JP2009201566A - Ball putout device and game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a ball putout device including an alignment roller to be driven, the device being capable of smooth alignment in a height direction without reducing the flow rate of balls. <P>SOLUTION: In the alignment part 13 of the height direction for receiving balls flowing down in two stages and aligning them into balls of one stage in a ball path aligned for each column, the alignment roller 17 to be driven immediately before a second alignment guide 18 is disposed at a position where the shortest distance of a vertical line from the outer peripheral surface of the alignment roller 17 onto the surface of an alignment path 13A is equal to or more than the height of the balls of a first two-stage stacked ball array for which three balls are stacked in two stages in the state of being in contact with each other and a triangle formed by connecting the centers of the three balls is an equilateral triangle, and is less than the height of the balls of a second two-stage stacked ball array for which two balls are arranged vertically. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a ball payout device and a game machine used for paying out winning balls and paying out balls for pachinko gaming machines, and more specifically, by aligning a large number of stacked balls at a short distance and smoothly flowing down and The present invention relates to a ball dispensing apparatus and a gaming machine that perform dispensing.

  In general, pachinko machines use pachinko balls (hereinafter referred to as balls) as game media to supply balls from the back side of the pachinko machine to the front side of the pachinko machine. When supplying this ball, a storage tank (premium ball tank) that stores a large number of balls is installed at the upper back of the pachinko machine, and the ball is supplied to the storage tank from the upper supply mechanism and stored. More accumulated balls are paid out as prize balls or rental balls. When this ball is paid out, it is led to the lower ball paying device (winning ball processing device) through the ball aligning passage for aligning the balls from the storage tank, and the number of balls instructed to be paid out is paid out. Dispensing to the upper or lower plate located in

  In this way, the balls supplied from the upstream storage tank are led to the downstream ball dispensing device via the ball alignment passage, but the passage between them smoothly rolls downstream without clogging the balls. It has a relatively gentle slope. And since the ball dispensing device dispenses the aligned balls one by one, the alignment passage serves to align a large number of randomly loaded balls stored in the storage tank into a single row of balls. have. In particular, for the alignment in the height direction in which two balls arranged in each row are further arranged into one ball, as shown in Patent Documents 1 to 3 below, a driving roller (Patent Document 1). A roller driving system is employed in which the rotating shaft 8 described in 1), the eccentric roller 16 described in Patent Document 2, and the crushing roller 19) described in Patent Document 3 are arranged.

  As shown in Patent Documents 1 and 2 above, the distance from the position of the driving roller (rotating shaft 8) to the position of the prize ball device 5 that feeds balls one by one, or the position of the driving roller (eccentric roller 16) When the distance from the wheel to the position of the counting wheel 4 can be long, it is possible to wait and supply balls that follow the speed to be paid out and that are more than the quantity to be paid out in an aligned state of one row and one row that can be paid out. It was possible.

  However, in recent years, along with the variety of gaming machines, it is required to reduce the size of the ball dispensing device and increase the ball dispensing speed. For example, there is a device that is miniaturized by shortening the distance from the position of the roller to be driven (ball crushing roller 19) to the position to the sprocket 26, such as a ball dispensing device shown in Patent Document 3. However, the device in which the distance from the position of the driving roller to the position of the sprocket 26 is shortened as in this device can narrow the area between the driving roller and the sprocket 26 and can follow the number of balls to be paid out. It is necessary to secure and supply the number of balls.

  Furthermore, as a method for further downsizing such an apparatus, the two-row ball supply structure may be changed to a single-row ball supply structure. More supply is needed.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-42466 No. 5-10847 JP 2004-283199 A

  Here, in order to align in the height direction, the flow of the second-stage ball is inhibited as disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Documents 1 to 3 (a triangle in which a triangle is formed by connecting the centers of the three balls) In the arrangement of the roller to be driven so that the flow of the ball in the state is not allowed), the ball downstream of the roller becomes one stage and the flow rate is reduced, which may be an adverse effect of increasing the dispensing speed. In particular, as the distance between the driving roller (ball crushing roller 19) and the sprocket 26 as shown in Patent Document 3 becomes shorter, the influence becomes larger and the speeding up becomes more difficult.

  The present invention pays attention to the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a ball dispensing device and a gaming machine provided with an alignment roller that can smoothly dispense balls without reducing the flow rate of balls.

  The ball dispensing apparatus according to the present invention that achieves the above object includes a storage tank for storing a large number of game balls, an alignment unit for aligning and flowing down the game balls stored in the storage tank, and the alignment unit. In a ball dispensing apparatus comprising a ball dispensing part that is arranged in the same inclination direction with a ball dispensing part that dispenses a predetermined number of game balls arranged in a row at a line, it flows down in two stages on the alignment passage in the alignment part This is a ball passage restriction mechanism that breaks down the overlapping of the balls and aligns them into a single-tiered ball, accepting the flow of balls in a two-tiered ball arrangement and gradually limiting the height to the height of the first-tiered ball An alignment roller that rotates and is driven immediately before the alignment guide, and the three balls contact the shortest distance of the perpendicular from the outer peripheral surface of the alignment roller to the surface of the alignment path. In a stacked state, and connect the centers of the three balls Placed at a position that is equal to or higher than the ball height of the first two-tiered ball arrangement in which the triangle is a regular triangle and less than the height of the second two-tiered ball arrangement in which two balls are arranged vertically. A ball passage restriction mechanism is provided.

  In the ball dispensing device, the inclination of the ball passage from the middle of the ball dispensing unit to the sprocket that is provided downstream of the ball dispensing unit and feeds balls downward one by one is from the upstream of the ball dispensing unit. The slope is steeper than the slope of the ball passage to the middle stream.

In the ball dispensing apparatus, the drive motor of the alignment roller drive source is shared with the drive motor of the sprocket drive source.
In the ball dispensing apparatus, the shortest distance is 20.5 mm ≦ shortest distance <22 mm.
A gaming machine according to the present invention that achieves the above object includes the above-described ball dispensing device.

  According to the above configuration, the ball and the roller do not come into contact with each other during normal ball flow, and the flow of the ball is allowed in a triangular state in which a triangle is formed by connecting the centers of the three balls. The ball can be supplied to the ball dispensing unit in a stable triangular state without decreasing. In addition, in the state where two balls are arranged vertically, which becomes a cause of clogging in the aligning portion that aligns in the height direction, when the balls flow down, the second stage ball comes into contact with the alignment roller, and the triangular state is restricted. Thus, the ball can be guided to the ball dispensing unit in a stable triangular state.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a view showing an upper part on the back side of the board surface of a pachinko gaming machine equipped with a ball dispensing device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the ball dispensing device of the pachinko gaming machine shown in FIG.
The pachinko gaming machine shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 configured by connecting a storage unit (not shown) to a dispensing unit in the same inclination direction at the upper part on the back side of the board surface of the gaming table 11A. A substrate unit 40 having a large image display device, a control unit, and the like is disposed in the center of the back side of the panel. Furthermore, a replenishment chute (not shown) is provided above the tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 facing the upper surface opening 12A, and the tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 is replenished with balls through the replenishing chute. . Also, a payout passage 30 is connected below the tank-integrated ball payout device 11, and the balls are paid out through the payout passage 30 to a tray (not shown) located in the lower front portion of the game table 11A.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 has a compact unit configuration in which the alignment unit 13 and the ball dispensing unit 14 are integrated in the same inclination direction from the storage tank 12. As shown in FIG. 2, the storage tank 12 in the tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 has a box shape with the upper surface opened, and balls are replenished from a replenishment mechanism (not shown) above the upper surface opening portion. Here, a large number of balls are allowed to be stored. The balls stored in the storage tank 12 are configured to roll by their own weight and lead from the upstream side to the ball dispensing unit 14 on the downstream side through the alignment passage 13A of the alignment unit 13.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the ball passage according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a top view showing the ball passage according to the present invention. 4 shows a state in which the top plate 15 shown in FIG. 3 is removed.
The tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 has an alignment portion 13 formed in front of the ball dispensing portion 14 in order to smoothly pass balls from the upstream side to the downstream side. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the alignment portion 13 has a configuration in which an elongated alignment passage 13 </ b> A protrudes from the distal end portion of the storage tank 12.

  By the way, the same inclined passage 14A that is gently inclined in the same inclination direction is provided from the tank bottom surface in the upstream storage tank 12 to the bottom surface for discharging the balls of the downstream ball discharging unit 14. This same inclined passage 14A is connected by setting the bottom surface of each passage through which balls pass in the order of the storage tank 12, the alignment portion 13 and the ball dispensing portion 14 to a gentle inclination angle with respect to the same inclination direction. It is a passage. For this reason, the ball rolls gently from the upstream side to the downstream side by its own weight.

  In this case, if the inclination angle formed by the alignment passage 13A of the alignment portion 13 and the same inclination passage 14A of the ball dispensing portion 14 is small, the rolling speed of the balls becomes slow, and the supply of balls to the downstream side tends to be delayed. On the other hand, if this inclination angle is large, the load due to gravity on the balls flowing down tends to become excessive, so it is suitable to roll at a gentle inclination angle of, for example, about 5 to 8 degrees. . For this reason, the balls that roll here flow stably with less speed difference.

  Since the same inclined passage 14A is a passage that goes straight diagonally downward, it extends longer in the width (lateral) direction than in the height (vertical) direction. For this reason, the occupied area of a height direction is few, and it becomes a channel | path which shortened the length of the height direction.

  The above-described storage tank 12 is configured to roll a large number of stored balls by its own weight and guide it to the downstream side, and the throttle part 20 that narrows the width direction of the passage side surface gradually narrows toward the downstream side. Is provided.

  On the other hand, a top plate 15 is provided in the upper part on the downstream side of the storage tank 12 as shown in FIG. The top plate 15 faces from above in the storage tank 12 and receives the upper layer portion of the ball that overlaps and moves, and prevents the flow of the upper layer portion of the ball in a piled state. For this reason, only the balls of the lower layer can be made to flow down, and thereafter, the number of balls can be sufficiently reduced and supplied to the downstream side. Thereby, the ball pressure to the downstream side can be reduced, and a smooth flow suitable for supplying balls from the storage tank 12 to the alignment unit 13 side can be secured.

  Further, a first alignment guide 16 is provided at the upper part of the alignment portion 13 to align the ball flow flowing down from the storage tank 12 in a three-stage stacked state into a ball flow flowing down in a two-stage stacked state. . The alignment roller 17, the second alignment guide 18, and the sprocket 19 shown in FIG. 3 will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a ball passage restriction mechanism according to the present invention.
The ball passage restriction mechanism is composed of an alignment roller 17 and a second alignment guide 18 provided in the upper part of the passage. For the balls that flow down in a two-tiered state with the first alignment guide 16 described above, FIG. The balls are arranged in the upstream of the sprocket 19 so that the balls in the two-stage stacked ball arrangement as shown in FIG. This two-stage stacked ball arrangement will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The alignment roller 17 is preferably arranged at a position where the shortest distance from the outer peripheral surface of the alignment roller 13A to the alignment passage 13A is 20.6 mm so as to allow the balls of the two-stage stacked ball arrangement to pass. It is configured to be rotatable in the reverse direction. The arrangement of the alignment roller 17 will be described later.

  The second alignment guide 18 has a guide surface 18A corresponding to the passage surface so as to be able to receive the balls of the two-stage stacked ball arrangement in which the upstream portion has flowed down and so that the balls become one step as it flows down. Is formed.

  A sprocket 19 for delivering balls one by one is provided downstream of the ball passage restriction mechanism. Next, the arrangement of the alignment roller 17 will be described.

  As described above, the alignment roller 17 has a distance between the outer peripheral surface of the alignment roller 17 and the passage surface (the shortest distance of the perpendicular from the outer peripheral surface to the passage surface of the alignment passage 13A) in order to pass the balls of the two-tiered ball arrangement. Is set to a predetermined dimension. The predetermined dimensions will be described below with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing three typical states of the two-tiered ball arrangement according to the present invention and the distance from the passage to the top of the two-tiered ball arrangement in each state. It is a figure which shows a stable state, (B) is a figure which shows an unstable state, (C) is a figure which shows the most unstable state where two balls arranged vertically.

  The two-tiered ball arrangement shown in FIG. 6A is a ball arrangement in which the three balls are in two-tiered state in contact with each other, and the balls flow down in the most stable state. In this two-tiered ball arrangement, the triangle connecting the centers of the three balls is an equilateral triangle.

  6B, the equilateral triangle shown in FIG. 6A collapses, and the top and rear balls maintain contact with each other. The upper ball is the lower ball. This is a ball arrangement in which the balls flow down in an unstable state where there is no contact with the rear ball of the lower stage while maintaining contact with the ball.

  The two-tiered ball arrangement shown in FIG. 6C is a ball arrangement in which the balls flow down in the most unstable state in which two upper balls are arranged vertically directly above the lower balls.

  When these ball arrangements are shown in specific dimensions, the distance h from the passage of the two-tiered ball arrangement to the top is h = 20.5 mm in the example shown in FIG. 6A, and FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 6, 20.5 mm <h <22 mm, and in the example shown in FIG. 6C, h = 22 mm.

  In this embodiment, since the arrangement position of the alignment roller 17 is set so that the shortest distance is h = 20.6 mm, the ball arrangement in the state of (A) passes, and the arrangement of (B) and (C) In the case of the ball arrangement in the state, the upper balls contact the alignment roller 17 and are aligned in the state (A), pass under the alignment roller 17 and flow down to the ball dispensing unit 14.

  In the present embodiment, the arrangement position of the alignment roller 17 is set so that the shortest distance is h = 20.6 mm. However, since the ball arrangement shown in FIG. What is necessary is just to set the arrangement position of the alignment roller so that h is 20.5 mm ≦ h <22 mm.

  In this way, the alignment roller 17 restricts the balls of the two-tiered ball arrangement, so that the balls waiting on the upstream side of the sprocket 19, that is, the balls guided to the ball discharging unit 14, are waiting areas of the ball discharging unit 14, that is, alignment. The flow of balls flowing down to the sprocket 19 is stabilized by waiting as much as possible between the passage 13A and the guide surface 18A.

  As described above, there is a possibility that the teeth as the feeding portion of the sprocket 19 may be vacant by constantly maintaining the ball flow state in the ball dispensing unit 14 or clogged due to the poor biting of the balls flowing down by the teeth of the sprocket 19. The ball can be dispensed stably. In other words, even when the distance from the alignment unit 13 to the sprocket 19 is shortened, stable ball delivery can be performed.

  As described above, in view of the function of the ball passage restriction mechanism, the arrangement roller 17 may be arranged in such a manner that the balls in the two-tiered arrangement shown in FIG. That is, the shortest distance h of the perpendicular from the outer periphery of the alignment roller 17 to the surface of the alignment passage 13A may be set to 20.5 mm or more and less than 22 mm.

  In this embodiment, in order to pass the balls in a two-tiered arrangement shown in FIG. 6A in which the ball state is stable, and in consideration of variations in component accuracy, etc., suitable alignment The roller 17 is arranged at a position where the shortest distance h is 20.6 mm.

  FIG. 7 is a drive system diagram of the ball passage restriction mechanism shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the alignment roller 17 is connected by a belt 55 to a shaft 54 connected via a gear 52, 53 to a shaft 51 of a motor (not shown) which is a driving source, and is driven by driving of the motor. . On the other hand, the sprocket 19 is connected to the shaft 54 via gears 53 and 56 and is also driven by driving of a motor.

Next, a ball dispensing process operation in the tank-integrated ball dispensing apparatus 11 will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the tank-integrated ball dispensing device 11 is installed on the upper back side of the pachinko game machine 11 </ b> A, and the storage tank 12 is replenished with a large number of balls by a replenishment mechanism (not shown). The The replenished balls roll on the passage surface in the storage tank 12, reach the ball dispensing unit 14 through the alignment unit 13, the top ball stops at the sprocket 19, and the ball dispensing unit 14 waits for dispensing. Stored. From this standby state, when a ball payout signal is input from a main control unit (not shown) that controls the entire pachinko gaming machine shown in FIG. 1 and a drive motor (not shown) is driven, the drive is based on this drive. Thus, the sprocket 19 of the ball dispensing unit 14 rotates, and the balls are individually sent one by one continuously. Under the control of the rotational drive / stop of the sprocket 19, a predetermined number of balls is dispensed.

  The dispensed balls are dispensed through the dispensing passage 30 to the upper plate or the lower plate on the front side of the pachinko machine. The balls following the dispensed balls roll from the high position on the upstream side of the same inclined passage to the low position on the downstream side due to the weight of the balls, and are sequentially guided to the alignment unit 13 and the ball dispensing unit 14. The ball stops and enters the standby state again.

  When paying out, on the downstream side of the storage tank 12, the top plate 15 receives the upper layer balls in the storage tank 12, restricts the flow of the upper layer portion, and only the lower layer balls are received. Pass through and reach a maximum of 3 stacks. Further, when the balls flow down and pass through the first alignment guide 16, they are flowed and aligned as balls stacked in two stages.

  On the other hand, the balls flow in a random state at the throttle unit 20 after being narrowed down to a passage width equivalent to one ball, and reach the alignment unit 13. In the aligning unit 13, a plurality of balls in one row are aligned into a single ball and flow down to the ball dispensing unit 14.

Next, the operation of the ball limiting mechanism of the tank-integrated ball dispensing device of the present invention will be described.
When a predetermined number of balls are paid out from a state where the balls are waiting at the ball paying portion 14, the flow of the balls stacked in two stages by the first alignment guide 16 is separated from the passage surface 13A by a predetermined shortest distance h. It passes under the alignment roller 17 installed at the position.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when balls in a two-tiered arrangement flow down, it is an ideal state, and the height of the balls at this time is 20.5 mm shown in FIG. Since the shortest distance h (= 20.6 mm) from the outer peripheral surface of the aligning roller 17 to the surface of the aligning passage 13A is smaller, it passes without touching the outer peripheral surface of the aligning roller 17, flows into the ball dispensing unit 14, and densely. The ball will be waiting in a state of caution.

  Therefore, when the sprocket 19 is driven and the ball is dispensed, there is less possibility that the ball will be skipped, or the ball will be clogged due to the bite of the egg accompanying the skipping of the ball.

  There are various ways of flowing the balls, and not only the ideal flow as described above but also the movement shown in FIGS. The operation of the alignment roller 17 in this case will be described.

  When the sprocket 19 is driven and a predetermined number of balls are paid out, the balls stored in the upstream flow down sequentially.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which one ball rolls on the first stage. When the ball has flowed vigorously from the storage tank 12 to the ball dispensing unit 14, the leading ball comes into contact with the sprocket 19 and the ball flow stops. At this time, as shown in FIG. 8, one ball rolls and is placed on the first-stage ball, and the second-stage ball abuts against the alignment roller 17 and is restricted to become a two-stacked ball. Has been flowing down.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example in which a plurality of balls flow and roll on the first step ball. Also in this case, the leading second stage ball comes into contact with the alignment roller 17 and flows down while being regulated so as to be a two-stage stacked array.

It is a figure which shows the board surface back side upper part of the pachinko game machine provided with the ball dispensing apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a ball dispensing device of the pachinko gaming machine shown in FIG. 1. It is a ball passage sectional view concerning the present invention. It is a top view which shows the ball | bowl channel | path which concerns on this invention. It is sectional drawing which shows the ball | bowl passage restriction mechanism which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the distance from the path | route of the two-stage stacked ball arrangement | sequence in each state to the top in three typical states of the 2-stage stacked ball arrangement | sequence which concerns on this invention, and (A) is a stable state. (B) is a figure which shows an unstable state, (C) is a figure which shows the most unstable state in which two balls were arranged vertically. It is a drive system figure of the ball passage restriction mechanism shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example which one ball rolls on the 1st step | paragraph. It is a figure which shows the example which a several ball | bowl flows and rolls on the ball | bowl of the 1st step | line.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Tank integrated type ball delivery apparatus 11A Game stand 12 Storage tank 12A Upper opening part 13 Alignment part 13A Alignment passage 14 Ball delivery part 14A Same inclination passage 15 Top plate 16 1st alignment guide 17 Alignment roller 18 2nd alignment guide 18A Guide surface 19 Sprocket 20 Restriction part 30 Discharge passage 40 Substrate part

Claims (5)

A storage tank for storing a large number of game balls, an alignment unit for aligning and flowing down game balls stored in the storage tank, and a game ball aligned in a row by the alignment unit are defined. In a ball dispensing device that is configured by continuously connecting a ball dispensing unit that dispenses the same number in the same inclination direction,
A ball passage restriction mechanism that breaks the overlap of balls that have flowed down in two stages on the alignment passage in the alignment section and aligns them into a single-stage ball, and accepts the flow of balls in a two-stage stacked ball arrangement. An alignment guide that gradually restricts the height to the height of the ball of the alignment roller, and the alignment roller that is rotationally driven immediately before the alignment guide is perpendicular to the surface of the alignment passage from the outer peripheral surface of the alignment roller. The height of the balls of the first two-tiered ball arrangement in which the shortest distance is two-tiered with three balls in contact with each other, and the triangle connecting the centers of the three balls is an equilateral triangle. A ball dispensing device comprising a ball passage restriction mechanism arranged at a position that is less than the height of the ball of the second two-tiered ball arrangement in which two balls are arranged vertically.   The inclination of the ball passage between the middle stream of the ball dispensing unit and the sprocket that is provided downstream of the ball dispensing unit and feeds the balls one by one downward is the ball between the upstream of the ball dispensing unit and the middle stream. The ball dispensing device according to claim 1, wherein the ball dispensing device is steeper than the inclination of the passage.   The ball dispensing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a driving motor of a driving source of the alignment roller is shared with a driving motor of a driving source of the sprocket. The shortest distance is 20.5 mm ≦ shortest distance <22 mm.
The ball dispensing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   A gaming machine comprising the ball dispensing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

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