JPH03121590A - Commodity conveying device for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To convey the various linds of commodities with stable operation by pushing out the commodities, which are arranged in the lowest order of a shelf, to an enlarging part with shelf route width by the pushing operation of a pusher, simultaneously receiving the secondarily arranged commodities by the pusher protruded to a route in the shelf, temporarily locking and holding the commodities. CONSTITUTION:When a vend motor 3 is rotated from a sales standby state according to a sales command, control cams 7 and 8 are rotated together with a driving shaft and while following this rotation, a pusher 5 is protruded to the route in the shelf. Then, a commodity I arranged in the lowest order is pushed toward an enlarging part 1 in the route of the shelf and simultaneously, the pusher protruded in the shelf in the high order is protruded to the lower surface of a commodity II, which is arranged secondarily from the lowest order. Afterwards, the commodities arranged in the high order are temporarily locked and held. On the other hand, a commodity conveying flapper 6, which conventionally blocks the commodity exit of the shelf, is oscillated downward and opened and the commodity I in the lowest order is separated from the commodities arranged in the higher order, passed through the flapper 6, falls down and is conveyed from the exit of a commodity housing shelf 1. Thus, even the conveyance of the solid-state commodity excepting for a paper-packed type is controlled with the stable operation.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is directed to stacking products vertically in a shelf aisle of a vending machine, starting from the lowest one, based on a sales directive. This invention relates to a product delivery device for a vending machine that delivers products one by one.

[Conventional technology]

Targeting sales of paper-packed products such as soft drinks and milk,
Product delivery from a vending machine in which the products are stored vertically in a product storage shelf consisting of a box-shaped container with an open bottom surface in a direct stacking manner, and one product is taken out from the lowest position each time a sales operation is made. A device is known from Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 60-166081.

Such a product delivery device carries the products lined up on the shelf in a sales standby state by placing them on a product delivery flapper placed at the exit of the product storage shelf, and carries the product lined up second from the bottom into the shelf during the sales operation. While the product is held against the shelf wall by a protruding product holding flapper, the product carrying out flapper is opened to separate the lowest product and allow it to fall and be carried out.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, the above-mentioned conventional product discharging device is limited to products sold in deformable paper packs, and the discharging operation is unstable when selling products whose contents are solid, such as ice cream. There was a problem.

In other words, in the conventional device, during the unloading operation, the products at the top of the shelf are separated from the products at the bottom and held in the shelf. The second product from the bottom is pressed against the shelf side wall, and the paper pack is slightly deformed to engage the product holding flapper, and the product is held between the shelf side wall and the product holding flapper. This is to prevent it from falling off. Therefore, if the product inside is solid and does not deform even when pressed against the shelf side wall by the product holding flapper, the holding of the product by the product holding flapper becomes unstable and it may slide down the shelf due to its own weight. As a result, problems may occur in which two or more products are removed at the same time during one sale.

The present invention has been developed in consideration of the above points, and by improving the way in which the second-to-last product is held during sales operations, it is possible to improve the way products are held in the second row from the bottom during sales operations. It is an object of the present invention to provide a product discharging device for a vending machine that is capable of controlling the dispensing of shaped products with stable operation.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, the product delivery device of the present invention has the following features:
A product storage shelf that is a box-shaped container with an open bottom and whose internal aisle width at the bottom end is expanded to a range corresponding to the height of one product, and a product storage shelf that is rotated by a bend motor and located on the side of the product storage shelf. A drive shaft that faces the lowest product and is retracted to the side when in a standby state, and a bumper that appears and retracts toward the product aisle in the shelf in conjunction with the rotation of the drive shaft during sales. The product outlet of the shelf is closed and stored products are supported thereon in a direct stacking manner, and the product is provided with a product carry-out flapper that opens and closes in conjunction with the rotation of the drive shaft at the time of sale.

[Effect]

With the above configuration, by rotating the drive shaft by driving the bend motor in response to a sales command, the pusher protrudes from the standby position into the shelf aisle, either directly or via the control cam, and the lowest product is moved across the aisle width of the shelf. At the same time, the product carry-out flapper opens and the lowest product falls from the shelf and is carried out. At the same time, the second item from the bottom is temporarily held at that position by being caught on a button protruding into the aisle within the shelf. When the rotation of the drive shaft is further advanced in the same direction or reversed, the product delivery flapper closes again and blocks the exit of the shelf, and the button protruding into the shelf retreats laterally from the shelf passage. . As a result, the restraint between the second product and the pusher is released, and the higher-ranked product remaining in the shelf falls down the shelf passage by one pitch and is carried on the product carry-out flapper. This completes one sales operation and returns to the sales standby state again.

〔Example〕

Next, the configuration and operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be explained based on the drawings. First, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, l is a product storage shelf, and box-shaped products 2 (1, n, I
II) are stored vertically in rows in a direct stacking manner. Here, the product storage shelf 1 is formed as a box-shaped container with an open bottom surface, and the product aisle is on the side of the bottom end with the height of each stored product 2 being H and the A dimension in the range H≦A<2H. A passage enlarged portion 1a is formed which is widened in the direction.

On the other hand, on the right side of the product storage shelf 1, a product delivery device having the following configuration is provided. This device consists of a bend motor 3 installed at the top, a vertical rotation drive shaft 4 connected to the bend motor 3, and a fan-shaped cam that is located opposite to the lowest product I and that appears and retracts from the side into the shelf aisle. (Arc angle 906
), a swinging type pusher 5 that rotates around a support shaft 5a, a product carrying-out flapper 6 that is arranged at the lower opening end of the product storage shelf and swinging to open and close, and a pusher 5. It is constructed as an assembly with a fan-shaped control cam 7 and a cam 8 provided on the axis of the drive shaft 4, as shown in FIG. 2, facing the flapper 6.

In addition, in the illustrated example, the buttons 5 are provided in two stages above and below,
Among these, the higher rank button is placed at the border between the lowest rank product I and the second product ■ placed above it.

With this configuration, in the standby state, the product carrying out flapper 6 is supported by the control cam 8 and held in a horizontal position as shown in the figure, blocking the exit of the product storage shelf l, and carrying the products 2 directly stacked thereon. are doing. Moreover, the bushing 5 is pushed by the products 2 stored in the shelf and is retracted to the side of the shelf. On the other hand, when the bend motor 3 rotates the drive shaft 4 from the above state, the control cam 7.8 simultaneously rotates around the drive shaft 4. As a result, the button shutter 5 is pushed out by the control cam 7 and rotates 90' clockwise around the support shaft 5a, while the product delivery flapper 6 is disengaged from the control cam 8 and swings into a hanging position. to open the exit of product storage shelf l. Next, if the bend motor 3 is reversed from this position, the button 5. The product carry-out flapper 6 returns to its original state again.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the unloading operation of the product 2 with the above configuration.

This will be explained with reference to FIG. When the bend motor 3 is rotated by a sales command from the sales standby state shown in FIG. 1, the control cam 7.8 first rotates together with the drive shaft as shown in FIG.
In response to this, the button 5 protrudes into the shelf aisle and pushes the lowest product I toward the enlarged section 1a of the shelf aisle, and at the same time, the upper button 5 that protrudes into the shelf moves to the second position from the bottom. The products protruding from the lower surface of the products H in a row to temporarily lock and hold the products in the upper row at the storage position. On the other hand, the product ejection flapper 6, which had been blocking the product exit of the shelf, swings downward and opens, and as a result, the lowest product ■ is separated from the products at the top, and the product passes through the flapper 6. It falls downward from the outlet of the storage ml and is carried out. Note that the products taken out from the shelves are delivered to the product takeout port via a delivery chute (not shown). Subsequently, when the bend motor 3 is reversely rotated, the control cam 7 moves backward to release the restraint on the button shutter 5 as shown in FIG.
is pushed up again to the horizontal position to close the product exit of shelf 1.

As a result, the flapper 5 becomes free, swings counterclockwise due to the weight of the stored items, retreats to the side of the shelf, and moves back to the upper position where it was temporarily held by the flapper 5 in the state shown in Fig. 3. Each product lined up■.

■ falls one pitch at a time inside the shelf and carries out the product with the flapper 6
carried on. This completes one sales operation and returns to the sales standby state shown in FIG. 1 again. In addition, bend motor 3
is controlled by a self-propelled cam switch to rotate forward, reverse, and stop as the sales operation progresses.

FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show an applied embodiment of the present invention. First, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the button 5 in FIG.
Instead, a rotary cam type pusher 9 directly connected to the drive shaft 4 is used.
As shown in the figure, a three-dimensional cam 10 having a spiral groove formed on the cam circumferential surface that engages with the rear end of the flapper 6 is used as a control cam for the product delivery flapper 6 to control opening and closing.

In addition, in FIG. 6, a U-shaped sliding button 11 is provided in place of the button 9 in FIG. The bushing 11 is moved forward and backward.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the product delivery device of the present invention is configured as described above, it achieves the following effects.

(1) In the process of carrying out the product, the protruding action of the pusher pushes the lowest product on the shelf to the widening section of the shelf channel, and at the same time, the pusher protruding into the aisle receives the second product. Compared to the conventional system, which presses the product against the original side wall and holds it in place, it is possible to hold the product in place even if the product is solid and non-deformable. , there is no risk of problems such as products at the top of the shelf accidentally falling off during the sales process and being carried out together with the products at the bottom of the shelf.

It is not limited to only milk and other products packaged in Gion bags, but can also transport various products with solid contents such as ice cream in a stable manner.

(2) Since the parts such as the pusher and the product carry-out flapper are configured to be operated by the rotation of the drive shaft connected to the bend motor, the space occupied by these parts is reduced, and the product carry-out device can be made smaller and more compact.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of the configuration of a product carrying out device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts in FIG. 1, FIGS. 3 and 4 are illustrations of the product carrying out operation, and Figure 5, 6th
In Figure 0, which is a mechanical diagram of an applied embodiment of the present invention, l: product storage shelf, 2: product, 3: bend motor, 4: drive shaft, 5, 9. tt: Pusher, 6: Product carrying out flapper, ? , 8.10 + control cam, 12: Pinio Figure 1 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A product delivery device for a vending machine that transports products stored vertically and stacked vertically in a product storage shelf one by one starting from the bottom based on sales instructions, and is a box-shaped container with an open bottom. a product storage shelf in which the width of the aisle in the shelf is expanded to a range corresponding to the height of one product; a drive shaft located on the side of the product storage shelf and rotationally driven by a bend motor;
A pusher that is retracted to the side when in a standby state facing the lowest product, and which moves toward the product passage in the shelf in conjunction with the rotation of the drive shaft during sales, and a pusher that moves the product exit from the shelf when in a standby state. Product carrying out of a vending machine, characterized in that the product carrying out flapper is closed and carries the stored products thereon in a direct stacking manner, and is provided with a product carrying out flapper which opens and closes in conjunction with the rotation of the drive shaft at the time of sale. Device.