JP2640043B2 - Refrigerator equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator which is installed in each guest room of a hotel or the like and which can be remotely controlled from a front desk or the like, and more particularly to a control system for locking and unlocking the door of each refrigerator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in accommodation and rest facilities such as hotels, in order to save the accounting work, a hotel employee patrols each guest room and a refrigerator installed in the guest room. This was managed centrally at the front of the hotel without having to check the contents.

[0003] In such a refrigerator device, since it is necessary to perform centralized control, it is common that the locking operation of the door can be remotely controlled from the front.
9061.

However, in a conventional refrigerator device for remotely controlling the door locking and unlocking of an automatic remote management refrigerator, even if a door locking command is transmitted from an operation unit such as a front, the door locking instruction is not transmitted.
It is not always possible to check whether the locking / unlocking mechanism of the refrigerator is operating normally on the operation unit such as the front. For example, in the "door locking device for automatic remote control refrigerator" described in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. 56-169061 described above, an auxiliary for the purpose of holding the main solenoid and the suction release state of the main solenoid on the outer wall of the refrigerator main body. The locking / unlocking mechanism has a solenoid and a metal part on the door side to be fitted to the cylinder part of the main solenoid. Therefore, when a solenoid or the like, which is a main component of the electromagnetic locking / unlocking mechanism, fails (for example, when a thermal fuse is blown), even if a signal is sent from the operation unit, the signal is sent to the solenoid unit.
This means that the actual locked / unlocked state cannot be confirmed on the operation unit.

[0005] As described above, if the reliability of the locking / unlocking mechanism of the refrigerator door is inadequate, there is a risk that the customer and the hotel may have difficulty in accounting.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a refrigerator apparatus capable of detecting that a refrigerator door is completely locked to a refrigerator body. Things.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a locking means for locking and unlocking a door of a refrigerator with respect to the refrigerator body by an electromagnetic product such as a solenoid and a locking piece integral with a cylinder of the electromagnetic product. A first detecting means for detecting whether or not is in a lockable position by a shutter which is pushed and moved by a locking piece receiver attached to the door, and a locked / unlocked state of the door with the cylinder of the electromagnetic product. A second detecting means for detecting with an integral locking piece, and transmitting information detected by the first and second detecting means to an external device, and controlling locking and unlocking of a door by the locking means. Communication means for receiving a control signal from an external device, and control means for controlling the locking / unlocking operation of the lock means based on the control signal received by the communication means, wherein the first and second detection means, And the locking means Was placed inside the refrigerator housing including a door and the body of the warehouse box, said first and second detecting means constituted by an optical sensor, characterized in that.

[0008]

In the refrigerator of the present invention, the first detection means detects whether or not the refrigerator door is at a lockable position, and transmits the information to an external device via the communication means. Further, when a control signal transmitted from the external device for controlling the locking of the door is received by the communication means, the control means controls the locking of the locking means. In addition, at the same time, the locking / unlocking state information of the door detected by the second detecting means is transmitted via the communicating means.
Send to external device. Further, when a control signal for controlling unlocking of the door transmitted from the external device is received by the communication means,
The control means controls the unlocking of the locking means. That is, the door is unlocked with respect to the refrigerator body. At the same time, the information detected by the detecting means for detecting the locked / unlocked state of the door is transmitted to the external device via the communication means.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a main part of a locking and unlocking mechanism of a refrigerator device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall view of a refrigerator provided with a refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 2, a door (12) is provided with an inverted U-shaped locking piece receiver (1) so as to protrude inside the door, and the door (12) is hinged (13). To open and close the refrigerator body (14) via the. When the door (12) is opened and closed, a frame (11) having a hole (11a) having a margin for the size of the locking receiver (1) is provided on the body (14). 15) Component 1
It is attached as one. In addition, locking piece receiver (1)
A shutter (3) that is opened and closed by insertion of a frame is mounted inside the hole (11a) of the frame (11).

In FIG. 1, the base metal fitting (9) of the apparatus of the present invention is provided on the inner side wall of the main body (14) of the refrigerator.
The opening (9a) is inserted into the hole (11a) of the frame (11).
Is disposed at a position corresponding to the position. Further, a rotatable shutter (3) is attached to the base metal fitting (9) with the shaft (16) as a support shaft. The shutter (3) is not inserted with the locking piece receiver (1). In this state, the shutter (3) receives the spring bias of the spring (8) and contacts the inside of the opening (9a) of the base metal fitting (9). It is in a state where it has been done. Similarly, a rotatable locking piece (2) is attached to the base metal fitting (9), with one end serving as a locking portion (2a) and the other end serving as a shaft. The locking piece (2) is connected to a cylinder (18) of an electromagnetic product (such as a solenoid) (4) via a spring pin (17) passed through the structure (2b) of the locking piece (2). ing. The electromagnetic product (4) is fixed to the base fitting (9) with screws. Further, a hole (2c) of the locking piece (2),
The space between the cut-and-raised pieces (9b) of the base metal fitting (9) is urged by a spring (7). Further, the base metal fitting (9) includes, as means for detecting whether or not the door (12) is at a lockable position, a photo sensor (5) characterized by a non-contact type here, and a locking piece. As means for detecting the position of the cylinder (18) of the electromagnetic product (4) via (2), a photosensor (6) is similarly mounted via a printed circuit board (19).

FIG. 3 shows the refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention before the locking piece receiver (1) is inserted (when the door is open).
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the state of this device.

In this device, when the door is closed, the tongue piece (3a) provided on the shutter (3) in FIG. 3 blocks the light signal at the detection section (5a) of the photosensor (5). Deciding. In addition, the determination of locking and unlocking,
Whether the tongue piece (2d) of the locking piece (2) shown in the figure has blocked the optical signal at the detection unit (6a) of the photosensor (6)
It is determined based on whether or not it is locked.

Next, the operation of opening / closing the refrigerator door and locking / unlocking the refrigerator door of the refrigerator apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
It will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the state of the refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention when the locking piece receiver (1) is inserted (when the door is completely closed).

In this device, when the door (12) is gradually closed from the state shown in FIG. 3 to the state shown in FIG. 4 with the hinge (13) as a fulcrum relative to the body (14),
The tip (1a) of the locking piece receiver (1) is connected to the frame (11).
Hole (11a) and the opening (9) of the base fitting (9).
a), and enters the inside of the main body (14) (in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3) while always in contact with the shutter (3). At this time, the shutter (3) is pushed by the tip (1a) of the locking piece receiver (1), and rotates in the direction of arrow B (FIG. 3) around the shaft (16) against the spring (8). I do. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, when the door is completely closed,
The tongue piece (3a) provided on the shutter (3) blocks an optical signal at the detection section (5a) of the photo sensor (5). Thus, the fact that the door (12) is completely closed can be transmitted to the operation unit such as the front via the communication means.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a locked state in the refrigerator apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In the state shown in FIG. 4 (the state in which the door is completely closed), a lock signal (return) is sent from the operation unit to the electromagnetic product (4).
The cylinder (18) releases the binding force by the electromagnetic force in the electromagnetic product (4), and the locking piece (2) attached via the spring pin (17)
The arrow (C) of the spring (7) attached between the hole (2c) and the cut-and-raised piece (9b) of the base (9) with the shaft (10) as a support shaft.
By receiving the urging force in the direction (FIG. 4), the cylinder (18) moves in conjunction with the movement of the spring pin (17) in the groove (2b) in the direction of the arrow D (FIG. 4). The state shown in FIG. That is, the locking portion (2a) of the locking piece (2) is locked to the locking piece receiver (1), and the door (12) is locked to the refrigerator body (14).
At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, the blocking of the detecting portion (6a) is released by the movement of the position of the locking piece (2) that has blocked the optical signal of the detecting portion (6a) of the photosensor (6). The detection state is transmitted to the operation unit via the communication unit. That is, the electromagnetic product (4) operates normally as instructed by the operation unit, and the lock is transmitted to the operation unit.

In this apparatus, the refrigerator body (1)
In consideration of a slight suction property between the door (12) and the main body (14) in 4), a margin is provided between the locking portion (2a) and the locking piece receiver (1).

Next, unlocking is possible by the reverse procedure of the locking operation described above. That is, when an unlocking signal (suction) is transmitted from the operation unit to the electromagnetic product (4), an electromagnetic force superior to the spring (7) acts, and thus the cylinder (1) is actuated.
Via 8), the locking piece (2) returns to its original position (FIG. 4). By this unlocking operation, the locking piece (2) is released from the locking piece receiver (1), and the door (12) can be opened with respect to the main body (14).

When the user opens the door, the tip of the locking piece receiver (1) is pulled out of the hole (11a) of the frame (11) in the reverse order of the operation of closing the door (12). The shutter (3) is urged by the spring (8) to return to the original state (FIG. 3).

At this time, each photo sensor (5),
By detecting the change in the signal of (6), the door (12)
, And that the electromagnetic product (4) is in the unlocked state can be transmitted to the operation unit.

[0024]

According to the present invention, the open / close state of the refrigerator door,
The normal operation of electromagnetic products such as solenoids can be confirmed, that is, whether locking is securely performed can be confirmed from the front or other operation unit. Moreover, since the present invention uses an optical photocoupler without using magnetism as a detecting sensor, the present invention exerts a further effect in preventing mischief such as unlocking the lock by using a magnet in a passenger room. Furthermore, the refrigerator device of the present invention has a lock using a magnet in a passenger room because a refrigerator sensor of the present invention uses an optical sensor such as a photocoupler without using magnetism as a detection sensor due to such a configuration. A first detecting means for detecting whether or not the door is at a lockable position, and unlocking and unlocking of the door. By installing the second detecting means for detecting the condition and the locking means inside the housing of the refrigerator including the door and the main body of the refrigerator, the installation space in the guest room only requires the installation space of the refrigerator itself. At the same time, it can be effectively used, and at the same time, it is highly useful for late-night guests by suppressing the operation sound of the solenoid normally used as the lock means from leaking to the outside,
This is an excellent effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of a locking and unlocking mechanism of a refrigerator device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall image of a refrigerator including a refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of the refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention before the locking piece receiver (1) is inserted (when the door is open);

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state of the refrigerator device according to one embodiment of the present invention when the locking piece receiver (1) is inserted (when the door is completely closed).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a locked state in the refrigerator device of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Motoaki Ishikawa 2--18 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi City Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A 1-299976 (JP, A) 134553 (JP, U) Fully open sho 63-104979 (JP, U) Really open sho 56-109339 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A lock means for locking and unlocking a refrigerator door with respect to the refrigerator body by an electromagnetic product such as a solenoid and a locking piece integral with a cylinder of the electromagnetic product, and whether the door is in a lockable position. First detection means for detecting whether or not the door is pressed and moved by a locking piece receiver attached to the door, and detecting whether the door is locked or unlocked by a locking piece integrated with the cylinder of the electromagnetic product. A second detecting means for transmitting information detected by the first and second detecting means to an external device, and transmitting a control signal from the external device for controlling locking and unlocking of the door by the locking means; A communication means for receiving, and a control means for controlling the locking / unlocking operation of the locking means based on a control signal received by the communication means, wherein the first and second detection means and the locking means are provided in a refrigerator. Including door and body Was placed inside the housing of the built box, and the first and second detection means is constituted by an optical sensor, refrigerator apparatus according to claim.