JP3193146U - Goods advance equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

An article advancement device having a simple article advancement function that does not require energy such as electric power and that can be used without giving an inclination to a shelf board.
A movable portion that is movably provided along a rail and that urges a loaded article forward by an urging force of a winding spring that extends along the rail, and a rear end side of the rail. And the side wall 2b extending in parallel with the rail 2a. The movable portion 3 is formed by cutting the rail 2a. It is mounted through a notch.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an article advancement device having a function of sending articles in the second row to the front row when the articles are arranged in the depth direction and the front row of articles are removed from the shelf.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a conveyor-type shelf is known as a merchandise display shelf having a mechanism for sending merchandise to the front row and filling empty spaces. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a motor-driven belt conveyor-type product display shelf and a gravity-driven roller conveyor-type product display shelf. Patent Document 3 describes a gravity driven product display shelf in which high slip performance is imparted to the upper surface of the shelf board.

  Further, Patent Document 2 describes a storage shelf that can store articles in a row, and a system in which the articles are pressed toward the article insertion / removal port by a biasing force of a spring. Furthermore, Patent Documents 4 and 5 describe a system in which a pressing body pushes an article forward by a restoring force of a band-shaped body (band-shaped tape, band-shaped steel plate).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-143927 JP 2003-267520 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-082779 JP 2005-110741 A International Publication WO2007 / 020725

  In the merchandise display shelf described in Patent Document 1, the belt conveyor type uses the rotational force of the motor as the driving force, so that electric power is required, and the manufacturing cost and the operating cost are high. In addition, the roller conveyor type described in Patent Document 1 and the commodity display shelf described in Patent Document 3 use gravity as the driving force, so the cost can be reduced, but the shelf plate has a predetermined inclination. The extra space is required as much as it must be given, and the number of products that can be displayed is reduced compared to the case of a horizontal shelf.

  In addition, in the storage shelves described in Patent Documents 2, 4, and 5, since the spring force and the restoring force of the belt-like body are used as the driving force, there is no operating cost, but there is a mechanism for appropriately controlling the biasing force. The manufacturing cost is high due to the complexity.

  In view of such a current situation, an object of the present invention is to provide an article advancement device that has a simple article advancement function that does not require energy such as electric power and can be used without inclining the shelf board. There is.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an article advancement device according to the present invention is provided so as to be movable along a rail and urges the loaded article forward by a biasing force of a winding spring that is extended along the rail. A movable portion that engages with the movable portion by tilting the movable portion on the rear end side of the rail, and a side wall portion that extends in parallel with the rail. The movable part is mounted through the notch of the rail.

  When using the article advancement device according to the present invention, first, the placed article is arranged along the rail in a state where the movable portion is engaged with the engaging portion provided on the rear end side of the rail. . At this time, on the front end side of the rail, a hook portion for stopping the article pressed by the movable portion at a predetermined position in the rail front row is arranged. The collar may be formed integrally with the article dispensing device, or a separate member from the article dispensing device (for example, a fall prevention stopper provided in advance on a shelf on which the article dispensing device is arranged) ). After the article is arranged on the rail, if the movable part is removed from the engaging part, the movable part urged by the urging force of the winding spring moves forward along the rail and abuts the rear end of the article arrangement. Stop in the state. In this state, when the articles arranged in the front row on the rail are removed from the rail, the remaining articles arranged on the rail are pushed forward by the movable portion biased by the winding spring, and the rail Along the front. Then, when the article arranged second from the front moves to the position of the front row on the rail and comes into contact with the locking portion, the movement (conveyance) of the second row of articles is stopped, As the article stops moving, the movement of the movable part to the front is also stopped. As described above, according to the article advancement device of the present invention, the article on the rail can be sent to the front row without requiring energy such as electric power with a simple mechanism, thereby reducing the production cost and the operation cost. be able to.

  Further, according to the article advancement device according to the present invention, the position of the article is prevented by the side wall portion extending in parallel with the rail, so that the article can be securely placed regardless of the shape or size of the article. Can be transported to the front row. The side wall portion may be integrally attached to the rail or may be constituted by a member different from the rail. However, from the viewpoint of fixing components and reducing the number of components, the side wall portion is integrally attached to the rail. It is preferable that

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, the movable part is mounted through a notch provided in the rail. According to such a structure, a movable part can be attached or detached easily to a rail.

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, the engaging portion is provided so as to be engageable with the movable portion by tilting the movable portion. According to such a configuration, the movable part can be engaged with the engaging part and stopped at a predetermined position by a very simple operation, so that the work of arranging the articles can be performed quickly.

  According to the article advancement apparatus according to the present invention, since the shelf portion on which the winding spring is extended can be formed horizontally, it is possible to arrange a large number of products as compared with the case of using an inclined shelf board. it can. However, the shelf may be slightly tilted as necessary (for example, for easy viewing in the display state).

  The article advancement apparatus according to the present invention can be applied to, for example, a merchandise display shelf installed in a convenience store or the like, or an article arrangement shelf installed in a warehouse. In such applications, from the viewpoint of reducing labor costs, an unskilled person often performs a work for arranging a large number of articles in a short time. Preferably, the number of parts is preferably as small as possible. In addition, since several to ten or more articles are placed on one shelf, it is strongly required to reduce the price, and the number of parts is preferably as small as possible from the viewpoint of manufacturing cost. In this respect, many of the conventional article advancement devices use a large number of parts to properly control the biasing force (for example, a sheet for conveying an article and a sheet for winding the sheet). There has been a strong desire to reduce the number of parts and simplify the configuration, such as a configuration in which a winding mechanism and a sheet locking mechanism are separately provided.

  On the other hand, the article advancement device according to the present invention can be configured using a very small number of parts, and is very easy to assemble. For example, an article advancement device according to the present invention includes a main body having a rail and a side wall portion, a movable member as a movable portion that is movably provided along the rail and is mounted through a notch in the rail, and the rail. It can be composed of substantially three parts, ie, a wound spring that is extended and urges the movable part forward. According to such a configuration, since the number of parts is very small, the manufacturing cost can be kept low. Also, as the assembly work, it is only necessary to attach the winding spring and the movable member to the main body, so that even an unskilled person can easily assemble, and the work of arranging the articles is expedited.

  In the article advancing device according to the present invention, it is preferable that the engaging portion is configured to be disengaged from the movable portion by tilting the movable portion. According to such a configuration, the engagement of the movable parts can be released with a very simple operation, so that the work of arranging the articles can be performed quickly.

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, it is preferable that one end of the winding spring is fixed to the movable portion, and the substantially oval hole provided in the other end side of the winding spring extends in the longitudinal direction of the winding spring. It is preferable that a protrusion for locking the winding spring is inserted. Moreover, it is preferable that the top part of the protrusion part is inclined and extended with respect to the rail. According to such a configuration, after inserting the protrusion into the substantially oval hole and then extending the winding spring along the rail, the direction in which the substantially oval hole extends (the longitudinal direction of the winding spring, That is, the direction along the rail) is inclined with respect to the top of the protrusion, so that the protrusion is prevented from falling off and the winding spring is locked to the protrusion. On the other hand, when removing the winding spring, it is easy to lock the winding spring by rotating the winding spring around the protrusion and aligning the extending direction of the substantially oval hole with the inclined direction of the top of the protrusion. Can be released. Therefore, with such a configuration, it is possible to fix the winding spring without using an additional member such as a screw, and it is possible to suppress an increase in the number of parts and an increase in manufacturing cost.

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, it is preferable that the movable portion is in contact with the rail through a cylindrical protrusion. According to such a configuration, since the contact area between the movable part and the rail is reduced and the friction is reduced, the movable part can be smoothly moved along the rail.

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, it is preferable that the movable part is attached with a back plate that contacts the placed article, and the movable part is formed so that an auxiliary back plate for expanding the back plate can be attached. It is preferable that According to such a configuration, the placed article is pushed forward by the substantially planar back plate, and it is possible to provide a stable article advance function that is hardly affected by the shape of the article. In addition, by making it possible to attach an auxiliary back plate corresponding to the size of the article as needed, it is not necessary to replace the article advancement device itself according to the size of the article, greatly reducing maintenance costs. Is done.

  In the article advancement device according to the present invention, the bottom surface is preferably magnetized. According to such a configuration, it is possible to satisfactorily fix the article advancement device on a metal shelf (for example, a merchandise display shelf or an article arrangement shelf) widely used in general shops and warehouses.

  As described above, according to the article advancement apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a simple article feeding function that does not require energy such as electric power while using a horizontal shelf without inclination. In addition, such an article advancement device of the present invention can be applied to various articles regardless of the packaging state.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing an article advancement device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the article | item advancement apparatus of FIG. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the movable part in the articles | goods advance tool of FIG. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the main body in the article | item advancement apparatus of FIG. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating operation | movement of the articles | goods advance tool of FIG. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the fixing method of the winding spring in the articles | goods advance tool of FIG. It is the schematic which shows an example of an auxiliary backplate. It is the schematic which shows another example of a movable part. It is the schematic which shows the article | item advance tool which uses the movable part of FIG.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, an article advancement device according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an article advancement device 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In particular, the movable part 3 of the article advancement device 1 is engaged with the rear of the main body 2. Represents. In FIG. 1, the main body 2 of the article advancement device 1 has a pair of rails 2 a, a side wall portion 2 b extending in parallel with the rails, and a protruding portion 2 c for locking the winding spring 4. Yes. A substantially oval hole 4a is formed at the front end of the winding spring 4, and the front end of the winding spring 4 is locked to the main body by inserting the projection 2c into the hole 4a. ing. Further, the rear end portion of the winding spring 4 is engaged with the movable portion 3 provided so as to be movable along the rail 2a, and the movable portion is applied by the urging force of the winding spring 4 extended along the rail 2a. 3 is biased forward. A back plate 3a in contact with the placed article is provided on the foremost surface of the movable portion 3, and a pair of slits 3b for mounting an auxiliary back plate, which will be described later, is formed on the upper portion of the movable portion 3.

  The structure of the article advancement device 1 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the movable portion 3 and the main body 2 are disengaged in the article advancement device 1, (A) is a side view, (B) is a rear view, and (C) is a top view. is there. FIG. 3 shows the structure of the movable part 3, where (A) is a rear view and (B) is a side view. FIG. 4 is a rear view of the main body 2.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the rail 2a has a substantially L-shaped cross section, and a groove is formed inside the rail 2a. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, substantially cylindrical protrusions 3c are formed on both sides of the movable portion 3, and the protrusions 3c are loosely fitted into the grooves of the rail 2a as shown in FIG. 2 (B). The movable part 3 can be moved along the rail 2a. A notch 2f having a size corresponding to the protrusion 3c is provided at one rear portion of the rail 2a, and the movable portion 3 can be attached to the rail 2a through the notch 2f. Note that the position of the notch 2f is not limited to the mode shown in FIG. 2, and the notch 2f can be provided at any position on the rail 2a as long as the effect of the present invention is not impaired. .

  The movable portion 3 is provided with a shaft portion 3d, and the end of the winding spring 4 is engaged with the shaft portion 3d while being wound around the shaft portion 3d, as shown in FIGS. Has been. And the convex part 3e which can be engaged with the engaging part 2d of a main body rear part is provided in the rear part of the movable part 3, and the movable part 3 is inclined and the engaging part 2d and the convex part 3e are engaged. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 1, the movable portion 3 can be locked behind the article advancement device 1 against the urging force of the winding spring 4.

  Furthermore, when a plurality of magnets 2e are bonded to the bottom surface of the main body 2 and the shelf portion on which the article advancement device 1 is arranged is made of metal such as iron, the article advancement device 1 is attached to the shelf portion. Can be adsorbed by magnetic force. Further, the side wall 2b is formed integrally with the main body 2 from the viewpoint of reducing the number of parts as much as possible.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the article advancement device 1 includes a main body 2 including a rail 2 a, a side wall portion 2 b, a magnet 2 e, and the like, and a notch 2 f provided on the rail 2 a so as to be movable. The movable part 3 (movable member) to be mounted and the winding spring 4 that is extended along the rail 2a and biases the movable part 3 forward are substantially composed of only three parts. According to such a configuration, since the number of parts is very small, the manufacturing cost can be kept low. Further, as the assembly work, it is only necessary to attach the winding spring 4 and the movable member 3 to the main body, and since no additional members such as screws are required, even an unskilled person can easily assemble, and the article arrangement work is accelerated. Is done.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the article advancement device 1. 5A to 5C, the article advancement device 1 is fixed to a metal shelf 5 by a magnet 2e, and the arranged articles are stopped at a predetermined position in front of the shelf 5. For this purpose, a flange 5a is provided. First, as shown in FIG. 5A, the movable portion 3 that is urged forward by the urging force of the winding spring 4 is engaged with an engaging portion 2 d provided at the rear of the main body 2. Next, as shown in FIG. 5B, the plurality of articles 6 are arranged along the rail 2a. Thereafter, when the movable part 3 is lightly inclined in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 5B and the engagement between the movable part 3 and the engaging part 2d is released, the movable part 3 biased by the winding spring 4 is moved to the rail 2a. It moves forward along, and conveys the article | item 6 ahead. Then, as shown in FIG. 5 (C), when reaching the state in which the foremost row of articles 6 is in contact with the flange portion 5a, the force exerted by the winding spring 4 on the foremost row of articles 6 via the movable portion 3 The force received by the front row of articles 6 from the collar 5 is balanced, and the winding spring 4 is no longer wound, so that the transport operation of the movable part 3 stops.

  When the article 6 arranged on the rail 2a is taken out from the left side of the figure, the movable part 3 biased by the winding spring 4 pushes the article 6 left on the rail 2a forward, and the article 6 moves to the left side. To do. That is, when the frontmost article 6 is removed from the rail 2a, the balance of force is lost, and the movable part 3 biased by the winding spring 4 conveys the article 6 in the forward direction of the article advancement device 1, The article that was in the second row position moves to the front row position. Then, since the article in the forefront row is in contact with the flange portion 5a, the conveying operation of the movable portion 3 is stopped again.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, it is preferable that the height of the rail 2a is higher than the protrusion part 2c for latching the winding spring 4. As shown in FIG. According to such a configuration, the article placed on the rail 2a can smoothly move on the rail 2a without basically contacting the protrusion 2c.

  6A and 6B are schematic views for explaining a method of fixing the winding spring 4 to the main body 2. FIG. 6A is a schematic partial top view showing a state before the winding spring 4 is fixed, and FIG. It is a general | schematic fragmentary top view which shows the state after 4 is fixed. When one end of the winding spring 4 is fixed to the protruding portion 2c of the main body 2, first, as shown in FIG. 6A, the winding spring 4 is disposed along the inclination direction of the protruding portion 2c. The protrusion 2c is inserted into a substantially oval hole 4a extending in the longitudinal direction. Then, the winding spring 4 is rotated in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 6A around the protrusion 2c as an axis, and the winding spring 4 is aligned in a direction parallel to the rail 2a as shown in FIG. 6B. In this way, the protruding portion 2c is arranged obliquely with respect to the substantially oval hole 4a, and the detachment of the winding spring 4 is prevented. Therefore, an additional member such as a screw is used. The end of the winding spring 4 can be easily locked to the main body 2. In addition, it is preferable that the inclination | tilt angle with respect to the rail 2a of the top part of the projection part 2c exists in the range of 15-75 degrees.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an auxiliary back plate that can be attached to the movable portion. FIG. 7A is a schematic plan view showing the auxiliary back plate 7. The auxiliary back plate 7 has three pairs of slits that can be engaged with the slits 3b of the movable portion 3 (7a, 7b, and 7c). ). 7B is a schematic rear view showing a state in which the slit 7a of the auxiliary back plate 7 is engaged with the slit 3b of the movable portion 3, and FIG. It is a schematic rear view which shows the state engaged with 3b. In FIG. 7B, the back plate 3a of the movable portion 3 is expanded in the width direction by the auxiliary back plate 7, which is suitable for applications in which wide articles are arranged. In FIG. 7C, the back plate 3a of the movable portion 3 is expanded in the height direction and the width direction by the auxiliary back plate 7 and is suitable for applications in which articles larger than usual are arranged. ing. Thus, by making it possible to attach an auxiliary back plate corresponding to the size of the article as necessary, it is not necessary to replace the article advancement device itself according to the size of the article, and maintenance costs are greatly increased. Reduced to In particular, as illustrated in FIG. 7, by forming a plurality of engaging portions (for example, slits) for engaging with the movable portion on the auxiliary back plate, one auxiliary back plate can handle various articles. As a result, the maintenance cost can be further reduced.

  Next, an article advancement device according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 8, the same components as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. In FIG. 9, the same components as those in FIG.

  8A and 8B show the movable part 3 in the second embodiment of the present invention, where FIG. 8A is a rear view and FIG. 8B is a side view. In FIG. 8, a substantially rectangular parallelepiped protrusion 3 f is formed on both sides of the movable portion 3 in addition to the substantially cylindrical protrusion 3 c.

  FIG. 9 shows a state where the movable part 3 of FIG. 8 is attached to the main body 1, wherein (A) is a rear view and (B) is a partial side view. In FIG. 9, the substantially cylindrical projection 3c is placed on the rail 2a, and the substantially rectangular parallelepiped projection 3f is loosely fitted in the groove in the rail 2a. According to such a configuration, since the substantially rectangular parallelepiped protrusion 3f is loosely fitted in the groove in the rail 2a, it is possible to reliably prevent the movable portion 3 from being detached from the rail 2a. Moreover, since the load of the movable part 3 is mainly supported by the substantially cylindrical projection 3c having a small contact area with the rail 2a, the friction between the movable part 3 and the rail 2a is reduced, and the movable part 3 Can move smoothly along the rail 2a.

  According to the article advancement device according to the present invention, it is possible to realize a simple article advance function that does not require energy such as electric power regardless of whether the installation surface is inclined. The article advancement apparatus of the present invention can be applied to, for example, a commodity display shelf installed in a convenience store or the like, or an article arrangement shelf installed in a warehouse, and can be suitably used particularly for a commodity display shelf.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Article delivery apparatus 2 Main body 2a Rail 2b Side wall part 2c Protrusion part 2d Engagement part 2e Magnet 2f Notch 3 Movable part 3a Back plate 3b Slit 3c, 3f Protrusion 3d Shaft part 3e Convex part 4 Winding spring 4a Hole 5 Shelf 5a Saddle 6 Article 7 Auxiliary back plate 7a, 7b, 7c Slit

Claims (6)

  A movable part that is movably provided along the rail and urges the loaded article forward by the urging force of a winding spring that is extended along the rail, and the movable part is inclined at the rear end side of the rail. An engaging portion provided so as to be engageable with the movable portion, and a side wall portion extending in parallel with the rail, and the movable portion is mounted through a notch of the rail. A featured advance tool.   The article advancement device according to claim 1, wherein the engaging portion is configured to be disengaged from the movable portion by tilting the movable portion.   One end of the winding spring is fixed to the movable portion, a projection is inserted into a substantially oval hole provided on the other end of the winding spring, and the top of the projection is inclined with respect to the rail. The article advancement device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the device is extended.   The article advancement device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the movable portion is in contact with the rail via a cylindrical protrusion.   The back plate in contact with the placed article is attached to the movable portion, and an auxiliary back plate for expanding the back plate is formed so as to be attachable to the movable portion. The article advance tool described in 1. The article advancement device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the bottom surface is magnetized.

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