JP2023000049A - Tile vertical inverting mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve the problem that a game cannot be started rapidly since a vertical direction of display of allotment tiles, especially that of hand tiles are not aligned.SOLUTION: A tile vertical inverting mechanism includes: a suction conveyance part for sticking and sucking up tiles stirred by a tile-washing part for washing tiles used for a game thrown down from an upper surface of a casing, maintaining the suction state, and conveying the tiles at a constant speed; tile vertical direction detection means that is provided in the middle of a conveyance path in the suction conveyance part and detects a vertical direction of tiles under conveyance; and a vertical inverting mechanism that is provided in the middle of a downstream conveyance path in the tile vertical direction detection means and inverts a downward tile horizontally in an upper direction on the basis of the tile vertical direction detection means.EFFECT: A vertical direction of a pile of tiles and hand tiles can be aligned rapidly and reliably and a configuration can be simplified, thus preventing a configuration for inverting a vertical direction within a casing from occupying a larger space.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tile upside down mechanism for aligning tiles dealt upside down before the start of the next game.

For example, Patent Literature 1 and the like describe an automatic mahjong table that saves the trouble of the player by aligning the pile of tiles and the dealt tiles before the start of the next game. In the configuration of Patent Document 1, a top plate having a tile insertion slot with an openable lid for inserting mahjong tiles into the inside of the mahjong table below the top plate is provided on the upper surface, and the inserted tiles are stirred inside the mahjong table. a tile stirring means for taking out the stirred tiles from the tile stirring means; a tile guiding means for guiding the taken out tiles from the tile taking out means; It comprises a means, a reloading means for reloading stacked tile rows into two-tier stacking and one-tier stacking, and a tile floating means for raising the restacked tile rows onto a top plate.

In addition, Patent Document 1 and the like disclose that a magnet is provided at an intermediate position between the display surface on which the tile type is drawn and the back surface inside the tile used in the automatic mahjong table with the above configuration (when using a magnetic metal piece, It is said that the tiles are moved to the back side), and the magnetic properties of the tiles are used to align the front side and the back side of all the tiles in the tile pile and the dealt tiles.

However, in Patent Document 1, for example, the back side can be aligned with the upper side, but the vertical direction of the dealt tiles is not matched, and the dealt tiles are placed at hand when the next game starts. However, since the top and bottom of the tile type display are not aligned, it takes time for some players to align the top and bottom, which hinders prompt start of play.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-24804

The problem to be solved is that the top and bottom of the display of the dealt tiles, especially the tiles in hand are not aligned, so that the play cannot be started quickly.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an automatic mah-jong table in which the tiles for play are washed in the housing under the top board where the game is played, and the tiles are arranged in the tile pile and the tiles in the hand in the same vertical direction. A tile up-and-down inverting mechanism that picks up tiles stirred by a tile washing unit that washes the tiles used in the previous game dropped from the upper surface of the housing, sucks them up, maintains the sucked state, and conveys the tiles at a constant speed. a tile up-and-down detection means provided in the middle of the transfer path of the wick-up and transfer part for detecting whether the tile being conveyed is up or down; and an up-and-down reversing section provided in the middle of the conveying path downstream of the means for horizontally reversing downward tiles upward.

In the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention, the tiles are sucked up from the tile washing section by the wicking and conveying section, and are conveyed at a constant speed to the hand tile forming section. As for the tiles that are detected as facing down based on this detection, the tiles facing down are horizontally flipped upward by the up-and-down inverting section without slowing down the transfer speed of the wicking and conveying section. To shorten the time for arranging the dealt tiles and the tiles in hand which are aligned in the vertical direction after they are thrown into the tile part, and to prevent the size of the mechanism from becoming large in terms of horizontal reversal.

1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of an automatic mah-jongg table equipped with a tile upside down mechanism of the present invention; FIG. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1(a) is a perspective view and FIG. 1(b) is a view in the direction of arrow A of FIG. (a) to (d) are diagrams showing tiles used in an automatic mahjong table equipped with the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention. (a) to (c) are diagrams for explaining how tiles are conveyed from the tile washing section in the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention. (a) to (c) are diagrams for explaining how tiles are transported from a vertical turnover section in the tile vertical turnover mechanism of the present invention. (a) to (d) are diagrams for explaining the tile up/down detection state of the tile up/down detection means in the tile up/down inverting mechanism of the present invention. (a) to (d) are diagrams for explaining how tiles are flipped upside down by the upside down portion of the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention. (a) to (c) are diagrams for explaining the state of tile formation by the tile formation unit in the automatic mah-jongg table equipped with the tile upside-down mechanism of the present invention.

The present invention solves the problem that a game cannot be started quickly because the top and bottom of the display of dealt tiles are not aligned. a sucking and conveying unit that sucks up the tiles that have been picked up and conveys them at a constant speed while maintaining the sucked state; The problem is solved by a configuration having an up-down detection means and an up-down reversing section for horizontally inverting downward tiles upward, which is provided in the middle of the conveying route downstream of the tile up-down detection means based on the tile up-down detection means. I'm doing it.

With recent sensor (detection means) technology, it is possible to detect the top and bottom of a tile during high-speed transport. However, even if the upside and downside of the tiles can be detected, in order to flip the tiles upside down without slowing down the transfer speed and without changing the transfer route, another route must be used within the limited housing. In addition, since the wicking and conveying portion and the tiles that are being conveyed maintain a suction state, it is difficult to release this and reverse the tiles.

Therefore, in the present invention, by horizontally inverting the upside down of the tile with the suction portion of the tile as the axis, the sucking and conveying portion and the tile being conveyed remain in a state of being sucked and fixed. It is now possible to align the orientation of the tiles upwards or downwards without stopping the tiles that are being driven and transported on the transport path at high speed.

Further, in the above configuration, the present invention is configured such that each tile is embedded with a magnetic material having a polarity inside, and the sucking and conveying section has a magnetic material with a polarity that attracts the magnetic material of the tiles. may be

According to the above configuration, the tiles sucked up to the wicking and conveying part are drawn up on the front side (the type of tile is drawn) due to the characteristics of the mutual attraction of the magnetic material embedded in the wicking and conveying part and the magnetic material embedded in the tile. face) or back (opposite side of the side on which the tile type is drawn).

In other words, only the tiles that have the desired front and back sides in the tile washing section are sucked up by the sucking and conveying section. Since no electronic element or sensor is used, it is possible to simplify the device, control and circuit configuration and reduce the cost.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above configuration, the upside-down reversing portion protrudes from a direction orthogonal to the conveying path in the conveying path of the sucking conveying portion that is conveyed at a constant speed, and corresponds to a part of the front surface of the tile in the conveying direction. A configuration in which they are in contact with each other may be adopted. For example, if the tile is gripped and flipped horizontally, the transport speed may decrease, and if the tile is flipped horizontally by applying an impact to the side of the tile, the impact applied to the center position of the tile in the front-back direction may cause the tile to move. may derail from the transport route.

Therefore, as in the above configuration, the tile is brought into contact with a portion of the front surface of the tile being conveyed while maintaining the sucked state, and is horizontally reversed around the sucked position. You can turn it upside down.

Examples of the present invention will be described below. The tile upside down mechanism of the present invention uses two sets of tiles, one set is placed on the upper surface of the tabletop for the current game, and the other is housed in the housing 2 after the previous game, The so-called automatic mah-jongg table 1 which is prepared for the next game by washing the tiles in the housing 2 and arranging them on the pile of tiles and the hand tiles has the following configuration. In the following description, members that are not directly related to the tile upside-down mechanism of the present invention, or members that are existing structures and do not require special explanation, will not be illustrated and will not be given reference numerals. and

First, the mah-jongg tiles P (hereinafter referred to as tiles P) used in the automatic mah-jongg table 1 in this example will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, all the tiles P used in the game are described with the side on which the tile type is drawn as the "display surface" and the opposite side as the "back surface". In this example, the magnetic A so-called permanent magnet M (denoted as a magnet M) is embedded.

In this example, the magnet M on the tile P has, for example, the N pole on the display surface. (N pole of magnet M) are attracted to each other. Further, in the case of this example, when the reverse side of the tiles P stirred in the tile washing section 3 is the upper side, the tiles P repel the magnet M of the sucking and conveying section 4 in the case of this example.

The automatic mah-jongg table 1 is a rectangular square in plan view, and one player is positioned on each side to play the game, and a top plate (not shown) on which the game is played is arranged on the upper surface. In the center of the top plate, there is a display section for use as, for example, a parent display. ing. In addition, the top board has a pile of tiles aligned in the housing 2 and a tile opening/closing part for placing the tiles in hand on the top board by rising up on the outer peripheral part extending from the center part to each side. It is provided on the top board at a position conforming to the game rules of mahjong.

Inside the housing 2, there is a tile washing section 3, and a magnetic material having a polarity that is attracted to the magnet M of the tiles P in order to suck up and transport the tiles stirred by the tile washing section. A (permanent) magnet M is housed so that the S pole faces the outer peripheral surface, and is driven at a constant speed. Based on the tile up/down detecting means, an up/down reversing section 7 is provided in the middle of the conveying route downstream of the tile up/down detecting means for horizontally reversing the downward tiles of the tiles upwards, and further the up/down reversing section 7 of the conveying route. It has a tile pile formation section 8 and a hand tile formation section 9 provided further downstream. The tile upside down mechanism of the present invention mainly includes the tile P sucking and conveying unit 4, the tile upside down detection means, and the upside down inverting unit 7 among the above-described components.

As described above, the tile washing section 3 receives the tiles P dropped from the top plate by the umbrella-shaped rotating plate, and stirs the tiles P by the rotation of the rotating plate, and distributes the tiles P to the outer periphery of each side in the housing 2. The tiles P are moved to the sucking and conveying unit 4 provided.

The siphoning and conveying unit 4 has siphoning drums 4A provided at equal angular intervals of approximately 90 degrees on the outer periphery of the rotating plate of the tile washing unit 3 corresponding to approximately the center of the length of each side of the housing 2, In a direction orthogonal to the drum width (conveyance surface width) of the suction drum 4A and toward each edge of the housing 2, the transfer drum 4B is aligned with the suction drum 4A via the mounting portion 4C in a straight line. are arranged and configured.

The sucking and conveying portion 4 pivotally supports a sucking drum 4A and a conveying drum 4B sandwiched between a substrate 2A on the side facing the tile washing portion 3 and a substrate 2B on the opposite side. The substrate 2B guides the tiles P sucked up by the suction drum 4A so that they are conveyed while adjusting their postures in the vertical direction. Further, the substrate 2B is wider than the conveying surface width across the suction drum 4A (on the side of the tile washing unit 3 from the substrate 2B) by a width that allows horizontal reversal of the tiles by the vertical reversing unit 7, which will be described later, while being conveyed by the conveying drum 4B. A widened portion is formed at the upper end to pivotally support the conveying drum 4B.

In this example, the substrate 2B has a function of guiding the tiles P so as not to deviate from the transport path of the suction drum 4A and the transport drum 4B, and also prevents the tiles P sucked up from the tile washing section 3 by the suction drum 4A, for example. It also has the function of correcting the up-down direction of the tile P and the conveying direction in the case where the tiles P are not properly picked up in alignment or parallel and are picked up in a deviated state.

The suction drum 4A and the conveying drum 4B are columnar with a height (thickness) slightly narrower than the width direction perpendicular to the vertical direction of the tile P. A long side 4a having a length in the up-down direction and a short side 4b having a side approximately half the length of the long side are alternately connected to form a dodecagon. Further, the suction drum 4A and the conveying drum 4B have the magnets M embedded in their long side portions 4a so that the S pole faces the outer periphery as described above.

The reason why the short side portions 4b of the suction drum 4A and the conveying drum 4B are present is that if the long side portions 4a are continuous, the tiles P interfere with each other due to the thickness of the tiles P, causing the tiles P to overflow or not to be attracted. This is to prevent the tile P from being sucked up and transported. By alternately providing the long side portions 4a and the short side portions 4b, the tiles P can be efficiently successively sucked up and transported, and there is no need to increase the diameter of the substrate 2 unnecessarily.

The sucking drum 4A and the conveying drum 4B rotate at a constant speed with their shafts synchronized with each other. The tiles P are picked up by the transporting drum 4B from the placing portion 4C and transported to the upside-down reversing portion 7, the tile pile forming portion 8, and the hand tile forming portion 9.

The tile vertical detection means is not particularly limited as long as it can determine whether the top of the tile P having the magnet M sucked up from the suction drum 4A is in the transport direction or the bottom is in the transport direction. . In this example, the tile verticality detection means is, for example, detected by a magnet detection sensor 5 and a tile detection sensor 6 provided on the side of the substrate 2B at a position where the tiles P sucked up from the tile washing section 3 in the suction drum 4A are horizontal. Become.

The tile vertical detection means in this example has a magnet detection sensor 5 on the upstream side in the rotation direction of the suction drum 4A, and a tile detection sensor 6 on the downstream side of the magnet detection sensor 5, which is slightly shorter than the length of the tile P in the vertical direction. They are arranged side by side at intervals and, as shown in FIG. 6, detect that the top of the tile P in the vertical direction, in this example, the top of the tile P is not forward in the transport direction.

That is, the tile up/down detection means in this example is, as shown in FIG. In other words, an upward direction is detected only when both the magnet detection sensor 5 and the tile detection sensor 6 are turned ON, and otherwise the downward direction is determined.

In chronological order, as shown in FIG. 6(a), the magnet detection sensor 5 and the tile detection sensor 6 are both turned off, and then, as shown in FIG. 6(b), the magnet detection sensor 5 and the tile detection sensor 6 are turned off. When both are turned ON, an upward direction is detected.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6(c), the magnet detection sensor 5 is ON and the tile detection sensor 6 is OFF, and then, as shown in FIG. 6(d), the magnet detection sensor 5 is OFF and the tile detection sensor 6 is ON. When it becomes, downward detection is performed.

In the explanation using FIG. 6, no OFF signal is generated, and no OFF signal is input to the control unit (not shown). 5. If both the tile detection sensors 6 are ON, it is determined that the tile is facing upward, and if only the magnet detection sensor 5 (only) in FIG. become.

In this example, the tile up/down detection means confirms that only one of the magnet detection sensor 5 and the tile detection sensor 6 is ON before the tile P passes through the tile up/down detection means. Since the downward determination can be performed after the double check, erroneous detection is eliminated, and since it does not depend on the rotational speed of the siphoning drum 4A, the transport speed of the tiles P of the siphoning transport unit 4 can be easily adjusted.

In this example, the tile up/down detection means is arranged such that the magnet detection sensor 5 and the tile detection sensor 6 are arranged in reverse, that is, the tile detection sensor 6 is arranged upstream of the suction drum 4A, and the magnet detection sensor 5 is arranged downstream thereof. You can put it on the side. In this case, up or down is determined by the time from when the passage of the tile P is detected to when the magnet M is detected.

For example, regarding the placement of the magnet M on the tile P in this example, if the time from the detection of the tile to the magnet detection is "outside" for a predetermined time, it is determined that the tile is facing upward, and if it is "within" the predetermined time, it is determined to be facing downward. By doing so, it is also possible to determine the up and down direction of the tile P.

In this example, the vertical reversing section 7 is provided, for example, on the substrate 2B side of the transport drum 4B at a position where the tiles P picked up from the placing section 4C are horizontal. In this example, the vertical reversing section 7 is configured such that the bar protrudes from the substrate 2B side by approximately 1/3 of the width of the transfer path (of the width of the tiles P).

If the amount of protrusion of the vertical reversing section 7 onto the transport path is larger than 1/3 of the width of the tile P, the transport of the tile P may be stopped. There is a possibility that the horizontal flip will not be successful just by changing the posture.

When the tile P facing downward is detected by the tile vertical detection means and a signal to that effect is output from the control section at a predetermined timing, the vertical reversing section 7 protrudes onto the conveying path.

As shown in FIG. 7(a), when the downward facing tile P reaches the horizontal position of the conveying drum 4B (upper periphery when the tile washing section 3 side is located at the lower periphery), FIG. 7(b) is displayed. , the upside-down part 7 protrudes just before it reaches the upside-down part 7, and approximately 1/3 of the tile P in the width direction located on the side of the substrate 2B abuts thereon.

As shown in FIG. 7(c), the tile P is attracted to the transport drum 4B and tries to be transported. The upper side of the tile P rotates around the attracting magnet M as an axis.

As shown in FIG. 7(d), at the timing when the tile P rotates about 90 degrees with respect to the transport direction, the vertical reversing unit 7 moves toward the substrate 2B, and the tile P is transported by the transport drum 4B and abutted as described above. It rotates further with the impact of After that, as shown in FIG. 7(e), the tile P is transported by the transport drum 4B while being inverted upward. Incidentally, when the tile up/down detecting means detects that the tile P is facing upward, the up/down reversing section 7 does not operate.

In this way, the up-down reversing unit 7 uses the moving speed of the tile P being conveyed in the conveying direction and the attraction of the magnets M to each other, so that the front surface of the conveyed tile P in the conveying direction is approximately 1/3 in the width direction. The impact causes the tile P to be horizontally flipped around the magnet M. Therefore, there is no need to provide a large-scale structure in the limited space inside the housing 2, and the transport of the tile P can be stopped. , the top and bottom of the tiles P can be correctly aligned without slowing down.

At a position further downstream than the position where the vertical reversing section 7 of the conveying drum 4B is provided, a tile forming section 8 is provided perpendicular to the conveying direction of the suction conveying section 4 . In order to form a pile of tiles, the pile forming unit 8 includes a pile feeding bar 8a that advances and retreats from the side of the board 2B to the side of the board 2A, and a pile feeding bar 8a, as shown in FIGS. It is composed of a guide mechanism 8b for aligning and arranging the tiles P pushed out in the direction (side) perpendicular to the conveying path by pushing the sides of the tiles P by the bar 8a. In the guide mechanism 8b, after arranging the tiles P by a predetermined number, the bottom surface is lowered by the thickness of the tiles P, and the tiles P are arranged one more row on the row of the tiles P just arranged, and the tiles P are arranged in two rows. After that, based on the control signal for starting the next game, the tiles are raised from the opening/closing portion of the top board.

In order to form a row of tiles, the hand tile formation unit 9 has a tile feed bar 9a that advances and retreats from the board 2B side, and this tile feed bar 9a, as shown in FIGS. and a guide mechanism 9b for aligning and arranging the tiles P pushed out in the direction (side) perpendicular to the transport path by pushing the sides of the tiles P. After arranging a predetermined number of tiles P, the guide mechanism 9b is configured to raise the tiles P from the opening/closing portion of the top board based on a control signal for starting the next game.

In this example, the pile of tiles forming unit 8 is driven until the pile of tiles is formed, and after the pile of tiles is formed, the pile of tiles forming unit 9 is driven to form a pile of tiles. However, it may be driven in the opposite direction.

As described above, the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention saves the player the trouble of aligning the tiles in hand at the start of the game, thereby speeding up the start of the game. In addition, the tile upside down mechanism of the present invention horizontally inverts the tiles P when upside down. Since the speed is not lowered, the alignment of the tiles can be shortened (or the length of the alignment of the tiles can be suppressed).

In the above embodiment, the pile of tiles is also vertically aligned. However, when only the tiles in hand are vertically aligned, the upward or downward detection signal from the tile vertical detection means simply counts the passage of tiles P. Strictly speaking, in this example, three tiles were subtracted from the total number of tiles P in the pile of tiles when the pile of tiles was formed without activating the vertical reversing unit 7 (and the hand tile forming unit 9). When the number is counted, the up/down reversing unit 7 is operated based on the upward or downward detection signal of the tile up/down detection means, the operation of the tile stack forming unit 8 is stopped, and the hand tile forming unit 9 is operated. .

1 (Automatic) Mahjong table 2 Case 3 Washing unit 4 Suction transfer unit 4A Suction drum 4B Transfer drum 5 Magnet detection sensor (tile up/down detection means)
6 Tile detection sensor (Tile up/down detection means)
7 upside down part 8 tile pile formation part 9 hand tile formation part

Claims (3)

A tile upside down mechanism for aligning the vertical direction of the tiles in an automatic mahjong table in which the tiles for play are washed in the housing under the top plate where the game is played, and the tiles are arranged on the tile pile and the tiles in hand, and the tiles are turned upside down on the upper surface of the housing. a siphoning and conveying section that sucks up the tiles stirred by the tile washing section that washes the tiles that have been dropped from the tiles and that have been used in the previous game, sucks them up, and conveys them at a constant speed while maintaining the suction state; A tile up/down detecting means provided in the middle of a conveying route in a department for detecting whether a tile is being conveyed up or down; A tile upside down mechanism comprising a upside down tile flipping unit for horizontally flipping downward tiles upward. 2. A tile upside-down mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each tile has a polar magnetic material embedded therein, and said sucking and conveying unit has a polar magnetic material inside that attracts the tile magnetic material. 3. The up-and-down reversing section projects from a direction orthogonal to the conveying path of the suction conveying section that is conveyed at a constant speed, and is configured to abut against a part of the front surface of the tile in the conveying direction. The described tile upside down mechanism.

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