JP2789310B2 - Flat ball tank device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ball tank device installed in, for example, a golf practice device, and more particularly to a flat ball tank device of a flat type.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At a driving range, golf balls hit from each at-bat and scattered on a green are collected and washed, sent to each at-bat side, and installed in front of an automatic tipping device for at-bat. Is stored in the ball tank device.

[0003] As the ball tank device, a flat ball tank device having a relatively small thickness is often used because it is not necessary to increase the thickness of the floor (concrete floor) when it is installed on the second floor or the like.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a conventional flat ball tank apparatus with a lid removed, FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II of FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is a roller of FIG. It is sectional drawing on a line.

[0005] The conventional flat ball tank device has side walls 101 (101a, 101b, 10) standing upright along four sides.
1c, 101d) and a bottom body 102
03 and a lid (not shown) closing the upper opening of the box 103.

The side wall 101b is partially cut away to form a ball supply port 104, and the side wall 10b is formed.
A ball discharge port 105 is formed by cutting out a part of 1d. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the golf ball (not shown) supplied from the ball supply port 104 naturally rolls to the ball discharge port 105 as shown by an arrow in FIG. The bottom wall 102 has a certain degree of inclination (inclination angle α) toward.

[0007]

By simply tilting the bottom wall 102 in this way, a so-called bridge is formed while the golf ball is moving in the box 103, and the ball discharge port is formed. It does not roll smoothly to 105,
In many cases, the supply of the golf ball to the automatic tee-up device is stopped. Particularly, in the case of a new golf ball, a bridge tends to be easily formed because the surface unevenness is clear.

When the box 103 is widened to increase the number of balls accommodated in the flat ball tank device, the bottom wall 102
Is inclined, so that the thickness of the ball tank device is inevitably increased, and the characteristics of the flat ball tank device are reduced.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, so that the bridge is not formed and the ball is always supplied smoothly, and the thickness of the device is kept thin even if the box is widened. An object of the present invention is to provide a flat ball tank device that can be used.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a box body provided with a ball supply port and a ball discharge port separately, and a discharge side wall adjacent to the ball discharge port of the box body. A large number of ball feed plates arranged in parallel and arranged at the bottom of the box, and, for example, a drive plate, an eccentric cam, a motor, and the like, which sequentially rotate the ball feed plates by a predetermined angle toward the discharge side wall. And a rotating mechanism comprising:

[0011]

According to the present invention, as described above, since the ball can be forcibly fed in the direction of the discharge side wall by sequentially rotating the ball feed plate, no bridge is formed and the ball is neatly arranged near the ball discharge port. In addition, the discharge of balls from the ball tank is smooth.

Further, since the inclined bottom wall is not used as in the prior art, the thickness of the apparatus is constant even if the accommodation area is increased in order to increase the number of balls accommodated, and the apparatus is thinner than the conventional one. Becomes possible.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a partial schematic configuration diagram of a golf practice device according to an embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a plan view of a flat ball tank device used in the golf practice device.

Golf balls 1 collected at the driving range
Is cleaned by a cleaning device and distributed to a flat ball tank device 3 installed at each turn at bat by a feeding device 2 including a chain conveyor or a belt conveyor. The flat ball tank device 3 mainly includes a box 4 for storing and aligning a large number of golf balls 1 and a driving unit 5. The golf balls 1 discharged one by one from the flat ball tank device 3 (box 4) are supplied to an automatic tee-up device 6 and are used for hitting a ball.

When the lid (not shown) of the box 4 is removed, side walls 7a, 7b, 7c and 7d are erected along four sides, and one golf ball 1 passes through one end of the side wall 7b. A ball discharge port 8 having a size is formed, and a ball supply port 9 having a size through which a plurality of golf balls 1 pass is formed in a part of the side wall 7d.
And adjacent.

At the bottom of the box 4, a number of ball feed plates 10 are arranged in parallel with a side wall (discharge side wall) 7b in which the ball discharge port 8 is formed. As shown in FIG. 3, the ball feed plate 10 has an elongated strip shape as a whole. As shown in FIG. 4, the ball feed portion 11 is bent in a substantially "L" shape, and protrudes from both ends of the ball feed portion 11. And a connecting portion 13 erected from one end of the ball feeding portion 11.

A support member 14 is provided along the inside of the side wall 7a and the side wall 7c of the box body 4. The support member 14 has a substantially "L" shaped side surface as shown in FIG. The toothed portion 15 is provided at a predetermined interval inside, and the shaft portion 12 of the ball feed plate 10 is rotatably inserted between the toothed portion 15 and the toothed portion 15. Ten positionings have been made.

A first drive plate 16 and a second drive plate 17 are provided in parallel inside one support member 14, and a number of ball feed plates 10 arranged in the box 4 are provided alternately. The first drive plate 16 and the second drive plate 17 are alternately rotatably connected to each other by pins 18. In the case of this embodiment, 10- (1) is applied to the ball feed plate 10 from the left side in FIG.
10- (2), 10- (3), 10- (4), ... 10
-(N-1), 10- (n)
Odd-numbered ball feed plates 10- (1), 10- (3),
.., 10- (n-1) are connected to the first drive plate 16, and the even-numbered ball feed plates 10- (2), 10- (4),.
.. 10- (n) are connected to the second drive plate 17.

As shown in FIG. 7, a first eccentric cam 19 is provided at an end of the first drive plate 16 on the drive side, and a second eccentric cam 20 is provided at an end of the second drive plate 17 on the drive side. It is rotatably mounted. The first eccentric cam 19 and the second eccentric cam 20 are rotated by 180 degrees so that the motor shaft 2
The motor 22 having the motor shaft 21 is housed in the drive unit 5 as shown in FIG.

When the motor 22 is driven, the first eccentric cam 19
And the rotation of the second eccentric cam 20, the first drive plate 16 and the second drive plate 17 reciprocate 180 degrees out of phase,
The ball feed plate 10 connected to them rotates a predetermined angle about the shaft portion 12. FIG. 8 shows this state, in which the ball feed plate 10 repeatedly rotates between the position indicated by the solid line and the position indicated by the dotted line. In this embodiment, the ball feed plate 10
Is set in the range of 20 to 30 degrees.

Since the first drive plate 16 and the second drive plate 17 reciprocate 180 degrees out of phase as described above, for example, odd-numbered ball feed plates 10- (1), 10-
(3) When the 10- (n-1) rotates to the position shown by the dotted line, the even-numbered ball feed plates 10- (2), 1- (n-1)
0- (4),..., 10- (n) are at positions indicated by solid lines.

Therefore, the golf ball 1 riding on the ball feeder 10- (1) rolls and moves on the adjacent ball feeder 10- (2) by the rotation of the ball feeder 10- (1). . In this manner, the golf ball 1 is rotated by every other ball feed plate 10 so that the golf ball 1 is discharged.
Are forcibly sent in the direction of.

The golf balls 1 hitting the discharge side wall 7b are arranged in a line, discharged one by one from the ball discharge port 8, and supplied to the automatic tee-up device 6 (see FIG. 1).

As shown in FIG. 2, a shield plate 23 is provided near the ball discharge port 8 at a position separated from the discharge side wall 7b by one golf ball in parallel with the discharge side wall 7b. Without the shielding plate 23, the golf ball 1 forcibly fed by the ball feed plate 10 enters into a line of golf balls arranged in a line along the discharge side wall 7b, and the golf ball 1 There is a concern that the supply of the golf ball 1 will not be smooth.

By providing the shielding plate 23 at the above-described position, the golf ball 1 is prevented from entering the golf ball row, and the golf ball 1 is discharged more smoothly. It is sufficient that the shield plate 23 has a length of about 3 to 6 golf balls.

In the above embodiment, the case of a golf ball has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to storage of other balls such as a baseball and a tennis ball.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the ball can be forcibly fed toward the discharge side wall by sequentially rotating the ball feed plate, no bridge is formed, and the ball is formed near the ball discharge port. Are arranged in order, and the discharge of the ball from the ball tank is smooth.

Further, since the inclined bottom wall is not used as in the prior art, the thickness of the apparatus is constant even if the accommodation area is widened in order to increase the number of balls accommodated, and the apparatus is thinner than the conventional one. Becomes possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial schematic configuration diagram of a golf practice device including a flat ball tank device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the flat ball tank device with a cover removed.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a ball feed plate used in the flat ball tank device.

FIG. 4 is a side view of the ball feed plate.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a support member used for the flat ball tank device.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the support member.

FIG. 7 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a connection structure between each drive plate and a motor in the flat ball tank device.

FIG. 8 is a view for explaining a rotation operation of a ball feed plate in the flat ball tank device.

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a conventional flat ball tank device with a lid removed.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along the line yy in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view taken along a roll line in FIG. 9;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 golf ball 3 flat ball tank device 4 box 5 drive unit 6 automatic tee-up device 7b discharge side wall 8 ball discharge port 9 ball supply port 10 ball feed plate 11 ball feed unit 12 shaft unit 13 connecting unit 14 support member 16 First drive plate 17 Second drive plate 18 Pin 19 First eccentric cam 20 First eccentric cam 21 Motor shaft 22 Motor 23 Shield plate

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A box body provided with a ball supply port and a ball discharge port separately, and a plurality of balls arranged parallel to a discharge side wall adjacent to the ball discharge port of the box body and arranged at the bottom of the box body. A flat ball tank device comprising: a ball feed plate of the type described above; and a rotating mechanism that sequentially rotates the ball feed plate by a predetermined angle toward the discharge side wall.