JP2008226051A - Vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vending machine capable of cooling merchandise stored in a merchandise storage container satisfactorily without enlarging the machine chamber of a vending machine body. <P>SOLUTION: The vending machine for cooling internal air of the merchandise storage container 5 provided to a body cabinet 1 to cool the stored merchandise is provided with: a circulation chamber 22 provided to the machine chamber 18 to be outside the merchandise storage container 5 to communicate with the merchandise storage container 5 through a cool air inlet duct 23 and a cool air supply duct 24, respectively; a cool air fan 34 for sucking the internal air of the merchandise storage container 5 into the circulation chamber 22 through the cool air inlet duct 23 and supplying the air sucked into the circulation chamber 22 through the cool air supply duct 24 to the merchandise storage container 5 to thereby circulate the internal air between the inside and the outside of the merchandise storage container 5; and evaporators 35a and 35b provided to the cool air inlet duct 23 and the cool air supply duct 24 to cool the internal air that passes through by evaporating a supplied refrigerant. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement of a vending machine that cools the internal air of a product storage box disposed in a vending machine body to cool the product stored in the product storage box.

  Conventionally, as an automatic vending machine that cools the air stored in the product storage unit disposed in the main body cabinet, which is the main body of the vending machine, the product stored in the product storage unit is In this case, a cooling room is provided in the machine room outside the commodity storage.

  The cooling unit is configured by connecting a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator with piping, and circulates the refrigerant sealed inside. The compressor compresses the supplied refrigerant. The condenser condenses the supplied refrigerant, that is, the refrigerant compressed by the compressor. The expansion valve adiabatically expands the supplied refrigerant, that is, the refrigerant condensed in the condenser. The evaporator evaporates the supplied refrigerant, that is, the refrigerant adiabatically expanded by the expansion valve, and supplies the evaporated refrigerant to the compressor.

  The evaporator constituting such a cooling unit is provided in a heat exchange chamber that is provided in the machine room and communicates with the interior of the commodity storage. As a result of circulating the internal air of the product storage between the product storage and the heat exchange chamber, the refrigerant exchanged by the evaporator is evaporated in the heat exchange chamber to cool the internal air passing therethrough. The product stored in the product storage is cooled by cooling the internal air of the storage (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2005-291523 A

  However, the vending machine as described above has the following problems because the evaporator is disposed inside the heat exchange chamber provided in the machine room outside the commodity storage. In order to cool the product well by cooling the internal air of the product container, the evaporator needs to have a certain size, and thus the heat exchange chamber also needs to have a certain size. As a result of the fact that the heat exchange chamber is required to have a certain size, it is necessary to enlarge the machine room sufficiently, which may lead to an increase in the size of the vending machine or the size of the product storage. There is.

  An object of this invention is to provide the vending machine which can cool the goods accommodated in the goods storage container favorably, without enlarging the machine room of a vending machine main body.

  In order to achieve the above object, a vending machine according to claim 1 of the present invention cools the internal air of a product storage provided in the main body of the vending machine, and stores the product stored in the product storage. In the vending machine that cools the inside of the vending machine, the vending machine is disposed in a machine room outside the commodity storage, and communicates with the commodity storage through each of a suction duct and a supply duct. The internal air of the product storage is sucked into the circulation chamber through the circulation chamber and the suction duct, and the internal air is stored in the product storage by supplying the air sucked into the circulation chamber through the supply duct to the product storage. Circulation means for circulating between the inside and the outside of the warehouse, and the inside that is disposed in at least one of the suction duct and the supply duct and passes by evaporating the supplied refrigerant Characterized in that a cooling means for cooling the air.

  The vending machine according to claim 2 of the present invention is the vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the cooling means compresses the supplied refrigerant, and the condenser condenses the refrigerant compressed by the compressor. And a cooling unit for circulating the refrigerant together with an expansion mechanism for adiabatically expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser, evaporating the refrigerant adiabatically expanded by the expansion mechanism, and supplying the evaporated refrigerant to the compressor It is characterized by.

  The vending machine according to claim 3 of the present invention is the vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cooling means is disposed from the suction duct to the supply duct via the circulation chamber. It is characterized by being.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the vending machine according to the first or second aspect is characterized in that the cooling means is arranged in the suction duct.

  The vending machine according to claim 5 of the present invention is the vending machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4 described above, wherein the suction duct and the supply duct are inclined so as to gradually become lower toward the circulation chamber. It is characterized by that.

  According to the vending machine of the present invention, the internal air of the product storage is circulated through the suction duct and the supply duct between the product storage and the circulation chamber outside the product storage. The cooling means disposed in at least one of the supply ducts cools the internal air passing by evaporating the supplied refrigerant, so that the space through which the internal air passes can be used effectively and circulated. The size of the chamber can be reduced to the minimum necessary size. Thereby, a machine room provided with this circulation room can be made into a required minimum size. Therefore, the product stored in the product storage can be cooled well without enlarging the machine room of the vending machine main body.

  Exemplary embodiments of a vending machine according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 to 3 schematically show a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view as seen from the front, and FIG. A sectional view taken along line A, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. The vending machine illustrated here includes a main body cabinet 1.

  The main body cabinet 1 is a vending machine main body formed as a rectangular heat-insulating housing whose front surface is open. The main body cabinet 1 is provided with an outer door 2 and an inner door 3 on the front surface thereof, and three independent commodity storages 5a, 5b, 5c (for example) partitioned by two heat insulating partition plates 4 therein. Hereinafter, the product storage 5 is collectively referred to as the left and right as necessary. If it demonstrates in detail, the outer door 2 will be for opening and closing the front opening of the main body cabinet 1, and the inner door 3 will be for opening and closing the front of the commodity storages 5a, 5b and 5c. The merchandise containers 5a, 5b, 5c are for accommodating merchandise such as canned drinks and plastic bottled drinks at a desired temperature.

  The product storage racks 5a, 5b, and 5c are provided with a product storage rack 6, a carry-out mechanism 7, and a product carry-out shooter 8, respectively. The commodity storage rack 6 is for storing commodities in a manner arranged in the vertical direction. The carry-out mechanism 7 is provided at the lower part of the product storage rack 6 and is used to carry out the products at the bottom of the product group stored in the product storage rack 6 one by one. The product carry-out shooter 8 is for guiding the product carried out from the carry-out mechanism 7 to a product outlet (not shown) provided in the outer door 2. The lower part partitioned by the product carry-out shooter 8 is partitioned into two front and rear chambers by a heat insulating partition wall 9, respectively, and a discharge chamber 10 is provided on the front side and a suction chamber 11 is provided on the rear side. Further, a back duct 12 is provided on the back side of the product storage boxes 5a, 5b, 5c. A suction port 12 a is formed in the upper part of the rear duct 12, while a discharge port 12 b communicating with the suction chamber 11 is formed in the lower part.

  A cool air suction port 14 and a cool air discharge port 15 are formed in the heat insulating bottom wall 13 which is the bottom surface of the commodity storage 5a, 5b, 5c. The cool air suction port 14 is an opening provided at a location corresponding to the suction chamber 11 and can be opened and closed by a cool air suction shutter 14a. The cool air discharge port 15 is an opening provided at a location corresponding to the discharge chamber 10, and can be opened and closed by a cool air discharge shutter 15a.

  In addition, among the product storage containers 5a, 5b, and 5c, the leftmost product storage container 5a (hereinafter also referred to as the left product storage container 5a) and the central product storage container 5b (hereinafter referred to as the central product storage). In addition to the cold air suction port 14 and the cold air discharge port 15 described above, a warm air suction port 16 and a warm air discharge port 17 are formed in the heat insulating bottom wall 13 of the storage 5b. The warm air suction port 16 corresponds to the suction chamber 11 and is an opening provided on the front side of the cool air suction port 14, and can be opened and closed by the warm air suction shutter 16a. The warm air discharge port 17 is a portion corresponding to the discharge chamber 10 and is an opening provided on the rear side of the cool air discharge port 15, and can be freely opened and closed by a warm air discharge shutter 17a. Although not clearly shown in the drawing, the rightmost product storage 5c (hereinafter also referred to as the right product storage 5c) is a dedicated storage for cooling, and therefore, the heat insulating bottom wall 13 is sucked with cold air. Only the mouth 14 and the cold air outlet 15 are formed. In this specification, “right side” means the right side when the vending machine is viewed from the front, and “left side” means the left side when the vending machine is viewed from the front. Shall.

  A cooling and heating device 20 is disposed in a machine room 18 that is partitioned by the above-described product storage 5a, 5b, 5c and the heat insulating bottom wall 13 and is located below the product storage 5a, 5b, 5c. The cooling and heating apparatus 20 is provided in a unitized state in a rectangular apparatus main body 20a that is adapted to the machine room 18 and that has an upper surface opened. The apparatus main body 20a is detachable from the main body cabinet 1, and is mounted in the machine room 18 when the cooling / heating apparatus 20 is used. Inside the apparatus main body 20a, a heating chamber 21, a circulation chamber 22, a cold air suction duct 23, a cold air supply duct 24, a warm air suction duct 25, and a warm air supply duct 26 are provided.

  The heating chamber 21 is a chamber that is positioned substantially at the center of the apparatus main body 20a and is partitioned except for the upper part. Inside the heating chamber 21, a compressor 31, a condenser 32, and a warm air blowing fan 33 are provided. Further, openings 21a and 21b are formed on the front and rear surfaces of the heating chamber 21, and the openings 21a and 21b can be opened and closed by shutter mechanisms 211 and 212.

  The circulation chamber 22 is a chamber located on the right side of the heating chamber 21 and partitioned except for the upper side. Inside the circulation chamber 22, as shown in FIG. 3, a cold air blowing fan 34 is provided. In addition, openings 22a and 22b are formed on the bottom surface of the circulation chamber 22 on the front side and the rear side, respectively, and the openings 22a and 22b can be opened and closed by shutter mechanisms 221 and 222, respectively.

  The cold air suction duct 23 is located above the heating chamber 21 and the circulation chamber 22 and extends in the left-right direction of the vending machine. The cold air suction duct 23 communicates with the circulation chamber 22. Further, the bottom surface of the cold air suction duct 23 is inclined in such a manner that it gradually decreases from left to right, that is, toward the circulation chamber 22.

  The cold air supply duct 24 is located above the heating chamber 21 and the circulation chamber 22 separately from the cold air suction duct 23, and extends in the left-right direction of the vending machine in front of the cold air suction duct 23. The cold air supply duct 24 communicates with the circulation chamber 22. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the bottom surface of the cold air supply duct 24 is inclined in such a manner that it gradually decreases from left to right, that is, toward the circulation chamber 22.

  The warm air suction duct 25 is located above the heating chamber 21 and extends in the left-right direction of the vending machine on the front side of the cold air suction duct 23 and on the rear side of the cold air supply duct 24. The warm air suction duct 25 communicates with the heating chamber 21.

  The warm air supply duct 26 is located on the upper side of the heating chamber 21 separately from the warm air suction duct 25, and in the left-right direction of the vending machine on the front side of the warm air suction duct 25 and on the rear side of the cool air supply duct 24. It is extended. The warm air supply duct 26 communicates with the heating chamber 21.

  In such a cooling and heating apparatus 20, the cool air suction duct 23 is at the cool air suction port 14, the cool air supply duct 24 is at the cool air discharge port 15, the warm air suction duct 25 is at the warm air suction port 16, and the warm air supply duct 26 is at the warm air discharge port. The apparatus main body 20a is installed in the machine room 18 in such a manner that it communicates with the machine chamber 17 respectively. Thus, the heating chamber 21 communicates with the product storage 5a, 5b (the left product storage 5a and the central product storage 5b) through the warm air suction duct 25 and the warm air supply duct 26, respectively, and the circulation chamber 22 has a cold air suction. The product storages 5a, 5b, and 5c communicate with each other through the duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24, respectively.

  The cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24 are provided with evaporators 35a and 35b, respectively. These evaporators 35 a and 35 b constitute a cooling unit 30 that circulates the refrigerant together with the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 disposed in the heating chamber 21. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram conceptually showing the cooling unit, and the cooling unit 30 will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

  The cooling unit 30 exemplified here includes a compressor 31, a condenser 32, an expansion valve 36, and two evaporators 35a and 35b. In the cooling unit 30, carbon dioxide is used as the refrigerant, which has non-flammability, safety, and non-corrosion properties, and has little influence on the ozone layer.

  The compressor 31 compresses the refrigerant (carbon dioxide) from each of the evaporators 35a and 35b to bring it into a high temperature and high pressure state. The compressor 31 in the present embodiment is a two-stage compressor that performs a compression operation in two steps. More specifically, the compressor 31 includes a first compressor 31a that performs a first (first) compression operation and a second compressor 31b that performs a second (last) compression operation. An intermediate heat exchanger 31c is provided between them. The intermediate heat exchanger 31c condenses the refrigerant compressed by the first compression operation by the first compressor 31a and returns the refrigerant to the second compressor 31b.

  The condenser 32 condenses the refrigerant compressed into a high temperature and high pressure state by the compressor 31 to liquefy the refrigerant. As the refrigerant condenses, the air passing around the condenser 32 is heated and heated. The expansion valve 36 adiabatically expands the refrigerant condensed by the condenser 32, that is, adjusts the refrigerant to a low temperature and low pressure state by reducing the pressure. When carbon dioxide is used as the refrigerant, the refrigerant becomes supercritical when the temperature exceeds 31 ° C. In such a case, the condenser 32 functions as a so-called gas cooler.

  The evaporators 35a and 35b are connected to respective paths branched in two from the expansion valve 36, while the paths on the evaporation outlet side are gathered together and connected to the first compressor 31a of the compressor 31. It is. The evaporators 35a and 35b evaporate the refrigerant adiabatically expanded to a low temperature and low pressure state by the expansion valve 36. As the refrigerant evaporates, the air passing around the evaporators 35a and 35b is deprived of heat and cooled.

  In such a cooling unit 30, when the refrigerant circulates, the condenser 32 acts as a heating means for heating the air passing through the surroundings, and the evaporators 35a and 35b act as a cooling means for cooling the air passing through the surroundings. .

  In the vending machine having the above configuration, the internal air of the commodity storage 5 can be cooled as follows. Here, the case where the internal air of all the goods storage 5 is cooled is demonstrated. Thus, when cooling the internal air of all the product storage boxes 5, the warm air suction port 16 is closed by the warm air suction shutter 16a and the warm air discharge port 17 is closed by the warm air discharge shutter 17a. It is assumed that the cold air inlet 14 and the cold air outlet 15 are both opened. As a result, the heating chamber 21 is disconnected from the commodity storage 5, while the circulation chamber 22 is in communication with the commodity storage 5. The heating chamber 21 has both the front opening 21a and the rear opening 21b opened by opening the shutter mechanisms 211 and 212. The circulation chamber 22 has openings 22a and 22b provided on the bottom surface by the shutter mechanisms 221 and 222. Are both closed.

  The warm air blowing fan 33 and the cold air blowing fan 34 are driven. By driving the warm air blowing fan 33, the outside air taken in from the rear opening 21b passes around the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 and is heated when passing around the condenser 32, and then the front opening 21a. To the outside.

  On the other hand, by driving the cool air blowing fan 34, the internal air of the product storage case 5 reaches the rear duct 12 from the suction port 12a, and the internal air that has passed through the rear duct 12 enters the suction chamber 11 through the discharge port 12b. It reaches. The internal air that has reached the suction chamber 11 enters the cool air suction duct 23 from the open cool air suction port 14, passes through the cool air suction duct 23, and then reaches the circulation chamber 22. The internal air that has reached the circulation chamber 22 enters the cold air supply duct 24, passes through the cold air supply duct 24, reaches the discharge chamber 10 through the cold air discharge port 15, and then passes through the interior of the commodity storage 5. That is, the cold air blowing fan 34 sucks the internal air of the product storage 5 into the circulation chamber 22 through the cold air suction duct 23, and supplies the internal air sucked into the circulation chamber 22 through the cold air supply duct 24 to the product storage 5. Thus, a circulating means for circulating the internal air between the inside and the outside of the commodity storage 5 is configured.

  Since the evaporators 35 a and 35 b are provided in the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24, the internal air passing through the cold air suction duct 23 is cooled by the evaporator 35 a and reaches the circulation chamber 22. The internal air that enters the cold air supply duct 24 from the circulation chamber 22 and passes through the cold air supply duct 24 is cooled by the evaporator 35 b and then passes through the inside of the commodity storage 5. By repeating the circulation of the internal air between the product storage 5 and the circulation chamber 22 in this way, the product stored in the product storage 5 is cooled to a desired temperature state. Become.

  As described above, according to the vending machine according to the embodiment of the present invention, the commodity storage 5 is provided between the commodity storage 5 and the circulation chamber 22 through the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24. Since the internal air is circulated and the internal air passing through the evaporators 35a and 35b disposed in the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24 is cooled, the space through which the internal air passes should be used effectively. Therefore, the size of the circulation chamber 22 can be minimized. Thereby, the size of the cooling and heating device 20 (device main body 20a) including the circulation chamber 22 can be reduced. Therefore, the goods accommodated in the goods storage 5 can be satisfactorily cooled without increasing the machine room 18 of the main body cabinet 1.

  Further, since the bottom surfaces of the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24 are inclined so as to gradually become lower toward the circulation chamber 22, evaporation disposed in the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24 respectively. Drain water such as condensed water generated from the vessels 35 a and 35 b can be concentrated in the circulation chamber 22.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various modifications can be made. That is, in the above-described embodiment, the two evaporators 35a and 35b are disposed in both the cold air suction duct 23 and the cold air supply duct 24. However, in the present invention, one evaporator is provided only in the cold air suction duct. You may make it arrange | position, and you may make it arrange | position one evaporator ranging from a cold air suction duct to a cold air supply duct via a circulation chamber. Even with such a configuration, the size of the circulation chamber can be reduced to the minimum necessary size, and the same effect as the embodiment can be obtained.

  As described above, the present invention is useful for cooling the internal air of a product storage provided in the vending machine main body and cooling the product stored in the product storage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is the sectional view seen from the front, showing typically the vending machine in the embodiment of the present invention. It is the sectional view on the AA line of FIG. It is the BB sectional view taken on the line of FIG. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the cooling unit conceptually.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body cabinet 5 (5a, 5b, 5c) Goods storage 20 Cooling heating device 21 Heating chamber 22 Circulating chamber 23 Cold air suction duct 24 Cold air supply duct 30 Cooling unit 31 Compressor 32 Condenser 34 Cold air blowing fan 35a, 35b Evaporator 36 Expansion valve

Claims (5)

In the vending machine which cools the internal air of the product storage disposed in the vending machine main body and cools the product stored in the product storage,
A circulation chamber disposed in the machine room inside the vending machine main body and outside the product storage, and connected to the product storage through each of a suction duct and a supply duct,
The internal air of the product storage is sucked into the circulation chamber through the suction duct, and the air sucked into the circulation chamber through the supply duct is supplied to the product storage, so that the internal air is supplied to the inside and outside of the product storage. Circulation means for circulating between and
A vending machine comprising: cooling means disposed in at least one of the suction duct and the supply duct, and cooling internal air passing therethrough by evaporating the supplied refrigerant.   The cooling means includes a compressor for compressing the supplied refrigerant, a condenser for condensing the refrigerant compressed by the compressor, and a cooling unit for circulating the refrigerant together with an expansion mechanism for adiabatically expanding the refrigerant condensed by the condenser. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerant adiabatically expanded by the expansion mechanism is evaporated and the evaporated refrigerant is supplied to the compressor.   The vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cooling means is disposed from the suction duct to the supply duct via the circulation chamber.   The vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the cooling means is disposed in the suction duct.   The vending machine according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the suction duct and the supply duct are inclined in such a manner that bottom surfaces gradually become lower toward the circulation chamber.

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