JPH0731338Y2 - Automatic product lending machine - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (a) Field of Industrial Use The purpose of the present invention is to temporarily store the product between the lending / returning port of the automatic product lending machine and the product transporting device, and allow the user to store the product. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic product lending machine that is prevented from being pushed into a product transport device.

(B) Prior art In a conventional video cassette rental machine, the video cassette is moved to a storage rack for storing and storing the video cassette, and the video cassette is taken out of the storage rack or a transfer device for storing the video cassette in the storage rack is rented out. The video cassette is moved to a position adjacent to the return port, and the video cassette is directly transferred between the transfer device and the rental return port.

By the way, since the transport device requires accurate movement and the structure of the device is complicated, if the customer receives or returns the video cassette directly from the lending / returning slot, the transport device may malfunction depending on how the customer handles it. It also causes

(C) Problem to be solved by the invention The problem to be solved by the invention is to make a mistake in operation by the customer by providing a delivery device for delivering the goods between the lending / return port and the carrier device. It is also to prevent the transport device from being damaged.

(D) Means for Solving the Problem The present invention is a product for moving to a lending / returning port and a storage shelf for storing and storing the product and taking the product out of the storage shelf or storing the product in the storage shelf. In an automatic product lending machine including a carrier device, a main body having a size capable of accommodating a product and limiting a product transfer path is provided between the lending / returning port and the product carrier device at the delivery position. Provided is a product delivery device for temporarily receiving the product put in from the lending / returning port, and the main body of the product delivery device is adapted to be rotated by a motor to contact the product in the transfer passage. And a shutter mechanism for opening and closing the transfer path at an end portion of the main body on the lending / returning port side, which is close to the shutter mechanism to check whether there is a product in the transfer passage. Detect and send Sensor and a sensor for controlling the operation of the shutter mechanism.

(E) Action In the above configuration, when the carrier device that receives the product from the storage shelf comes to the delivery position adjacent to the product delivery device and stops, the delivery device provided in the carrier device causes the delivery device to move into the main body of the product delivery device. Sent. When a part of the product enters the body, its own feed roller rotates and sends the product in the same direction. When a product approaches the shutter mechanism, the sensor detects this and the shutter mechanism opens the transfer passage. Then, the product is further sent into the lending / returning slot by the sending roller. The customer can manually take out the product from the lending / returning exit.

On the other hand, when the return operation is performed with the keyboard of the commodity lending machine, the shutter mechanism opens the transfer passage. When the product is returned to the lending / returning port, another sensor detects the product and the feed roller rotates to transfer the product from the lending / returning port toward the transport device. When a part of the product enters the carrier, it is taken into it by the feeder in the carrier.

(F) Embodiment Hereinafter, a case where a video cassette is handled as a product will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 3, a product delivery device 1 of the present embodiment is provided with a lending / returning port 102 formed on a front wall of a case 101 of a commodity automatic lending machine 100 and a case 101 thereof. It is provided between the multi-stage product storage shelves 103 and the product transport device 104 arranged in front of the product storage shelves 103. The carrying device 104 is a space for receiving a product on the lateral guide rods, the lateral guide rods 106 being movably attached to a pair of upright vertical guide rods 105 extending vertically at positions on both sides of the storage rack. Limiting housing 107
Is movably mounted so that its housing can be moved in a known manner between the delivery position shown in FIG. 2 and the front of any storage rack. Further, inside the housing 107, there is provided a feeding device 108 that pulls in a product or sends out a product into the housing. Since this transporting device may have the same structure as the conventional one, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

4 to 7, the product delivery device 1 of this embodiment is roughly divided into a product, that is, a lending / returning port 102 of a video cassette and a product transfer device 104, and an automatic product by an appropriate means. A main body 2 that is held in the case 101 of the lending machine and that limits the transfer route of the goods;
A transfer mechanism 3 provided on a side wall of the main body 2, a shutter mechanism 5 provided at an end of the main body 2 on the lending / returning port side, and a push-in prevention that is interlocked with the shutter mechanism and prevents an unreasonable push-in of a product. It is provided with a mechanism 7 and a detection mechanism 8 for detecting the presence / absence of a product on the moving route.

The main body 2 has a box shape with both ends open so as to limit the transfer passage 21. One side wall of the main body 2 (left side in FIG. 5)
A plurality of sets (three sets in this embodiment) of feed rollers 31 of the transfer mechanism 3 are rotatably attached to the bearing 22 by a bearing member 32. The feed rollers 31 of each set are a set of two arranged on both sides of the bearing member 32, both of which project to the transfer passage 21 side through an opening formed in the side wall and can contact the side surface of the video cassette. It has become. The drive motor 33 of one set of feed rollers is interlocked via a gear, and the three sets of feed rollers are interlocked by a known means such as a belt so as to rotate simultaneously in the same direction. Plural (three in this embodiment) elastic pressure rollers 35 are arranged in a straight line on the other side wall 23 of the main body 2. These elastic pressure rollers 35 are rotatably supported by a support member 37 disposed movably toward the transfer passage 21 between a pair of brackets 36 fixed to the side wall 23, and the support member 37 is supported by a spring 38. It is suppressed on the moving passage 21 side.

The shutter mechanism 5 is a vertically long opening through which the video cassette can pass.
52 and a horizontally elongated opening 53 therebelow, and a support plate 51 fixed to the end of the main body at a substantially right angle to the transfer passage 21, and a plurality of grooved guide rollers rotatably attached to the support plate 51. 54, and a shutter plate 55 having upper and lower edges supported by the guide roller 54 and having an opening 56 of the same size and shape as the opening 52. The shutter plate 55 is movably arranged between the pair of stopper pins 59 in a state of being superposed on the support plate 51, and is provided with a drive convex portion 57 extending through an opening 53, and a predetermined distance from the driving convex portion 57 through the opening 53. A pair of interlocking convex portions 58 extending vertically are attached.

The shutter mechanism 5 is a mounting plate further fixed to the support plate 51.
The motor 61 is mounted on the motor 60, and the gear 63 is rotatably supported by the mounting plate and meshes with the gear 62 mounted on the motor. A pin 64 is fixed to the gear 63 so as to enter the groove of the drive protrusion 57 and thereby interlock the shutter plate and the gear 63. The gear 63 is biased counterclockwise in FIG. 7 by the spring 66, and when the motor does not apply the biasing force in the clockwise direction, the shutter plate 55 is automatically closed (the opening 52 of the support plate is The shutter plate is returned to a position (which is not aligned with the opening 56).

Further, a pair of sensors 67 and 68 are attached to the support plate 51 adjacent to the upper edge of the shutter plate 55. These sensors are in the "on" state when the detection plate 69 attached to the upper edge of the shutter plate 55 comes to the position of those sensors,
The detection signal is sent to the control device.

The push-in prevention device 7 is formed on the side wall 23 by being attached to one end of the lever 71 extending along a transfer passage rotatably provided on the side wall 23 of the main body 2 (opposite the lending / returning port). And a push-in prevention pin 72 capable of penetrating into the transfer passage through the opened hole. The other end of the lever 71 extends to a position approaching the support plate 51 of the shutter mechanism, and is bent downward so as to be located between the pair of interlocking convex portions 58 fixed to the shutter plate 55.

The detection mechanism 8 includes an optical sensor 81 mounted on the main body 2 in the vicinity of the shutter mechanism 5, and an optical sensor 82 mounted on one surface of the support plate 51 of the shutter mechanism 5 (on the shutter plate 55 side). 82a, and microswitches 85 and 86 provided on the side wall 23 so as to be separated from each other in the moving direction of the video cassette. These sensors and microswitches are connected to the control circuit (not shown) of the video cassette automatic lending machine to control the operation of the product delivery device of the present invention in connection with the automatic product lending machine, as described below. A signal for doing so is input to the control device. The sensors 81 and 82a
Optically detects the presence / absence of a video cassette at the position where they are provided, and the microswitch detects the presence / absence of a contact in contact with the video cassette in the main body.

Reference numeral 9 is a product discriminating device for checking whether or not the product, that is, the video cassette is the same as the one selected by the customer.

Next, the operation of the product delivery device 1 will be described with reference to the operation of an automatic lending machine for video cassettes.

At the time of lending When the customer operates the keyboard 110 (Fig. 1) provided on the front wall of the case 101 of the automatic product lending machine 100 according to the lending procedure, the transport device 104 takes out the video cassette selected by the customer from the storage shelf 103. 3 to the delivery position (the position where the housing 107 of the carrier is aligned with the main body 2) shown in FIG. When the transport device 104 arrives at that position, the feeding device 108 in the device operates to feed the video cassette into the main body 2. At the same time, the drive motor 33 of the transfer mechanism 3
Rotates to rotate a plurality of sets of feed rollers 31 in the same direction (the direction in which the video cassette is fed toward the shutter mechanism) to take the video cassette into the main body 2. At this time, since the video cassette is elastically pressed toward the feed roller by the elastic pressure roller 35, the video cassette can be reliably taken in. When the video cassette is completely taken in, it is detected by the sensor 81 and a detection signal is sent to the above-mentioned control device. Then, the transfer mechanism 3 is controlled by the control device.
The operation of the drive motor 33 is stopped. At this time, the microswitches 85 and 86 are in the "on" state because the contacts are in contact with the video cassette.

Then, the product discriminating device 9 discriminates whether or not the video cassette taken in is the same as the one selected by the customer. If they coincide with each other, the motor 61 of the shutter mechanism 5 is operated by the control device to move the shutter plate to move the shutter mechanism. Open (the opening 52 of the support plate 51 and the opening 56 of the shutter plate 55 are aligned). Then, it is detected that the detection plate 69 attached to the shutter plate has reached the position of the sensor 67 and opened, and the rotation of the motor 61 is stopped and this state is maintained. At the same time when the sensor 67 detects, the drive motor 33 starts to rotate and the feed roller
The video cassette is sent in the direction of the lending / returning port 102 by rotating 31. The video cassette has shutter mechanism openings 52 and 56.
After passing through, the pair of sensors 82 and 82a are shielded from light and the sensor is in the "on" state, and it is detected that the video cassette is in that position. When the video cassette is sent into the lending / returning slot 102 to the position where the customer can pull out the video cassette from the lending / returning slot, the micro switch 85
Is turned off, the rotation of the drive motor 33 is stopped, and the feeding of the video cassette is stopped. When the customer pulls out the video cassette from the lending / returning port, the light shielding between the sensors 82 and 82a is released, the sensor is turned off, and the motor 61 of the shutter mechanism is rotated to return the shutter plate 55 to the original position. To close the opening 52. When the shutter plate is completely moved, the detection plate 69 moves to the position of the sensor 68, the sensor 68 is turned “on”, and the rotation of the motor 61 is stopped. This completes the rental of video cassettes. However, if the customer does not pull out the video cassette from the lending / returning slot even after a certain period of time (when the sensors 82 and 82a do not turn off), the drive motor 33 rotates in the direction to pull in the video cassette, It is taken in and again stored in a predetermined storage rack by the transfer device 104, and is not left unattended.

At the time of return When the customer operates the keyboard 110 according to the return procedure, the motor 61 of the shutter mechanism 5 rotates and the shutter plate 55
Move and open. At this time, the lever 71 of the push-in prevention device 7 that interlocks with the shutter mechanism is moved by hitting one of the pair of interlocking convex portions 58 attached to the shutter plate, and the push-in prevention pin 72 attached to one end of the lever enters the transfer passage. It prevents the video cassette from popping out and pushing the video cassette by the customer. Customer rents out video cassette 102
When you insert it to the specified position, the pair of sensors 82, 82a
Is shielded from light and turned on, and the drive motor 33 of the transfer mechanism 3
Rotates in the opposite direction to that of the rental, and the feed roller 31 takes the video cassette into the main body 2. When the video cassette is completely taken into the main body, the micro switch 86 is turned on and the drive motor 33 stops rotating. Even if the customer forcibly pushes in the video cassette, the push-in prevention pin hits the video cassette and further insertion is prevented, which does not hinder the carrying device. Meanwhile, the sensors 82, 82
The light shielding of a is released, the sensor is turned off, and the motor 61 of the shutter mechanism 5 rotates in the opposite direction to move the shutter plate 55 in the closing direction. At this time, the lever 71 of the push-in prevention device 7 is pushed by the other of the pair of interlocking convex portions 58, and the push-in prevention device pin 72 is retracted from the transfer passage. Therefore, the video cassette can be moved into the transport device 104. Even if the video cassette is completely taken into the main body, if the customer's hand or foreign matter is at the position of the opening 52 of the shutter mechanism 5, the sensors 82 and 82a operate to keep the shutter mechanism open. It is safe without pinching.

The video cassette incorporated in the main body is a product discrimination device 9
If it is a proper video cassette, the motor 33 of the transfer mechanism 3 rotates and the feed roller 31 causes the transport device to move.
It is sent to the inside of 104 and returned to a predetermined storage rack by the carrying device. If the video cassette is not suitable, the video cassette is once sent to the lending / returning port, but if the customer does not take out the video cassette after a certain period of time, the video cassette is taken in again and the transport device 104
Since it will not be stored in a defective video cassette shelf provided in a part of the storage shelf and left unattended, it will not disturb the next customer.

Since the gear 63 of the shutter mechanism is biased by the spring 66 in the direction of closing the shutter mechanism, the shutter mechanism can be automatically closed even if an abnormality such as a power failure occurs in a state where the shutter mechanism is open.

(G) Effect According to the present invention, since the product is not directly delivered between the product lending / returning port of the automatic product lending machine and the carrier device, the customer's erroneous operation does not hinder the carrier device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing an automatic product lending machine incorporating a product delivery device according to the present invention, [A] is a front view, [B] is a side view thereof, and FIG. 2 is an automatic product lending device of FIG. FIG. 3 is a view showing a state in which a front cover of the machine is removed, FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the automatic commodity lending machine of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view of a commodity delivery device, and FIG. 5 is a line of FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the shutter mechanism, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII of FIG. 1: Product delivery device 2: Main body 21: Transfer passage 3: Transfer mechanism 31: Feed roller, 33: Drive motor 5: Shutter mechanism 51: Support plate, 55: Shutter plate 67, 68: Sensor 7: Push-in prevention device 72: Push-in prevention pin 8: Detection mechanism 81, 82, 82a: Sensor 85, 86: Micro switch

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Claim: What is claimed is: 1. An automatic merchandise lending device comprising a lending / returning port and a merchandise transfer device for moving the merchandise to a storage shelf for storing and storing the merchandise and taking out the merchandise from the storage rack In the machine, between the lending and returning port and the product transporting device at the delivery position, there is provided a main body having a size that can substantially accommodate the product and limiting the transfer passage of the product, and the product is inserted from the lending and returning port. A product delivery device for temporarily receiving the delivered product, and a main body of the product delivery device provided with a feed roller adapted to be rotated by a motor and in contact with the product in the transfer passage to feed the product. A shutter mechanism for opening and closing the transfer path is provided at an end of the main body on the lending / returning port side, and the feed roller and the shutter are detected in the vicinity of the shutter mechanism to detect the presence or absence of a product in the transfer path. Mechanism movement An automatic product lending machine characterized by having a sensor for controlling the work. 2. The automatic commodity lending machine for the main body according to claim 1, wherein a portion of the main body near the commodity transfer device is
Automatic product lending in which a push-in prevention member that can be retracted into and out of the moving passage in association with the opening / closing operation of the shutter mechanism and that protrudes into the passage when the shutter mechanism is open to prevent the passage of products is disposed. Machine.