line 109, and the cooled carbonated water and the concentrated beverage liquid are mixed and adjusted by the mixing nozzle 110, respectively. C.

[0006] The improved technology relating to the direct water supply type cup-type vending machine has taken several different problems and has been sought in order to solve the problems. However, the search is focused on the water supply circuit of the direct water supply type. And the invention according to JP-A-10-188125. In the present invention, tap water received from a water inlet W is pressurized by a water pump 225 in a water supply circuit 202 and sent to a carbonator (carbonated water producing apparatus) 207 through a cooling coil 251 as shown in FIG. On the other hand, the switching valve 200 interposed in the water supply circuit 202 branches in two directions, one of which is a branch pipe 206 connected to the hot water tank 208. In this vending machine, both cold beverages and hot beverages are switched and supplied freely as ordered, and when the amount of water in the hot water tank 208 falls below the lower limit,
The switching valve 200 is automatically operated to supply tap water to the branch pipe 20.
It is designed to supply water through 6.

A feature of the present invention resides in that a check valve 201 is interposed in a branch pipe 206 between the switching valve 200 and the hot water tank 208, and high-temperature water that has flowed back from the hot water tank 208 during the switching operation of the valve is downstream. Flow into the cold water circuit to make the dilution water of the cold beverage warm, and the switching valve 200
The effect is that the rubber gasket incorporated in the valve prevents deterioration due to backflow of high-temperature water and shortens the valve life.

[0008]

The problem of stagnant contamination can be almost solved by replacing a vending machine from a water supply tank system to a direct water supply system, but another problem is as follows.
In addition, it is left. In other words, fresh tap water is provided each time it is directly connected to the water pipe, but if a bad factor occurs in the process of adjusting the beverage inside, even after correcting the factor, the quality or function will not be improved. The problem with conservation is that it still trails. For example, FIG.
In the related art, when the check valve 101 is broken or a foreign matter in the pipeline is caught and the normal operation is prevented, the original function of preventing the reverse flow cannot be exhibited. If the supply pressure is exceeded, the downstream carbonated water producing apparatus 10
When carbonated water enters the water supply circuit 102 on the upstream side from 7 and flows backward to the cooling coil 151, copper and carbon dioxide gas come into contact with the copper tube coil to cause a chemical reaction, and copper salts are eluted into tap water. Become. Therefore, even after correcting the malfunction of the check valve, the beverage supplied by the vending machine may be degraded to an unfavorably healthy quality.

Further, in the prior art shown in FIG. 6, even if a failure or malfunction occurs in the check valve 201, only the adverse effect that hot water enters the pipe of cold water through the switching valve occurs. It does not lead to deterioration of water quality, but the purpose is to prevent the deterioration of the rubber packing of the changeover valve at an early stage because the cold water produces a soft drink and the commercial value of the soft drink is severely damaged, causing customer complaints. ,
The grudge that cannot be answered remains.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method in which tap water in a water supply circuit received directly from a water pipe is physically or chemically different from tap water in the course of being processed as a beverage. Completely prevent the backflow of fluid, and quickly detect and correct such abnormalities,
An object of the present invention is to provide a water supply circuit effective for improving the sales efficiency of vending machines by eliminating the adverse effect of trailing at a later date.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a water supply / drainage circuit of a water supply directly connected cup-type vending machine according to the present invention has one end directly connected to a water supply pipe to receive supply of tap water, while a water supply / drain circuit is provided at a pipe end or in a pipe. A water supply circuit 2 for communicating with a fluid having a property physically or chemically different from water, and a check valve for preventing a backflow of the fluid in the water supply circuit 2; The valve includes a check discharge valve 1 having an openable / closeable atmosphere opening 12 between an upstream valve body 11a and a downstream valve body 11b. The above problem was solved by connecting the means 4.

Although this configuration is fundamental, if it is applied more specifically to the form of a cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply shown in FIG. 5, the upstream side of the check discharge valve 1 receives water supply from a water supply pipe. It is connected to the upstream pipe 2a of tap water which is pressure-fed to the cooling coil 51 in the cooling water tank 5, and the carbon dioxide on the downstream side where the carbon dioxide received through the carbon dioxide pipe 6 provided separately from the water supply circuit 2 merges. This embodiment is connected to the downstream water supply circuit 2b reaching the water production device 7, and the detecting means 4 is a detector of carbon dioxide and carbonated water. Further, in this embodiment, the detecting means 4 converts the detection signals of the non-dispersive infrared type carbon dioxide gas detector 41 and the ultrasonic type carbonated water detector 42, It is recommended as an embodiment that it is highly desirable to include an abnormal signal generating unit 43 and an abnormal display unit 44 for transmitting the abnormal signal to the control unit.

With this configuration, there is no problem when the vending machine is operating normally, and even when the check discharge valve 1 breaks down or malfunctions and the function of preventing backflow is lost, the chemical or physical A different fluid can be discharged from the atmosphere opening port 12 without backflow to the water pipe side, and adverse effects can be cut off beforehand.

For example, in the case of the vending machine of the form shown in FIG. 5, the backflow from the carbonated water producing apparatus 7 to the tap water supply circuit 2a is pushed back into the cooling coil 151, and the chemical reaction between copper and carbon dioxide gas is started. The reaction produces copper salts and dissolves in water to dissolve concerns about adverse health effects. In the case of the vending machine having the configuration shown in FIG. 6, the hot water flows back to the cold water side to become a tepid beverage, which has the effect of extinguishing the opportunity to induce significant dissatisfaction of the purchaser.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of check discharge valves 1 are provided in parallel in a circuit, and the discharge of carbon dioxide and carbonated water from the atmosphere opening port 12A of one check discharge valve 1A is detected. An operation signal for transmitting an abnormality to the outside of the vending machine by a signal of the detection means 4A and automatically switching the water supply to a water supply circuit 2B including another check discharge valve 1B in accordance with a predetermined order by inputting the signal. Control unit 8 that outputs
With the provision of the above, the object of the invention can be achieved more effectively.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. However, as long as the above-mentioned gist of the present invention is satisfied, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment. It goes without saying that the present invention is also applicable to a mold cup type vending machine, for example, the vending machine exemplified as the prior art in FIG. This embodiment is an example of a case where the present invention is applied to a water supply directly-coupled cup-type vending machine shown in FIG. 5, and in this case, there is no change in the basic flow from the prior art in FIG. That is, tap water directly received from a water supply pipe (not shown) is supplied to the dispenser D of the vending machine via a check valve / filter 21, and the water supply circuit 2 branches via a tap water inlet solenoid valve / check valve 22. One is supplied to the cooling water tank 5 through a check valve 23 and a cooling water tank electromagnetic valve 24, and the other is cooled by a cooling coil 51 built in the cooling water tank 5 through a pump 25, The water is supplied as cold water from the nozzle 71 in the carbonated water producing device 7 through the stop discharge valve 1.

On the other hand, carbon dioxide gas supplied from a cylinder (not shown) passes through a carbon dioxide gas line 6 via a pressure adjusting device / check valve 61 and a check valve / safety valve 72 in the carbonated water producing device 7.
The carbonated water is produced by the cold water and carbon dioxide gas in the carbonated water producing device 7, and the carbonated water is adjusted by the flow rate adjusting device 73, and then cooled by the cooling coil 52 in the cooling water tank 5.
Pass through and cool down and wait.

Further, the concentrated beverage liquid into which the carbon dioxide gas has been blown through the pressure regulator / check valve 91 is cooled from the tank 92 through the concentrated beverage liquid pipe 9 through the cooling coil 53 in the cooling water tank 5. Wait in the state of being left. When the purchaser of the carbonated beverage inserts a coin and presses a beverage type selection button, the flow rate adjusting device for the concentrated beverage liquid, the solenoid valve 93, and the solenoid valve 74 for carbonated water are simultaneously operated, and the mixing nozzle 10 And mixed with the desired carbonated beverage and supplied to the cup C outside the machine.

FIG. 2 shows a non-return valve 1 having an air opening 12. This valve is of a double type having a valve body which moves in the axial direction on the upstream side and the downstream side to open and close, respectively.
(A) is a state in which the check discharge valve is operating normally and the upstream valve body 11a and the downstream valve body 11b are supplied by tap water supply pressure.
Is open and tap water flows from the left side to the right side of the figure. At this time, since the atmosphere opening port 12 is closed by the diaphragm 13a, tap water does not flow out. FIG. 2B shows a state in which the check discharge valve 1 operates normally to prevent a backflow. When the back pressure from the carbonated water producing device 7 side becomes higher than the tap water supply pressure, the downstream side is shown. The valve body 11b is closed due to the back pressure, and prevents the carbon dioxide gas or carbonated water from flowing back to the tap water side. At the same time, since the upstream valve body 11a also closes, the tap water filled in the hollow portion between the upstream valve body 11a and the downstream valve body 11b is opened due to the opening of the atmosphere opening port 12. It is discharged from 12 to the outside.

FIG. 2C shows a case where the check discharge valve 1 does not operate normally. At this time, as shown in FIG. (A), the state in which the tap water normally flows from the left side to the right side is changed to the upstream side valve body 1.
It is assumed that the worst state is such that foreign matter has caught between the valve seat 1a and the downstream side valve body 11b and the valve seats 14a and 14b, and the check action of the check discharge valve has stopped functioning at all. In this state, when the back pressure from the carbonated water producing device 7 side becomes higher than the tap water supply pressure, unless the air release port 12 is provided, the carbon dioxide gas or the carbonated water flows back to the tap water side to solve the above problem. Although there is a risk of triggering, the check discharge valve is provided with the atmosphere opening port 12, so that carbon dioxide or carbonated water does not flow back to the tap water side, and there is no danger of being discharged to the outside from the atmosphere opening port. Become.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of the means for detecting carbon dioxide or carbonated water discharged from the atmosphere opening port 12 of the check discharge valve shown in FIG. There are various types of methods for detecting carbon dioxide gas.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a non-dispersive infrared method, which measures the amount of infrared rays absorbed by carbon dioxide gas, so that the influence of coexisting gas and water vapor is small. On the other hand, although there are various methods for detecting carbonated water, the carbonated water detector 42 of the present embodiment employs an ultrasonic method and detects a specific sound generated by the fluid flowing in the pipe, and is in non-contact with the fluid. High reliability because of its existence. The signals from the two types of detectors are converted into electric signals, and the abnormal signal generating unit 43 and the abnormal display unit 44 immediately transmit the abnormality to the outside of the device, which leads to an action to prompt a quick response.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a plurality of check discharge valves 1A, 1B, 1C. . . Are provided in parallel, a plurality of water supply circuits 2 (2A, 2B, 2C,...) Are provided in parallel, so that when one check discharge valve 1A fails or malfunctions, the check discharge valve 1A The carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide gas discharged from the atmosphere opening port 12A is detected by the carbon dioxide or carbonated water detector 4A interposed in the middle of the discharge pipe 3, and a signal is output. The part 8 instantaneously receives another one-way discharge valve 1B according to a predetermined sequence.
And outputs a signal for switching to another water supply circuit 2B, which continues the sales, and transmits an abnormal signal and displays an abnormality. In this embodiment, the vending machine can be sold continuously, preventing the generation of bacteria in the pipeline up to the mixing nozzle that occurs when sales are suspended,
Further, the transmission of the abnormal signal, the display of the abnormality, and the display of the inspection required make the maintenance and management easy, and the unique operation and effect that the restoration to the normal state is further expedited is exhibited.

[0023]

As described above, the water supply / drainage circuit of the cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply according to the present invention completely eliminates the risk of water pollution and the propagation of bacteria as in the conventional water supply tank system. In addition to eliminating the danger that fluid with properties different from that of tap water flows back due to malfunction or failure of the check valve, as seen in conventional tap-type cup vending machines, This has the effect of eliminating any concerns about maintenance. In addition, in the case of a configuration in which a plurality of check discharge valves are provided in parallel, the water supply circuit is automatically switched even if an abnormality such as a failure of one check discharge valve occurs,
The downtime of the vending machine can be completely eliminated. Furthermore, since the abnormality of the vending machine is immediately transmitted to the outside, the effects that can contribute to improvement of hygiene, safety and operation efficiency are extremely wide.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a water supply circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are vertical sectional views respectively showing a normal valve opening (A), a normal valve closing (B), and an abnormal valve closing (C) of a check discharge valve used in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a detection unit used in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a water supply circuit showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a conventional water supply circuit.

FIG. 6 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view showing another conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Check discharge valve 2 Water supply circuit 3 Discharge circuit 4 Detecting means 5 Cooling water tank 6 Carbon dioxide gas line 7 Carbonated water production device 8 Control part 9 Concentrated beverage 11 Valve 12 Air opening 13 Diaphragm 14 Valve seat 41 Carbon dioxide gas detection Unit 42 carbonated water detector 43 error signal generator 44 error display unit 51 cooling coil 52 cooling coil 53 cooling coil C cup D dispenser

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A water supply circuit 2 having one end directly connected to a water supply pipe to receive supply of tap water, and communicating with a fluid having a physically or chemically different property at a pipe end or a conduit. In a water supply circuit of a direct water supply type cup-type vending machine in which a check valve for preventing a backflow of the fluid is interposed in the water supply circuit 2, a check valve is particularly provided with an upstream valve body 11a and a downstream valve body 11
(b) a non-return discharge valve 1 having an air opening port 12 which can be opened and closed between the air outlets, and the fluid detecting means 4 connected to a discharge circuit 3 connected to the air opening port 12; Water supply / drain circuit for cup-type vending machines. 2. An upstream side of the check discharge valve 1 according to claim 1, wherein the upstream side of the check discharge valve 1 is connected to an upstream side pipeline 2a of tap water which receives water supplied from a water supply pipe and is pressure-fed to a cooling coil 51 in a cooling water tank 5. The downstream side is connected to a downstream water supply circuit 2b which reaches a carbonated water producing apparatus 7 where the carbon dioxide gas received through a carbon dioxide gas pipe 6 provided separately from the water supply circuit 2 is merged. A water supply and drain circuit for a cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply, characterized by being a detector of the type. 3. The detecting means 4 comprises a non-dispersive infrared type carbon dioxide detector 41 and an ultrasonic type carbonated water detector 42.
And an abnormal signal generating section 43 for converting the detection signals of the two detectors and transmitting the signals outside the vending machine, and an abnormal display section 44. . 4. The check discharge valve 1 according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of check discharge valves 1 are provided in parallel in the circuit, and carbon dioxide and carbonated water are supplied from an atmosphere opening port 12A of one check discharge valve 1A. The operation of transmitting an abnormality to the outside of the vending machine by the signal of the detecting means 4A which has detected the discharge, and switching the water supply to the water supply circuit 2B including the other check discharge valve 1B according to a predetermined sequence by inputting the signal. A water supply / drainage circuit for a cup-type vending machine directly connected to a water supply, comprising a control unit 8 for outputting a signal.