JPH0798781A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm whether or not the refrigeration cycle is normally operated as soon as a person in charge closes the inner door in the automatic vending machine equipped with a compressor and fan as the refrigeration cycle and with a door in front of the device main body. CONSTITUTION:The machine consists of an inner switch 14 which detects the opening and closing state of the door, a stop means which forcedly stops a compressor 20 and a fan 22 when the switch 14 detects the door is open, a timer which starts counting when opening the door is detected by the switch 14, and a refrigeration cycle starting means which operates the compressor 20 and the fan 22 when the count of the timer reaches the time when starting the compressor 20 is enabled and when the switch 14 detects that the door is closed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a vending machine manager supplies a product to the vending machine, an inner door provided on the front surface of the vending machine is opened and the product is loaded into a column inside the main body. In this case,
When the refrigeration cycle that cools the inside of the vending machine is operating, warm air may enter from the outside when the inner door is opened, and the refrigeration cycle may be frosted. Therefore, the inner door switch has been conventionally installed on the main body, and when the inner door is opened,
The refrigeration cycle of the compressor and fan was forcibly stopped.

[0003]

As described above, when the refrigeration cycle is forcibly stopped, in order to protect the compressor, the time from the stop to the start (hereinafter referred to as "startable time") is set to 5 minutes. There is. Specifically, a delay circuit is provided to start the compressor 5 minutes after the administrator closes the inner door.

In this case, however, the administrator has to wait 5 minutes after closing the inner door in order to confirm whether the refrigeration cycle works properly, which is a problem in that the work is time-consuming. .

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an automatic vending machine in which an administrator can close the inner door and check whether the refrigeration cycle is operating normally.

[0006]

An automatic vending machine according to claim 1 of the present invention is a vending machine having a door on the front surface of its main body and having a compressor and a fan, which is a refrigerating cycle, in the opened / closed state of the door. Open / close detection means for detecting the open state, stop means for forcibly stopping the compressor and the fan when the open state is detected by the open / close detection means, and counting from the time when the open state is detected by the open / close detection means. And a refrigeration cycle starting means for operating the compressor and the fan when the count of the timer reaches the startable time of the compressor and the open / close detection means detects the closed state. .

A vending machine according to a second aspect of the present invention is the automatic vending machine according to the first aspect, wherein only the fan is operated when the open / close detection means detects a closed state before the count of the timer reaches the startable time of the compressor. It has a fan driving means for driving the.

[0008]

[Operation] In the automatic vending machine according to claim 1, when the opening / closing detection means detects the open state of the door, the stop means forcibly stops the compressor and the fan, and the timer starts counting. When the count of the timer reaches the startable time of the compressor and the opening / closing means detects the closed state of the door, the refrigeration cycle starting means operates the compressor and the fan.

In the automatic vending machine according to the second aspect, when the opening / closing detection means detects the closed state of the door before the count of the timer reaches the startable time of the compressor, the fan operation means operates only the fan.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An automatic vending machine 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

Reference numeral 12 is a cycle terminal to which a refrigeration cycle is connected. The inner door switch 14, the cold / hot switch 16, the cold sensor 18, the compressor 20, and the fan 22 are connected to this.

Reference numeral 24 is a bend terminal to which a bend solenoid 26 and a sold-out switch 28 are connected.

Reference numeral 30 is a display terminal to which a display device provided on the front surface of the door is connected. A money display 32, a sellable lamp, a sold-out lamp, a selection section 34 having a selection switch, a change-out lamp 36, a selling lamp 38, a 1,000-yen bill prohibition lamp, and a photo switch 42 are connected to this.

Reference numeral 44 is a switch terminal for controlling the fluorescent lamp on the display shelf, and turns on and off the fluorescent lamp through the ballast 46.

Reference numeral 48 is a main controller. This includes Bill Bali 50, prepaid card machine 52, coin mech 5
4, remote control key terminal 56, power supply 58, bend terminal 2
4, the cycle terminal 12 and the display terminal 30 are connected via a serial bus, and the switch terminal 44 is also connected.

In the vending machine 10 having the above-mentioned structure, the operation of the refrigeration cycle when the manager of the vending machine opens the inner door will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. explain. In addition, the compressor 2
When 0 is forcibly stopped once, 0 is required to be stopped for 5 minutes as a startable time. In addition, the main controller 48
Has a built-in timer that counts the bootable time.

In step a1, it is detected whether or not the inner door is in the open state. If the inner door is in the closed state, the operation in step a1 is continued, and if it is in the open state, the process proceeds to step a2.

In step a2, the compressor 20
Also, the fan 22 is forcibly stopped, and in step a3, the timer starts counting the startable time, and the process proceeds to step a4.

In step a4, it is judged whether or not the count of the timer has passed 5 minutes. If it has not passed, the operation of step a4 is continued, and if it has passed, the process proceeds to step a5.

In step a5, it is judged whether or not the inner door is in the closed state. If the inner door is in the open state, the operation of step a5 is continued, and if it is in the closed state, the process proceeds to step a6.

In step a6, the compressor 20
Also, the operation of the fan 22 is started, and the normal control is resumed.

With the above configuration, the compressor 2 is operated from the time when the startable time elapses and the inner door is closed.
Since 0 and the operation of the fan 22 are started, the administrator can immediately determine whether the refrigeration cycle operates normally.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a modified example showing the operation of the refrigerating cycle with the inner door opened. This operation will be described below. In addition to the timer that counts the startable time, the main control unit 48 includes the fan 22 with three timers.
In order to operate for 0 seconds, a fan timer for counting the time is built in.

In step b1, it is judged whether or not the inner door is in the open state, and if it is in the closed state, the operation of step b1 is continued, and if it is in the open state, the process proceeds to step b2.

In step b2, the compressor 20
Also, the fan 22 is forcibly stopped, and in step b3, the timer starts counting the startable time. Then, the process proceeds to step b4.

In step b4, it is judged whether or not the count of the timer has passed 5 minutes, and if it has passed, the process proceeds to step b5, and if it has not passed step b7.
Proceed to.

In step b5, it is determined whether the inner door is in the closed state. If the inner door is in the closed state, the process proceeds to step b6, and if not, the operation in step b5 is continued.

In step b6, the compressor 20
And, the operation of the fan 22 is started and the normal control is resumed. That is, if the administrator closes the inner door after the lapse of 5 minutes, which is the startable time, the compressor 20 and the fan 22 immediately start the operation.

In step b7, it is judged whether or not the inner door is in the closed state. If the inner door is in the closed state, the process proceeds to step b8, and if not, the process returns to step b4.

At step b8, only the fan 22 is operated. That is, when the inner door is closed before the lapse of 5 minutes, only the fan 22 is operated to inform the manager whether the refrigeration cycle operates normally.

In step b9, the counting of the fan timer is started, and the process proceeds to step b10.

At step b10, it is judged whether or not the count of the fan timer has exceeded 30 seconds. If it has not elapsed, the process proceeds to step b11, and if it has elapsed, the process proceeds to step b12. That is, when the fan 22 is operated, the temperature in the refrigerator rises due to the heat of the fan motor. Therefore, it is better not to operate the fan 22 unnecessarily, and the fan 22 is operated only for 30 seconds in order to inform the administrator whether or not the refrigeration cycle operates normally.

In step b11, it is determined whether or not the timer has elapsed for 5 minutes, and if not, step b
Returning to step 10, if it has elapsed, the process proceeds to step b16 to operate the compressor 20 and return to the normal control. In this control, if the timer counts 5 minutes before the fan timer counts 30 seconds, the compressor 2
Since 0 may be driven, normal control is returned to.

In step b12, it is judged whether or not the timer has elapsed for 5 minutes, and if it has elapsed, step b16
And the compressor 20 is operated to return to the normal control.
If 5 minutes have not elapsed, the fan 22 is once stopped in step b13, and the process proceeds to step b14.

In step b14, it is determined whether or not the timer has elapsed for 5 minutes. If it has not elapsed, the operation of step b14 is continued, and if it has elapsed, the process proceeds to step b15.

At step b15, the fan 22 is operated, and at step b16, the compressor 20 is also operated to return to the normal control.

The above operation is summarized as follows.

When the inner door is closed after the lapse of the startable time (5 minutes), the compressor 20 and the fan 22 immediately start operating.

When the inner door is closed before the startable time elapses, the fan 22 operates for 30 seconds. As a result, it is possible to immediately determine whether the refrigeration cycle operates normally.

When the startable time elapses while the fan 22 is operating for 30 seconds, the compressor 20 also starts operating, and in this case as well, it can be determined whether the refrigeration cycle operates normally.

After the fan 22 moves for 30 seconds, the fan 22 is stopped once to prevent the temperature inside the refrigerator from rising due to the rotation of the fan motor. Then, the fan 22 and the compressor 20 are operated after the startable time has elapsed.

[0042]

As described above, in the vending machine according to claim 1 of the present invention, if the inner door is closed and the compressor startable time has elapsed, the compressor and the fan are operated. Can immediately determine if the refrigeration cycle is working properly. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the loss of working time.

In the automatic vending machine according to the second aspect, when the door is closed before the time when the compressor can be started, only the fan can be operated to determine whether the refrigeration cycle operates normally. The loss of can be eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation state of a refrigeration cycle with an inner door opened.

FIG. 3 is a modification of the flowchart showing the operation state of the refrigeration cycle with the inner door open.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Vending Machine 14 Inner Door Switch 20 Compressor 22 Fan 48 Main Control Section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An automatic vending machine having a door on the front of the vending machine body and having a compressor and a fan, which is a refrigeration cycle. Stop means for forcibly stopping the compressor and the fan when a state is detected, a timer that starts counting when the open state is detected by the open / close detection means, and a count of the timer starts the compressor An automatic vending machine comprising a refrigerating cycle starting means for operating the compressor and the fan when the open / close detection means detects a closed state when the available time is reached. 2. A fan operation means for operating only the fan when the open / close detection means detects a closed state before the count of the timer reaches a startable time of the compressor. Item 1. The vending machine according to item 1.