JP3395498B2 - Vending machine spiral bend rack - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a spiral bend rack mounted on a vending machine for frozen noodles and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a bend rack installed in a vending machine, products are sorted into two rows on the left and right with respect to a spiral of a vertical axis incorporated in a rack case and stored between pitches of the spiral, and a bend motor is provided for each sales instruction. There is a well-known spiral bend rack that rotates the spiral to alternately drop products from the bottom to the left and right.
Furthermore, with the aim of stabilizing the carry-out posture of the product carried out from the spiral bend rack, a pair of left and right carry-out flappers are provided at the exit end side of the rack case for holding the product, which has come out from the end of the spiral, at the next sale standby position. In the Japanese Patent Application No. 6-20718 filed by the same applicant as the present invention, there is provided a construction in which the carrying flapper is controlled by a control cam connected to the rotating shaft of the spiral so as to open and close alternately in conjunction with the spiral. Proposed.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a spiral bend rack equipped with such a carry-out flapper. In the figure, 1
Is a rack case, 2 is a bend motor, 3 is a vertical axis spiral which is connected to the output rotary shaft 4 of the bend motor 2 and is incorporated in the rack case 1, 5 is a half-moon shaped control cam connected to the lower end of the rotary shaft 4, 6L, 6R Is a carry-out flapper arranged on both sides of the rotary shaft 4, and the carry-out flapper has its end near the rotary shaft 4 pivotally supported by the rack case 1 via a support shaft 7, and is on the sales standby side. The flapper is supported by the control cam 5 from below in a substantially horizontal posture. In addition, 8 is a self-propelled cam attached to the output shaft of the bend motor 2,
Reference numeral 9 is a self-holding switch for motor control which is opened and closed by the self-propelled cam 8.

With such a structure, the products 10 are sorted into two rows on the left and right sides and stored between the pitches of the spiral 3 (the stored products on the left and right rows are represented by 10L and 10R), and come out from the end of the spiral 3 in a standby state for sale. The lowest merchandise is carried on the carry-out flapper. In the illustrated example, of the stored products 10L and 10R arranged in the left and right columns, the lowest product arranged in the left column is carried on the flapper 6L and stands by at the next selling position. Given a sales order here,
When the bend motor 2 is started to rotate the spiral 3 and the control cam 5, and the control cam 5 comes off the flapper 6L in the process, the flapper tilts from its solid line position to a drooping posture represented by a chain line by its own weight, and is carried thereon. The product 10L that had been dropped is carried out. At the same time, the remaining products stored in the spiral 3 are pitch-fed downward. Then, when the spiral 3 further rotates, the carry-out flapper 6R is pushed up by the control cam 5 to return from the drooping posture to the horizontal posture, and the lowermost product 10R in the right-hand side column which has come out from the end of the spiral 3 is represented by a chain line. Thus, it is landed and held on the flapper 6R. Then, when the rotary shaft 4 rotates 180 °, the bend motor 2 stops and returns to the sale standby state.

Further, as a product sold-out detection device, there is a device in which a product detection lever and a micro switch, which are arranged on the back side of the rack case 1 at a position where they do not interfere with the spiral 3, are combined, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 5 (1993) -58. It is known from Japanese Patent No. 266325.

[0006]

By the way, when the food is put in a bowl container like frozen noodles and stored in the spiral bend rack of the above-mentioned conventional structure, the following troubles are caused in the sales operation. It is known from the result of the actual machine test that it will occur. That is, 1) The carry-out flappers 6L and 6R in FIG. 7 are supported in a horizontal posture from below by the control cam 7 in the sale standby position, and when the control cam 7 is disengaged in the process of the sale operation, the flapper 6L suddenly opens toward the drooping posture. To do. For this reason, the product (bowl container) placed on the flapper in the correct position at the sale standby position may be disturbed in the falling posture, and may be delivered to the product outlet in a state where the bowl container is upside down.

2) A product having a special shape such as a bowl container has an unstable storage attitude when loaded in the spiral 3.
Especially when the container is tilted during the downward transportation on the spiral or during the process of transferring from the end of the spiral to the carry-out flapper, the posture of the container tends to tilt. It may come off and a detection error may occur.

3) In the state where the inside of the refrigerator is kept cold at the freezing temperature, if the stand-by time for sale is long, ice sticks to the spindle of the carry-out flapper and freezes, and even if the control cam comes off during the selling operation, the flapper becomes a product. It may not be possible to open only with the weight of. For this reason, attempts have been made to attach a heater to the bearing so as to prevent the flapper spindle from freezing, but this heater heating method is not practical because heat loss and power consumption increase.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and based on a bend rack having a combination of spirally carrying out flappers as described above, the above 1) to 1).
An object of the present invention is to provide a spiral bend rack for a vending machine, which is improved to solve the problem 3).

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured as follows. 1) As a solution for preventing the carrying-out posture of the product (bowl container) from falling, the cam surface of the control cam provided on the lower surface side of the carrying-out flapper is slanted downward along the circumferential direction from the front edge to the rear edge. Make an inclined shape.

Thus, during the selling operation, the carry-out flapper does not suddenly open from the horizontal position to the open position in the hanging position, and while being carried by the control cam, the carry-out flapper follows the inclined surface of the cam as the control cam rotates. The flapper gradually opens, and when the control cam finally comes off, it opens in a drooping position by its own weight. As a result, the next-sale product placed on the carry-out flapper is carried out while maintaining a stable posture, and the carry-out trouble that the bowl container is repeated during the fall can be favorably prevented.

2) As a solution for accurately detecting the sold-out of a product, a product presence / absence detection means for detecting whether or not the product is placed on the flapper at the sale standby position of the carry-out flapper is incorporated. And Here, the product presence / absence detection means includes, for example, a weight detection plate that is arranged on the upper surface of the carry-out flapper and is biased upward by a spring, and a switch (micro switch or reed switch) that opens and closes using the detection plate as an actuator. A combination of is used. This makes it possible to accurately detect whether or not the product is placed on the carry-out flapper at the next sale standby position as a weight load applied to the detection plate without being influenced by the shape of the product (bowl container). Then, when there is no product, the detection plate is pushed upward by the spring bias to operate the switch, and based on this switch operation, the control unit determines that the product is sold out and stops selling.

3) As a means for preventing the carrying-out trouble due to the freezing of the carrying-out flapper's support shaft, the movement of pushing out one flapper to the closed position is used by linking the carrying-out flappers arranged side by side with each other. Then, an interlock means for forcibly opening the other flapper is provided. Here, the interlock means is, for example, a flapper retainer rod that is connected to one of the carry-out flappers and extends to the upper surface of the other carry-out flapper, and when one of the carry-out flappers is pushed up to the closed position by the control cam. In synchronism with the movement, the other flapper pressing rod, in which the flapper presser bar is frozen at the closed position and stopped, is kicked downward to forcefully open.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings of the embodiments, the same members corresponding to FIG. 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals. [Embodiment 1] FIGS. 1 to 4 show an embodiment corresponding to claim 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sales standby state, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are control cam rotation angles 45 at the time of sales. °, 9
It shows the movement of the carry-out flapper corresponding to 0 ° and 180 °. The products for sale will be the products in bowls.

Here, a control cam 5 incorporated in a bend rack and connected to the tip of the output rotary shaft 4 of the bend motor 2 is provided.
As shown in FIGS. 1 (c) and 1 (d), the whole is L-shaped, and its cam surface is downward in the circumferential direction from the front edge to the rear edge with respect to the rotation direction of the rotating shaft 4. It is formed in a curved shape with an inclination (inclination angle θ), and the inclined cam surfaces support the carry-out flappers 6R and 6L arranged side by side from below.

With such a configuration, during the standby for sale in FIG. 1, the leftmost carry-out flapper 6L is supported by the control cam 5 in a horizontal posture to stand by at the closed position, and the lowest product 10 stored in the left row is It comes out from the end of the spiral 3 and is placed on the carry-out flapper 6L. Here, when the bend motor 2 is started by the sales command and the rotary shaft 4 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction, the control cam 5 following this controls the carry-out flappers 6L and 6R in the following manner.

That is, the control cam 5 moves from the standby position to 45
When rotated by °, as shown in Fig. 2, the carry-out flapper 6 on the right side
While R is in the hanging posture, the left-side carry-out flapper 6L starts to open obliquely downward along the inclined surface of the control cam 5, and
The posture of the product 10 placed on the flapper is also inclined. Further, when the rotation angle advances to 90 °, the opening angle of the carry-out flapper 6L on the left side increases as shown in FIG. 3, and the product 10 placed on the flapper leans against the side wall of the rack case 1 as shown in the figure. On the other hand, the front end of the control cam 5 engages with the carry-out flapper 6R on the right side to start pushing up the flapper. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, when the rotation angle becomes 180 °, the control cam 5 is disengaged from the carry-out flapper 6L on the left side and the flapper is fully opened, so that the commodity 10 is the same as when it is stored with the bottom of the bowl container facing downward. While carrying out the drop in a posture, on the other hand, the carry-out flapper 6R on the right side
Returns to the horizontal position, and the products stored in the right row on top of it return from the end of the spiral 3 and carry out the flapper 6
It lands on R and is held at the next standby position for sale. When the rotary shaft 4 is rotated 180 °,
The self-propelled cam switch 9 shown in FIG.
To return to the sales standby state.

As can be seen from the above operation, by tilting the cam surface of the control cam 5 downward, the carry-out flappers 6L and 6R do not open all at once during the sales operation but open as the control cam 5 rotates. The angle gradually deepens. As a result, the carrying-out posture of the bowl container of the product 10 placed on the carrying-out flapper is not greatly disturbed, and the container bottom is dropped and carried out at the same time when the flapper is opened.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 5 shows an embodiment corresponding to claim 2 of the present invention. In this embodiment, the left and right carry-out flappers 6L and 6R are provided with the commodity presence / absence detecting means having the following configuration. That is, on the upper surface side of the carry-out flappers 6L and 6R, one end is hinge-coupled to the support shaft 7 of the flapper, and a weight detection plate 11 which is biased upward by a torsion coil spring (not shown) is provided. A reed switch 13 is installed as a product sold-out detection switch on the back side of the rack case 1 so as to face the magnet 12 attached to the weight detection plate 11.

The product sold-out detection according to the above configuration is performed as follows. That is, as shown in the figure, the carry-out flapper 6L is in the sales standby state in which the left carry-out flapper 6L is closed.
When the product 10 is placed on L as indicated by the chain line, the detection plate 11 overlaps the upper surface of the flapper by the weight of the product 10,
At this position, the reed switch 13 is turned on by the magnetic field of the magnet 12 attached to the detection plate to detect "there is a product". On the other hand, when all the products loaded in the spiral 3 are sold and the inventory becomes zero, and there is no product on the carry-out flapper that is held in the horizontal position in the sales standby state, the weight detection plate 11 is spring-biased. Thus, the reed switch 13 is turned off by jumping upward. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine whether or not the product 10 is in the next sale standby position from the ON / OFF condition of the reed switch 13. Further, in this case, the detection plate 1 is weighted by the product regardless of the posture of the product placed on the carry-out flapper.
Since 2 is pressed in, there is no risk of detection error. Moreover, since the presence or absence of the product to be sold next time is detected on the carry-out flapper, the last one can be sold without leaving the unsold product in the rack.

In the illustrated embodiment, the carry-out flapper 6L,
Although the weight detection plate 11 is attached to the upper surface side of the 6R, the weight detection plate 11 is omitted, and instead, the carry-out flapper is pushed upward from the horizontal position by the spring bias at the closed position, and the product is placed on the upper side. If it is supported by the control cam 7,
The presence / absence of a product can be detected by using the carry-out flapper itself as a weight detection plate.

[Embodiment 3] FIG. 6 shows an embodiment corresponding to claim 3 of the present invention for preventing a defective opening / closing operation of the flapper due to the suspension shaft freezing of the carry-out flapper.
In this embodiment, left and right carry-out flappers 6L and 6R
The flapper pressing member 14 curved as shown in the figure serves as an interlocking means for forcibly opening the other flapper by using the movement of one flapper pushed up to the closed position. Each 6L and 6R is equipped in a corner that does not interfere with the product. The flapper pressing member 14 is an inverted U-shaped arm having one end coupled to one flapper and the other end protruding toward the upper surface of the other flapper. In FIG. 6, the flapper pressing member attached to the carry-out flapper 6R on the right side. Although only 14 is illustrated, the flapper pressing member 14 having the same structure is also provided on the left carry-out flapper 6L in a staggered arrangement.

Then, in the course of the selling operation for carrying out the stored products in the left column, the right-side carry-out flapper 6R, which has hung in the hanging posture as described in FIG. 3, is pushed up by the control cam 5 and approaches the horizontal posture. In this state, the tip of the flapper pressing member 14 that has rotated counterclockwise from the position indicated by the chain line projects to the upper surface side of the left carry-out flapper 6L. At this point, normally, the left carry-out flapper 6L from which the control cam 5 is removed is opened by its own weight, but the spindle of the carry-out flapper 6L is frozen due to the freezing of the inside of the refrigerator, so that the weight of the product is added. If the flapper does not open, the flapper pressing member 14 kicks the upper surface of the flapper downward, and the pushing force causes the carry-out flapper 6L to be forcibly opened to carry the product. In addition, when the right side carry-out flapper 6R is frozen and does not open when the goods are carried out from the right side row, a flapper pressing member (not shown) provided on the left side carry-out flapper 6L kicks the right side carry-out flapper 6R. Then forcefully release it. As a result, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the trouble of carrying out the product due to the flapper shaft being frozen.

[0024]

As described above, the structure of the present invention has the following effects. 1) When the control cam of the carry-out flapper incorporated in the bend rack is tilted downward as in claim 1, the carry-out flapper gradually increases the opening angle from the sale standby position. Even if the product is a deformed product such as a bowl container, it can be dropped and carried out while maintaining a stable posture when being carried out from the bend rack, thereby preventing a carry-out trouble such as a fall of the bowl container.

2) By adopting the configuration of claim 2 as the product presence / absence detection means, even if the storage posture of the product in the rack is tilted, it can be reliably detected without being influenced by this. Moreover, by detecting the presence / absence of the product on the carry-out flapper where the product to be sold next time is on standby, it is possible to sell up to the last one without leaving the product in the rack. 3) As in claim 3, by providing a mechanical interlock means for linking the carry-out flappers for the right and left columns to each other, the inside of the refrigerator is kept at a freezing temperature so as to sell frozen products. In this state, even if the carry-out flapper at the sale standby position freezes and cannot be opened by its own weight, the movement of the other carry-out flapper pushed up by the control cam is used to forcibly push the frozen flapper. You can open it and take out the product securely.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams showing a sales standby state of a bend rack according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a front view, FIG. 1B is a bottom view, and FIG. 1C is a control cam incorporated in the bend rack. Side view, (d) is an external perspective view of the control cam

FIG. 2 is a control cam rotation angle 45 during the sales operation of FIG.
It is a figure showing the state of °, (a) is a front view of the bend rack, (b) is a bottom view

FIG. 3 is a control cam rotation angle 90 during the selling operation of FIG.
It is a figure showing the state of °, (a) is a front view of the bend rack, (b) is a bottom view

FIG. 4 is a control cam rotation angle 18 during the sales operation in FIG.
It is a figure showing the state of 0 degree, (a) is a front view of a bend rack, (b) is a bottom view

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration and an operation of a product presence / absence detection unit equipped in a bend rack according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration and an operation of an interlock means provided in a bend rack corresponding to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a conventional configuration diagram of a spiral bend rack to which the present invention is applied, in which (a) is a front view and (b) is a plan view of a carry-out flapper and a control cam in (a).

[Explanation of symbols]

1 rack case 2 Bend motor 3 spiral 4 output rotation axis 5 control cam 6L, 6R carry-out flapper 7 flapper spindle 10 products 11 Weight detection plate 12 magnets 13 Reed switch (Product sold-out detection switch) 14 Flapper pressing member (interlock means)

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vertical axis spiral connected to an output rotary shaft of a bend motor is installed in a rack case, and the products loaded into the respective coil pitches of the spiral are delivered in an alternating order from the lowest order to the left and right. It is a spiral bend rack, and a pair of left and right carry-out flappers that receive products that have exited from the end of the spiral and hold them at the next sale standby position on the outlet end side of the rack case, and support the carry-out flapper from the bottom side. In the one provided with a half-moon shaped control cam which is connected to the tip of the rotary shaft and which alternately opens and closes the carry-out flapper in conjunction with the spiral, the cam surface of the control cam is rotated from its front edge to its rear edge. A spiral bend rack for a vending machine, which is slanted downward along the direction. 2. A spiral in which a vertical spiral connected to a rotary shaft of a bend motor is installed in a rack case, and the products loaded into the left and right two rows and mounted between coil pitches of the spiral are carried out in an alternating order from the bottom to the left and right. Type bend rack, a pair of left and right carry-out flappers that receive products that have exited from the end of the spiral on the exit side of the case of the product rack and hold them at the next sale standby position, and the carry-out flapper is linked to the spiral and alternates left and right. together in that a control cam for opening and closing, is coupled to the support shaft of the discharge flapper to the transportable
Weight detection plate that is spring-biased upward on the top of the flapper
And when the carry-out flapper is in the sale standby position,
On the rear side of the rack case, opposite the spindle side of the weight detection plate.
Consists of a product sold-out detection switch facing the opposite end
With the product presence / absence detection means, the edge of the weight detection plate is
Depending on whether or not it faces the sold-out detection switch
Whether the goods are placed on the carry-out flapper.
A spiral bend rack for vending machines, which is characterized by detecting 3. A spiral for incorporating a vertical axis spiral connected to a rotary shaft of a bend motor in a rack case, and distributing products into two rows on the left and right and loading between coil pitches of the spiral in an alternating order from the bottom to the left and right. Type bend rack, a pair of left and right carry-out flappers that receive the product that has come out from the end of the spiral on the case outlet end side of the product rack and hold it at the next sale standby position, and support the carry-out flapper from the lower surface side. A control cam that is connected to the tip of the rotary shaft and that opens and closes the carry-out flapper alternately left and right in conjunction with the spiral, and one end of which is connected to the upper surface of the carry-out flapper.
In fact, the other end extends to the upper surface of the other carry-out flapper.
A flapper pressing member, wherein the flapper pressing member is
In the movement that the above-mentioned carry-out flapper is pushed up to the closed position
In conjunction with this, kick the other carry-out flapper downwards.
A spiral bend rack for vending machines, which is characterized by being forced to open .