JP2714148B2 - Vending machine product unloading device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a merchandise unloading device for a vending machine that conveys a mounted merchandise to a merchandise outlet according to a sales order.

(B) Conventional technology It has a plurality of product unloading devices that also serve as product shelves, on which various types of products with different shapes and sizes are placed and on standby for sale.
When there is a sales order, this product unloading device operates and unloads products one by one from the product unloading end, and the unloaded products are received by the elevator device that moves up and down and sold to the product exit. Machines are known. For example, 62-63
No. 89, as shown. Then, the product unloading device disclosed in the same publication lays a transport chain between a pair of front and rear sprockets, and protrudes a number of pins facing each other on the inner surface side of the facing transport chain, A resin-made shelf member is closely and continuously assembled between the pins, and is rotated.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the unloading device of the prior art disclosed in the above-mentioned publication, the thickness of the transport chain and the shelf member is added to the dimensions of the sprocket, and the unloading device becomes thick as a whole. There is a drawback that the number of stages that can be placed is so small that many products cannot be stored. In addition, many shelves must be assembled into the pins between the transport chains, and the assembling takes time and requires a lot of man-hours, making the assembly operation extremely difficult. In addition, the number of parts is large and the cost is high.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has a simple structure with a small number of parts. It is intended to provide a device.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention relates to a product unloading device of a vending machine having a transport conveyor in a main body for placing products and moving the products to a product outlet side, An endless transport belt, a pair of rotating shafts that stretch and rotate the transport belt, and a base member that is arranged between the pair of rotating shafts and supports the product mounting side of the transport belt from the back surface. The front side of the conveyor belt is formed of a material having a large friction and a product feeding protrusion is provided.The rear side of the conveyor belt is formed of a material having a low friction and the belt rotation protrusions are provided at a constant pitch. On the other hand, a product delivery device for a vending machine, characterized in that a drive projection meshing with the rotation projection is provided on the rotation shaft at a pitch different from that of the rotation projection.

(E) Function One of a pair of rotating shafts on which the conveyor belt is stretched is a driving shaft driven by a motor, and the other is a driven shaft. When the drive shaft rotates according to the sales command, the drive protrusion on the peripheral surface meshes with the rotation protrusion inside the transfer belt, thereby rotating the transfer belt and operating the transfer conveyor. Due to the rotation of the transport belt, the products placed thereon are moved to the product outlet side at the product feed protrusion on the front side of the transport belt, and are discharged one by one by a suitable discharge control member from the discharge end of the transport belt. You. An endless transport belt provided with a product feeding projection on the front side and a belt rotation projection on the back side is stretched between a pair of rotating shafts having a driving projection having a different pitch from the belt rotation projection. Since the conveyor is constructed and constructed, the number of parts is reduced and assembly is very easy. In addition, since the transport chain and the shelf member for placing products are not required, the thickness of the transport conveyor can be reduced, the number of installation stages can be increased, and the product storage efficiency can be increased.

Even if the conveyor belt is twisted and its rotation projection rides on the drive projection and the two projections slip, the pitches of both projections are different, so that the two The engagement of the protrusions occurs, and the normal rotation of the transport belt is maintained. Also, the front side of the conveyor belt is made of a material with high friction, contrary to the material with low friction on the back side,
Due to the frictional action of the product feeding projections on the conveyor belt, the product can be stably supported and fed.

(F) Example Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine provided with a product discharge device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a structural view of the product discharge device of the present invention.

In each of the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a vending machine main body in which a number of product unloading devices 2 which also serve as product shelves are arranged vertically and horizontally on the left and right. The door has a currency slot, a product selection button, a product exit, etc. necessary for a vending machine (not shown).
Are arranged. In addition, the product unloading device 2 includes a main body 1.
An elevator system that moves the product receiving member 3 in the vertical direction between the product unloading devices 2 arranged side by side while being installed substantially horizontally in the left and right direction at predetermined intervals in the vertical direction. Is provided. When the customer selects a product, the product unloading device 4 moves the product receiving member 3 in accordance with the position of the product unloading device 2 that stores the selected product, and inherits the product from the product unloading device 2. And the commodity receiving member 3 is lowered to correspond to the commodity outlet (not shown) so that the commodity can be taken out from the commodity outlet. Reference numeral 5 denotes an endless conveyor belt, on which a product 6 is engaged and mounted on a front side 5a, and product feeding projections 7, 7,... rotating shaft for rotation, i.e. the drive shaft and husband driven shaft people provided with meshes with a drive projection belt rotating projections 8, 8 ... are relatively provided in a wide interval of constant pitch P _1. The conveyer belt 5 is formed by extrusion, so that these product-feeding projections 7 and belt-rotation projections 8 can be formed uniformly. And the material is front side
5a is made of rubber because it is more advantageous to send the product 6 because the friction is larger. The back 5b is made of resin so as to improve the sliding with the belt supporting base described later. It has a layer structure. Reference numerals 9, 9 'denote a pair of rotating shafts on which the conveyor belt 4 is stretched.
The driving force is transmitted from a motor via a speed reduction mechanism (not shown), and the other rotating shaft 9 'is a driven shaft.

The shaft 11 of the driven shaft 9 'is attached to the driven shaft 9'.
A product discharging member 12 that operates separately from the above is provided. Then, the outer peripheral surface of the drive shaft 9 and the driven shaft 9 ', the drive projections 13, 13 are provided at a pitch P ₂ which is different from the pitch P ₁ of the rotary projections 8 of the conveyor belt 5 side ing. That is, the pitch P ₂ of the driving projection 13 is equal to the rotation projection 8.
The pitch is smaller than the pitch P _1, and meshes with the rotation projection 8 to rotate the transport belt 5. Reference numeral 14 denotes a belt supporting base which supports the conveyor belt 5 from the back, and is provided so that the belt 5 is thin so that the weight of the product 6 does not cause slack due to the weight of the product 6 and hinders the conveyance of the product. 5 is rubbed with the rotating projections 8, 8... In order to obtain smooth sliding, the back side of the conveyor belt 5 having the rotating projections 8, 8. And

With the above configuration, when the rotating shaft 9 is rotated by the sales command, the conveyor belt 4 is rotated by the engagement of the driving projection 13 and the rotation projection 8 of the conveyor belt 5, and the mounted product 6 thereon is The product 6 at the forefront is moved rightward, and is ejected by rotating the product discharge member 12, which is also temporarily unlocked and freely rotatable according to the sales command, forward. The carried-out product 6 is taken out to a product take-out port by an elevator device or the like. Alternatively, the product may be directly guided to a product outlet by a product discharge chute or the like.

Thus, the product feeding projection 7 and the belt rotation projection 8
Since the transport belt has a structure in which the transport belt 5 having the following structure is stretched around the pair of rotating shafts 9 and 9 ', the transport belt 5 is thin, and thus the overall thickness of the transport conveyor is reduced. It is possible to install many shelves in one body,
Product accommodation ratio can be improved. Since it is possible to form the protrusions on the front and back of the transport belt 5 at right angles to the rotation direction by extrusion molding, the product feeding protrusion 7 and the belt rotation protrusion 8 can be easily provided. Therefore, the rotation of the drive shaft 9 and the feeding of the product are reliable, and the transport belt 5 has no bad performance concerns. Even if the pitch between the rotation projection 8 of the conveyor belt 5 and the drive projection 13 of the rotating shafts 9 and 9 'is different, the conveyor belt 5 can be rotated.
Since high precision is not required, the conveyor belt 5 can be extruded, and the processing is facilitated.

Furthermore, if the driving projection 13 of the rotating shaft 9 and the rotation projection 8 of the transport belt 5 have the same pitch, if the transport belt 5 is twisted and inclined, the rotation projection 8 is driven. Ride on the projecting projection 13, which may occur between all projections 8,13,
Since the engagement phenomenon disappears, the transport belt 5 eventually turns idle and cannot move. However, in the present invention, since the pitches of the projections 8 and 13 are different, the rotation shaft 9 While the rotation continues, one of the driving projections 13 and the rotation projection 8 are engaged with each other, and the transport belt 5 rotates normally.

(G) Advantageous Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, the endless transport belt that is stretched around the pair of rotating shafts and rotates is supported by the base member on the product mounting side, so that the transport belt is slack. And move horizontally. In this case, since the back side of the conveyor belt that rubs against the base member is formed of a material with low friction, the friction with the base member is reduced, and the transfer of heavy goods can be performed smoothly.

And, since the back side of the conveyor belt is made of a material with low friction, the belt rotation protrusion on the back side of the conveyor belt does not catch on the drive protrusion on the rotating shaft side, and the transmission of rotational power is uncertain. Was dealt with by providing the drive projection and the rotation projection with different pitches, so that a certain rotation projection rides on the drive projection and between the two projections. Even if slippage occurs, the other rotation projections are securely engaged with the drive projections.

As a result, it is possible to prevent the rotating shaft from idling with respect to the belt, and to transport the goods without uncertainty of the rotational power transmission by forming the back side of the transport belt with a material having low friction. A product unloading device that can be performed reliably can be obtained.

In addition, since the rotation protrusion of the conveyance belt and the drive protrusion on the rotating shaft side that meshes with the conveyance belt can rotate the conveyance belt at a different pitch, a high-precision pitch between both protrusions is not required, and the conveyance is not required. The belt can be easily formed and the rotary shaft can be easily manufactured, and the manufacturing advantage of reducing the cost can be obtained.

Furthermore, since the front side of the conveyor belt is formed of a material having a high friction contrary to a material having a low friction on the back side, the product feeding projections on the conveyor belt exert a frictional action, thereby ensuring stable support of the product and reliable. The feeding operation can also be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine provided with a product carry-out product of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a structural view of a product carry-out device of the present invention. 1 ... body, 2 ... product unloading device, 5 ... transport belt,
6 ... commodity, 7 ... commodity feeding projection, 8 ... belt rotation projection, 9,9 '... rotary shaft, 13 ... drive projection, 14 ...
Belt support base, P ₁ … pitch of belt rotation projection, P ₂ … pitch of drive projection.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An article delivery device for a vending machine having a transport conveyor in a main body for placing a product and moving the product to a product exit side, wherein the transport conveyor is an endless transport belt; And a base member arranged between the pair of rotation shafts and supporting the product mounting side of the conveyance belt from the back side, and the front side of the conveyance belt is formed. It is formed of a material having high friction and provided with a projecting portion for product feeding, the back side of the conveyor belt is formed of a material having low friction, and a projecting portion for belt rotation is provided at a constant pitch. A product delivery device for a vending machine, characterized in that drive projections meshing with the projections are provided at a different pitch from the rotation projections.