JP2002312843A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the thermal load and power consumption by preferentially cooling and heating stored commodities to be vended earlier and to solve the problem of quality deterioration of the commodities resulting from long-time heating and storage. SOLUTION: The automatic vending machine is equipped in the box of a cabinet 1 of heat insulation structure with a commodity storage rack 5 which carries vertically stacked commodity 4 in order from the bottom, a cooling/ heating unit 7 which is combined with a fan, and a suction duct 8 which rises to the back side of the box successively to the cooling/heating unit, and cools or warms the commodities by blowing and circulating cold or warm air in the box according to a vending mode. After the upper end surface of the suction duct 8 is closed with an end plate 8c, a suction opening 8a for in-box air is holed in the front wall surface of the duct almost in level with a commodity to be vended next at a position in early vending order in the commodity storage rack and the cold or warm air blown out of the cooling/heating unit forward in the box is blown concentrically on the lower half area in the box.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a beverage, such as a can, a bottle, and a plastic bottle, which is kept cold or heated in the machine.
The present invention relates to a vending machine to be sold as a hot product or a cold product, and more particularly to a structure of a suction duct laid on a rear side in a storage in combination with a cooling / heating unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, as an example of a vending machine to which the present invention is applied, the configuration of a vending machine equipped with a serpentine type product storage rack is shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b). Fig. 1 (a)
In the drawings, 1 is a vending machine cabinet serving as an insulated housing, 2 is a front outer door, 2a is a product outlet opening at a lower portion of the outer door 2, 3 is an insulated inner door, , The products 4 are stored in a line in the upper and lower rows for each column, and the bend mechanism 5a based on the sales order moves the products 4 downward from the bottom in order by the movement of the bend mechanism 5a. A product unloading shooter 6 for guiding the product 4 dropped and unloaded from the rack to the product outlet 2a, a cooling / heating unit 7 installed at the bottom of the storage,
A suction duct 8 is provided to suck the air in the refrigerator and guide the air to the cooling / heating unit 7. Reference numeral 9 denotes a condensing unit of the refrigerator installed inside the machine room outside the refrigerator.

Here, the cooling / heating unit 7 has a configuration in which a cooler (evaporator of a refrigerator) 7a, a heater 7b, and a fan 7c are combined. Also, the suction duct 8
As shown in FIG. 2 (b), a thin steel plate is formed into a U-channel shape by sheet metal forming. The upper end open surface is used as a suction port 8a. The discharge port is opened and communicated with the rear panel of the cabinet 1. The overall height of the suction duct 8 is set to a size such that the air circulating in the warehouse flows evenly throughout the product storage rack 5 and is sucked into the suction port 8 a opened at the upper end of the suction duct 8.

In the cold merchandise selling mode, the refrigerator 9 is operated, and the cool air cooled by exchanging heat with the cooler 7a of the cooling / heating unit 7 is blown forward by the fan 7c as shown by the arrow in the drawing. Then, the air is turned upward, flows in the space inside the refrigerator, is sucked into the suction duct 8 from the upper part of the refrigerator, and is circulated and blown back into the refrigerator along a path that returns to the cooler 7a. Product storage rack 5 in the process
Is stored as a cold product and kept cool at an appropriate temperature. On the other hand, in the hot product sales mode, the heater 7b is energized instead of the refrigerator 9, and the air heated by the heater is circulated and blown into the refrigerator in the same manner as described above to heat the product 4 to a suitable selling temperature.

[0005] When a sales command is given in this state, the bend mechanism 5a of the product storage rack 5 is operated, and the next sales product 4 arranged at the lowest position in the rack is dropped down and carried out, and the shooter 6 is released. Is sent out to the product outlet 2a. Also, the products 4 arranged in the upper part of the rack move down in the rack in order as the sales progress.

[0006]

By the way, as described above, in the conventional structure in which the open air at the upper end of the suction duct 8 is used as the suction port 8a to circulate the cool air and the warm air to the entire inside of the warehouse, the product storage rack 5 is not used. The following problems remain in the temperature and quality control of the product 4 stored in the storage device. (1) Looking at the heat load when products are kept cool and heated in the refrigerator, keeping all products stored in the product storage rack at the same temperature and heating them increases the heat load. Therefore, the power consumption of the refrigerator and the heater increases.

(2) In summer, when the outside air temperature is high, the cold load of the cold product is deteriorated due to an increase in the freezing load. Conversely, in winter, when the outside air temperature is low, the heat load is increased, and it becomes difficult for the hot product to warm. For example, it takes a long time from the point of supply of the goods to the goods storage rack to the time when all the goods in the storage become suitable for sale. (3) Further, when products are heated as hot products in the cabin, if they are exposed to high temperatures for a long period of time between replenishment to the product storage rack in the refrigerator and sale, the content beverages Depending on the type, quality deterioration is accelerated.
For this reason, if the sales turnover of the products is fast, there is no problem to the left, but if the sales turnover is slow, the longer the products lined up on the upper side of the product storage rack, the longer the stay period in the warehouse, the better the quality of the contents There is also the problem of deterioration.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points. Among the products stored in a product storage rack, priority is given to products having the highest sales order, and cooling and heating are performed to reduce the heat load. It is another object of the present invention to provide a vending machine in which the structure of the suction duct is improved so that the problem of quality deterioration due to long-time continuous heating of hot products can be solved.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, according to the present invention, goods stored in a cabinet in a cabinet and stacked and arranged in a line in an upper and lower row for each column are sequentially discharged from the lowest order based on a sales order. Automatic selling with cooling / heating unit combined with a product storage rack to be cooled and a fan, and chilled or warm air is circulated in the refrigerator according to the cold or hot selling mode to keep the product cool or heated A cooling duct, wherein the cooling / heating unit is installed at the bottom of the refrigerator and a suction duct that rises upward is provided on the back surface of the refrigerator in connection with the wind tunnel of the cooling / heating unit. After closing the upper end, align the product at the same height as the products in the product storage rack, which are arranged at the earliest position in the sales order. It is assumed that the mouth.

According to the above configuration, since the upper end surface of the suction duct is closed, the cool air or warm air blown out from the cooling / heating unit into the refrigerator hardly ventilates the upper half of the refrigerator. In the lower half of the warehouse where products with the highest sales ranks are lined up, they are circulated and ventilated along a path that is sucked into the suction port of the suction duct. Intensively cools or heats the products lined up on the delivery end side. Therefore.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.
A description will be given based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. In the drawings of the embodiment, the same members corresponding to FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals. That is, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 (a), the configuration inside the refrigerator is basically the same as that of FIG. 2 (a), but the suction duct 8 laid on the back surface of the refrigerator is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the end plate 8 in which the upper end surface of the duct is bent by sheet metal processing
c, and the configuration is such that a square hole-shaped suction port 8a is opened in the front wall surface of the duct. Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the opening position of the suction port 8 a is a product (shown in the example shown in FIG. 1) which is arranged at the position of the earliest sales order among the products 5 stored in the product storage rack 5 with the bottom surface of the vignette 1 as a reference level. In this example, the height H is set to be substantially the same as the height position H of the next sales product arranged at the bottom.

Thus, the cool air and the warm air blown out from the cooling / heating unit 7 to the inside of the refrigerator are passed through the lower half region of the refrigerator as shown by arrows in the drawing, and then sucked into the suction port 8b of the suction duct 8. A circulation ventilation path that returns to the cooling / heating unit 7 is followed. In other words, cold air is in the upper half
Since the warm air does not flow, the slow-moving products lined up on the upper side of the product storage rack 5 are not directly cooled and heated by the cool air and warm air flow, and only the fast-moving merchandise products arranged in the lower half are zone cooled and zoned. Heated.

[0013] Therefore, even when selling a hot product with a vending machine whose product sales are slow to rotate, products whose sales order is slow, in which the stay period in the warehouse from product replenishment to sale is long, are exposed to a high temperature for a long time. As the product moves to the lower half as the product is sold, it is heated by receiving warm air while waiting to be sold, so during the storage period until it is sold In addition, it is possible to prevent the quality of the contents of the product from deteriorating, and to reduce the heat load on the entire inside of the refrigerator, thereby reducing the power consumption of the heater. In addition, even in the cold merchandise sales mode, an energy-saving effect can be obtained in which extra electric power spent for keeping cold the merchandise having a low sales rank arranged on the upper side of the merchandise storage rack 4 can be saved.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the suction duct communicated with the cooling / heating unit and laid on the back surface of the inside of the refrigerator is closed at the upper end surface and then placed in the product storage rack. By opening the air inlet for the inside of the refrigerator on the front wall of the duct at about the same height as the products arranged in the earlier position in the sales order, the upper open surface of the suction duct is used as the suction port as in the conventional case. Compared to the system in which cool air and warm air are passed through the entire area, the heat load on the cooling / heating unit is reduced and power consumption is reduced.
Heating and cooling only the products with the highest sales priority with priority, so the pull-down and pull-up time after product replenishment is short, and the quality of the product is degraded because the hot product is not exposed to high temperature for a long time. In addition, it is possible to improve product temperature management and reduce power consumption.

[Brief description of the drawings]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, (a) is a configuration diagram in a refrigerator, (b) is an external perspective view of a suction duct in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional vending machine;
(a) is a configuration diagram of the inside of the refrigerator, (b) is an external perspective view of the suction duct in (a) of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cabinet 4 Merchandise 5 Merchandise storage rack 5a Bend mechanism 7 Cooling / heating unit 8 Suction duct 8a Suction port

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A product storage rack for transferring goods stored in a cabinet having a heat insulating structure in a vertical line for each column in order from the lowest order based on a sales order, and a cooling / heating unit combined with a fan. A vending machine that cools or heats products by circulating cold or hot air in the refrigerator in accordance with the cold or hot sales mode. The cooling / heating unit is located at the bottom of the refrigerator. Installed and provided with a suction duct that rises upward on the back side of the refrigerator connected to the wind tunnel of the cooling / heating unit. After closing the upper end surface of the suction duct, sell it in a product storage rack. A vending machine characterized by opening the inside air inlet on the front wall of the duct at the same height as the products lined up earlier in the order.