JPH05143847A - Replenished commodity number display device for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily confirm the number of replenished commodities in each column in an article automatic vending machine having plural commodity columns. CONSTITUTION:The number of commodities sold after preceding commodity replenishment is accumulated with respect to each commodity column, and a display part 8 is provided which has display blocks 8a arranged correspondingly to arrangement of commodity columns in the vending machine, and cumulative numbers of sold commodities are collectively displayed on this display part 8. Thus, a serviceman who replenishes commodities detects the number of commodities to be replenished in each commodity column at sight, and his labor is reduced in comparison with the conventional constitution where he operates keys of a keyboard plural times with respect to each commodity column, and correspondence to commodity columns is clarified.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for displaying the number of products to be replenished in each product column in an automatic vending machine that sells a plurality of types of products.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vending machine for canned beverages, a plurality of product columns (storage and unloading units for each product type) are arranged on the front, back, left and right of the vending machine, and each product column has a fixed number of products. Can be stored in each.
The number of products in these product columns will gradually decrease as a result of sales, so service personnel will patrol the vending machines in a timely manner.
Supply each product column with product until it is full. At that time, if the number of products to be replenished is known for each product column, that is, for each product type, it is convenient to carry the products in the carton into the vending machine in advance.

Here, the number of products supplied is the same as the number of products sold after the previous product supply. In other words, as mentioned above, replenishment of products is performed until the product column is full,
The next supply number of products will be the number of products that became vacant due to sales during that time, that is, the number of product sales. Therefore,
In the past, the number of products sold was cumulatively stored for each product column also for sales management, and when supplying products, the keyboard in the vending machine was operated to display the number of products supplied on the display. Also, after the supply of goods was completed, the keyboard was operated again to initialize the accumulated sales number.

[0004]

However, the keyboard is provided with a large number of keys for setting various data in the vending machine and for displaying various data accumulated in the vending machine. There is. Therefore, it is necessary to operate the key multiple times to display the number of products supplied (number of products sold) on this keyboard, and only one column can be confirmed at one display. It took a lot of time to know the number of products sold. In addition, it was necessary to operate the key multiple times when initializing the number of sales.

Further, the correspondence between the column number for distinguishing the product column on the keyboard and the arrangement of the product column in the vending machine may differ depending on the model. It was necessary to consider each correspondence of each. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a product supply number display device for a vending machine, which allows the product supply number for each product column to be determined at a glance without requiring a special operation and the product sales number can be easily initialized. It is what

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, means for accumulatively storing the number of sales of commodities for each commodity column, and collectively accumulating the sales quantity accumulated by the accumulating storage means in correspondence with the arrangement of the commodity columns. Means for displaying the product column, a switch to be operated when the supply of the product to the product column is completed, and a means for collectively initializing the cumulatively stored sales number of the product column by the operation of the switch. By providing it, the said objective is achieved.

[0007]

Function: A means for displaying the number of supplied products corresponding to the actual arrangement of the product columns in the vending machine is provided, and the number of sold products in all columns since the previous supply of products is displayed collectively. In addition, a switch for initializing the cumulatively stored number of sold products is provided exclusively, and the number of sold products for all columns is collectively initialized by one operation.

[0008]

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a master control unit 1 controls the entire vending machine, and a slave control unit 3 connected to this by a bus line 2.
Controls the collection of various information in the vending machine. The sales detection unit 4 intercepts the sales signal for each product column sent from the master control unit 1 to the slave control unit 3 and outputs it to the sales number accumulation control unit 5. The sales quantity accumulating unit 5 adds the information from the sales detecting unit 4 to the sales data already stored in the sales quantity storage unit 6, and stores the accumulated data in the sales quantity storage unit 6 again.

The display control section 7 refers to the contents of the sales quantity storage section 6 and outputs display data to the display section 8. Based on this display data, the display unit 8 displays the number of sold products as the number of supplied products in a display block provided corresponding to the actual arrangement of the product columns. On the other hand, the sales quantity initialization unit 9 monitors the state of the initialization switch 10, and when it detects that the initialization switch 10 is pressed, it clears all the contents of the sales quantity storage unit 6.
At this time, the display on the display unit 8 is all zero.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the sales detecting section 4 in FIG. 1 in more detail. In the figure, the sales detection unit 4 monitors a signal exchanged between the master control unit 1 and all slave control units including the slave control unit 3 via the bus line 2 (step S1).
When a signal is detected (YES in step S2), it is determined whether or not it is a signal to the slave control unit 3 (step S3). If it is a signal to the slave control unit 3, it is determined whether or not it is a signal of further sales (step S).
4). If it is a sales signal, enter the signal (step S
5) After determining the sales column (step S6), the data is output to the sales quantity accumulating unit 5 (step S7).

FIG. 3 shows the appearance of the display unit 8 (front view), and FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of the product columns ((A) is a front view and (B) is a side view). This vending machine is a quadruple serpent rack type vending machine for drinks and beverages, and as shown in FIG.
There are 20 product columns 11 arranged in rows. Merchandise is replenished to each commodity column 11 from the commodity insertion port 11a at the upper end thereof. The display unit 8 has a product slot 1 shown in FIG.
20 display blocks 8a are provided as shown in FIG. 3 corresponding to the arrangement of 1a. Each display block 8a is configured to display the number of replenished products by a 2-digit 7-segment LED.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, the display unit having the display block corresponding to the actual arrangement of the product columns is configured to collectively display the product supply numbers of all columns. The service person can check the number of supplies and corresponding columns at a glance. Also, because the number of products sold is initialized with a dedicated switch,
There is no need to repeat key operations, which saves time and effort.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a sales detection unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an appearance of a display unit in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a layout view of a product column in the vending machine of FIG. 1, (A) is a front view and (B) is a side view thereof.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Master control unit 2 Bus line 3 Slave control unit 4 Sales detection unit 5 Sales number accumulation unit 6 Sales number storage unit 7 Display control unit 8 Display unit 9 Sales number initialization unit 10 Initialization switch 11 Product column 12 Serpen rack

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an automatic vending machine having a plurality of product columns, means for accumulating and storing the number of products sold for each of the product columns, and the number of sales accumulated by the accumulating storage means correspond to the arrangement of the product columns. Means for collectively displaying the product column, a switch to be operated when the supply of the product to the product column is completed, and the operation of this switch to collectively initialize the cumulatively stored sales number of the product column. A device for displaying the number of replenished goods in a vending machine, which is provided with: