JP3972781B2 - Powder raw material canister - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a powder raw material canister that is mounted on a beverage supply device such as a cup-type vending machine or a beverage dispenser, and supplies a fixed amount of powder raw material for beverages or as a topping material added to a beverage after cooking. In particular, the present invention relates to a powder raw material canister having a screw and a stirring spring that enables quantitative discharge of the powder raw material.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, there are powder raw material canisters in which a screw is provided inside a raw material container for storing a powder raw material, and a hammering type stirring means that operates in conjunction with the rotation of the screw is provided (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2002). -125-235).
[0003]
The screw is provided with screw blades on the axis of the rotating shaft. The screw blades are spirally connected along the rotation axis. The agitation means includes an agitation spring having a leaf spring structure. The stirring spring has an upper end bent into a substantially Z shape fixed to a wall on the rear side in the raw material container, and the tip claw is hooked on the peripheral edge of the screw blade while being bent forward.
[0004]
And if a screw is rotated in the state which accommodated the powder raw material in the raw material container, a powder raw material will be extruded ahead by the conveyance of a screw, and will be discharged. In the conveying process by the screw, the stirring spring is pushed up by the rotation of the screw blade, and finally the engagement with the screw blade is released and the spring returns. When the spring returns, the stirring spring abuts against the screw blade and vibrates, and this vibration breaks up the lump of powder raw material stored in the raw material container and promotes flow.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the above-described powder raw material canister, the powder raw material in the raw material container gradually becomes hollow in the process of discharging the raw material, and quantitative discharge is difficult. The cause of voids in the powder material is often the powder material with very fine particles and poor fluidity. Even if the powder material is discharged by a screw and the powder material at the bottom of the material container is reduced, the upper part of the material container Since the powder raw material stays at the upper part without falling, a cavity is generated between the upper part and the lower part of the raw material container. When the cavity is formed, since the powder raw material is not supplied to the screw portion, the discharge amount gradually decreases, so that quantitative discharge becomes difficult.
[0006]
The powder raw material canister described above employs a stirring spring for the purpose of preventing the powder raw material from being hollowed out and discharging the powder raw material quantitatively. However, the agitation spring is a mechanism that is pushed up by the screw blade by the rotational movement of the screw and flexes to repel the powder material, but the spring return force that is disengaged from the screw blade is directed toward the screw rotation shaft. Therefore, vibration may not reach the powder raw material at the upper part of the raw material container. In addition, the spring restoring force is generated when the tip claw portion of the stirring spring is pushed up by the screw blade and bent and repelled. Therefore, the spring restoring force is caused by the height of the screw blade from the rotation axis, and is large enough to obtain sufficient vibration. Elastic force cannot be obtained. Furthermore, since the agitating spring has the bent upper end fixed to the rear wall surface in the raw material container, vibration is transmitted toward the rear wall surface in the raw material container, so that the powder raw material is discharged. The vibration is not sufficiently transmitted to the front of the raw material container. As a result, the agitation spring is an insufficient mechanism for preventing the powder raw material from being hollowed out.
[0007]
Further, the screw that bends and repels the stirring spring is provided with screw blades spirally connected along the rotation axis. Therefore, it is difficult to operate the return force of the stirring spring at a predetermined position or a predetermined rotation stroke of the screw because it is not determined where the tip claw portion of the stirring spring is disengaged from the screw blade. there were. For this reason, for example, if the powder raw material is discharged once by one rotation of the screw, the restoring force of the stirring spring cannot be obtained for each discharge, and therefore the powder raw material cannot be discharged quantitatively. Problems arise.
[0008]
In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a powder raw material canister that can reliably prevent cavitation of the powder raw material and quantitatively discharge the powder raw material.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a powder raw material canister according to claim 1 of the present invention is a powder raw material canister that stores powder raw material in a raw material container and discharges the powder raw material from the raw material container quantitatively. A screw provided inside the container and having a screw blade for rotating and feeding the powder raw material in a predetermined discharge direction, one end side is fixed to the raw material container, and the other end side can be engaged with and disengaged from the screw blade of the screw. The screw has a notch for releasing the engagement of the stirring spring in a part of the screw blade.
[0010]
Also, the powder raw material canister according to claim 2 of the present invention, in the claim 1, wherein the agitation spring, Ri Na linear member having elasticity is bent into a spiral, with the rotation of the screw It is elastically deformed and generates an elastic force along the discharge direction of the powder raw material by detachment from the screw blade .
[0011]
A powder raw material canister according to claim 3 of the present invention is the powder raw material canister according to claim 1 or 2, wherein one end side of the stirring spring is fixed to the front side of the raw material container having the discharge port for the powder raw material. The end side is arranged as a free end on the rear side of the raw material container.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of a powder raw material canister according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a side view showing an overall configuration of a powder raw material canister according to the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view showing a stirring spring of the powder raw material canister, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing a screw of the powder raw material canister. 4A and 4B are operation diagrams of the powder raw material canister.
[0014]
The powder raw material canister is, for example, applied to a cup-type beverage vending machine, and is mounted on a cup conveyance path in the machine, where powder raw materials such as coffee, cocoa, and tea are stored. A fixed amount of powder raw material is supplied to a cup or beverage production department (mixing ball). And a cup-type drink vending machine sends out the cup containing a drink prepared by adding hot water or water supplied from the hot water tank to the bend stage.
[0015]
In addition, before sending the beverage cup to the bend stage, powder raw materials such as cinnamon as a fragrance for beverages and other powdery topping materials for coloring and seasoning are added. As the supply means, the powder raw material canister is used.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 1, the powder raw material canister used as described above has a raw material container 1 as a base. The raw material container 1 has a box shape that opens to the top, and has an upper lid 1a that closes the opening. By opening the upper lid 1a, the powder raw material can be introduced from the opening. The raw material container 1 stores the charged powder raw material.
[0017]
The raw material container 1 includes a trough part 2, a screw 3 and a stirring spring 4. The trough portion 2 is provided on the bottom side of the raw material container 1 and forms a conveyance passage for conveying the powder raw material in the direction of arrow A in FIG. A screw 3 is incorporated in the trough portion 2 that forms the conveyance path. In addition, a discharge port 2 a for discharging the powder raw material to the outside of the raw material container 1 along the conveyance path is provided on the front side of the trough portion 2.
[0018]
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the screw 3 has a structure in which screw blades 3 b are provided spirally around the axis of the longitudinal rotation shaft 3 a in the front and rear direction. As shown in FIG. 1, the screw 3 is arranged along a conveyance path formed by the trough portion 2, and a rotary shaft 3 a is rotatably supported between the discharge port 2 a side and the rear side of the raw material container 1. Yes. The rear end of the rotary shaft 3 a is drawn out from the rear side of the raw material container 1 and connected to the shaft joint 6 by a snap pin 5. The shaft coupling 6 is connected to a drive motor (geared motor) 7. That is, the screw 3 rotates in the trough part 2 via the shaft coupling 6 as the drive motor 7 rotates, and extrudes the powder raw material in the trough part 2 from the discharge port 2a. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the screw blade 3 b of the screw 3 is formed with a notch 3 c. A part of the screw blade 3b is notched in the notch 3c so as to divide the longitudinal direction of the rotating shaft 3a back and forth.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 2, the stirring spring 4 is formed by bending a linear body having elasticity such as a steel wire in a three-dimensional manner. The agitation spring 4 in the present embodiment forms a so-called compression coil spring by bending a linear body having elasticity into a spiral shape. The stirring spring 4 thus formed has one end 4a fixed to the front inner wall surface 1b of the raw material container 1 where the powder raw material discharge port 2a is located, and the other end 4b is free end on the rear side of the raw material container 1. It is arranged as. Further, the other end 4b (free end) of the stirring spring 4 can be engaged with the screw blade 3b of the screw 3 and can be detached at the notch 3c of the screw blade 3b. Thus, the other end side 4b of the stirring spring 4 can be engaged with and disengaged from the screw blade 3b.
[0020]
Thereby, the agitation spring 4 exists three-dimensionally over a wide range of the substantially lower half in the raw material container 1 which is the upper part of the trough part 2 and the screw 3 from the front side to the rear side in the raw material container 1, and The elastic force is generated in the direction along the rotation shaft 3a of the screw 3, in other words, in the direction along the conveyance path formed by the trough portion 2, and in other words, in the discharge direction of the powder raw material.
[0021]
The shape of the bending process of the stirring spring 4 is not limited to a spiral shape as long as it exists three-dimensionally in the raw material container 1 as described above and produces the elastic force.
[0022]
The operation of the powder raw material canister thus configured will be described. As shown in FIG. 4A, when the screw 3 is rotated, for example, once while the powder raw material 8 is accommodated in the raw material container 1, the powder raw material 8 is conveyed forward by the conveyance of the screw 3 and discharged from the discharge port 2a. . During this process, the other end side 4b of the stirring spring 4 engages with the screw blade 3b during the conveying process by the screw 3, and is compressed (elastically deformed) as shown in FIG. When the other end 4b of the compressed stirring spring 4 reaches the position of the notch 3c provided in the screw blade 3b by further rotation of the screw 3, the other end 4b of the stirring spring 4 is connected to the screw blade 3b. It disengages from the engagement and returns to the state before compression as shown in FIG. That is, the agitation spring 4 repeats the above operation every rotation of the screw 3 that discharges the powder raw material once.
[0023]
Here, when the agitation spring 4 returns from the state shown in FIG. 4A to the state shown in FIG. 4B, the agitation spring 4 abuts against the screw blade 3b and vibrates, or agitates the powder raw material 8 in the raw material container 1. Thereby, the stirring spring 4 breaks up the lump of the powder raw material 8 accommodated in the raw material container 1 to promote the flow, and prevents the powder raw material 8 from becoming hollow.
[0024]
In particular, the agitation spring 4 having the above-described configuration exists three-dimensionally over a wide area in the substantially lower half of the raw material container 1 from the front side to the rear side in the raw material container 1, so Is preferably promoted.
[0025]
Further, since the agitation spring 4 generates an elastic force along the discharge direction of the powder raw material 8 by detachment from the screw blade 3b after being compressed with the rotation of the screw 3, it generates sufficient vibration due to the large elastic force. Then, the flow of the powder raw material 8 is more preferably promoted.
[0026]
Furthermore, since the stirring spring 4 is fixed to the inner wall surface 1b on the front side of the raw material container 1 having the discharge port 2a for the powder raw material 8 at one end side 4a, vibration that should break the lump of the powder raw material 8 is provided on the discharge port 2a side. Is suitably transmitted.
[0027]
Further, the screw 3 disengages the stirring spring 4 from the screw blade 3b by a notch 3c provided in the screw blade 3b. That is, the screw 3 always flexes and repels the other end 4b of the stirring spring 4 at the same position during one rotation, and operates the spring return force of the stirring spring 4 at a predetermined position or a predetermined rotation stroke of the screw 3. ing. Thereby, since periodic vibration application and stirring operation are performed, the powder raw material 8 can be quantitatively discharged.
[0028]
In addition, since the powder raw material canister in the above-described embodiment can quantitatively discharge by preventing the powder raw material 8 in the raw material container 1 from being hollow as described above, the powder is very fine and has poor fluidity. It exhibits a sufficient effect on the raw material 8 and can be suitably used as a powder raw material supply means for adding a small amount of a powdery topping material such as aroma, color and seasoning to a beverage.
[0029]
Here, the experimental results using the above-described powder raw material canister will be described with reference to the discharge amount of the powder raw material when the stirring spring 4 and the screw 3 of FIG. 5 are used. In FIG. 5, the vertical axis represents the protruding amount of the powder raw material 8, and the horizontal axis represents the number of drinks to which the powder raw material 8 is added. As shown in FIG. 5, by using the stirring spring 4 and the screw 3 described above, the hollowing of the ingredient container 1 is suppressed, and the powder ingredient 8 is added quantitatively for each beverage. I understand. Specifically, the average value of the discharge amount of the powder material is 0.038 g, the maximum discharge value is 0.07 g, and the standard deviation is 0.0109, and it can be confirmed that a small amount of discharge of the powder material is quantitatively performed. .
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the powder raw material canister of the present invention, since the stirring spring exists three-dimensionally over a wide range in the raw material container, the vibration of the stirring spring when separated from the screw blades Communicate widely. Further, since the stirring spring is elastically deformed with the rotation of the screw and generates an elastic force along the discharge direction of the powder raw material by being detached from the screw blade, sufficient vibration is generated by the large elastic force. Thereby, the flow of the powder raw material is favorably promoted, and the hollowing of the powder raw material in the raw material container can be prevented.
[0031]
In particular, if the stirring spring has a configuration in which a linear body having elasticity is bent into a spiral shape, transmission of a wide range of vibrations and a large elastic force can be obtained as appropriate.
[0032]
In addition, if one end of the stirring spring is fixed to the front side of the raw material container having the discharge port for the powder raw material and the other end side is arranged as a free end on the rear side of the raw material container, vibration to break the powder raw material lump is generated. It can transmit suitably to the discharge outlet side of a raw material.
[0033]
In addition, if a notch for releasing the engagement of the stirring spring is provided at a part of the screw blade on the screw, the stirring spring always bends and repels at the same position. For example, each rotation of the screw that discharges the powder material once The return force of the stirring spring can be operated. Thereby, since a periodic vibration application and a stirring operation are performed, the powder raw material can be discharged quantitatively.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a side view showing an overall configuration of a powder raw material canister according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view showing a stirring spring of a powder raw material canister.
FIG. 3 is a side view showing a screw of a powder raw material canister.
4A and 4B are operation diagrams of a powder raw material canister.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the discharge amount of the over-powder raw material when a stirring spring and a screw are used.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Raw material container 2a Discharge port 3 Screw 3a Rotating shaft 3b Screw blade 3c Notch part 4 Stirring spring 4a One end side 4b The other end side 8 Powder raw material

Claims (3)

In a powder raw material canister that stores powder raw material in a raw material container and discharges the powder raw material from the raw material container in a fixed amount,
A screw provided inside the raw material container and having a screw blade for rotating and feeding the powder raw material in a predetermined discharge direction;
One end side is fixed to the raw material container, and the other end side is engageable with the screw blade of the screw, and a stirring spring,
The powder raw material canister is characterized in that the screw has a notch portion for disengaging the stirring spring in a part of the screw blade. Elastic the stirring spring, Ri Na linear member having elasticity is bent into a spiral, along the discharge direction of the powder raw material is elastically deformed with the rotation of the screw by the withdrawal from the screw blade The powder raw material canister according to claim 1, wherein force is generated .   2. The stirring spring, wherein one end side is fixed to a front side of the raw material container having a discharge port for the powder raw material, and the other end side is arranged as a free end on the rear side of the raw material container. The powder raw material canister according to claim 2.

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