JP2573341B2 - vending machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] The present invention relates to a vending machine, and more particularly to a vending machine provided with a means for transporting commodities to a commodity outlet provided at a relatively high position.

(Prior Art) In general, in a conventional vending machine, a product storage room is located at a position higher than a product outlet, and products carried out of the product storage room due to a height difference from the product outlet naturally drop or slide down. Is configured to be guided to a product outlet. In addition, the vertical dimension of the product storage room is set large to store as many products as possible, but if the product storage room with a large vertical size is set at a higher position, the height dimension of the vending machine increases. At the same time, it becomes difficult to replenish products. For these reasons, the product outlet has to be set at a relatively low position, so when adults take out the product from the product outlet, they must bend down and it is very difficult to take out. I have.

Therefore, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-201893, after an item taken out of a product storage room is slid off by a shooter, the item is automatically conveyed to an item outlet by using a conveying device. Vending machines have been proposed. According to this configuration, the product storage capacity can be increased without increasing the height dimension of the vending machine unnecessarily, and the product outlet can be set at a high position. The product can be taken out without bending down.

However, such a vending machine requires time for transporting the product to the product outlet by the transport device.
For this reason, when continuously purchasing a plurality of products, every time the product conveyed to the product outlet is taken out, the next product is taken out of the product storage room and transported to the product outlet by the transport device, and all the products to be purchased are obtained. The time required to remove the product will be longer.

In order to solve this problem, for example, an endless conveying belt-type conveying device that can continuously convey a plurality of products may be used. However, when such a transport device is used, particularly in a vending machine in which goods are unloaded from a plurality of outlets onto the transport device, noise may occur because the products may collide within the transport device. It may occur or the product may be damaged.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in a vending machine of a system in which a product is transported to a product outlet set at a relatively high position using a transport device capable of continuously transporting a plurality of products. However, there is a problem in that the products delivered from a plurality of outlets collide with each other during continuous buying.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and is a vending machine that transports a product to a product outlet set at a relatively high position, wherein the vending machine continuously transports a plurality of products. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine that can prevent collision between commodities in an apparatus.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, in the invention according to claim 1, a product storage room for storing a plurality of products, and a product selected from the product storage room. Means for unloading the goods from the lower part of the goods storage chamber, guide means for guiding the goods carried out by this means to one of a plurality of outlets provided below the goods storage chamber, and this means A product transport unit that receives the product guided to the carry-out port and transports the product along a predetermined transport route to an upper product outlet; and a position on the transport route of the product transport device and at the most downstream position with respect to the transport direction. A product presence / absence detecting means for detecting whether or not there is a product at a predetermined downstream position from the carry-out port, and when the product presence / absence detecting means detects a product under a condition that a plurality of the products are continuously selected. To And a control means for performing admission control for the next article carrying-out operation by the article conveying means.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the invention according to claim 2, a product storage room for storing a plurality of products, and a product discharge for discharging a product selected from the product storage room from a lower portion of the product storage room. Means, guide means for guiding the goods carried out by this means to one of a plurality of outlets provided below the product storage chamber, and receiving the goods guided by the means to the carry-out port, and And a plurality of commodity presence / absence detecting means for detecting whether or not there is a commodity near the plurality of exits on the transportation path of the commodity transport means. And when one of the plurality of commodity presence / absence detecting means detects the commodity under the condition that the plurality of commodities are successively selected, the commodity unloading to the exit corresponding to the commodity presence / absence detection means which has detected the commodity. By means And a control means for performing control to temporarily prohibit the items out that.

(Operation) In the continuous buying, after the commodity presence / absence detecting means detects the commodity near the carry-out port at the most downstream position in the carrying direction in the carrying path and on the downstream side in the carrying direction from the carry-out port, the next commodity by the commodity carrying-out means. When the product is unloaded, or when any of the plurality of product presence detecting means detects a product near the plurality of transport ports in the transport path, the product is unloaded to the exit corresponding to the product presence detecting device that detected the product. Is temporarily prohibited, thereby avoiding a collision between commodities in the transport means. As a result, the time required for continuously purchasing a plurality of products can be reduced without generating noise or damaging the products.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention is described with reference to drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an essential part of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view. 1 and 2, a product storage room 2 for stacking and storing a plurality of products (for example, canned beverages and the like) is arranged in a main body 1 of the vending machine, and below the product storage room 2 is disposed. A product unloading device 3 is provided for dropping the products selected by the customer one by one from the bottom one by one and carrying them out. A shooter 5 is disposed below the product unloading device 3 as guide means for receiving the unloaded product 4 and sliding down the front portion of the main body 1 to guide the product 4. Outlets 6 are formed, and doors 7 for heat insulation are provided at these outlets 6 so as to be openable and closable.

On the front surface inside the main body 1, a product transport device 8 is provided. The product transport device 8 is a first endless transport belt arranged to receive the product 4 guided by pushing the door 7 open from the product storage room 2 via the product unloading device 3, the shooter 5, and the outlet 6. 9 and a motor 10 for driving the belt 9
And a plurality (eight in the example in the figure) of pulleys 12 for guiding the second endless transport belt 11 and the belts 9 and 11, and transports the product 4 to the product outlet 13. The first endless transport belt 9 is a drive side belt driven by a transport motor 10, and a portion for receiving the product 4 is a horizontal portion, and a portion above it is a vertical portion. Second endless transport belt 11
The vertical section of the first endless transport belt 9 is in contact with the vertical section, the horizontal section is a section extending to the product outlet 13 on the vertical section, and the vertical section of the first endless transport belt 9 is The driven side belt is driven by being pressed against the vertical portion. That is, the product 4 of the first endless transport belt 9
Is transported rightward in FIG. 1 by the first endless transport belt 9 by the rotation of the transport motor 11, and then, while being sandwiched between the vertical portions of the first and second endless transport belts 9 and 11, After being conveyed in the direction, it is conveyed to the product outlet 13 on the horizontal portion of the belt 11.

Then, the product at this position is located near the door 7 of the carry-out port 6 at the most downstream position in the carrying direction of the horizontal portion of the first endless carrying belt 9 and at a position downstream from the carry-out port 6 in the carrying direction. A first product presence / absence detector (hereinafter, referred to as a first sensor) 21 for detecting the presence / absence of the present invention is provided. In this embodiment, a second product presence / absence detector (hereinafter, referred to as a second sensor) 22 for detecting the presence / absence of a product is also provided in the product exit 13. The first and second sensors 21 and 22 are configured by, for example, a photo interrupter in which a light emitting element such as an infrared LED and a light receiving element such as a photodiode are arranged to face each other.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of the vending machine of the present embodiment. This system is based on a distributed control system, and is mainly composed of a main control box 31, a coin device 32, a terminal control unit 33, and a carry-out / transport control terminal 34 which controls the control according to the present invention, and these are serial data lines. Connected by The main control box 31 incorporates a main control unit (CPU) and a cumulative operation panel (liquid crystal display for information display and a key operation unit). The terminal control unit 33 controls the relay drive unit 35 and various switch lamps 38 for sale provided on the front surface of the main body 1. Relay drive unit 35
Drives a bend mechanism and a fluorescent lamp, drives a cooling / temperature control unit 36 that controls a compressor, a heater, a fan motor, and the like, and drives a total counter 37. Total counter 37
Counts the number sold. The money amount display 39 is controlled by the main control unit, and displays the inserted money amount, the remaining amount, and the like.

The unloading / transporting control terminal 34 includes first and second sensors.
Based on the results of the detections 21 and 22, the control of the product unloading device 3 and the control of the product transport device 8 (particularly, the control of the drive circuit 40 for driving the transport motor 10) are performed.

Next, the operation in the case of continuous buying in the present embodiment will be described in the fourth.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a commodity selection routine performed by the main control unit in the control box 31 in the continuous buying, and FIG. 5 is a commodity unloading / transporting routine also performed by the control from the carry-out / transport control terminal 34 in the continuous buying. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration and operation of the unloading order memory provided in the main control unit of FIG. 3, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an operation state of the product transport device.

First, in the commodity selection routine of FIG. 4, when money is inserted by the customer, it is determined in step S1 whether or not the return switch has been pressed.
After the money input in S2 is returned, the system enters a standby state. When the return switch is not pressed, every time the customer presses the product selection switch, data of the product name selected by the product selection switch is sequentially stored in the carry-out order memory (steps S3 to S4). In the unloading order memory, the product names A, B, and C selected as shown in FIG.
... are written in the order of selection, and at the time of reading, the sixth
As shown in FIG. 3B, the data is read out in the order of writing, and the storage positions of the remaining data are sequentially shifted. Next, in step S5, the price of the product purchased (selected) by the customer is subtracted from the input amount, and the presence or absence of a balance is checked. If there is a balance, the process returns to step S1, and if there is no balance, the product selection routine is in a standby state. Becomes

Next, in the commodity unloading / transporting routine of FIG.
First, the presence or absence of data in the unloading order memory is checked (step S11). If there is data, the data written first among those data is read out as unloading product data, and the product is unloaded and transported. (Steps S12 to S1
3).

At this time, in step S14, when it is detected by the first sensor 21 that the discharged product is transported on the first endless transport belt 9 in the transport device 8,
The process returns to step S11 to prepare for the next product carry-out. In other words, as shown in FIG. 7 (a), while the conveyed product is on the conveyance path of the product conveyance device 8 on the upstream side of the first sensor 21 in the conveyance direction, the next product discharge is prohibited, As shown in FIG. 7B, the next product unloading operation is not performed until the unloaded product passes through the position of the first sensor 21 and the area below the unloading port 6 becomes clean.

In step S11, when there is no more data in the unloading order memory, the process returns to step S15, which is the product selection routine shown in FIG. Here, when the step S15 is in the standby state, if the product is being conveyed, the product unloading device 8 is not stopped. The presence / absence of a product in the product outlet 13 is detected by the second sensor 22, and the number of products detected by the sensor 22 is counted. The count value indicates the number of products selected by the customer, that is, the product. Unloading device 3
If the number matches the number carried out, the product transport device 8 is stopped and enters a standby state (steps S16 to S17).

As described above, in the present embodiment, after the first sensor 21 detects that the product discharged from the carry-out port 6 onto the first endless transport belt 9 in the product transport device 8 has disappeared, the next product unloading operation is performed. Therefore, a situation in which a plurality of products collide with each other in the product conveying device 8, particularly on the first endless conveying belt 9, can be avoided.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a vending machine according to another embodiment, which is different from the previous embodiment in that a plurality of first sensors are provided like 21a, 21b and 21c.

In the previous embodiment, as described above, the first sensor 21 is provided further downstream than the carry-out port at the most downstream position in the carrying direction, and the first sensor 21 is provided on the horizontal portion of the first endless carrying belt 9 based on the detection result of this sensor 21. Although the next product is carried out after the product has run out, even if a plurality of products are on the belt 9, it is important that the products do not collide with each other. , The product transport amount per unit time increases. Therefore, when goods are successively unloaded from the same exit, the removal of the next product is prohibited until the previously unloaded products are transported from immediately below the exit, and if there are multiple exits, each transport is prohibited. It is necessary to prevent the product delivered from the exit from colliding with the product already on the first endless transport belt 9.

For this purpose, it is expected that the first sensors 21a, 21b, and 21c will collide on the belt 9 when the next product is carried out when the sensor detects a product, particularly near the carry-out port. And the next product is carried out when the sensor does not detect the product. In this case, the first sensors do not need to be provided near all the product outlets, and the number thereof may be one less than the number of the outlets. This is because the product exiting from the outlet on the most upstream side in the transport direction does not need to be detected because it does not directly collide with the product exiting from another exit. In this embodiment, there are four systems of the product carrying-out device 3, and substantially four carrying-out ports 6 are provided (however, the rightmost carrying-out port in FIG. 8 is 2).
(This corresponds to the number of product unloading devices), three first sensors are provided like 21a to 21c.

FIG. 9 shows a commodity unloading / transporting routine in the present embodiment, and the processing contents of steps S11 to S17 are the same as those in FIG. In this embodiment, after the data is read from the unloading order memory in Step S12, Step S2
At 1, it is determined whether or not products are continuously unloaded from the same unloading port. If the product is not continuously unloaded from the same exit, the process immediately proceeds to step S14.
When the products are continuously unloaded from the same unloading port, the products discharged from the product unloading device 3 in step S22 are the first products.
After waiting for a certain time required to reach the endless transport belt 9, the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, it is determined whether any of the first sensors 21a, 21b, 21c has detected a product, and if it is determined that the product has been detected, step S14 is performed.
In S13, the next product discharge / transport is performed. Then, the process returns to step S11, and the presence or absence of data in the unloading order memory is checked.

According to the present embodiment, for example, as shown in FIG. 10 (a), when the product is in front of the first sensor 21a at the most downstream position in the transport direction, the product from the carry-out port immediately downstream therefrom is provided. Is temporarily prohibited, and as shown in FIG. 4B, the product is carried out immediately before the product has passed in front of the sensor 21a. At this time, the product is still in front of the carry-out port, but before the product is carried out and falls through the shooter 5, the product is conveyed from the front of the carry-out port to the downstream side in the carrying direction, so that no collision occurs.

In this embodiment, the order in which a plurality of products are carried out is as follows.
The order is changed according to the order selected by the customer with the product selection switch 14, but the order is changed in the product transport device 8 and the product exit
May come out of 13. In order to avoid such inconvenience, the order of unloading the products from each product unloading device 3 may be modified in consideration of the position of the unloading port.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, in a vending machine in which goods are continuously conveyed to a commodity outlet provided at a relatively high position by a goods conveying means, a plurality of commodities are provided. In addition to shortening the time required for continuous purchase of products, it is possible to avoid collision between products, and it is possible to prevent noise and damage to products.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the vending machine of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a vending machine of the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of a commodity selection routine in the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of a commodity carry-out and conveyance routine in the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration and operation of the unloading order memory provided in the main control unit of FIG. 3, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the operating state of the product unloading device and the product transporting device in the same product embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a vending machine according to another embodiment, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a flow of a product unloading / conveying routine in the embodiment, and FIG. 10 is a product unloading device and a product in the embodiment. Check the operation status of the transfer device It is to figure. 1 ... vending machine main body, 2 ... product storage room, 3 ... product unloading device, 4 ... product, 5 ... shooter (guide means),
6 ... product exit, 7 ... door, 8 ... product transfer device, 9,
11 endless conveyance belt, 10 conveyance motor, 13 product exit, 21 and 21a to 21c first product presence detector, 22
... second product presence / absence detector, 34 ... unload / transport control terminal (control means).

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masato Tago 8 Shinsugita-cho, Isogo-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Home Appliances Research Laboratory, Toshiba Yokohama Office Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-57-152093 ) JP-A-63-201893 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A product storage room for storing a plurality of products, a product discharge means for discharging a product selected from the product storage room from a lower part of the product storage room, and a product discharged by the means for the product Guide means for guiding any one of a plurality of carry-out ports provided below the storage chamber, and goods for receiving the goods guided to the carry-out ports by these means and conveying the goods to a commodity take-out port above the product through a predetermined conveyance path. Conveyance means, on the conveyance path of the commodity conveyance means, and a commodity presence / absence detection means for detecting whether or not there is a commodity at a predetermined position downstream from the carry-out port located at the most downstream with respect to the conveyance direction, Control means for performing permission control of the next product unloading operation by the product unloading means when the plurality of products are continuously selected and the product presence / absence detecting means detects the product. Vending machine, characterized in that. 2. A commodity storage room for accommodating a plurality of commodities, a commodity discharge means for carrying out a commodity selected from the commodity storage chamber from a lower portion of the commodity storage chamber, and a commodity carried out by this means for the commodity Guide means for guiding any one of a plurality of carry-out ports provided below the storage chamber, and goods for receiving the goods guided to the carry-out ports by these means and conveying the goods to a commodity take-out port above the product through a predetermined conveyance path. Transport means; a plurality of commodity presence / absence detecting means for detecting whether or not there is a commodity near the plurality of carry-out ports on a transport path of the commodity transport means; When one of the plurality of product presence detecting units detects a product, control is performed to temporarily prohibit product delivery by the product delivery unit to the exit corresponding to the product presence detecting unit that has detected the product. Vending machine, characterized by comprising; and a control means.