JP2692371B2 - Product lifter control device for vending machines - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine provided with a product lifter that lifts a product taken out of a product shelf to a product outlet according to a sales signal. Regarding the control device.

[Prior art]

In an automatic vending machine that drops a product from the bottom of the product shelf by its own weight and carries it out, when the product is directly guided to the product outlet by a shooter, the product outlet will be located below the vending machine. I have to bend over to get it out. Therefore, an automatic vending machine was developed to facilitate the taking-out of goods by installing a mechanism (hereinafter referred to as a product lifter) that catches the carried-out goods and lifts them up to the product outlet, which is located at a position higher than the drop point. (Patent application 2-
See 113592 specification). By the way, in a vending machine equipped with such a product lifter, if the product does not reach the product outlet due to some abnormality even if the product lifter is activated and a certain period of time elapses, the product will continue to be sold after that. You will lose the opportunity to sell until the patrol visits you and deals with it. Therefore, even if an abnormality occurs without the product being transported, it will not be considered as a failure immediately, but if the product is normally transported in the next sale, it will be possible to sell even after that and to expand the sales opportunity. There is.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, even if an abnormality occurs that the product is not conveyed, the vending machine that continues the sales if the subsequent sales are normal has the following problems. That is, if the product has not been transported in the previous sale, the product that has not been transported may remain on the product lifter. Therefore, even if the product arrives at the product outlet at the next sale, it may be the product at the previous sale, and if so, the original product will remain on the product lifter, It will be taken out for sale. Such mistakes of products continue one after another, and the product purchaser always buys a product different from the desired product. The present invention has been made to prevent such a situation from occurring, and while expanding sales opportunities,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a product lifter control device for an automatic vending machine in which the above-mentioned product mistakes do not occur.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The present invention is provided with a storage means for storing an abnormality in product transportation and a lifter operation detection means for detecting one rotation of the product lifter, and further, for a product carried out from the product shelf within a predetermined time. When the product does not reach the product take-out port, the fact that the product is not conveyed is stored in the storage means, and
When the product arrives at the product outlet in the next sale, it is checked whether or not the product conveyance is stored in the storage means, and if it is stored, the product lifter is re-operated until the lifter operation detection means operates. A control means for operating it shall be provided.

[Action]

If a product transportation error occurs in the previous sale, the previous product may be sent to the product outlet in the next sale, and the original product may remain on the product lifter. Therefore, if a product conveyance abnormality occurs, it is stored in the storage means, and in the next sale, the product lifter is restarted based on the storage, and this is rotated once until the lifter operation detection means operates. As a result, even if the product remains in the original product lifter, the product is not sent out to the purchaser's hand and delivered to the purchaser, and the products are not left behind one after another in the subsequent sales.

【Example】

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram of an automatic vending machine showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (A) is a front view and FIG. 1 (B) is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part thereof. In the figure, 1 is a control unit including a microcomputer, 2 is a storage unit that stores programs and data necessary for the control, and stores various data in the process of control,
3 is a product outlet provided at a height so that the product can be easily taken out, 4 is a serpentine-type product shelf in which a product (can product) 5 is stored in a meandering product storage passage 4a, 6
Is a solenoid-type product unloading mechanism provided at the bottom of the
Reference numeral 7 denotes a shooter provided so as to incline forward below the product shelf 4, 8 denotes a product carry-out port which opens to the front thereof, 9 denotes a horizontal portion facing the product carry-out port 8 and a vertical portion which stands up to the product take-out port 3. It is an L-shaped product lifter consisting of and. The product lifter 9 is composed of endless belts 10 guided by a rotary drum (not shown) at both ends and L bends, and crosspieces 11 fixed around the endless belt 10 at an equal number (five in the case shown). The endless belt 10 is driven by the lifter motor 12 and rotates counterclockwise in the figure. 13 is a product lifter 9
A conveyance detection switch for detecting that the product 5 conveyed by means of the product has arrived at the product outlet 3, and a lifter operation detection switch 14 for detecting the number of crossing bars 11. In the illustrated vending machine, when a sales signal is output from the control unit 1, the product unloading mechanism 6 operates, and the specified product 5 is unloaded from the product shelf 4 and drops onto the shooter 7. The product 5 passes through the product carry-out port 8 and drops onto the product lifter 9 which faces the product outlet 8. The product lifter 9 is activated after the operation of the product unloading mechanism 6 and waits for a certain period of time sufficient for the product 5 to get on the product lifter 9, and the product 5 is moved horizontally while being pushed by the crosspiece 11, and further lifted vertically. This is conveyed to the product outlet 3. When the product 5 reaches the product outlet 3, the conveyance detection switch 13
Operates, and the product lifter 9 stops accordingly. As described above, the product lifter 9 is activated after the product 5 is placed on the product lifter 9 in order to reduce the impact on the product 5 and ensure its reception. The product lifter 9 stops even if the conveyance detection switch 13 does not operate, if a fixed time sufficient for the product 5 to reach the product outlet 3 has elapsed since the product lifter 9 was activated. The above is the normal sales operation, but regarding the control operation when the conveyance of the product 5 by the product lifter 9 is abnormal,
This will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The control unit 1 checks whether or not the product 5 is normally conveyed from the operation signal of the conveyance detection switch 13 in the previous sale (step S1), and if it is not conveyed, the storage unit 2
The fact that the product has not been conveyed is stored in (step S2). In this state, the presence or absence of the next sales signal is checked (step S3), and if there is a sales signal, the product unloading mechanism 6 is operated to unload the product 5 from the product shelf 4 (step S4), and then the lifter motor 12 is energized. To activate the product lifter 9 (step S
Five). Here, the operation of the transport detection switch 13 is checked for a time sufficient for the product 5 to reach the product outlet 3, for example, 5 seconds (steps S6 → S7). Transport detection switch
If 5 seconds elapse without 13 being activated (YE in step S6
S), the conveyance abnormality is stored in the storage unit 2 as the conveyance abnormality occurrence (step S13). If the conveyance detection switch 13 is actuated in step S7, the lifter motor 12 is temporarily stopped (step S8), and it is checked whether or not the storage unit 2 has a memory indicating that the product has not been conveyed in the previous sale (step S9). If there is no memory that the product has not been conveyed, the process returns to step S3 to wait for the next sale, and if there is, the lifter motor 12 is energized again (step S10), and the product lifter 9 makes one rotation, for example, for 12 seconds. The passage of the crosspiece 11 is counted by the lifter operation detection switch 14 (step S12). Here, in the illustrated embodiment, since five crosspieces 11 are provided, if the crosspiece 11 passes the lifter operation detection switch 14 six times, the product lifter 9 has made one rotation. Therefore, step S12
When the crosspiece 11 is detected 6 times at, the lifter motor 12 is stopped (step S14), and the process returns to step S3. If 12 seconds have passed without detecting the crosspiece 6 six times in step S11, the abnormal product transportation is also stored in step S13, and the process proceeds to step S14. As described above, according to the configuration of the illustrated embodiment, when the product 5 to be sold next time is transferred after the product transfer abnormality occurs in the previous sale, the product lifter 9 is temporarily stopped and then the next sale is performed. When the product 5 is conveyed, the product lifter 9 is temporarily stopped and then restarted to rotate once, so that the original product 5 is reliably taken out even if the original product 5 is left, and after the next sale. The products sold will not be carried over one after another.
In addition, even if the pre-sale product and the original product happen to be continuously sent out to the product outlet 3 in the first transport, the second operation of the product lifter 7 simply makes one rotation when the crosspiece 11 is detected. It is not abnormal.

【The invention's effect】

According to the present invention, even if the product is left behind on the product lifter due to an abnormal product transportation of the previous sale, the product lifter is rotated once again when the next sale is normally performed, so that the original product is always purchased. There is no longer a phenomenon in which the products become different in the hands of the user and are subsequently sold. Moreover, even if an abnormality in product transportation occurs, if the next sale is normal, it will not be a malfunction, and therefore the sales opportunity cannot be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 (A) is a front view of the internal structure of a vending machine, FIG. 1 (B) is a longitudinal sectional view of the main part thereof, and FIG. 2 is an automatic view of FIG. It is a flow chart which shows control operation of a vending machine. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control part, 2 ... Storage part, 3 ... Product outlet, 4 ... Product shelf, 5 ... Product, 9 ... Product lifter, 13 ... Product conveyance detection switch, 14 ... Lifter operation detection switch.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A product that is carried out from a product shelf by a sales signal is carried to a product outlet by activating a product lifter, and the product may reach the product outlet or may not arrive within a certain time. In the vending machine that stops the product lifter when it is detected, a storage unit that stores a product conveyance abnormality, a lifter operation detection unit that detects that the product lifter makes one rotation, and a product that has been taken out of the product shelf for a certain period of time. When the product has not reached the product outlet within a predetermined period, the storage means stores the fact that the product has not been transported, and when it is detected that the product has reached the product outlet in the next sale, the storage means stores the product not transported. And a control means for reactivating the product lifter until the lifter operation detecting means operates, if stored. Commodity lifter control device for an automatic vending machine.