JPH0422776Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Industrial field of application) The present invention has a suction ring equipped with a magnet on the bottom side of the periphery of the open opening on the top side of the tile washing hopper. Mahjong tiles are conveyed by the peripheral edge of a rotary table whose rotational axis is tilted at the bottom and supported by the rotary table, and the suction ring attracts the mahjong tiles, carries them out, and causes them to fall onto a conveyance path that supplies the mahjong tiles to the tile alignment device. This invention relates to improvements to a tile supply device for automatic mahjong tables.

(Prior Art) In the above-described tile supply device for an automatic mahjong table, the means for causing the mahjong tiles that are attracted to the lower surface of the suction ring and carried out to fall onto the conveyance path that supplies the mahjong tiles to the tile alignment device is conventional. In the case of 1987,
- As stated in Publication No. 53087, a guide plate is placed below the suction ring, which has magnets arranged in a ring on the underside, so as to cross the rotation locus of the mahjong tiles that are attracted to the underside of the suction ring and rotate together with the suction ring. , which is fixed to the machine frame, and the mahjong tiles that are attracted to the suction ring and rotate are prevented from moving in the direction of rotation by this guide plate, so that they are detached from the suction ring and hit the target. This is done by being guided in the direction indicated by the guide plate.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) This means uses a single guide plate to simultaneously control the posture of the mahjong tiles suctioned to the suction ring and to remove the mahjong tiles from the suction ring. If the mahjong tiles adsorbed by the suction ring come into contact with the guide plate in such a way that they are stopped, if the mahjong tiles are detached first, the posture control will be insufficient, and the mahjong tiles suctioned by the suction ring will When the mahjong tiles are in a posture that is correctly orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the guide plate, one of the front and rear end surfaces of the mahjong tiles comes into contact with the guide plate in parallel, and the posture is controlled. There is a problem in which they are induced to leave without being able to do so.

The present invention was developed to solve these problems, and the present invention is designed to separately control the posture of the mahjong tiles that are attracted to the suction ring and to separate the mahjong tiles that are attracted to the suction ring. By doing this, you can ensure the control of the posture of the mahjong tiles being sucked,
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to propose a new means for allowing mahjong tiles to be detached from the suction ring without losing the controlled posture of the mahjong tiles.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In the present invention, for this purpose, a suction ring is rotatably supported on the periphery of the open opening on the top side of the tile washing hopper. A rotary table that rotates with an inclined axis of rotation is provided at the bottom, and magnets arranged in an annular manner are installed on the bottom side of the adsorption ring, and one magnetic pole of the magnet is divided into a pair. The magnet is divided into poles and the pair of split poles are arranged in an annular manner, and the magnet is arranged so that the other magnetic pole is located on both sides of the magnet in the radial direction of the magnet. A starting end of a conveyor for discharging detached mahjong tiles is disposed below and above the inclined rising side of the rotary table so as to overlap the suction ring in a plan view, and the starting end of the conveyor A thin scraping plate is provided between the lower surface of the suction ring and the front side of the suction ring serves as a free edge and slides into contact with the lower surface of the suction ring. Accordingly, the present invention proposes a means for configuring a tile supply device for an automatic mahjong table, which is arranged so as to be inclined away from the lower surface of the suction ring and fixedly supported on the machine frame.

(Example) Next, an example of implementation will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an automatic mahjong table A in which the present invention can be implemented. In the figure, a is a machine frame formed in the shape of a square flat box, and 1 is an opening above the machine frame a that can be opened and closed. A mahjong table 10 is installed to cover the mahjong table 1, and the mahjong tiles that have been played for one game on the top surface of the mahjong table 1 are placed in the tile washing hopper 2 (Figs. 2 and 3) in the machine frame a. A droplet 11 is provided in the center of the mahjong table 1 to allow the mahjong machine to be dropped into the machine, a cover plate 11 is provided on the droplet 10 so as to be openable and closable in order to keep the droplet 10 normally closed, and 12... is a machine. A lift 13 that pushes up the mahjong tiles aligned by the tile alignment device b (FIG. 2) provided in the frame a to the top surface of the mahjong table 1...
shows a cut-out window hole formed in the mahjong table 1 to expose the lifts 12 on the top surface of the mahjong table 1.

Next, FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing the tile supply device c and tile alignment device b installed in the machine frame a, with the mahjong table 1 of the automatic mahjong table A described above removed.

The tile supply device c includes a drum-shaped tile washing hopper 2.
, a suction ring 3 provided at the periphery of the open opening on the upper side of the tile washing hopper 2 , a rotary table 4 provided at the bottom of the tile washing hopper 2 with its axis of rotation inclined, and the suction ring 3 . The mahjong tiles that have been sucked onto the bottom surface of the tile alignment device b
It consists of a conveyor 5 that sends out.

The tile alignment device b also includes a pedestal 60 that receives the mahjong tiles sent out from the terminal end of the conveyor 5 in a two-tier stacked state, and a substantially rectangular surrounding frame shape that surrounds the tile washing hopper 2. a transfer path 61 disposed on the pedestal 60;
The stacked mahjong tiles are transferred to the starting end 61a of the transfer path 61.
A feeding device 62 that feeds the mahjong tiles to the top surface, a carrier 63 that transfers the mahjong tiles by a predetermined distance to the terminal side of the transfer path 61 when the number of mahjong tiles sent into the transfer path 61 reaches a predetermined number. It consists of a pushing device 64 that pushes out the mahjong tiles aligned at a predetermined position on the path 61 toward the upper surface of the lift 12 that is in the lowered position.

Next, FIG. 3 shows details of the aforementioned tile supply device c. In the figure, reference numeral 4 denotes a rotary table provided at the bottom of the tile washing hopper 2 formed in a drum shape to serve as the floor plate of the tile washing hopper 2, and its boss portion 40 is fixed to the floor plate of the machine frame a. Driven by a transmission belt 42 that is loosely supported by a diagonal support shaft 41 provided and passed around a pulley groove 40a provided on the peripheral surface of the boss portion 40, it rotates in one direction with a diagonal rotation axis (Z-Z). Rotate to . And in the surrounding area,
An annular support shelf 4a that assumes a horizontal position by moving to the upward slope side (to the left in the figure) is formed to have a width approximately corresponding to the left and right width of the mahjong tiles P.

In addition, the suction ring 3 disposed on the periphery of the open opening on the upper side of the tile washing hopper 2 connects the flange 3a provided on the periphery to the support ring 14 disposed around the tile washing hopper 2. A desired support wheel 14a of the support wheels 14... is supported and rotatably supported.
By driving the rotary table 4, it rotates at substantially the same speed and in the same direction as the support shelf 4a of the rotary table 4, and attracts iron pieces or magnets buried inside the mahjong tiles P to its underside. A magnet F is installed in a ring shape to attract and hold the mahjong tiles P on the lower surface of the suction ring 3, and the mahjong tiles carried up by the support shelf 4a on the periphery of the rotary table 4 are P,
The conventional suction ring and the suction ring act to attract the mahjong tiles with their front and back aligned in a predetermined direction, and carry them out to the above-mentioned conveyor 5 which feeds the mahjong tiles P to the tile alignment device b through rotational operation. The same is true. However, when the magnets F are arranged in an annular manner on the lower surface of the adsorption ring 3, it is made of a magnetized metal material such as an iron plate, and the cross section is formed into a downward channel shape as shown in FIG. Subject 30
, the inner diameter of the suction ring 3 in the radial direction.
The width W of the spacing between the outer side walls 30a, 30a approximately corresponds to the width W of the left and right sides of the mahjong tiles P (Fig. 6), and
A block-shaped magnet F is formed on the inner cavity side of the ring main body 30, which is formed to be somewhat narrower than the front and rear length l of the mahjong tiles P (Fig. 7).
One of the magnetic poles N is the top plate 30 of the ring main body 30
The ring main body 3 is inserted facing b.
0, and the one magnetic pole N is joined to the inner surface of the top plate 30b of the ring main body 30, and in this state, the integrated adsorption ring 3 is formed by insert molding with a synthetic resin material 31. As a result, the magnets F arranged in an annular manner are aligned with their other magnetic poles S facing the lower surface of the adsorption ring 3, and one magnetic pole N is attached to the ring superimposed thereon. The main body 30 changes the direction of the magnetic pole N and is divided into free ends of the inner and outer side walls 30a, 30a of the ring main body 30,
The divided poles are located on both the inner and outer sides of the attraction ring 3 in the radial direction with respect to the other magnetic pole S facing the lower surface at the center of the width direction of the attraction ring 3.

In addition, the mahjong tiles P used in conjunction with the suction ring 3 have the suction piece 7 made of a magnet embedded inside the mahjong tile P, as shown in FIGS. The magnetic pole S on the lower surface side of the provided magnet F is a magnetic pole N opposite to the magnetic pole S, and the magnet F is buried so that the magnetic pole S opposite to the magnetic pole N is on the lower surface side.

As a result, the mahjong tiles P attracted to the attraction ring 3 are attached to the inner and outer side walls 30 of the ring main body 30, which are the two divided poles of the divided magnetic poles N.
Due to the repulsive action of each free end of the suction rings 30a and 30a, the inner and outer side walls 30a and 3 are rotated so that the longitudinal direction is aligned with the circumferential direction of the suction ring 3, and in that position, the inner and outer side walls 30a and 3
It becomes stable when it is located in the middle of 0a, and the action of aligning it to a certain posture is performed by suction.

Next, FIG. 4 is a plan view of section c of the tile supply device with the suction ring 3 removed, and the suction ring 3 is shown by an imaginary line. In the same figure, the rotary table 4 provided at the bottom of the tile washing hopper 2 is connected to the support wheel 1.
4 Support wheel 1 with a larger diameter and used as a driving wheel
The side 4a is the upward slope side, and the side opposite to the support wheel 14a is the downward slope side. Then, it rotates clockwise in the same figure.

Furthermore, the conveyor 5 for feeding the detached mahjong tiles P... to the tile alignment device b includes a conveyor belt 50 that rotates endlessly, and guide walls 51 and 52 provided on both sides of the conveyor belt. As shown in FIG. 4, the starting end 5a in the conveyance direction is positioned immediately below the suction ring 3 on the downward slope side of the rotary table 4 so that it overlaps the suction ring 3 in plan view. Of the guide walls 51 and 52, the inner guide wall 51 (on the right side in FIG. 4) is cut off at the starting end side in the transport direction of the part where it overlaps with the suction ring 3. .

As shown in FIG. 10, the portion of the lower surface of the suction ring 3 that overlaps with the conveyor 5 has a free edge on the front side in the direction of rotation of the suction ring 3 (in the direction of arrow A in the figure). A thin plate-shaped scraping plate 8 that slides on the lower surface of the suction ring 3 is attached to the suction ring 3.
The mahjong tiles P are arranged so as to be gradually inclined toward the front in the direction of rotation, and the base end, which is the descending end of the inclination, is formed in the shape of a tunnel through which the mahjong tiles P pass, and the mahjong tiles P are arranged on the upper surface side of the conveyor 5. By supporting the support member 80 fixedly attached to the guide walls 51 and 52 of the conveyor 5, it is fixedly installed in the above-mentioned state.

The scraping plate 8 is desirably formed of a synthetic resin material or a metal plate, etc., so that it has elasticity and can be freely bent.
11, and by assembling the supporting member 80 to the left and right guide walls 51, 52 constituting the frame of the conveyor 5, the support member 80 shown in FIG. It is effective to install it in the state shown in FIG. Further, when the scraping plate 8 and the support member 80 are formed of metal plates, it is desirable to use a metal material that is not affected by magnetic force.

In addition, in FIG. 4, 9 is the suction ring 3.
A guide member that pushes and deflects the mahjong tiles P that are attracted to the lower surface of the conveyor 5 toward the inside of the suction ring 3.
The tile washing hopper 2 is attached to the tile washing hopper 2 by the fixture 90 at a position in front of the starting end 5a of the suction ring 3 in the rotational direction thereof, so as to substantially follow the outer side wall 30a of the ring main body 30 of the suction ring 3 in plan view. surrounding wall 2
The mahjong tile P is attached to the lower surface of the suction ring 3 with its longitudinal direction perpendicular to the circumferential direction of the suction ring 3 and is in contact with the outer end of the mahjong tile P. As shown in FIG. 8, the two divided poles (side wall 30
It acts to disrupt the balance of the repulsion by the free ends of the mahjong tiles P and to ensure the turning operation of the mahjong tiles P by the split poles.

The tile supply device for the automatic mahjong table according to the present invention constructed as described above operates as follows.

Most of the mahjong tiles P are attracted to the bottom surface of the suction ring 3 in a face down position with the front side facing down.
At the same time as it is attracted to the lower surface of the attraction ring 3, it is longitudinally moved in the circumferential direction of the attraction ring 3 due to the repulsive action of the inner and outer divided poles (free ends of the side walls 30a, 30a) of the magnet F provided on the attraction ring 3. Rotate it into a position that aligns with the direction, and stabilize it in that position. In addition, the mahjong tiles P, which happen to be attracted in a posture in which the longitudinal direction is correctly orthogonal to the circumferential direction of the suction ring 3, are stabilized in that posture, and are deflected by the guide member 9 by the rotation of the suction ring 3. By receiving the repulsive action of the split poles described above, the longitudinal direction is aligned with the circumferential direction of the suction ring 3 and the suction ring 3 is stabilized.

In this way, the mahjong tiles P... aligned with their longitudinal directions along the circumferential direction of the suction ring 3 reach a position above the starting end 5a of the conveyor 5 due to the rotation of the suction ring 3. Free end edge 8a of the scraping plate 8 that is in sliding contact with the lower surface of the suction ring 3 at the position
By being inserted between the top surface of the mahjong tile P and the bottom surface of the suction ring 3, it is peeled off from the front edge side in the rotation direction and detached from the bottom surface of the suction ring 3 while maintaining the above-mentioned posture. The tiles fall onto the upper surface of the starting end 5a of the conveyor 5, and are carried out by the conveyor 5 toward the tile alignment device b.

(Effects of the invention) As explained above, the tile supply device for the automatic mahjong table according to the invention configured as described above has the following features:
The suction ring 3 attracts mahjong tiles P to the lower surface side of the suction ring 3 using the magnet F provided thereon, and carries them out, and the mahjong tiles P are separated from the lower surface of the suction ring 3 and conveyed to the tile alignment device b. 5, one pole N of the magnet F provided in the suction ring 3 is divided to control the posture of the mahjong tiles P to keep them aligned in a constant posture when the mahjong tiles P are released. Due to the pair of split poles N and N, when the mahjong tile P is attracted to the bottom surface of the suction ring 3, the magnet F is attached to the bottom surface of the suction ring 3.
The mahjong tiles P, whose posture has been controlled by the pair of split poles, are placed above the starting end of the conveyor 5 by the suction ring 3. Since the mahjong tiles P are detached from the suction ring 3 by being peeled off by the scraping plate 8 whose free edge is in sliding contact with the lower surface of the mahjong tiles, the posture of the mahjong tiles P can be reliably controlled. . In addition, the mahjong tiles P can now be removed from the suction ring 3 without changing the posture of the mahjong tiles P that have reached a certain posture after the posture control, and the mahjong tiles P can now be aligned in a certain posture. Mahjong tiles P can be smoothly supplied to the tile alignment device b.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an automatic mahjong table capable of implementing the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view of the same mahjong table with the same removed, Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional side view of the same tile supply device, and Fig. 4 is a plan view of the above tile supply device with the suction ring removed, FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of the same suction ring, and FIGS. 6 and 7 show the relationship between the suction ring and the mahjong tiles. An explanatory diagram, FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the suction ring and the guide member, FIG. 9 is a plan view of the main part of the tile supply device,
Figure 10 is a partially cutaway side view of the main parts of the same as above, and Figure 1
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the same scraping plate as above, Figure 12 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 9, Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 9, and Figure 14 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 9. be. Explanation of drawing symbols, A... Automatic mahjong table, a... Machine frame, b... Tile alignment device, c... Tile supply device, 1...
...Mahjong table, 10...Dropout, 11...Lid board, 12
...Lift, 13...Window hole, 14, 14a...Support wheel, 2...Tile washing hopper, 2a...Peripheral wall, 3...
...Suction ring, 3a...Flange part, 30...Ring main body, 30a...Inner and outer side walls, 30b...Top plate, 31...Synthetic resin material, 4...Rotary table,
4a...Support shelf part, 40...Boss part, 40a...
Pulley groove, 42... Conductive belt, 41... Support shaft, 5... Conveyor, 50... Conveyor belt, 5a
... Starting end, 51, 52 ... Guide wall, 60 ...
cradle, 61... transfer path, 61a... starting end, 62
...Feeding device, 63...Carrier, 64...Extrusion device, 8...Scraping plate, 8a...Free end edge, 80...
...Supporting member, 9...Guiding member, 90...Mounting tool,
F... Magnet, N... One magnetic pole, S... Other magnetic pole, P... Mahjong tiles, Z-Z... Rotation axis.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A suction ring 3 is rotatably supported on the periphery of the open opening on the top side of the tile-washing hopper 2, and a rotary table 4 that rotates with an inclined rotation axis Z-Z is provided at the bottom of the tile-washing hopper 2. On the lower surface side of the adsorption ring 3, a magnet F is arranged and installed in a ring shape, and one magnetic pole N of the magnet F is divided into a pair of divided poles N and N. The split poles N and N are installed so that they are located on the inside and outside of the attraction ring 3 in the radial direction, respectively, with respect to the other magnetic pole S of the magnet F arranged in an annular manner. A starting end 5a of a conveyor 5 for carrying out detached mahjong tiles is disposed at a lower position above the tilted rising side of the rotary table 4 so as to overlap the suction ring 3 in a plan view.
Between the starting end 5a of the suction ring 3 and the lower surface of the suction ring 3, there is provided a thin plate-shaped scraping plate 8 whose front side in the rotational direction of the suction ring 3 is a free edge and slides into contact with the lower surface of the suction ring 3. This tile supply device for an automatic mahjong table is arranged so as to be inclined away from the lower surface of the suction ring 3 as it goes forward in the rotating direction of the suction ring 3, and is fixedly supported on a machine frame a.