JPH0587676U - Vending machine product payout structure - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Providing a product dispensing structure for a vending machine that guides the product to the product outlet satisfactorily and does not cause impact, increase manufacturing costs, and increase the number of assembly steps. A plurality of product delivery openings 5a are arranged side by side on the door, one product outlet 10 is provided on the front door, and a space between the product delivery opening 5a and the product outlet 10 is provided downward. A sliding plate 30 made of a low friction coefficient material curved in an arc shape so as to have a convex shape is provided at a lowermost central portion 30a.
Is arranged so as to correspond to the product outlet 10, and the tubular beverage dispensed from each dispensing opening 5a is slid on the slide plate 30 and is guided to the product outlet 10 well. Further, the sliding plate 30 has a larger radius of curvature as it gets closer to the central portion 30a, so that the sliding plate 30 can be arranged in a small vertical space.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention is a vending machine in which a plurality of product delivery openings are arranged side by side on the inner door and one product outlet is provided on the front door, and the product delivery opening is provided. The present invention relates to the structure of a product dispensing unit that guides the stored products to a product outlet.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 A general vending machine is configured as shown in FIGS. A vending machine body 1 and a front door 2 for opening and closing a front opening 1a of the vending machine body 1 are provided with an inner box 3 having a heat insulating structure inside the vending machine. A cylindrical beverage (canned beverage or plastic bottled beverage) 6 is piled up in a stock surrounded by an inner box body 4 and an inner door 5 that opens and closes a front opening 4a of the inner box body 4. The product stockers 7 to be kept are installed in a plurality of rows in the front, back, left and right.

[0006] Here, 5a is a plurality of product dispensing openings provided on the left and right of the inner door 5, 5b is an opening / closing body rotatably provided in each product dispensing opening 5a, and 8 is each. This is a suit for guiding the cylindrical beverage 6 dispensed from the product stocker 7 to any of the product dispensing openings 5a. The front door 2 is provided with a customer service device 9, and a plurality of product outlets 10 are opened corresponding to the product delivery openings 5a.

The bottom 3b of the inner box 3 is provided with an evaporator, a sheath heater and a fan, and the bottom 1b of the vending machine body 1 is provided with a compressor, a condenser and the like. The condenser and evaporator form a refrigeration cycle.

When the customer service device 9 provided on the front door 2 is operated, the cylindrical beverage 6 dispensed from the product stocker 7 is dispensed onto the chute 8, and the front door is opened through the product dispensing opening 5a. It is paid out to any one of the commodity outlets 2 of 2.

By the way, in this type of vending machine, it is difficult to know which product outlet 10 the tubular beverage 6 is dispensed to, and therefore the customer can use the product outlet 10 from which the tubular beverage 6 is dispensed. I had to look for it.

In order to deal with this, there is a product outlet 10 which is integrated in one place. In this automatic vending machine, all the product delivery openings 5a are located in the space A (see FIG. 6) between the plurality of product delivery openings 5a in the lower part of the front door 2 and one product outlet 10. A guide plate 11 (see FIGS. 7 and 8) made of an iron plate extending across both sides is provided, and inclined portions 11a formed by being bent obliquely upward are formed on both sides of the guide plate 11 respectively. There is. Then, the cylindrical drink 6 dispensed from the product dispensing opening 5a near the side is slid on the inclined portion 11a and guided to the center side where the product outlet 10 is provided. There is.

[0008]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, in the above-described conventional vending machine having the inclined portion 11a, the cylindrical beverage 6 does not slide down to the center side well, and when the guide plate 11 moves from the inclined portion 11a to the flat surface portion 11b, As shown by the phantom line in FIG. 8, there is a problem that the cylindrical beverage 6 comes into contact with the flat surface portion 11c and is likely to receive an impact.

Further, as an improvement to this, as shown in FIG. 9, there is also one in which a plurality of rollers 12 are provided in an inclined shape, whereby the cylindrical beverage 6 can be satisfactorily placed on the rollers 12. Although it slips off, a problem arises in that the manufacturing cost and the number of assembling steps for the rollers 12 increase.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and is a product for a vending machine which can guide the product to the product outlet, but which does not cause an impact, increase the manufacturing cost, and increase the number of assembling steps. It is intended to provide a dispensing unit structure.

[0011]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a plurality of product dispensing openings on the left and right on an inner door that opens and closes a front opening of an inner box body that houses products. One product outlet is provided in the front door that is installed side by side and opens and closes the front opening of the vending machine body, and a downward convex shape is formed in the space between the product dispensing opening and the product outlet. As described above, the sliding plate made of a low friction coefficient material curved in an arc shape is arranged so that the lowermost part thereof is positioned corresponding to the product outlet.

The second means of the present invention is the same as the first means, wherein the sliding plate has a larger radius of curvature as it approaches the lowermost portion.

[0013]

[Action]

 With the above configuration, the product dispensed from each dispensing opening slides on the slide plate and is guided to the product outlet. At this time, since the sliding plate is made of a material with a low coefficient of friction and is curved in an arc shape so as to be convex downward, the product is well guided by the sliding plate and is not impacted. ..

In addition, by increasing the radius of curvature of the sliding plate as it approaches the lowermost portion, the product from the product delivery opening has a small radius of curvature at a location distant from the lowermost portion of the sliding plate. Can be slid to the lowermost side reliably, but since the radius of curvature near the lowermost part is large, the vertical height of the sliding plate is higher than that when forming the entire sliding plate with a relatively small radius of curvature. Can be made smaller, and the slide plate can be provided in a smaller space.

[0015]

【Example】

 Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the same functions as those of the conventional one are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the vending machine, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of a product dispensing section of the vending machine. is there. As shown in FIG. 1, the inner door 5 is provided with three product dispensing openings 5a arranged side by side, and the front door 2 is provided with one product outlet 10. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, in the space A between the product delivery opening 5a in the front door 5 and the product outlet 10, a sliding plate 20 made of a plate material having a low friction coefficient such as polyethylene is arranged. It is set up.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the sliding plate 20 has a shape curved in an arc shape so as to be convex downward. That is, the central portion 20a corresponding to the commodity outlet 10 is located at the lowest position, and both side portions 20b of the sliding plate 20 are extended to the vicinity of the commodity discharging openings 5a at both ends. In this embodiment, the slide plate 20 is curved with the same radius of curvature.

In the above structure, the product dispensed from each dispensing opening 5a slides on the slide plate 20 and is guided to the product outlet. At this time, since the sliding plate 20 is made of a polyethylene plate having a low coefficient of friction, the cylindrical beverage 6 is satisfactorily guided to the vicinity of the product outlet 10 by the sliding plate 20. Further, since the sliding plate 20 has a curved shape and has no corners, the sliding plate 20 has a small impact when sliding, and does not adversely affect carbonated drinks and the like. Further, since the polyethylene plate is simply curved, the manufacturing cost is low and the assembly is easy.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a structure of a product dispensing unit of an automatic vending machine according to another embodiment of the present invention. Also in this embodiment, in the space A between the product delivery opening 5a in the front door 5 and the product outlet 10, a slide plate 30 made of a polyethylene low friction coefficient plate is arranged. Reference numeral 30 has a shape curved in an arc shape so as to be convex downward. That is, as in the above embodiment, the central portion 30a corresponding to the product outlet 10 is located at the lowest position, and both side portions 30b of the sliding plate 30 are extended to the vicinity of the product dispensing openings 5a at both end portions. Has been done.

However, the sliding plate 30 is formed with a larger radius of curvature toward the central portion 30a, which is the lowermost portion. That is, while the radius of curvature r _b on both sides 30b of the sliding plate 30, which is smaller (same radius of curvature as the above example) is a steep slope, the curvature radius r _a of the central portion 30a of the sliding plate 30 is It is made larger and has a shape close to a plane.

Also in the above configuration, the product dispensed from each dispensing opening 5a slides smoothly on the slide plate 30 and is guided to the product outlet 10 satisfactorily without impact. In this embodiment, the sliding plate 30 has a larger radius of curvature as it gets closer to the central portion 30a, and both sides 30b of the sliding plate 30 have a small radius of curvature r _b. while it is possible to slide a cylindrical beverage 6 from use opening 5a to ensure product outlet 10 side, since the large radius of curvature r _a central portion 30a, the above embodiment is relatively small identical radius of curvature In this case, the height h2 of the sliding plate 30 can be made smaller than the height h1 of the sliding plate 20 (shown by an imaginary line in FIG. 4), and the sliding plate 30 can be provided in a smaller space.

Although the case where the number of the product dispensing openings 5a is three has been described in these embodiments, the present invention is not limited to this, and the structure of the above sliding plates 20 and 30 can be easily formed even when there are two or four or more. It goes without saying that it can be applied to. Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the central portion is the lowest is described, but the sliding plate is shaped such that one side end is the lowermost part (the sliding plates 20 and 30 are left half or right half. As a shape, a product outlet may be provided at the bottom. Furthermore, the sliding plates 20 and 30 can be attached to the inner door 5 side.

[0023]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, according to the present invention, a sliding plate made of a low friction coefficient material is curved in an arc shape so as to be convex downward in the space between the product delivery opening and the product outlet. In addition, by arranging this lowermost part so as to correspond to the product outlet, the product dispensed from the dispensing opening can be favorably guided to the product outlet by the slide plate, and the impact can be prevented. It reduces the amount of waste and does not adversely affect carbonated drinks. Moreover, since the plate material is only bent and assembled, the manufacturing cost is low and the assembly is easy.

Furthermore, by configuring the sliding plate to have a larger radius of curvature as it approaches the lowermost portion, the vertical height of the sliding plate can be reduced, and the sliding plate can be provided in a smaller space, and by extension, The vending machine can be made compact.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same vending machine.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a product dispensing unit of the same vending machine.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a structure of a product dispensing unit of an automatic vending machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a conventional vending machine.

FIG. 6 is a vertical section of the same vending machine.

FIG. 7 is a front view of another conventional vending machine.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a product dispensing unit of the vending machine.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a product dispensing unit of another conventional vending machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vending Machine Main Body 1a Front Opening 2 Front Door 4 Inner Box Body 4a Front Opening 5 Inner Door 5a Product Dispensing Opening 6 Cylindrical Beverage (Product) 10 Product Exit 20, 30 Sliding Plate

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A front surface that opens and closes a front opening of a vending machine body by arranging a plurality of product dispensing openings side by side on an inner door that opens and closes a front opening of an inner box body that stores products. A sliding plate made of a low friction coefficient material that is provided with one product outlet on the door and is curved in an arc shape so as to be convex downward in a space between the product dispensing opening and the product outlet. Is arranged such that the lowermost part thereof is positioned corresponding to the product outlet, and the product dispensed from each dispensing opening is slid on the slide plate and guided to the product outlet. Vending machine product payout structure. 2. The product dispensing part structure for a vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the sliding plate is formed such that its radius of curvature is increased toward the lowermost part.