JP2007299351A - Vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vending machine, surely delivering commodities stored in a warming zone within a warmable period. <P>SOLUTION: The vending machine comprises a plurality of commodity storage chambers defined to an ordinary temperature zone for storing commodities at ordinary temperature and a warming zone for storing commodities by warming, a commodity moving mechanism for moving the commodities in the ordinary temperature zone to the warming zone, a commodity delivering mechanism for delivering the commodities in the warming zone based on sales instructions. The vending machine further comprises a first arithmetic means for determining an actual average sales quantity per day; a second arithmetic means for determining an average sales quantity per day necessary for selling the commodities stored in the warming zone within the warmable days, and a third arithmetic means for comparing the average sales quantity by the first arithmetic means with the average sales quantity by the second arithmetic means and determining a quantity to be moved from the storage zone to the warming zone. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vending machine that has a product storage room that is vertically divided into a normal temperature zone and a heating zone, and that heats and sells products such as beverages stored in the heating zone.

For example, in a vending machine that heats and sells canned beverages, products are generally stored in a product storage room at 52 to 53 ° C., for example. There is. Therefore, as a countermeasure, the product compartment is divided into a normal temperature zone where products are stored at normal temperature, and a sales standby zone (warming zone) where products are heated and stored at an appropriate temperature with a heater. It is considered to reduce the number of products stored in the warmed state as much as possible by sending the products from the normal temperature zone to the sales standby zone (warming zone) according to the sales situation and heating them (for example, patents) Reference 1 and Patent Reference 2).
JP-A-11-66415 JP 2000-57431 A

However, even in the above-mentioned heating product management system, sufficient replenishment management from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone has not been performed, and it is still insufficient, and it is a problem to perform better heating management. It was.
This invention is made | formed in view of the above, Comprising: It aims at providing the vending machine which enables it to carry out reliably the number of accommodation in a heating zone within a warmable period.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a plurality of product storage rooms that are vertically divided into a normal temperature zone for storing products at normal temperature and a warming zone for storing products by heating, The actual average per day in a vending machine provided with a merchandise moving mechanism that moves the merchandise to the warming zone and a merchandise carry-out mechanism that carries the merchandise in the warming zone based on a sales command First calculation means for determining the number of sales, second calculation means and first calculation means for determining the average number of sales per day necessary for selling the products stored in the heating zone within the warmable days And a third calculating means for comparing the average number of sold items and the average number of sold items of the second calculating means to obtain the number of movements from the storage zone to the heating zone. Is performed using the following formula: .
The average number of sales per day of the first calculation means is obtained from the number of sales in the past heating days including the current day and the number of heating elapsed days including the day, and the average number of sales per day of the second calculation means. Is obtained from the actual number stored in the heating zone, the number of movements from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone, and the set number of days that can be heated, and the third calculation means calculates the average number of sales of the second calculation means as the first calculation. The moving number is determined in a range not exceeding the average sales number of the means.

    As described above, the third calculation means obtains the number of movements in a range where the average sales number of the second calculation means does not exceed the average sales number of the first calculation means, and the average of the first calculation means per day The number of sales is obtained from the number of sales in the past warming days including the current day and the number of days of warming including the day, and the average number of sales per day of the second calculating means is the actual number of storage in the heating zone. And the number of movements from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone and the number of days that can be heated, and by finding the transfer book from the normal normal temperature zone to the heating zone by sales, the heating zone is always appropriate The number of stored items can be reduced, and the effect of reducing long-term warmed products can be obtained.

Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a vending machine which is an object of the present invention. In FIG. 4, a vending machine main body 1 is configured with a product storage 2 that can be opened and closed by a front surface (left surface in FIG. 4) surrounded by a heat insulating wall. Product storage chambers 4 meandering up and down by arc-shaped segments 3 are formed in four rows (four columns).
Although not shown in the figure, the inside of the cabinet is generally partitioned into a plurality of rooms arranged side by side through a heat insulating partition so that it can be properly used as a cooling room or a cooling / cold / hot product room. It has become. Each product storage room 4 stores a large number of cylindrical products (can beverage products) 6 that are input from the product input port 5 on the front surface, stacked in a lying position.
Here, each product storage chamber 4 is divided into an upper normal temperature zone 7 and a lower heating zone 8, and the space is partitioned by a heat insulating flapper 9 that is rotatably supported. A known electromagnetic solenoid-type product carry-out mechanism 10 is installed at the lower end of the heating zone 8, and the lowest product 6 in the heating zone 8 is supported by the lower flapper 10a so as not to fall. . In addition, a product moving mechanism 11 having the same configuration as the product carry-out mechanism 10 is installed at the lower end of the normal temperature zone 7, and the lowest product 6 in the normal temperature zone 7 is supported by the lower flapper 11a so as not to fall. ing.

When the merchandise carry-out mechanism 10 or the merchandise moving mechanism 11 is energized to an electromagnetic solenoid (not shown), the lower flapper 10a or the lower flapper 11a moves backward to open and drop the lowest merchandise 6, and the upper flapper (not shown) projects. Support the second product 6 from the bottom. Thereafter, when the electromagnetic solenoid is de-energized, the lower flapper 10a or the lower flapper 11a is projected again by the action of a return spring (not shown), the upper flapper is retracted, and the entire product 6 is lowered. Return to the standby state.
Below the heating zone 8, a shooter 13 for guiding the unloaded goods 6 to the front product outlet 12 is arranged, and inside the heater 14, the cooler 15 and the internal air are circulated to the heating zone 8. A ventilation fan 16 is arranged. A condensing unit (not shown) is installed below this.

The temperature of the circulating cooling / warming air is detected by an internal temperature sensor 17 arranged in front of the fan 16 (suction side). On the other hand, a product temperature sensor 18 that directly detects the lowest product temperature in the heating zone 8 is disposed in the product carry-out mechanism 10.
In addition, a warming zone sold-out switch 19 and a normal temperature zone sold-out switch 20 for detecting the presence or absence of the product 6 in the warming zone 8 and the normal temperature zone 7 are incorporated in the merchandise carry-out mechanism 10 and the merchandise moving mechanism 11, respectively. Thus, the actuators 19 a and 20 a are pushed by the product 6.
The front surface of the vending machine main body 1 is closed with an outer door 21, and a product outlet 12 is provided at the lower part thereof. Although not shown in the figure, the front of the outer door 21 is provided with a well-known product selection switch, a display for displaying the product price, a coin slot, and the like, and in the vicinity of the product selection switch. A sellable lamp for indicating that the product is available for sale and a sold-out lamp that lights up when the product is sold out are provided.

In the vending machine configured as described above, when selling hot products, the products 6 in the heating zone 8 are heated by hot air circulated through the heaters 14 by the fans 16 and sold at an appropriate temperature. stand by. On the other hand, when selling a cold product, the product 6 in the heating zone 8 is cooled by the cool air circulated through the cooler 15 by the fan 16 and waits for sale at an appropriate temperature.
Further, in the normal temperature zone 7 partitioned from the heating zone 8 by the heat insulating flapper 9, the product 6 is stored at substantially normal temperature, and when the number of products in the heating zone 8 decreases due to sales, the product movement mechanism 11 causes the normal temperature zone 7 to be stored. The product 6 in 7 is moved to the heating zone 8. Thereby, the number of products in the warming zone 8 placed in the warmed state is kept to the minimum necessary according to the sales situation, and the alteration of the product 6 is suppressed.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control device of a vending machine. A control program of the CPU 22 that controls the entire vending machine is stored in the ROM 23, and control data, data such as the number of goods stored, the remaining number, the number of supplies, and the like are stored in the RAM 24.
The CPU 22 is connected to an internal temperature sensor 17, a product temperature sensor 18, a heating zone sell-out switch 19, a room temperature zone sell-out switch 20, a product selection switch 25, and a sellable lamp 26 via an input / output interface (not shown). A sold-out lamp 27, a display 28, a keyboard 29 for setting or inputting control data, and a heating zone full switch 30 are connected.
Further, the above-described commodity carry-out mechanism 10, commodity movement mechanism 11, heater 14, cooler 15, and fan 16 are connected to the CPU 22 through a drive circuit 31.

Next, the product warming management of the vending machine will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
First, with regard to the number of items stored and the number of days that can be heated in the present embodiment, heating management will be described as follows.
In FIG. 2, first, a product is stored, heating management is started, and a sales standby state is set (step S1). Next, it is determined whether or not there is a product purchase by the user (step S2, Yes), and when the product is sold, the product carry-out mechanism 10 is driven to carry out the lowest product 6 in the heating zone 8 (step S3). ). Next, the detailed calculation formula will be described later. First, the actual average number of sales per day (A) from the start of the heating management to the present is obtained, and the heating is performed within the heating possible period. The average number of items sold per day (B) necessary for selling the products in the zone is obtained (step S4).

If “A <B” is obtained as a result of this determination (Step S4, No), it is determined that there is a high possibility of long-term heating, and the payout from the normal temperature zone 7 to the heating zone 8 is not performed (Step S4). S6) If “A ≧ B” (step S4, Yes), the relationship of “A ≧ B” is within the range, and the current storage number of the heating zone and the full storage number of the heating zone From the relationship, the number of payouts from the normal temperature zone 7 to the heating zone 8 is calculated (step S5).
Based on the calculated number of payouts, the product delivery mechanism 11 is driven to deliver the product from the normal temperature zone 7 to the heating zone 8 (step S6).
In this way, the heating management to be controlled will be described in detail with respect to the above formula. The actual average number of sales per day (A) is the number of sales in the past number of days that can be heated including the day / 2. It is calculated from the cumulative total (X) and the number of days elapsed since heating (Y days). Note that the warming elapsed days (Y days) is the maximum value: warmable days / 2.

Formula 1: Average number of sales (A) = X / Y days Next, the average number of sales per day (B) required to sell the product is the actual number of remaining heating zones (α ), The number of days that can be heated (β days), and the number of payouts from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone (N).
Calculation formula 2: Average number of sales (B) = (α + N) / β days As described above, the relationship between the average number of sales (A) and (B) obtained by these formulas 1 and 2 is “ If A <B ”, it is determined that the possibility of long-term heating is high, and no payout from the normal temperature zone 7 to the heating zone 8 is performed. However, if“ A ≧ B ”, this relationship is established. Within the range, the number of payouts (N) from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone is calculated.
That is, the payout number (N) is obtained by the following calculation formula.

Calculation formula 3: Number of payouts (N) ≦ (β days / Y days) X-α This payout number (N) is the number of payouts from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone is the theoretical payout number However, the number of payouts is determined in a range where the actual remaining number of warming zones after payout is equal to or less than the number of warming zone full storages.
If the number of payouts (N) is equal to or less than “0”, the product is not paid out from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone.
Therefore, by calculating the number of payouts based on the above formula, the payout from the normal temperature zone to the warming zone will be performed according to sales, and in products with a set number of days that can be heated, Progress management can be performed.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the control apparatus of a vending machine. It is a flowchart which shows the control action of the vending machine which concerns on FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the structure of the vending machine made into the object of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

4 Product storage room 6 Product 7 Room temperature zone 8 Heating zone 10 Product delivery mechanism 11 Product movement mechanism

Claims (4)

A plurality of product storage rooms divided into a normal temperature zone for storing products at normal temperature and a heating zone for storing products by heating, and product movement for moving products in the normal temperature zone to the heating zone In a vending machine comprising a mechanism and a product unloading mechanism for unloading products in the heating zone based on a sales command,
A first calculating means for determining an actual average number of sales per day;
The second calculation means for obtaining the average number of sales per day necessary for selling the products stored in the heating zone within the warmable days, the average number of sales of the first calculation means, and the second calculation means A vending machine comprising a third calculating means for comparing the average number of sales and obtaining the number of movement from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the third calculation means obtains the maximum number of movements in a range where the average sales number of the second calculation means does not exceed the first average sales number. The vending machine according to claim 1 or 2,
The average number of sales per day of the first computing means is obtained from the number of sales in the past heating days including the current day and the number of days elapsed in heating including the day,
The average number of sales per day of the second calculating means is obtained from the actual number of storage in the heating zone, the number of movement from the normal temperature zone to the heating zone, and the number of days that can be heated,
A vending machine characterized in that the moving number is obtained in a range where the average number of sales of the second calculating means does not exceed the first average number of sales. 4. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the moving number is obtained based on a difference between a full storage number in the heating zone and an actual storage number in the heating zone. .

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