JPH0228950Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a ball launcher for an electric pachinko machine that launches a ball using the elastic force of a spring.

(Prior art and its problems) A batted ball launcher has a firing rod that fires a batted ball, a biasing spring that biases the firing rod to launch, and adjusts the flight distance of the batted ball by adjusting the elastic force of the biasing spring. It is equipped with an operating lever that operates the firing rod, and a drive mechanism that drives the firing rod.

In general, the control lever of the control unit has a 90° to
It has a rotation range of 110 degrees. This is because if the amount of rotation of this operating lever is increased to 110 degrees or more, wrist fatigue will increase and operability will decrease, making it difficult to play the game for a long time.

By the way, the biasing spring that biases the firing rod to launch is
An effective batted ball that reaches the inside of the gaming section, i.e., a strength that allows the ball to be fired between points A and B of the gaming section 102 surrounded by the guide rail 101 shown in FIG. , operation lever 10
An essential condition is that the ball should have an elasticity that is weak enough that the ball fired at the beginning of the rotation of the ball does not reach point A.

The former is necessary due to the inherent nature of the game, which is to increase the winning rate by dropping the ball to any point between points A and B. This is necessary in order to fire the remaining batted balls into flying balls and collect them in the receiving tray 106.

In this way, the biasing spring of the firing rod can concentrate the ball to any point between the points A and B within the rotation amount of the operating lever 104 (approximately 110 degrees). It must have the ability to reliably generate a fur ball at the initial stage of rotation of the operating lever.

Conventionally, however, a single tension spring 107 as shown in FIG.
In addition, the other end was connected to the winding section 109 of the operating lever 104 of the operating section 103, and the elastic force was adjusted by increasing or decreasing the winding amount of the operating lever 104.

For this reason, the full load of the biasing spring is directly applied to the operating lever 104 of the operating section 103, making it difficult to operate the operating lever 104, resulting in increased hand fatigue for the player.

As a means to solve this problem,
The following invention is proposed in Publication No. 138473.

The present invention is characterized in that the hammer arm spring (the spring for biasing the firing rod in the present invention) and the ball-striking force adjustment spring are constructed separately.

However, the hammer arm spring of the present invention uses a conventional tension spring in which elastic force acts in the axial direction of the winding. Therefore, in principle, the tensioning direction of the spring must be the straight direction. The first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the third embodiment shown in FIG. 8, and the third embodiment shown in FIG. In all of the four embodiments, the hammer arm springs (biasing springs) are stretched linearly and utilize the elastic force acting in the axial direction of the winding.

In such a hammer arm spring, the tension area of the spring is a plane that is an extension of the rotation plane drawn when the hammer arm (launching rod) rotates, in other words, the rotation area of the hammer arm (launching rod). Is it a plane perpendicular to the axis of the moving axis?
At best, it is limited to planes parallel to this plane. Therefore, there is a limit to the reduction of the tension area of the spring, that is, the miniaturization of the ball launcher.

The present invention aims to solve this problem.

(Means for solving the problem) In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a front frame 1
The rotating shaft 7 is passed through the shaft hole 4 of the mounting board 3 to which the mounting board 3 is fixed.
A cylindrical bearing housing 8 that is rotatably supported through the cylinder 02, 803 is provided with the rotation shaft 7 passing through the center axis of the cylinder, and a locking portion 1101 is provided at the end of the rotation shaft 7. The member 11 is connected to the rotation shaft 7
The base of a firing rod 5 that fires a batted ball is fixed to the rotation shaft 7 on the surface side of the mounting board 3, and the firing rod 5
A coil-shaped biasing spring 9 for biasing the firing rod 5 to fire is coaxially wound around the outer periphery of the bearing housing 8, and one end of the biasing spring 9 connects to the passive member. 11, and the other end is a fine adjustment operation member 18 disposed on the surface side of the mounting board 3.
Accordingly, the structure is such that it is linked to a fine adjustment mechanism 19 that finely adjusts the biasing force of the biasing spring 9.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on the drawings from FIG. 3 onwards showing an example of implementation.

In FIG. 4, a shaft hole 4 is drilled in the mounting board 3 of the launcher 2 (FIG. 2) fixed to the back side of the front frame 1, and a shaft hole 4 is inserted into the shaft hole 4 on the back side of the mounting board 3 (see FIG. A rotation shaft 7 to which a firing rod 5 and a passive rod 6 are integrally fixed is passed through from the right side of the drawing.

This rotating shaft 7 has bearings 801, 803 and a collar 802 on the back side of the mounting board 3 through which it passes.
The bearing housing 8 is rotatably mounted on the mounting board 3 with a bearing housing 8 having a bearing housing 8 and the like.

The bearing housing 8 of the embodiment is a bottomed cylindrical body with one end open, and is fixed to the mounting board so that the open side is in contact with the back side of the mounting board. The rotating shaft 7 is passed through the center axis of the cylindrical bearing housing 8, and the tip end 10 of the shaft passes through the bottom of the cylinder and projects outside the bearing housing 8.

A coil-shaped biasing spring 9 that is elastically deformed in response to torsion is attached to the outer periphery of the bearing housing 8 so that the central axis of the cylinder of the cylindrical bearing housing 8, and thus the axis of the rotating shaft 7, are common. The spring wire is wound coaxially around the wire.

Then, one end of this biasing spring 9 is connected to a tip portion 10 of the rotating shaft 7 that protrudes from the bearing housing 8.
It is locked to a passive member 11 provided at. The passive member 11 of the embodiment is a lever extending in the diametrical direction of the rotating shaft 7 and is fixed to the rotating shaft 7.

One end of the biasing spring 9 is latched to a latching portion 1101 provided at one end of the passive member 11. The locking portion 1101 of the embodiment is the passive member 1
The hole is made at 1.

On the other hand, the other end of the biasing spring 9 is connected to a fine adjustment mechanism 19 provided on the surface side of the mounting board 3. This fine adjustment mechanism 19 will be described later.

Incidentally, one end of an auxiliary biasing spring 12 that is elastically deformed (expanded) under tension in the axial direction of the winding is locked to the other end of the passive member 11. This auxiliary biasing spring 12 works together with the biasing spring 19 to bias the firing rod 5 to fire, and the other end is locked to a locking portion 55 protruding from the front surface of the mounting board 3. ing.

Next, the fine adjustment mechanism 19 will be explained.

4 and 5, the fine adjustment mechanism 1 of the embodiment
9 is disposed on the rotation shaft 7 on the rear side of the mounting board 3, and is connected to the spring receiving ring 13, the inner spring 14, and the driven member 1.
5, interlocking member 16, outer spring 17, and dial 1
It consists of 8 mag.

First, the spring bearing ring 13 is fitted onto the rotating shaft 7 so as to come into contact with the nut 20 that fixes the passive rod 6 to the rotating shaft 7, and the driven member 15 is moved toward the rear end of the rotating shaft 7. A pressing inner spring 14 is interposed on the rotating shaft 7 and fitted in the rearward direction.

This driven member 15 has a cylindrical portion 21 that encloses most of the inner spring 14 and a hollow long shaft 22 that fits into the rotating shaft 7. They are rotatably and slidably fitted.

Then, on the circumferential side of the cylindrical portion 21 of the driven member 15,
A spring hook 23 is provided on which one end of the biasing spring 9 is hooked, and an engagement portion 25 has engagement teeth 24 implanted in a ring shape on the periphery of the end surface facing the interlocking member 16.
has been formed. One end of the biasing spring 9 is connected to the spring hook 23 through the elongated hole 26 of the mounting board 3.

Next, the interlocking member 16 is connected to the cylindrical portion 2 of the driven member 15.
1, and in this fitting recess 27 are formed engagement teeth 28 that removably engage with the engagement teeth 24 of the driven member 15. An interlocking lever 29 is provided protruding from the outside of the fitting recess 27.

The long axis 22 of the driven member 15 has an interlocking member 1
A dial 18 as a fine adjustment operation member is integrally attached to the end of the long shaft 22 via an outer spring 17 that presses the interlocking member 16 toward the driven member 15. (Fig. 3).

In FIG. 3, an interlocking board 30 is rotatably attached to the mounting board 3 on the lower right side of the interlocking member 16, and the tip thereof is connected to the interlocking lever 29 of the interlocking member 16 on the side surface of the interlocking board 30. The base of the connecting rod 31 is pivotally connected.

An operation section 33 is provided on the outer peripheral side of the interlocking panel 30.
The end of the rope 32 connected to the take-up pulley 34 is connected and fixed.

The rope 32 is placed under tension so that the operating lever 35 of the operating section 33 that rotates the take-up pulley 34 is maintained in the stopped state before starting.
In this state, the interlocking member 1
A stopper 36 for preventing left rotation of the interlocking member 16 is provided protruding from the mounting board 3 at a position where the interlocking lever 29 of the interlocking member 16 comes into contact.

As described above, the other end of the biasing spring 9 includes the spring hanging piece 23, the driven member 15, the interlocking member 16, the interlocking lever 29, the connecting rod 31, the interlocking board 30, and the rope 32.
It is connected to an operating lever 35 that adjusts the elastic force of the firing rod 5 via a linking member such as a take-up pulley 34 and the like.

Note that the connection between the interlocking board 30 and the take-up pulley 34 of the operating lever 35 is not limited to the rope 32, but may also use an appropriate linking member such as a rod.

Referring again to FIG. 4, the cylindrical bearing housing 8
The biasing spring 9 wound around rotates the passive member 11 in the firing direction (to the right in the figure) due to its elasticity in the torsional direction rather than in the axial direction of the winding, and rotates the driven member 15 to the left ( A biasing force is applied to cause this (left side of the diagram). Therefore, the counterclockwise rotational force acting on the driven member 15 is applied to the interlocking member 16 that meshes with the driven member 15, but the counterclockwise rotation is prevented by the stopper 36 that engages with the interlocking lever 29 protruding from the interlocking member 16. be done.

In addition, this counterclockwise rotation force is transmitted through the linking member,
The operating lever 35 is biased toward the stop position, that is, toward the right rotation direction in FIG. 3.

It is best to apply this bias to such an extent that at least when the operating lever 35 is released, it can be quickly rotated to the right.

In FIG. 4, the clockwise rotational force acting on the passive member 11 is applied to the firing rod 5 via the rotation shaft 7, but the firing rod 5 is stopped with the tip of the punch facing the firing position 38 of the firing rail 37. Since the stopper 39 is provided so as to prevent the firing from occurring (FIG. 3), the firing remains in a stopped state while being energized to fire.

Therefore, when rotating the operating lever 35 to the left in FIG. 3 to adjust the flight distance of the ball, the biasing spring 9
Since only the urging force of is the resistance, the load applied to the operating lever 35 is halved compared to a conventional firing device using a single tension coil spring.

On the other hand, the elastic force applied to the firing rod 5 is the combined urging force of the urging spring 9 and the auxiliary urging spring 12.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the firing rod 5 is forcibly rotated to the left together with the rotation shaft 7 due to the engagement between the rotary cam 41 continuously rotated by the motor 40 and the roller 42 provided at the tip of the passive rod 6. However, as the passive member 11 rotates to the left, the biasing spring 9 accumulates an elastic force due to torsion, and the auxiliary biasing spring 12 accumulates an elastic force due to tension. At the moment when the roller 42 of the passive rod 6 and the rotating cam 41 are disengaged, the elastic forces of the biasing spring 9 and the auxiliary biasing spring 12 combine to cause a force to be applied to the firing rod 5. Become a biasing force,
The firing rod 5 is instantaneously rotated to the right to fire a batted ball that is stationary at a firing position 38 on a firing rail 37.

In this way, the biasing force, that is, the springing force applied to the firing rod 5 can be adjusted using the operating lever 35 by simply adjusting the springing force of the biasing spring 9.

However, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 can be finely adjusted before playing by pressing the fine adjustment operation member 18 of the fine adjustment mechanism 19 in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 7 and turning it left and right. It can be done extremely easily and quickly.

Adjustment work is carried out as follows.

First, the fine adjustment operation member 18 is pushed in against the urging force of the outer spring 17, and the fine adjustment operation member 18 and the driven member 15, which is integrally configured, are moved against the urging force of the inner spring 14 and attached to the mounting board. 3 side to disengage the interlocking member 16 and allow the fine adjustment operation member 18 to freely rotate relative to the rotation shaft 7.

In this case, the interlocking member 16 is similarly urged to slide in the direction of the mounting board 3 by the urging force of the outer spring 17, but the interlocking lever 2 protruding from the interlocking member 16
9 and an interlocking board 30 provided on the mounting board 3 are linked by a linking rod 31 made of steel wire, so sliding in the direction of the mounting board 3 is prevented. That is, interlocking member 1
The sliding in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 7 of 6 is caused by the interlocking rod 31.
It is regulated by.

Then, when the fine adjustment operation member 18 is turned clockwise, the torsion of the biasing spring 9 increases. In other words, the radial diameter of the biasing spring 9 becomes smaller and the elastic force becomes stronger. Conversely, when the fine adjustment operation member 18 is turned to the left, the elastic force is weakened.

Therefore, when the fine adjustment operation member 18 is turned to a desired position and the pressure on it is released, the engaging tooth 24 of the driven member 15 is moved to the engaging tooth 28 of the interlocking member 16 by the biasing force of the inner spring 14. The elastic force applied to the biasing spring 9 is reliably maintained.

Note that the engagement teeth 24 of the driven member 15 and the interlocking member 16
The smaller the pitch of the engaging teeth 28, the more finely the firing bias can be adjusted.

As described above, the elastic spring for urging the firing rod 5 to fire is divided into the urging spring 9 and the auxiliary urging spring 12, and only the elastic force of one of the divided urging springs 9 is applied. By hooking it onto the operating lever 35, hand fatigue during operation can be significantly reduced.

Also, only the elastic force of the other auxiliary biasing spring 12 is
It is also possible to reliably generate a Farr ball by setting it in advance to a degree that allows the production of a Farr ball.

For example, the maximum reaching point of the Fuar ball by the auxiliary biasing spring is set at point C shown in FIG. It is more effective for the point C to be closer to the point A, which is the branching point between effective ball hitting and the occurrence of a false ball, in that the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 can be made weaker.

In this case, as described above, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 is adjusted by rotating the operating lever 35, and when the operating lever 35 is rotated by a large amount, the elastic force of the auxiliary biasing spring 12 is adjusted. At the same time, it is necessary to have an elastic force that can concentrate the ball to any point between points A and B, but at the same time, at the beginning of the rotation of the operating lever 35, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 is required. The force should be set to such an extent that it does not affect the biasing force of the firing rod 5 as much as possible.

However, even at the beginning of the rotation of the operating lever 35, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 is slightly strengthened and acts on the firing rod 5, so the maximum reach of the ball due to the elastic force of the auxiliary bias spring 12 is If the point C of the barrel is too close to the point A, the elastic force of the auxiliary urging spring 12 will cause the urging spring 9
As a result of the added rebound force, there is a risk that the ball will exceed point A and a foul ball will not occur.

Therefore, the setting of point C needs to be determined in consideration of the elastic force exerted by the biasing spring 9 on the auxiliary biasing spring 12 at the initial stage of rotation of the operating lever 35.

In short, considering the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 which is biased by the auxiliary biasing spring 12, the point C, which is the most unusual arrival point of the Fuar ball, is on the near side of the point A, that is, the firing position 3.
It is set closer to 8.

On the other hand, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 is the same as that of the auxiliary biasing spring 1.
In combination with the elastic force of 2, the ball can be concentrated at any point between point A and point B. That is, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 may be within a range that allows the ball to reach from point C to point B.

The biasing spring 9 and the auxiliary biasing spring 12 explained above
The distribution of the elastic force to the player may be aimed at reliably generating a ball, and is not necessarily limited to the above distribution. For example, when the focus is on reducing player's hand fatigue, In this case, the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 applied to the operating lever 35 may be reduced.

Of course, in this case, the elastic force applied to the firing rod 5 is distributed to each of the two divided biasing springs 9 and 12 so that the combined elastic force of the two biasing springs 9 and 12 can be used to generate an effective ball hit and a flying ball. It is.

Next, the switch mechanism of the firing device 2 will be explained based on FIGS. 6 and 7.

The firing device 2 requires a starting switch for driving a drive mechanism and a single-shot switch for firing a single ball.

Conventionally, two switches were provided for this purpose, but in this example, one switch is used for both purposes.

That is, in the operating section 33 consisting of the front handshaking section 43, the rotating operating section 44 having the operating lever 35, the rotating operating section 44 having the operating lever 35, and the rear handshaking section 45, the rear handshaking section 45 A switch SW having a normally closed contact inside is provided so as to face the side surface of the rotary operation part 44, and a long press piece 46 is vertically provided so as to be able to swing freely so as to contact the push button of the switch SW.

An operating piece 47 is protruded from the side surface of the rotating operation part 44 at a position that corresponds to a part of the pressing piece 46, and a small hole 48 is bored in the lower part of the rear handshake part 45.
A single button 49 is inserted into this small hole 48.

The single-shot button 49 is provided with a protrusion 50 to be locked to the rear handshake part 45 so as not to fall out of the small hole 48, and a corresponding tapered surface 51 is formed in the pressing piece 46 to prevent the single-shot button 49 from falling out. The switch SW is turned OFF by pushing up the switch SW 49 and forcing the pressing piece 46 to press the tapered surface 51 thereof.

In addition, the single-shot button 46 normally descends due to its own weight,
In this state, the pressing piece 49 is not contacted.

Next, the ball firing operation will be explained.

Now, if the operation lever 35 is slightly rotated and maintained in the initial rotation state, the actuation piece 47 of the rotation operation section 44
rotates clockwise, the pressing piece 46 is released, and the switch is turned on.
The SW is turned ON and the motor 40 starts.

The rotating cam 41 rotates when the motor 40 starts,
The firing rod 5 is rotated in a direction opposite to the firing direction against the elastic force of the biasing spring 9 and the auxiliary biasing spring 12.
That is, the firing rod 5 is forcibly rotated by the rotating cam 41, and at the moment when the rotating cam 41 and the passive rod 6 of the firing rod 5 are disengaged, the firing rod 5 is rotated by the biasing spring 9 and the auxiliary biasing spring. The ball is fired and rotated by the combined impact force with 12 and comes to rest at the firing position 38.

In this case, the operating lever 35 is
Since it is turned only slightly to the extent that it is turned ON, the load applied to the operating lever 35, that is, the elastic force accumulated in the biasing spring 9 is small.

Therefore, the biasing force applied to the firing rod 5 in the initial state of rotation is mainly the determined elastic force of the auxiliary biasing spring 12, and as a result, the fired ball cannot exceed point A. It is possible to reliably generate a Fuar ball.

Next, in order to launch an effective hit ball, that is, a hit ball to any point between points A and B, the operating lever 35 is rotated further.

That is, since a large elastic force due to torsion is accumulated in the biasing spring 9 due to the rotation of the operation lever 35, the biasing spring 9 at the moment when the rotation cam 41 and the passive rod 6 are disengaged This increases the elastic force of the auxiliary biasing spring 12, and together with the elastic force of the auxiliary biasing spring 12, a large combined elastic force acts on the firing rod 5, and an effective ball is fired so that the ball exceeds point A.

In this case, the amount of rotation of the operating lever 35 is suitably controlled to fire the ball to any point between points A and B. In addition, since the load applied to the operating lever 35 is only the biasing force of the biasing spring 9, compared to the conventional case where all of the biasing force was the load on the operating lever 35, this is greatly reduced by half. .

(Effects of the invention) As described above, the present invention has a biasing spring, which serves as an elastic spring that urges the firing rod to fire, coaxially wrapped around the outer periphery of the bearing housing that supports the rotation axis of the firing rod. Compared to conventional batted ball launchers that use tension springs that apply elastic force in the axial direction of the windings, this biasing spring can be easily attached to the front frame and mounting. There is no need to extend it in the direction of the back surface of the board, and it can be set in a narrow area around the outer periphery of the bearing housing, making it possible to consolidate the ball launcher and greatly contribute to miniaturization. .

In addition, the biasing spring of the present invention utilizes elastic force that acts in the torsional direction of the spring, rather than in the axial direction of conventional tension springs, and is wound coaxially with the rotation axis. Therefore, the elastic force can be applied in a direction that is concentric with the rotation axis that rotates the firing rod, so that the elastic force acts in the tangential direction of the rotation axis and the concentric circle as in the past. , compared to those in which the axial direction of the tension spring changes moment by moment according to the inclination of the firing rod, and the elastic force tends to become unstable.
A stable elastic force can be obtained and the elastic force can be used more effectively.

Furthermore, compared to conventional biasing springs that are tensioned in a straight line that applies elastic force in the tangential direction of a circle concentric with the rotation axis, the present invention greatly reduces the deflection of the spring after the firing rod is fired. The vibration of the firing rod is suppressed, and the uneven flight of the ball can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a front view of a pachinko machine, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional ejection device, Fig. 3 and the following show embodiments of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the ejection device.
4 is a partially exploded perspective view of the firing mechanism, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the fine adjustment mechanism, FIG. 6 is a partially exploded perspective view of the operating section, and FIG. 7 is a front view of the switch mechanism. 1... Front frame, 2... Launching device, 3... Mounting board, 4... Shaft hole, 5... Launching rod, 7... Rotating shaft,
8...bearing housing, 9...biasing spring, 11...
... Passive member, 12 ... Auxiliary biasing spring, 18 ... Fine adjustment member, 19 ... Fine adjustment mechanism, 35 ... Operation lever, 41 ... Rotating cam, 1101 ... Locking part.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A rotating shaft is passed through the shaft hole of a mounting board fixed to the front frame, and the rotating shaft on the back side of the mounting board is
A cylindrical bearing housing for rotatably supporting the rotary shaft on the mounting board via a bearing is provided with the rotary shaft passing through the center axis of the cylinder, and a locking portion is provided at the end of the rotary shaft. A passive member is provided so as to rotate integrally with the rotating shaft, and the base of a firing rod that fires a batted ball is fixed to the rotating shaft on the front side of the mounting board, so that the firing rod can be rotated. , A coiled urging spring for urging the firing rod to fire is coaxially wound around the outer periphery of the bearing housing, and one end of the urging spring is latched to a locking portion of the passive member, and A ball firing device for a pachinko machine, characterized in that an end thereof is linked to a fine adjustment mechanism for finely adjusting the biasing force of the biasing spring by a fine adjustment operation member disposed on the surface side of the mounting board.