JPH06290342A - Food heating automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the slipping/falling of food when they are carried out and also to prevent the defective operations of a control switch, etc., in a microwave oven by turning a connecting rod by a motor via a 4-knuckle link to open a door by an extent larger than a specific angle. CONSTITUTION:A tray and the food put on a tray rack provided on inside an open door 21 of a microwave oven 20 are stretched in the closing direction of the door 21 by the movement of a connecting rod 211 connected to a crank revolved by a motor and against the force of a spring 213 inside an inner face cam 210 of a door cam 209. Then the door 21 is moved continuously until a point just before a door latch 201. Then, the connecting rod 211 stops and the door 21 is closed. When a heating process of the oven 20 is complete, the latch 201 is released by a latch opening/closing mechanism. Thus, the motor is driven again to actuate the connecting rod 211. As a result, the inside of the cam 210 is pushed and the door 21 is opened by about 90 deg.. Then the connecting rod 211 stops.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a food heating automatic vending machine capable of automatically heating and selling refrigerated or frozen stored food such as hamburgers and packed foods which can be stored at room temperature.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been proposed a vending machine which automatically heats frozen food having a long shelf life in a microwave oven and sells it.

FIG. 13 shows such a vending machine disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-77191. In the vending machine 80, a freezing room 81 is constituted, a bend rack 82 is provided, and products 83 are stored. This product is received by the comb-teeth-shaped hand portion 85 of the robot hand 84 in response to a sales instruction, carried into the microwave oven 86 below the freezer compartment 81 for heating and cooking, and after heating, the product is taken out by the robot hand 84 and carried out at the exit 87. What is conveyed to is disclosed. In addition, for example, the one that uses the door of the microwave oven to carry in and carry out food is Jikō Sho 5
No. 7-44445.

[0004]

However, none of them shows concrete measures against a shock when the door is opened and closed.

According to the present invention, when the food is carried in and out by using the door of the microwave oven, the sliding fall of the food is prevented.
The purpose is to prevent it from being simple and compact.

Another object is to prevent the door opening / closing mechanism from interfering with the latching operation of the microwave oven, for example, to prevent malfunction of the control switch in the microwave oven.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the food heating vending machine of the present invention stores food in a temperature range such as room temperature, refrigeration, and freezing, and has a plurality of bend racks inside. And a bottom wall having a product outlet and a door for opening and closing the product outlet at a predetermined location, a storage having a loading door, a tray on which the food is placed, and a tray rack provided on the inner surface of the door. A food heating range, the door of the range has a door latch on one side for keeping it closed, a door hinge on the other side, a door cam having an inner cam near the door hinge, and one end on the inner cam And a spring for biasing the connecting rod to a predetermined position of the inner cam, the connecting rod being connected to a crank rotated at the other end by a motor, and the connecting rod being rotated by about 180 degrees of the motor. Are those constituted by four link opening the door 90 degrees or more.

Further, the door of the range is opened left or right.

[0009]

With the above structure, the tray on the tray rack and the food provided on the inner surface of the door in the open state of the microwave oven can move the inner cam of the door cam by the movement of the connecting rod connected to the crank rotated by the motor. Pulling in the closing direction against the force of the door, moving the door until just before the door is latched, the connecting rod stops, the spring force urges the spring in the closing direction, and the state immediately before the door is latched Finally, the door is finally closed by the latch opening / closing mechanism that holds and latches separately.

When the cooking by the microwave is completed, the latch opening / closing mechanism unlatches the door, and the motor is driven again to move the connecting rod. By this operation, the inside cam of the door cam is pushed, the door is rotated to an angle of about 90 degrees in the opening direction, and the connecting rod is stopped. At this time, the door tries to move by 90 degrees or more due to inertia, but this movement is allowed in the play portion of the inner cam, and then stopped at a predetermined angle by the force of the spring.

Further, when closed, the door is completely closed by rotating 90 degrees, but since the link rotates 90 degrees or more, for example, 93 degrees, play occurs in the door cam and the connecting rod is pulled up in the door cam. It does not generate a reaction force and prevent the door from being closed.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the essential part of one embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a food heating vending machine, which is an outlet 3 for a product 2.
An outer door 5 provided with a carry-out door 4, a coin slot, a select button (all not shown), and the like, and a storage 5 for storing the product 2 therein, for example, in a freezing temperature zone. 6 is a loading door provided on the front surface of the storage 5, 7 is a heat insulating box, 8 is a bottom wall in the storage, and a cooling air passage 9, a cooler 10 and a fan 11 are arranged below the bottom wall. 12 is
A bend rack composed of a spiral body 13 and a box-shaped column 14 that are rotated by a motor (not shown). The product 2 is stored between the spiral bodies 13 and the product 2 is dropped by the rotation of the spiral body 13. is there. Reference numeral 15 is a product outlet opening at the front center of the bottom wall 8, and a slide door 16 is provided.

Reference numeral 17 denotes an in-compartment transporting device for transporting by sliding on the bottom wall 8 to the product outlet 15 falling from each bend rack 12, which is provided with a left and right pushing member 18 that moves left and right and a forward and backward pushing member 19 that moves back and forth. ing.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a microwave oven for heating food, which is installed in the machine room 22 below the storage 5 so that the left-opening door 21 faces the left side surface of the vending machine 1. On the inner wall of the door 21, there is provided a tray rack 24 on which a tray 23 on which the product 2 is placed is detachably placed.

Numeral 25 indicates a tray 23 between the position of the commodity outlet 15, the position of the carry-out outlet 3 and the tray rack 24.
It is an outside-conveyance apparatus that moves the tray, and is equipped with a tray placing section 26 on which the tray 23 is detachably placed and which moves up and down by linear movement and curved movement.

Reference numeral 27 denotes a carry-out device that pushes out the products on the tray 23 to the carry-out port 3 between the carry-out positions, and has a push piece 28 that reciprocates back and forth.

Next, the detailed configuration of each device will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7. In FIG. 4, the internal transfer device 1
2 is a carriage 29 to which the left and right pushing member 18 is fixed,
A wire 31 for driving the carriage 29, a left and right drive motor 32, which are movably provided in the guide rail 30,
It has a non-contact type limit switch 33 and a wire pulley 34.

On the other hand, as for the left and right pushing member 18, the carriage 35 to which the forward and backward pushing member 19 is fixed is a guide rail portion 36.
It is movably provided inside and has a wire 37 for driving the carriage 35, a longitudinal drive motor 38, a non-contact type limit switch 39, and a wire pulley 40. Further, FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the in-compartment transporting apparatus, in which the left and right pushing member 41 has a front length in the depth direction of the bend rack 12.
Is equivalent to the length of. Reference numeral 42 denotes a front and rear pushing member having substantially the entire width of the storage 5, which is moved by a carriage 44 which moves in guide rail members 43 provided on the left and right. Further, 45 is a drive shaft which is driven by a front-rear drive motor 46. Note that parts having the same function are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

In FIG. 6 (a), the door 21 of the microwave oven 20 is, as is well known, a key-type door latch 201 (see FIG. 1).
0) is pivotally supported on the pin 202, and is engaged with the rectilinear cam 204 of the range main body 203. 205 is a tension spring. Although not shown, a control switch for heating and stopping the microwave oven operated by the door latch 20 is provided as is well known. The door opening / closing mechanism 48 for opening / closing the door latch 201 by the cam 47 and the door 21
It has a door opening / closing mechanism 50 that opens and closes with a four-bar link 49. As shown in FIG. 6B, the four-joint link 49 includes a crank 207 driven by a motor 206 and a door 21.
Connecting rod 211, one end of which engages with a door cam 209 provided in the vicinity of the hinge 208 and an inner cam 210 formed on the door cam 209, and the other end of which is connected to the crank 207.
And the range main body 203 is composed of four elements. The inner cam 210 has a substantially triangular shape, and each vertex A, B,
Has C. Reference numeral 212 denotes a cam follower engaged with the inside cam 210 and fixed to the connecting rod 211, and rotates the door 21 by 90 degrees or more, for example, 93 degrees by rotating the crank 207 by 180 degrees (FIG. 12). 21
Reference numeral 3 is a spring that biases the connecting rod 211 in one direction.

In FIG. 7, the outside-compartment transfer device 25 includes a chain 5 that is vertically extended and is engaged with a drive sprocket 52 that is rotated by a motor (not shown) on a substantially U-shaped frame 51.
Have three. A carrier 55 of a slide guide 54 is attached to the chain 53, and a vertical moving body 56 is fixed. The tray mounting portion 26 is connected to the vertical moving body 56 by a parallel link 57. In addition, the tray placing section 26
A cam lever 60 that engages with a cam track 59 provided on the inner wall of the frame 51 is fixed to one bar 58 of the parallel link 57 for linear and curved movement.
The cam track 59 has a straight line portion 61 that gives a linear movement and a curved portion 62 that gives a curved movement to the tray mounting portion 26, and a straight line between the position of the product outlet 15 and the position of the carry-out port 3. Movement and curving movement is performed between the position of the carry-out port 3 and the tray rack 24 of the microwave oven 20. Further, 63 is a guide hole provided in the tray installation portion 26, which is the tray 23 shown in FIG.
The guide pin 64 of the two pairs of guide pins 64, 65 provided on the lower surface of the is engaged for positioning. Also guide pin 6
5 engages with the guide hole 66 (FIG. 3) of the tray rack 24 to perform positioning.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. When a product is selected after the coin is inserted (S
TEP1), the spiral body 13 of the selected bend rack 12 is driven (STEP2), the opening operation of the door 16 is performed (STEP3), and the tray 23 is moved to the product outlet 15 by the upward linear drive of the outside transfer device 25. And goes up to just below the bottom wall 8. (STEP 4). At this time, the left / right pushing member 18 and the front / back pushing member 19 of the in-compartment transporting device 17 are sequentially driven (in the case of the other embodiment of FIG. 4, conversely, the front / back pushing member 42 and the left / right pushing member 41 are in this order) to bend the bend rack 12 The more dropped product 2 is guided to the product outlet 15 and placed on the tray 23 (STEP 5). Next, the outside-compartment transfer device 25 is swung down, and the tray 23 and the product 2 on the tray placing portion 26 are transferred onto the tray rack 24 of the door 21 in the open state (STE).
P6). During this time, the closing operation of the door 16 (STEP 7) and the reset of the in-compartment transportation device 17 are performed (STEP 8).

After that, the door 21 is closed and cooking is performed for a predetermined time (STEP 9). When cooking is complete, door 2
1 is opened (STEP 10), the outside-conveyance device 25 is swung up, the tray 23 and the product 2 are placed on the tray placing portion 26 again, and stopped at the position facing the carry-out port 3 (STEP 1).
1). Then, the carry-out device 27 operates to push out the product to the carry-out port 3 (STEP 12) and move to a position where the product can be taken out (STEP 13).

The operation of opening and closing the door 21 of the microwave oven 20 will be described in detail. When opening the door 21, first, the latch opening / closing mechanism 48 operates to remove the door latch 201.
The door opening / closing mechanism 5 is still in operation while the latch opening / closing mechanism 48 is operating.
0 is stopped, the connecting rod 211 is not moving,
The cam follower 212 is positioned with a gap d from the apex A of the inner cam, and from this state to the state of contacting the apex C,
It rotates by the action of the door latch 201 of the range body (Fig. 1
2 to FIG. 1). Next, when the motor 206 of the door opening / closing mechanism 50 is activated and the crank 207 starts to rotate, the connecting rod 2
The cam follower 212 of 11 moves from the vertex C of the inner surface cam to the vertex A with almost no load, and then the door 21 is rotated up to an angle of 90 degrees, and the motor 206 is stopped. At this time, the door 21 is rotated to the state of the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 11 due to inertia, and the cam follower 212 once contacts the apex A of the cam to the apex B, but again due to the acting force of the spring, the apex A of the cam is again formed. It moves until it touches and stops the door 21 at a fixed position.

Next, when the door 21 is closed, the cam follower 212 starts to move from the apex A to the apex B of the cam with almost no load by the rotation of the crank 207, and then the door 21 is rotated to move as shown in FIG. The motor 206 stops in this state. At this time, the spring 213 pulls the door cam 209 so that the door latch 201 contacts the straight cam 204. After that, the latch opening / closing mechanism 48 operates to close the door 21.

At this time, the door 21 is closed at a rotation angle of 90 degrees, but since the 4-node link 49 originally compensates for the rotation angle of 93 degrees, a gap d is provided between the cam follower 212 and the apex A. Has been secured.

Next, the effects of the above-described embodiment will be described. 4, the carriage 29 to which the left and right pushing members 18 are fixed is movably provided in the guide rail 30, and the wire 3 for driving the carriage 29 is used.
1, left and right drive motor 32, non-contact type limit switch 3
3. Since the wire 31 has the structure including the wire pulley 34, the wire 31 has flexibility with respect to the freezing of moisture that has entered the refrigerator, so that the freezing can be easily peeled off due to the deformation during driving and the operation stability is high.

Further, in another embodiment of the in-compartment transfer apparatus of FIG. 5, the depth of the left / right pushing member 41 in the depth direction is made to correspond to the length of the front bend rack 12, and the forward / backward push of almost the entire width of the storage cabinet 5 is performed. Since the member 42 is provided, the front-rear drive motor 4
Since 6 and the like can be fixedly installed instead of a moving body, there is no need to strengthen the coating by moving the wiring cord, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

Door 21 of microwave oven 20 in FIG.
Has a latch opening / closing mechanism 48 and a door opening / closing mechanism 50 that opens and closes the door 21 with a four-bar link 49, and has a door cam 209 and a spring 213.
A reliable operation can be performed without complicatedly controlling the operation timing of 0. Further, since the door opening / closing mechanism 50 is almost no load at the initial stage of activation, a low torque motor can be used.
Further, the inertial force does not directly give a shock to the link when the motor 46 at the time of opening and closing is stopped, so that the reliability is high. Further, when the door 21 is closed, the connecting rod 211 is moved to the door cam 2
Since a play zone condition is set at 10, it is possible to prevent a closed state of the door 21 or a malfunction of a control switch or the like inside the range without generating an unnecessary reaction force on the connecting rod 211.

In the outside transfer device 25 shown in FIG. 7, one bar 58 of the parallel link 57 is provided with a cam track 59 provided on the inner wall of the frame 51 in order to give a linear movement and a curved movement to the tray mounting portion 26. The cam lever 60 to be engaged is fixed, and the cam track 59 is provided with a linear portion 61 that gives a linear movement and a curved portion 62 that gives a curved movement to the tray placing portion 26 in series. Since a linear motion is performed between the position of the outlet 3 and a curved motion between the position of the carry-out port 3 and the tray latch 24 of the microwave oven 20,
Since the product 2 can be transported while being kept horizontal and its configuration is simple, it is not necessary to set the motion trajectory by control like a robot, and the stability of motion operation is extremely good, and it can be realized at low cost. it can. In addition, the tray placing section 2
In the guide hole 63 provided in 6, the guide pin 64 of the two pairs of guide pins 64 and 65 provided on the lower surface of the tray 23 shown in FIG. Since the positioning is performed by engaging with the guide hole 66 (FIG. 3), the tray 23 can be reliably supported regardless of whether it is moved or stopped.

[0031]

The present invention is provided with a tray on which food is placed, and a food heating range in which a tray rack is provided on the inner surface of the door, and the door of the range has a door latch for keeping it closed to one side. A door cam having a door hinge on the other side and an inner cam in the vicinity of the door hinge, a connecting rod having one end engaged with the inner cam and the other end connected to a crank rotated by a motor, and the connecting rod having the inner surface. The connecting rod is provided with a spring for urging the cam at a predetermined position, and the connecting rod is opened and closed by 90 degrees or more by the rotation of the motor. Since the door opening / closing mechanism is almost no load at the initial stage of activation, a low torque motor can be used. Furthermore, when the motor is stopped during opening and closing, the inertial force does not give a shock to the link directly, so it is highly reliable, and the sliding and dropping of food can be prevented simply and compactly. Furthermore, since the connecting rod is in a play zone with the inner cam when the door is closed, it is possible to perform a reliable opening / closing operation without generating unnecessary reaction force on the connecting rod, which is a highly practical effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view showing a state immediately before a latch when a microwave oven door is closed in an embodiment of a food heating vending machine of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the food heating vending machine according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of the internal configuration of the food heating vending machine of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an in-compartment transfer device.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the in-compartment transfer device.

6A is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a microwave oven. FIG. 6B is an enlarged view of a main part of a four-section link of a door opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an outside-conveyance device.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a tray.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the food heating vending machine of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a door latch portion of a microwave oven.

FIG. 11 is a top view showing a state when the door of the microwave oven is opened.

FIG. 12 is a top view showing a state when the door of the microwave oven is closed.

FIG. 13 is a sectional view showing a conventional food heating vending machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 products 5 storage 6 loading door 8 bottom wall 12 bend rack 15 product outlet 16 door 20 range 21 door 23 tray 24 tray rack 46 motor 201 door latch 207 crank 208 door hinge 209 door cam 210 inner cam 211 connecting rod 212 cam follower 213 spring

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A bottom wall for storing food in a temperature range such as normal temperature, refrigeration, and freezing, having a plurality of bend racks inside, and having a product outlet at a predetermined location and a door for opening and closing the product outlet. A storage compartment having a loading door, a tray on which the food is placed, and a food heating range in which a tray rack is provided on the inner surface of the door, and the range door has a door latch that keeps it closed. A door cam having a door hinge on the other side and an inner cam near the door hinge, a connecting rod that has one end engaged with the inner cam and the other end connected to a crank rotated by a motor, and this connecting rod. A food heating vending machine having a spring for urging the inner cam to a predetermined position, and the connecting rod being a four-node link for opening and closing the door by 90 degrees or more by rotation of the motor. 2. The food heating vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the door of the stove is opened left or right.