JPH08124005A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an automatic vending machine which enables a customer to open the cover of a commodity take-out port by his single hand and also easily take out a commodity. CONSTITUTION: An automatic vending machine has a commodity take-out port 8 including an opening part 2a in an outer door 2 of a man body cabinet 1. A cover 9 movable up and down is attached in the front of the part 2a to be opened up by a hand and closed don by its empty weight. A speed reduction device is added to reduce the move-down speed of the cover 9 and also contains a rotary shaft of a pinion 12 which gears into a rack 9a of the cover 9 and a weight 14 which is hanged down by a hanging wire that is wound round the rotary shaft. It is more effective to provide the speed reduction devices at the right and left ends of the cover 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine having an outer door on the front of the main body and an outlet for taking out products such as cans.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional vending machines generally include a main body cabinet that has an outer door that can be opened and closed left and right, a product outlet formed by providing an opening at the bottom of the outer door, and an outer door. A heat insulating door provided with a product outlet at a lower part, which is located between the main body cabinet and the main body cabinet, is provided, and the product outlet is rotatably suspended at the upper end of the front surface of the opening of the outer door. With a supported lid, or a lid that can be moved vertically, it covers the front of the opening of the outer door, and products such as cans sent out from the storage shelf during the sales operation are covered by the insulated door. The product rolls down through the product outlet into the receiving box provided in the opening, and the product is taken out by opening the lid and putting a hand through the opening.

[0003]

However, since the above-mentioned structure of the product take-out port does not have the function of holding the lid in the open state, when taking out the product from the product take-out port, The opened lid will return to its original closed state unless it is manually supported. Therefore, it is necessary to open the lid with one hand and hold it in that state, and take out the product with the other hand.

However, in an environment where the luggage cannot be temporarily placed with one hand in hand, for example, in the rain, it is impossible to perform the normal operation as described above,
It is necessary to open the lid with one hand and take out the product with that hand at the same time. This is a very unstable operating state, and it is not easy to take out the product. Particularly, a lid that is rotatably supported is not easy. For example, when the product is cup coffee, a situation occurs in which the contents are spilled by being caught by the lid that tries to close the cup when the cup is taken out.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic vending machine equipped with a product outlet that allows the user to easily take out a product at the same time when the lid of the product outlet is opened with one hand.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, in a vending machine provided with a product outlet formed by providing an opening in an outer door of a main body cabinet, the vending machine can be moved vertically in the opening. The lid is attached to the lid and is manually raised to open the commodity outlet and descend by its own weight to close the commodity outlet, and a slowing device for reducing the descending speed of the lid. .

Also, the slow speed device may be formed by including a rotary shaft that rotates in conjunction with the vertical movement of the lid, and a weight that is suspended by a suspension wire that is wound around the rotary shaft. Further, the rotating shaft may be the same as the shaft of the pinion that meshes with the rack provided on the lid.

Furthermore, it is effective to provide slowing devices on both left and right ends of the lid.

[0009]

In the above structure, a lid is attached to the opening of the outer door so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and is provided with a lid that is manually raised to open the product take-out opening and is lowered by its own weight to close the product take-out opening. If a slowing device for reducing the descending speed of is provided, the time required from the start of closing of the lid to the end of closing of the lid becomes long, and the product can be taken out at the same time when the lid is opened with one hand.

Further, when the slow speed device is formed with a rotary shaft that rotates in conjunction with the vertical movement of the lid and a weight that is suspended by a suspension wire that is wound around the rotary shaft,
The weight of the weight acts in the direction of opening the lid through the slowing device to reduce the substantial weight of the lid, and since the lid is due to the substantial weight of the lid, the closing speed of the lid is reduced. To

Further, if the rotating shaft is a pinion shaft which meshes with a rack provided on the lid, the force by the weight can be transmitted without applying a pressing force or a pulling force of a component perpendicular to the lid, so that the supporting portion of the lid is supported. The frictional force is reduced to facilitate the operation of the lid that opens and closes in the vertical direction. Furthermore, by providing slow speed devices at the left and right ends of the lid, the frictional force of the support portion of the lid is balanced at the left and right positions, eliminating the twisting phenomenon when the lid moves up and down, and opening and closing the lid in the vertical direction. Smooth out.

If the opening / closing operation of the lid becomes smooth, it is possible to further slow down the closing speed of the lid by reducing the substantial weight of the lid.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In each of FIGS. 1 to 3 showing the embodiment, the same parts are designated by the same reference numerals. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body cabinet, which is a heat-insulating housing having an open front surface, and is provided with a storage case 3 having a product storage shelf 4 mounted therein and a cooling / heating device (not shown). Supports the outer door 2 and the heat insulating door 5 so that they can be opened and closed left and right. Heat insulation door 5
Is a flapper 6 with the upper end rotatably suspended and supported at the bottom.
A product outlet 7 provided with is provided to cover the front surface of the storage case 3. Reference numeral 16 is a shooter that serves as a passage for the product that relays between the product outlet 7 and the product storage rack 4. The outer door 2 has a product outlet 8 formed in a lower opening 2a, and an illumination room for displaying a product sample (not shown) is provided above the product outlet 8 to cover the front surface of the main body cabinet 1. Reference numeral 15 denotes a product receiving box, which is a box having an open top surface and is mounted below the opening 2a.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 9 denotes a lid for opening and closing the commodity outlet 8 which is attached to the opening 2a so as to be movable up and down. A rack (spur gear) 9a and a guide groove 9b are provided. Reference numeral 11 is a mounting box that supports the lid 9 and forms an outer frame of the converter 10. This mounting box 11 is part 2
The individual pieces face the upper side of the opening 2a and are fixed to the rear surface of the front plate of the outer door 2 by dividing them into right and left. Also, the mounting box 11
The inner side wall 11a is formed with a vertical slit, and the side wall edge portion of the part is fitted into the guide groove 9b of the lid 9 to support the lid 9 so as to be vertically movable. The mounting box 11 has an open upper surface and a lower surface, and accommodates a pinion 12 that meshes with a rack 9a for forming the converter 10 inside. Reference numeral 13 is a rotation shaft of the pinion 12.

Next, the converter 10 will be described in detail. In FIG. 3, the pinion 12 is located inside the mounting box 11 and is fitted to the rotary shaft 13. Also pinion 1
The outer peripheral teeth 2 mesh with the rack 9a provided on the lid 9 to convert the vertical movement of the lid 9 into a rotational movement. Is preferred. In this way, the mounting box 11 and the rack 9a
, A converter 10 for converting the vertical movement of the lid 9 into the rotary movement, which includes the rotary shaft 13 and the pinion 12, is provided at the left and right ends of the lid 9, respectively. Instead of the pinion 12, a friction interlocking type converter 10 may be formed in which a wheel made of an elastic material such as rubber is in contact with the flat portion of the lid 9.

Next, the slow speed device will be described. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 14 denotes a weight, which has a suspension wire 14a made of resin or metal, and one end of which is suspended and supported by being wound around the end of the rotary shaft 13 of the converter 10. In this way, the weight 14 is suspended from and supported by the rotary shaft 13 of the converter 10 to form a slow speed device, which serves to slow the closing speed of the lid 9. That is, the weight 14 that is suspended and supported by the suspension wire 14a being wound around the rotary shaft 13.
Is lowered when the lid 9 is opened upward, and is lowered when the lid 9 is lowered by its own weight and is closed. Further, even when the lid 9 is opened, the suspension wire 14a is held in a pre-wound state, and the weight 14 is always kept in the lid 9a.
It acts to reduce the substantial self-weight of. The slow speed devices are provided on the left and right ends of the lid 9, respectively.

As described above, the weight of the weight 14 is set in the product outlet 8 formed by providing the lid 9 and the slow speed device on the front surface of the opening 2a of the outer door 2 and the closing speed of the lid 9 is set. When the item is loosened, the operation and effect of taking out the product are as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, when the product is a can,
The can 18 is sent out from the storage rack 4, reaches the product outlet 7 of the heat insulating door 5 via the shooter 16, pushes up the flapper 6 and rolls down to the receiving box 15, and the lid 9 is gripped as shown in FIG.
The can 18 can be taken out while the hand is opened upward by using c and at the same time that the hand is put in through the opening and the lid 9 is gently closed. In other words, even when the luggage is held in one hand, the product can be easily taken out from the vending machine with one hand.

Further, since the slow speed devices including the rack 9a, the pinion 12, the weight 14 and the like are provided at the left and right ends of the lid 9, the frictional force of the supporting portion of the lid 9 is reduced and the left and right are balanced. The speed at which the lid closes gently stabilizes.

[0019]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects. It is attached to the opening of the outer door so that it can move in the vertical direction, and it has a lid that is manually raised to open the product outlet and lowers by its own weight to close the product outlet. By providing a device, the lid closing speed becomes slower and the time from opening to closing is longer, and at the same time the lid is opened upward with one hand to open and at the same time the product in the inbox is taken out. be able to. That is, even if you cannot release the luggage you have in one hand,
It is very convenient because you can easily take out the product from the outlet of the vending machine with one hand.

If the slow speed device is provided with a rotary shaft that rotates in conjunction with the vertical movement of the lid and a weight that is suspended by a suspension wire that is wound around the rotary shaft, the slow speed device will loosen the lid. The closing speed can be arbitrarily changed by setting the weight of the weight. Furthermore, by using the pinion shaft that meshes with the rack provided on the lid as the rotation axis, and by further providing slow speed devices at the left and right end portions of the lid, respectively.
The frictional force of the supporting portion of the lid is reduced, the vertical movement of the lid becomes smooth, and the closing speed of the lid can be stably obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a main part of an automatic vending machine showing an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a lid mounting portion of FIG.

3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the product outlet of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Main Cabinet 2 Outer Door 2a Opening 3 Storage Cabinet 4 Storage Shelf 5 Insulation Door 6 Flapper 7 Product Exit 8 Product Exit 9 Lid 9a Rack 10 Converter 11 Mounting Box 12 Pinion 13 Rotating Shaft 14 Weight 14a Suspended Wire 15 Receiving Box 16 Shooter 17 Veneer 18 Cans

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine comprising a product outlet formed by providing an opening in an outer door of a main body cabinet,
A lid is attached to the opening so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and is provided with a lid that is manually lifted to open the commodity outlet and is lowered by its own weight to close the commodity outlet, and to reduce the descending speed of the lid. A vending machine characterized by a slow speed device. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the slow speed device includes a rotating shaft that rotates in conjunction with the vertical movement of the lid, and a weight that is suspended by a suspension wire that is wound around the rotating shaft. A vending machine characterized by being equipped. 3. The vending machine according to claim 2, wherein the rotating shaft is a pinion shaft which meshes with a rack provided on the lid. 4. The vending machine according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein slowing devices are provided on both left and right ends of the lid.