JP2003109104A - Commodity rack for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To stably transport a commodity whose lower part is larger than an upper part. SOLUTION: The commodity abutting face of a pusher 80 which abuts on a commodity is made to have two steps so that an upper commodity abutting face 82 is positioned backward more than a lower commodity abutting face 83.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product rack of a vending machine having a pusher that pushes and conveys a product forward, and more particularly, it has a pusher shape for favorably conveying an inverted frustoconical product. The present invention relates to an improvement and a pusher structure improvement in the case where the position of the product rack can be freely changed in the height direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An automatic vending machine for a product, such as a canned beverage, which has a possibility of losing its shape or leaking the contents of the beverage, has been proposed if the product is dropped at the outlet. This type of vending machine has a product storage unit in which a plurality of product racks for storing products are arranged vertically and horizontally, a product catching bucket that can be moved to the front position of any product rack, and a product catching bucket. Equipped with a product outlet from which Each product rack is provided with a pusher that conveys the product forward by pressing the product.

When a user looks at the products arranged in the product storage unit and designates an arbitrary product, the product catching bucket moves to the rack position corresponding to the designated product. As the pusher moves, the products are conveyed forward, and the products in the front row are carried into the product catch bucket. When the product is captured, the product capturing bucket moves to the position of the product outlet, and the captured product is carried out from the bucket to the product outlet.

FIG. 10 shows a conventional pusher 100 arranged in a product rack of such a vending machine. In the conventional pusher 100, the height of the pusher 100 is set to be relatively low so that a large number of product racks can be arranged and a large number of products can be stored. In addition, as the product, when the product is placed on the base 101 of the product rack, the target is a product such as a cylindrical shape or a rectangular parallelepiped whose side surface is substantially perpendicular to the base 101. The contact surface 100a is flat.

[0005]

Recently, as shown in FIG. 10, an inverted truncated cone-shaped beverage container 2 in which beverages such as cafe au lait and cappuccino are stored, and a bulk container further outward than the beverage container 2. Many inverted trapezoidal container-shaped beverages 1 composed of a stretched lid 3 are on the market. When such a commodity container having a larger upper portion than the lower portion is pressed by using the conventional pusher 100 as shown in FIG. 10, the beverage container 2 and the pusher 100 are in contact with each other at only one point. The transportation is not stable due to tilting back and forth. Incidentally, when the cylindrical or rectangular parallelepiped product container is pressed, the pusher and the product container are in line contact or surface contact, so that stable conveyance can be achieved.

Further, in the view type vending machine in which the front door is made transparent so that the product stored in the product storage section and the movement of the product can be visually confirmed, the position of the product rack in the height direction can be changed. Therefore, by adjusting the position of the product racks in the height direction, it is possible to store beverages in containers having different heights in the product racks.

Assuming that various products including beverages with different heights and the above-mentioned inverted trapezoidal container-containing beverage 1 are stored in each product rack of one vending machine, each product rack stores It is necessary to provide a pusher having a height or shape according to the height of the product to be stored or the shape of the product to be stored, but if this is done, the content and type of the product to be stored in the vending machine will be limited to some extent. This makes it impossible to freely combine products of different heights and shapes and store them in the vending machine. Also, if different pushers are used depending on the height and shape of the product, the number of pushers increases, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost, and the work at the time of manufacturing, assembly, or product replacement is complicated. Become.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a product rack for a vending machine having a pusher capable of stably transporting a beverage in a container having a larger upper portion than a lower portion. To do.

Further, according to the present invention, various kinds of products having different heights or shapes can be stably carried by one type of pusher, so that the cost and manufacturing, assembling,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a product rack of a vending machine that improves work efficiency when replacing products.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a product rack of a vending machine according to the present invention is provided with a movable pusher, and various products including a product whose upper part is larger than its lower part by being pushed by the pusher. In the product rack of the vending machine that moves the product forward, the product contact surface for contacting the product of the pusher has two steps such that the upper product contact surface is rearward of the lower product contact surface. It is characterized by (claim 1).

Further, according to the present invention, the pusher is characterized in that an upper portion thereof can be folded and accommodated in a lower portion thereof, and a height thereof can be changed in two steps (claim 2).

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of a product rack of a vending machine according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the present invention.
Is a vending machine that is As described above, the vending machine illustrated here is a view-type vending machine in which the front door is made transparent so that the product stored in the product storage section and the movement of the product can be visually recognized. In addition, a method is adopted in which the product is carried from the product storage unit to the product outlet without giving a large impact to the product by the product capturing bucket. In addition, the product storage unit includes a frustoconical beverage container 2 in which the above-mentioned beverage such as café au lait and cappuccino is stored, and a lid body 3 which is more bulky outside the beverage container 2. Various types of beverages, such as beverages in a reverse trapezoidal container (reverse trapezoidal product) 1 (see FIG. 6) having a larger upper portion than a lower portion, and canned beverages, PET bottled beverages, and the like are stored.

The main body cabinet 10 is constructed by appropriately combining a plurality of steel plates, and has a rectangular parallelepiped shape with an open front surface. This body cabinet 10
A product rack 20 for storing products in the product storage section 11 of
Are arranged vertically and horizontally. The product storage unit 11 is
This is for accommodating various products while maintaining them at a desired temperature. A heat exchanger (not shown) is disposed below the product storage unit 11, and the products housed in each product rack 20 are driven to a desired cooling temperature by driving the heat exchanger (not shown). Alternatively, the heating temperature can be maintained.

The front surface of the main body cabinet 10 can be moved in the X-axis direction (horizontal direction) and the Y-axis direction (vertical direction) by the operation of the X-axis transfer section 31 and the Y-axis transfer section 32 (see FIG. 3). A product capture bucket 30 is provided. This product capture bucket 30 is used for any product rack 2
It can be moved to the front position of 0 and the rear position of the inner door flapper 12 for taking out the product from the main body cabinet 10 side, and the product can be captured from an arbitrary product rack 20 and the captured product can be moved to the inner door flapper 12. Carry out through.

An inner door 1 is provided at one side edge of the main body cabinet 10.
3 is supported, and inside the inner door 13, the X-axis transport unit 3
1, a Y-axis transport unit 32 and a commodity catching bucket 30 are arranged. The inner door 13 is configured to support a transparent member such as glass with a frame, and the product storage unit 11
Can be seen. The inner door 13 is the product storage unit 11
Large enough to cover the front of the.

The front door 40 is the main body cabinet 1.
It has a size large enough to cover the front opening 0 and is supported by one side edge of the main body cabinet 10. This front door 40 has a transparent lighting plate 4 on its front surface side.
1, a push button numeric keypad (selection button) 42, a bill insertion slot 43, an integrated indicator 44, a coin slot 45, a front door lock 46, a coin return slot 47, a return lever 48, and a product outlet 49 are provided.

On the other hand, on the back side of the front door 40, a coin processing machine 50, a coin collecting box 51, a bill processing machine 52, a main control box 53, and a remote controller 5.
4 are provided.

The push button numeric keypad 42 is a switch for the user to select a purchased product, and a coin slot 45.
Is an opening for a user to insert a coin. The coins inserted through the coin slot 45 are the coin processing machine 5
The denomination is identified at 0, and then the coin collection box 5
It will be housed in 1. The bill insertion slot 43 is an opening for a user to insert a bill. This banknote insertion slot 4
The denomination of the bill inserted through 3 is identified by the bill processor 52. The bill insertion slot 43 also has a function of returning a bill that cannot be identified by the bill processing machine 52. Integrated display 44
Is for displaying various kinds of information to the user such as the amount of money inserted, whether or not it is on sale, and whether or not there is change. The coin return port 47 is an opening for returning to the user a coin that cannot be identified by the coin processing machine 50 or a coin that is change. The product take-out port 49 is an opening for the user to receive the product paid out through the product catch bucket 30 and the inner door flapper 12. The main control box 53 is a box containing a control board (not shown) that performs various controls of the vending machine.

FIG. 3 shows an X-axis transport section 31 and a Y-axis transport section 32.
2 shows the configuration of the commodity capturing bucket 30.
In this case, the product catching bucket 30 is located so as to face a set of product racks 20 having two product transport paths arranged in parallel.

The mechanism shown in FIG. 3 employs the same drive system as the XY table. That is, although detailed description is omitted, the X-axis transport unit 31 has a mechanism for moving the product catching bucket 30 in the X-axis direction (horizontal direction), and the Y-axis transport unit 32 includes the X-axis transport unit 31. It has a mechanism for moving in the Y-axis direction (vertical direction).

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the commodity capturing bucket 30. The product catching bucket 30 includes a conveyor roller 60 for taking the product from the product rack 20 into the product catching bucket 30, and a conveyor belt 61 for carrying the product from the product catching bucket 30 to the outside of the inner flapper 12. A conveyor motor 62 for operating the conveyor belt 61, the conveying roller 60 and the connecting gear 63; a connecting gear 63 for transmitting the power of the conveyor motor 62 to the product rack 20 side; Roller belt 64 that transmits to the connecting gear
A pin pusher motor 65 for moving the pin pusher 67 and the connecting gear 63, and a pin pusher motor 65.
Of the Napier screw 66 that converts the rotational movement of the rack into a linear movement, and the operation of the Napier screw 66 causes the gate 26 of the product rack 20 to move.
A pin pusher 67 for pressing a lever 28 (described later) for opening and closing (described later), and a pin pusher 6
Pin pusher protrusion detection sensor 6 for detecting the protrusion state of 7
8, the pin pusher standby detection sensor 69 for detecting the standby state of the pin pusher 67, and the detection of the fact that one product has been unloaded from the product rack 20.
A product detection sensor 70 including a light transmitter and a light receiver for stopping the operation of a pusher 80 (described later) of 0, a bucket flapper 71 for preventing products in the bucket from hitting the inner door 13, and a bucket. It is detected that the product is completely taken in and bucket flapper 7
The bucket flapper sensor 72 detects that the product has been carried out by the movement of 1.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of one set of product racks 20. As described above, the pair of product racks 20 is provided with the two product transport paths arranged side by side, and the products are individually transported on the respective product transport paths. The following two pusher moving mechanisms are separately provided on the two product transport paths.

The product rack 20 has a side plate 21 for restricting the lateral movement (X-axis direction) of the product, a base 22 on which the product is placed, and a rack body having a rear plate 23. . The front side of the rack body is opened so that products can be carried out.

An opening extending from the front side to the vicinity of the rear plate 23 is formed in the center of the base 22 in the left-right direction, and an endless portion for moving the pusher 80 in the front-rear direction is formed in this opening. A rack belt 24 is arranged. The rack belt 24 is wound around a driving roller (not shown) connected to the rack gear 25 and a driven roller (not shown) provided near the rear plate 23.

The rack gear 25 is a gear that receives power by being connected to the connecting gear 63 provided in the above-described product catching bucket 30. Further, the pusher 80 and the rack belt 24 are connected and fixed via an appropriate connecting mechanism. That is, in this case, no drive source is provided on the product rack 20 side, and the power of the conveyor motor 62 of the product capture bucket 30 is supplied to the connection gear 63, the rack gear 25,
The pusher 80 is moved forward by transmitting it to the pusher 80 via the rack belt 24.

A gate 26 for restricting the forward movement of the product is provided in front of each product transport path. Gate 2
6 is connected to a lever 28 that moves in the front-rear direction via an appropriate movement / rotation conversion mechanism 27. This lever 2
8 is the pin pusher 6 of the product catching bucket 30 described above.
When the pin pusher 67 is released from the pressing force of the pin pusher 67, the pin pusher 67 returns to its original position by a spring or the like.
The gate 26 is opened each time one product is unloaded from the product rack 20 (state of the left transport path), and closed when the product transport is completed (state of the right transport path).

Further, a stopper 29 is provided in front of each product conveying path. The stopper 29 is for restricting the product from falling down in front of the rack when the product is filled in the rack, and is released when the rack is completely stored in the vending machine. Regulation of this stopper 29,
The cancellation is performed by the product filler.

Next, the pusher 8 which is the main part of the present invention.
0 will be described. The pusher 80 pushes the product from the rear to move the product forward, so
It is a projection that is projected upward from and is connected and fixed to the rack belt 24 as described above. The pusher 80 is made of a resin material.

On both sides of the lower portion of the pusher 80, U-shaped guide portions 81 having guide grooves for guiding the pusher 80 along the base 22 are formed. In the pusher 80, the product contact surface that contacts the product has a step 2
It has a column structure. That is, the product contact surface is not a flat surface as in the conventional case, but the upper product contact surface 82 is in a two-stage configuration so as to be rearward of the lower product contact surface 83.
The upper product contact surface 82 and the lower product contact surface 83 are connected by an inclined connecting plate 84.

According to the pusher 80 having such a two-step product contact surface, as shown in FIG. 6, a beverage in a container having a larger upper portion than the lower portion, such as the inverted trapezoidal beverage 1 in a container, is pressed. When carrying, the beverage 1 in the inverted trapezoidal container and the pusher 80 are brought into contact with each other at a total of two points, one point on the lower product contact surface 83 and one point on the upper product contact surface 82. The beverage 1 in such a container can be stably transported.

Although the connecting plate 84 is an inclined surface in this case, the upper product contact surface 82 and the lower product contact surface 8 are connected.
It is also possible to connect these surfaces 82 and 83 with a plate that is perpendicular to 3.

Next, an outline of the operation of the automatic vending machine at the time of selling products will be described. Coin insertion slot 45 depending on the user
Alternatively, when money is inserted into the bill insertion slot 43 and a product is selected by the push-button numeric keypad 42, the product capturing bucket 30 is operated by the operations of the X-axis transport unit 31 and the Y-axis transport unit 32, and the product selected by the user. Moves to the position in front of the product rack in which is stored and stops. Then, the conveyor motor 62 and the pin pusher motor 65 of the product catching bucket 30 are driven. When the pin pusher motor 65 is driven (normal rotation drive), the pin pusher 67 is projected, presses the lever 28 of the product rack, and moves the lever 28 rearward. The movement of the lever 28 is transmitted to the gate 26 via the movement / rotation conversion mechanism 27, whereby the gate 26 is rotated by approximately 90 degrees from the closed state to the open state. As a result, the product can be transferred from the product rack 20 to the product capture bucket 30. The pin pusher motor 65 is stopped when the protrusion of the pin pusher 67 is detected.

Further, the connecting gear 63 is moved by the driving of the pin pusher motor 65 and is connected to the rack gear 25 of the product rack 20. From this connection, the conveyor motor 6
The power of No. 2 is transmitted to the rack gear 25 via the roller belt 64 and the connecting gear 63, whereby the pusher 80 is moved forward via the rack gear 25 and the rack belt 24. As a result, the products arranged in the front and rear are moved, and the products in the front row are moved from the product rack 20 to the product catch bucket 30.
Transferred to.

The product detection sensor 7 of the product capture bucket 30
0 is turned on, and in response thereto, the conveyor motor 62 is stopped. This enables the pusher 80 of the product rack 20.
Stops. Further, the pin pusher motor 65 is re-driven (reversely driven) to return the pin pusher 67 to the standby position. When the push of the pin pusher 67 is released, the lever 2
The spring 8 returns to its original position by a spring or the like, and the gate 26 also returns to the closed state. In addition, the pin pusher motor 6
By the inversion driving of 5, the connecting gear 63 also moves to the original position, and the connection between the connecting gear 63 and the rack gear 25 is released.

In this way, when the product selected by the user is stored in the product catching bucket 30, the product catching bucket 30 is operated by the X-axis transport unit 31 and the Y-axis transport unit 32 so that the inner door flapper 12 and the product are locked. It is moved to the rear position of the outlet 49. The conveyor motor 62 of the product catching bucket 30 is driven, and the product on the roller belt 64 is discharged to the product removing port 49 via the bucket flapper 71 and the inner door flapper 12. The movement of the bucket flapper 71 is detected by the bucket flapper sensor 72, and the conveyor motor 62 is stopped by this detection.

As described above, in the first embodiment,
Since the product contact surface of the pusher 80 that comes into contact with the product has two steps such that the upper product contact surface 82 is on the rear side of the lower product contact surface 83, the pusher 80 is a product whose upper part is larger than its lower part. At least two points are brought into contact with each other, which makes it possible to stably convey such a product.

In the first embodiment, one set of product racks 20 is provided with two product transport paths.
It is possible to have one product transport path, or further to have three or more product transport paths.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the second embodiment, the upper portion of the pusher 80 can be folded and stored in the lower portion, and the height can be changed in two steps. Also in this pusher 80, similarly to the first embodiment, the product contact surface is the upper product contact surface 82 and the lower product contact surface 83.
It has two stages so that it is on the rear side.

As shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the pusher 80
Is a U-shaped lower portion 86 having a lower product contact surface 83, a pair of lower side plates 85 and a pair of guide portions 81, an upper product contact surface 82, a connecting plate 84 and a pair of upper side plates 87.
And an upper portion 88 having a.

As shown in FIG. 9, a convex portion 91 and a concave portion 92 are formed at the tip ends of the pair of upper side plates 87 so that they can engage with each other when the upper side plates 87 are folded. In addition, a convex portion 93 is formed on the taper portion of each upper side plate 87, and a concave portion 94 is also formed on both side portions of the connecting plate 84. As shown in FIG. At this time, the convex portion 93 and the concave portion 94 are engaged with each other, so that the upper side plate 87 and the coupling plate 84 are coupled and fixed.

As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the pusher 80 has the upper portion 88 raised in the product rack 20 for transporting the product in which the upper part is larger than the lower part like the inverted trapezoidal product 1 described above. State. On the other hand, bottle shape,
In the product rack 20 for transporting products having a relatively stable shape such as a cylindrical shape and a rectangular parallelepiped shape, as shown in FIG. 9, the pusher 80 includes an upper product contact surface 82 and a connecting plate 84.
Is folded and housed in the inner space of the lower portion 86, and both upper side plates 87 are folded to form an upper plate of the lower portion 86.

When the pusher 80 is folded, the height of the pusher 80 becomes low, so that the product rack 20 can be stored in a larger number of stages and the product contact surface becomes one, so that the inverted trapezoidal shape is obtained. It is possible to eliminate an unnecessary upper portion 88 when a product other than the product, such as a PET bottle shape, a cylindrical shape, or a rectangular parallelepiped shape, is transported.

Further, in the second embodiment, since the pusher 80 can be formed by one resin part, the number of parts can be increased as compared with the case where the pusher having a variable height is formed by adding a special part attachment. Can be reduced, manufacturing cost can be reduced, and manufacturing and assembling efficiency can be improved. Also, pusher 8 with one type of mold
0 can be processed.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, since the upper portion of the pusher 80 can be folded and stored in the lower portion and the height can be changed in two steps, various products having different heights or shapes can be manufactured. It is possible to stably carry the sheet with one type of pusher, and it is possible to improve the cost and work efficiency during manufacturing and assembly.

[0046]

As described above, according to the product rack of the automatic vending machine according to the first aspect, the product contact surface of the pusher that contacts the product is the product contact surface of the upper part is the product contact surface of the lower part. Since it has two steps so as to be on the rear side of the surface, the upper part of the lower part comes into contact with the large product at least at two points, which makes it possible to stably convey the product.

Further, according to the commodity rack of the vending machine according to claim 2, since the upper portion of the pusher can be folded and stored in the lower portion and the height can be changed in two steps, the height or the shape can be changed. It is possible to stably convey various products of different types with one pusher, and it is possible to improve the cost aspect and work efficiency at the time of manufacturing and assembling.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an automatic vending machine to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a front door of an automatic vending machine to which the present invention is applied is opened and closed.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a mechanism for moving a product capturing basket.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an internal configuration of a commodity capturing basket.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the product rack according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a contact mode between the pusher and the inverted trapezoidal product in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state before folding of the pusher according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a contact state between a pusher before folding and an inverted trapezoidal product according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a state after folding of the pusher according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Beverage in inverted trapezoidal container (inverted trapezoidal shape product) 2 beverage containers 3 lid 10 Main body cabinet 11 product storage 12 Inner door flapper 13 inner door 20 product racks 21 Side plate 22 base 23 Rear plate 24 rack belt 25 rack gear 26 gates 27 Rotation conversion mechanism 28 lever 29 Stopper 30 product capture buckets 31 X-axis transport section 32 Y-axis transport section 40 front door 41 Lighting board 42 push button numeric keypad 43 banknote insertion slot 44 Integrated display 45 coin slot 46 front door lock 47 coin return slot 48 Return lever 49 Product outlet 50 coin handling machine 51 coin collection box 52 banknote processing machine 53 Main control box 54 remote controller 60 transport rollers 61 conveyor belt 62 Conveyor motor 63 connecting gear 64 roller belt 65 pin pusher motor 67 pin pusher 68 pin pusher protrusion detection sensor 69 pin pusher standby detection sensor 70 Product detection sensor 71 bucket flapper 72 Bucket flapper sensor 80 pushers 81 Information 82 Upper product contact surface 83 Lower product contact surface 84 Connection plate 85 Lower side plate 86 Lower part 87 Upper side plate 88 Upper part 91 convex 92 recess 93 convex 94 recess

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Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A product rack of a vending machine, comprising a movable pusher, wherein various products including a product whose upper portion is larger than a lower portion are moved forward by pressing by the pusher, the product contacting contacting the product of the pusher. A product rack for a vending machine, wherein the surface has two steps such that the upper product contact surface is rearward of the lower product contact surface. 2. The product rack of a vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the pusher has an upper portion that can be folded and stored in a lower portion and has a height that can be changed in two steps.