JPH0478991A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent merchandise from being blocked or clogged at an outlet even in the erected state while guiding it on an inclined guide board by providing a movable inclined board to open the switch operation part of an air blowing mechanism at a large inclining angle on the outlet side of the inclined guide board. CONSTITUTION:On inclined guide boards 40 and 41, a movable inclined board 51 is provided at the large inclining angle on the surface of an outlet 38 on the slope while being pivotally supported in the state of opening a switch operation part 47 of an air blowing mechanism 42. Namely, when switching air blown by the air blowing mechanism 42 to either cool air or hot air, it is executed by operating the switch operation part 47 while opening the movable inclined board 51. Namely, since it is not necessary to form an opening part for operating the switch operation part 47, the dimension of the outlet 38 can be enlarged by setting the inclining angles of the inclined guide boards 40 and 41 further larger by the movable inclined board 51. Thus, even when the merchandise supplied from a merchandise stock room is turned to a erected state in the middle of rolling on the inclined guide boards 40 and 41, the merchandise is prevented from being blocked and clogged at the outlet 38.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides a method for blowing cold air or warm air into a product storage room in accordance with the operation of a switching operation section provided in a blowing mechanism. Regarding vending machines.

(Prior Art) In recent years, for example, in vending machines for beverages, cold or warm air is blown into the product storage compartment by operating the switching operation part of the ventilation mechanism depending on the season and the situation. Some products can be sold after being cooled or heated.

That is, in FIG. 5, the main body 1 has a product storage chamber 3 whose outer periphery is surrounded by a heat insulating wall 2, and an inner door 4 and a main door (not shown) are double arranged on the front side. An outlet 5 for taking out the product is opened at the lower part of the inner door 4, and an outlet door 6 is rotatably supported at the upper end thereof. At the bottom of the product storage room 3, there is an outlet 5 for taking out products dropped from the product storage room 3.
A delivery chute 7 serving as an inclined guide plate leading to the air is disposed, and a storage chamber 8 for a blowing mechanism is provided in the lower part partitioned off by the delivery chute 7. In the storage chamber 8, an evaporator 9 is disposed at the rear, and a shutter 10 is disposed at the front thereof so as to be movable up and down.

A guide plate 11 is provided above the evaporator 9 and the shutter 10 and is supported so as to be rotatable from side to side in the figure, and rotates as the shutter 10 moves up and down. The shutter 10 also has a switching lever 1 extending toward the front side.
2 is rotatably attached, and by rotating the operating portion 12a up and down, the vine 10 can be moved up and down. The partition wall 13 is arranged to partition the inside of the storage chamber 8 into the evaporator 9 side and the upper front part.
The fan device 1 is inserted into the opening 13a formed in the central part.
4 is installed. The heater device 15 is disposed around the outer periphery of the fan motor 14a.

According to such a configuration, the state shown in FIG. 5, that is, the state where the operating portion 12a of the switching lever 12 is operated downward, the shutter 10 is moved upward, and the guide plate 11 is rotated to the left. In this case, the air sucked in from the back side of the storage chamber 8 passes through the F<porator 9 and is cooled by the operation of the fan device 14, and then returns to the product storage chamber 3 through the ventilation hole of the delivery chute 7. Air is blown to and,
By circulating cold air in this way, the product storage room 3
The beverages inside will be in a cooled state.

Next, when heating the beverages in the product storage chamber 3, the following operations are performed. That is, the main door (not shown) is opened, the inner door 4 is opened, and the operating part 1.2a of the switching lever 12 is rotated upward from the opening A between the delivery chute 7 and the heat insulating wall 2 to the front of the storage chamber 8. The shutter 10 is lowered by moving the shutter 10. At this time, the guide plate 11 also rotates clockwise with the lowering of the evaporator 10, and the air path to the evaporator 9 is blocked.

As a result, the air taken in from the back side of the storage chamber 8 is diverted without passing through the evaporator 9 and directly into the fan device 14.
Become guided to. If the heater device 15 is controlled to be energized in this state, the air heated by the heater device 15 will be circulated within the product storage chamber 3 in the same manner as described above, thereby heating the product.

When the beverages stored in the product storage chamber 3 are dropped onto the delivery chute 7 at the time of sale, they are guided while rolling along the slope to the outlet 5, and the momentum opens the outlet door 6. It is designed to reach the socket of the main door.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) By the way, in the conventional configuration as described above, for example,
Products supplied from the product storage room 3 are delivered to the delivery chute 7
If, while being guided by There is a risk that it will stop.

In this case, not only will it be difficult to take out the product G, but there is a risk that subsequent products will also become jammed.

In the above case, it may be possible to avoid this by increasing the dimensions of the outlet 5 of the inner door 4, but there is a limit to the overall dimension, and an opening A is provided to operate the switching lever 12. Due to restrictions such as necessity, the situation is difficult in terms of design.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to increase the size of the outlet without changing the overall size, so that when the product rolls on the inclined guide plate, the product does not stand upright. Our goal is to provide a vending machine that never jams.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a product storage chamber for storing products, an inclined guide plate that guides the products supplied from the product storage chamber to an outlet on the front surface of the main body, and a main body. The vending machine is directed to a vending machine equipped with a ventilation mechanism disposed at the bottom and blowing cold or warm air into the product storage chamber according to the operation of the switching operation part, and the inclined guide plate includes:
The present invention is characterized in that a movable inclined plate is provided which has a large inclination angle on the outlet side of the inclined surface and is pivotally supported in such a manner that the switching operation section of the air blowing mechanism can be opened.

(Function) According to the vending machine of the present invention, when switching the air blown by the air blowing mechanism to either cold air or warm air, the switching operation section of the air blowing mechanism can be operated by opening the movable inclined plate. In other words, since it is not necessary to form an opening for operating the switching operation section, the size of the outlet can be increased by setting the inclination angle of the inclined guide plate to a larger angle using the movable inclined plate. As a result, even if the product supplied from the product storage room comes to a standing position while rolling on the inclined guide plate, the product will not be supported and jammed at the outlet.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example will be described in which the present invention is applied to a beverage vending machine having three product storage chambers, two of which can be switched between cold and hot. This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.

In FIG. 3, which shows an outline of the overall configuration in a vertical side view, and FIG. 4, which shows the interior front, a main door 22 is provided on the front side of the main body 21, and this door has a selection button, a coin slot, and a product pickup slot. There are exits etc. In FIG. 4, which shows the main door 22 and the inner door 23 (see FIG. 1), which will be described later, open,
The main body 21 has product storage chambers 25, 26.2 by means of a heat insulating wall 24.
These product storage rooms 25 to 27 are divided into 7 sections.
has a plurality of column groups 28゜29 for storing beverages.
．． 30 are arranged respectively. In this case, the left product storage compartment 25 is for cooling only, and the middle and right product storage compartments 26
．． 27 can be switched between cold and hot. Further, a machine room 31 is provided in the lower part of the main body 21, and an electrical component box 33 is provided with a cold/hot switch 32 inside.
Condenser 34 Evaporation dish 35. Fan device 36. A compressor 37 and the like are provided, and equipment for cooling the product storage chambers 25 to 27 is housed therein. Below the column groups 28 to 30, there is a delivery shoe 1- which is an inclined guide plate for guiding beverages dropped from these columns to the outlet 38 of the inner door 23.
39, 40, 41 are provided.

Now, among these delivery chutes 39 to 4], below the middle and right delivery chutes 40 and 41, there is a first
A storage chamber 43 of a blower mechanism 42 as shown in the figure is arranged corresponding to each product storage chamber 26 and 27. That is, this ventilation mechanism 42 is for blowing cold air or warm air to cool or heat the beverages stored in the product storage chamber 26 or 27. In the figure, there is an evaporator 44 on the back side. or is arranged. A shutter 45 is disposed in front of the evaporator 44 so as to be movable up and down, and a guide plate 46 is disposed above the evaporator 44 to be rotated left and right as the shutter 45 moves up and down. Further, a switching lever 47 serving as a switching operation section is rotatably attached to the shutter 45, and an operation section 47a at the tip thereof is connected to the inner door 22.
Located on the side. The fan device 48 is attached to an opening 49H of a partition plate 49 disposed in the storage chamber 43, and supplies air from the evaporator 44 side to the delivery chute 40 or 4.
Air is blown into the product storage chamber 26 or 27 through the ventilation hole 1. A heater device 50 is disposed on the outer periphery of a fan motor 49 that constitutes the fan device 48 .

A movable plate 51, which is a movable guide plate and is rotatably supported, is disposed at the front portion of the delivery chute 40 or 41 described above. This movable plate 51 is arranged at an angle larger than that of the delivery chute 40 or 41, and its tip portion 51a is in contact with the heat insulating wall 24 on the bottom surface of the storage chamber 43. In addition, as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 2, in this part, a contact plate 24a attached to the heat insulating wall 24 is installed so that the rotation of the movable plate 51 is restricted when the inner door 23 is closed. It is formed to extend upward. Inner door 2 mentioned above
The outlet 38 of No. 3 is opened to the position of the heat insulating wall 24, and an outlet door 38a is rotatably attached.

In such a configuration, in the product storage chamber 26 (the same applies to the product storage chamber 27), the cooling operation and the heating operation are performed as described below in response to the switching operation.

That is, first, when the cooling operation state is set as shown in FIG. is blown into the product storage chamber 26 again through the ventilation hole of the delivery chute 40 (in the figure,
Arrows A, 11, B, H). By circulating the air inside while being cooled in this way, the beverages stored inside are cooled.

Next, when heating the beverages stored in the product storage chamber 26, the main door 22 and the inner door 23 are opened, and the movable plate 51 is rotated upward to open the storage chamber 43. Then, by rotating the switching lever 47 upward, the shutter 45 is lowered and the guide plate 46 is rotated to the right. As a result, the air is sucked into the fan device 48 via the evaporator 44 (arrow opening /X).
This causes the air to bypass the evaporator 44 and be drawn directly into the fan device 48 . And in this case,
By energizing the heater device 50, heated air is blown into the product storage chamber 26. This heats the beverage contained inside.

According to this embodiment, since the cold/hot switching operation is performed by rotating the movable plate 51 and opening the switching operation section, there is no space between the heat insulating wall 24 and the delivery chute 40 for operation. There is no need to provide a gap, and therefore the size of the outlet 38 of the inner door 23 can be increased. As a result, when the beverage rolls on the movable plate 51,
Even if the user stands upright, there is no problem of the device being jammed because it is supported by the upper end of the outlet 38.

Further, according to the above embodiment, the contact plate 2 provided on the heat insulating wall 24
4a extends upward, the rotation of the movable plate 51 is restricted when the inner door 23 and the main door 22 are closed, thereby preventing mischief such as a child rotating the movable plate 51 from the outside. It is effective in preventing dangers such as getting your hands caught.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the vending machine of the present invention, a movable inclined plate is provided on the outlet side of the inclined guide plate, the movable inclined plate having a large inclination angle and allowing the switching operation section of the ventilation mechanism to be opened. Therefore, there is no need to provide a gap for the switching operation part, and therefore,
The dimensions of the outlet can be increased without changing the overall dimensions, and even if the product is placed in a standing position while being guided along the inclined guide plate, it will not be supported or jammed at the outlet. be effective.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figures 1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention, with Figure 1 being a vertical sectional side view of the main part, Figure 2 being an enlarged view of the contact plate, and Figure 3 being a vertical sectional side view of the whole. FIG. 4 is a front view showing the inner door in an open state, and FIG. 5 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional example. In the drawing, 21 is the main body, 23 is the inner door, 24 is the insulation wall, 25
26. 27 is a product storage room that can be switched between cold and hot; 31 is a machine room; 38 is a take-out port; 39 is a delivery chute; 40 and 41 are delivery chutes (inclined guide plates); 42 43 is a ventilation mechanism, 43 is a storage chamber, 44 is an efficient porator, 45 is a shutter, 46 is a guide plate, 47 is a switching/<-47a is an operation part, 48 is a fan device, 50 is a heater device, 51 is a movable plate (movable inclined plate). ~26,27~Product Storage Room Agent Patent Attorney Tsuyoshi Sato 2 Figure-3~G

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A product storage chamber for storing products; an inclined guide plate that guides the products supplied from the product storage room to the outlet on the front of the main body; and a blowing mechanism for blowing cold air or hot air into a room, wherein the inclined guide plate has a large inclination angle on the side of the outlet of the inclined surface and is in a state where the switching operation part of the blowing mechanism can be opened. A vending machine characterized by having a movable inclined plate pivotally supported by.