JPH0877421A - Medal payoff device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily perform replenishing operation for medals by improving the structure of a tubular part being storage part of the metal payoff device incorporated in a game machine, etc. CONSTITUTION: The medal payoff device is so constituted by arranging a tubular auxiliary body 2 above a tubular base body 1 so that medals 7 stacked in the internal holes 1a and 2a of both the tubular bodies are discharged to a medal fall passage from the bottom layer; and the tubular body 1 and tubular auxiliary body 2 are made separate and independent so that the outer periphery of the lower end part of the tubular any body 2 is inserted detachably into the inner hole of the upper end part of the tubular base body 1, and an opening/closing member 3 which is opened with the insertion force operating as a result of the insertion fitting of the tubular auxiliary body 2 into the tubular base body 1 is fitted to the lower opening part of the tubular auxiliary body 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medal payout device used by being incorporated in, for example, an arcade game machine, and more particularly to a technique for easily replenishing the device with medals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, as a kind of arcade game machine, a game machine of a type in which a predetermined number of medals are paid out in accordance with the result of winning or losing when a game is played by a player is practically used. Has been converted. The medal payout device built into this type of game machine generally has, for example, the following structure.

That is, as shown in FIG. 8, a tubular auxiliary body (tube) 52 made of transparent resin or the like is connected and fixed above a tubular base body 51 fixedly installed on the base plate 50, and inner holes of both are formed. 51a and 52a are contacted to each other to form a plurality of medals 53
And a medal storage passage for storing the coins in a stacked manner.

Then, as shown in FIG. 9, the lower end of the inner hole 51a of the tubular base body 51 is communicated with the medal drop passage 54, and the laminated medal 53 is placed at the lowermost layer at the lower end thereof. An ejecting mechanism 55 for ejecting to the medal drop passage 54 is provided in this order.

More specifically, the discharging mechanism 55 includes a mounting table 56 fixedly installed on the base plate 50 at a position below the inner hole 51a of the tubular substrate 51, and a linear groove formed on the mounting table 56. And a push-out block 57 slidably held by 56a. The mounting table 56 is arranged in a state where the communication portion 58 to the medal drop passage 54 is avoided. The upper surface of the push block 57 is higher than the upper surface of the mounting table 56, and the height difference is set within the range of the thickness of one medal 53.

The driving means 58 for moving the pushing block 57 back and forth (see FIG. 8) is the pushing block 5 thereof.
7, a drive rod 59a which is connected to the distal end thereof and moves back and forth in accordance with the excitation and non-excitation of the solenoid 59, and a tension coil spring 60 which urges the pushing block 57 toward the projecting movement side (arrow A1 direction side). To be done.

According to this structure, the push-out block 57 is moved backward and forward by causing the solenoid 59 to be energized and de-energized based on the signal sent from the control means such as the game machine. Perform a series of operations. As a result, through the state shown in FIG. 10, the stacked medals 53 are sequentially ejected one by one from the lowest layer, and the ejected medals 53 pass through the medal drop passage 54 as shown by an arrow X1 and the game is performed. It is sent to the medal exit of the machine.

[0008]

By the way, as shown in FIG. 8, the conventional medal payout device has a tubular base 51.
Since the tubular auxiliary body 52 and the tubular auxiliary body 52 are fastened and fixed by using the lock nut 61 or the like, the refilling work of the medals 53 when the empty switch 62 or the like detects that the number of remaining medals 53 is very small will be described below. It is customary to do so.

That is, as a first method, in a state where the tubular auxiliary body 52 is fastened and fixed as shown in the figure, an operator manually performs an inner hole of the tubular auxiliary body 52 from the back side of the game machine or the like. A large number of medals 53 are inserted into 52a. In this case, normally, the medals 53 are not aligned but scattered and stored in a box or bag. Therefore, the large number of medals 53 in the scattered state
There is a problem in that the work for regularly inserting the above into the tubular auxiliary body 52 becomes extremely troublesome and complicated, and the labor and burden imposed on the operator become large.

As a second method, with the tubular auxiliary body 52 removed, a large number of medals 53 are inserted into the inner hole 52a, and then the tubular auxiliary body 52 is locked with the lock nut 61 or the like. Is used to fasten and fix it in its original position. In this case, there are problems similar to those described above, such as the work of removing and attaching the tubular auxiliary body 52 is troublesome, and the work for inserting a large number of medals 53 in a scattered state becomes complicated.

Incidentally, if a large number of medals 53 are stored in a scattered state as described above, not only there is a problem that the medals 53 are damaged by mutual collision, but also the following problems occur. Also occurs. That is, when two or more tubular bodies are arranged in parallel inside the game machine,
It may be necessary to store different types of medals 53 in each of the two or more tubular auxiliary bodies 52. In such a case, it is preferable to store the medals 53 for each type, but at present, due to the fact that the storage mode using the box or bag is adopted as described above, it is different. Usually, the medals 53 are stored in a scattered state. Therefore, only a specific type of medal has to be found out and inserted into the tubular auxiliary body 52, which makes the work more difficult.

The present invention has been devised under the circumstances described above, and the medal replenishing work can be easily performed by improving the structure of the tubular portion which is the accommodating portion of the medal payout device. The task is to do so.

[0013]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

That is, according to the invention described in claim 1 of the present application, a tubular base body having a lower end portion of its inner hole communicating with a medal dropping path, and an internal body arranged above the tubular base body for accommodating medals in a laminated form. A tubular auxiliary body having a hole, and medals arranged in the lower end portion of the inner hole of the tubular base body and fed in a laminated form from the inner hole of the tubular auxiliary body are sequentially discharged from the lower layer portion to the medal dropping path. In a medal payout device provided with a discharging mechanism, at least the outer periphery of the lower end portion of the tubular auxiliary body is separable from and into the inner hole of at least the upper end portion of the tubular base body, and the tubular auxiliary body is separated. The lower opening of the body is characterized in that an opening / closing member that is opened by an inserting force acting due to the insertion fitting of the tubular auxiliary body into the tubular base body is attached.

In this case, the opening / closing member is integrally formed with an outer peripheral engaging portion formed on the outer peripheral edge portion thereof and engageable with the upper end edge of the tubular base body, from the outer peripheral engaging portion toward the central portion side. It is preferable that the opening and closing piece is formed in a foldable manner (claim 2).

As an example of the opening / closing piece of the opening / closing member, there may be mentioned one formed by forming a plurality of grooves radially extending from the central portion of a flat elastic plate material (claim 3). ).

[0017]

According to the invention described in claim 1, the tubular auxiliary body is separated and independent from the tubular base body, and the lower end portion of the tubular auxiliary body is connected to the tubular base body. The tubular auxiliary body can be attached and detached only by fitting and detaching the upper end portion.

Specifically, when the tubular auxiliary body is inserted and fitted into the tubular base body, the opening / closing member attached to the lower opening of the tubular auxiliary body is opened by the inserting force of the tubular auxiliary body. Become. As a result, the inner holes of both the tubular auxiliary body and the tubular base body are brought into communication with each other, and the medals descend and move downward in a stacked manner through this communication portion. In this way, the medals stored in a stacked manner over both tubular bodies are discharged one by one from the lowest layer to the medal drop passage. During this ejection, the remaining stacked medals smoothly descend and move without interruption.

With such a structure, if a large number of medals are stored in advance in the tubular auxiliary body in a laminated form and stored, the insertion force does not act during the storage, and thus the tubular auxiliary body is not operated. The lower opening of the is closed by the opening / closing member. As a result, medals can be stored in an aligned state, and damage to medals that occurs when storing in a box or bag in a scattered state as in the past can be prevented and medals of different types can be stored easily. You can do it.

Furthermore, when replenishing the device with the medals stored as described above, it is only necessary to remove the empty tubular auxiliary body and insert a new tubular auxiliary body into the apparatus. become. Therefore, the troublesome removal and installation work becomes unnecessary, and the replenishment of different medals can be easily performed in the same manner, and the labor and the burden required for the medal replenishment work are significantly reduced.

The invention described in claim 2 shows a specific example of the configuration of the opening / closing member. According to this, when the tubular auxiliary body is inserted and fitted into the tubular base body, the outer peripheral engagement portion of the opening / closing member is prevented from moving in the insertion direction by the upper end edge of the tubular base body, and is attached to the opening / closing piece. The insertion force of the tubular auxiliary body acts. As a result, the opening / closing piece is bent in the insertion direction, and the lower opening of the tubular auxiliary body is opened.

The invention described in claim 3 more specifically shows the structure of the opening / closing piece in the opening / closing member. According to this, due to the use of the flat elastic plate material and the formation of the radial grooves, the opening / closing piece is in a state of being divided into a plurality of pieces, and the bending and the accompanying opening thereof are easily and surely made, and The return to the closed state is also appropriately performed (for details, see the examples below).

[0023]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
A specific description will be given with reference to the drawings.

Regarding the periphery of the lower opening of the tubular base body 51, the medal drop passage 54, the ejection mechanism 55, the drive means 58, etc. in the conventional example shown in FIGS. Since the structure is the same as the above, the description and illustration thereof are omitted for convenience.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disassembled arrangement of parts showing a main part of a medal payout device according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the features of this medal payout device are a tubular base body 1 on which the above-mentioned discharging mechanism is provided at the lower end portion, and a paper (or It is composed of a tubular auxiliary body 2 made of resin or metal, and a circular cap-shaped opening / closing member 3 provided between the two tubular bodies 1 and 2 described above.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the opening / closing member 3 has an annular shape formed on a flange portion of an outer peripheral edge thereof so as to be detachable from the upper end edge 1c of the tubular base body 1. The engaging portion 4 that is a groove is provided. A plurality of bendable opening / closing pieces 5 are integrally formed on the central portion side of the engaging portion 4. These opening / closing pieces 5 are produced by forming a plurality of cutouts 6 having an outer peripheral side expanding shape extending radially from the central portion of the flat plate-shaped circular concave portion 3a. The opening / closing member 3 is made of an elastic material such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, or rubber.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, a circular concave portion 3 of the opening / closing member 3 is provided around the lower opening of the tubular auxiliary body 2.
By fitting and holding a, the medal tube cartridge 8 for storing and storing a large number of medals 7 in a laminated state is produced. In this case, the upper end of the tubular auxiliary body 2 is sealed by the covering portion 2x.
Further, at a portion extending from the lower end of the tubular auxiliary body 2 to the lower surface of the opening / closing member 3, the opening / closing piece 5 is prevented from being bent due to the weight of the medal 7 or the like during storage, and the separation between the both is prevented. As such, a tape or the like that can be easily peeled off is attached (not shown). Therefore, the medal tube cartridge 8 is used in a state where the tape or the like is peeled off when the medal tube cartridge 8 is inserted and fitted into the tubular substrate 1 described later.

Further, referring to FIG. 1, the tubular auxiliary body 2 is
Has a substantially same diameter over the entire length, whereas the tubular substrate 1 has a large diameter portion 1x formed at its upper end. When the tubular auxiliary body 2 opens and closes the opening / closing member 3 and is inserted and fitted into the tubular base body 1, the lower end edge of the tubular auxiliary body 2 is located below the large diameter portion 1x of the tubular base body 1. The downward movement is regulated by the department. Note that, instead of such a configuration, even if a small diameter portion is formed at the lower end portion of the tubular auxiliary body 2 and the large diameter portion of the tubular base body 1 is eliminated, the same operation can be performed.

Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described with an emphasis on the medal replenishing work for the medal payout device.

When an empty switch (not shown) installed at the lower end of the tubular substrate 1 detects that the number of remaining medals 7 is less than a predetermined number, the worker first becomes empty. The tubular auxiliary body 2 is removed together with the opening / closing member 3.

Next, the above medal tube cartridge 8
5, the engaging portion 4 of the opening / closing member 3 of the medal tube cartridge 8 is engaged with the upper end edge 1c of the tubular substrate 1 as shown in FIG.

From this state, by pushing the tubular auxiliary body 2 downward, the pushing force (inserting force)
Acts on each opening / closing piece 5 of the opening / closing member 3, and as shown in FIG. 6, each opening / closing piece 5 bends downward at the outer peripheral side continuous portion as a boundary.

Then, by pushing the tubular auxiliary body 2 further downward, as shown in FIG. 7, the opening / closing pieces 5 are completely pushed by the outer peripheral surface of the tubular auxiliary body 2. In this case, when the lower end edge of the tubular auxiliary body 2 comes into contact with the stepped portion 1y of the large diameter portion 1x of the tubular base body 1, the insertion and fitting operation of the tubular auxiliary body 2 is completed. As a result, the medals 7 housed in the inner hole 2a of the tubular auxiliary body 2 in a laminated manner are lowered to the inner hole 1a of the tubular base body 1, and the medal replenishing work is completed.

After that, when the empty switch is actuated again by paying out medals, the tubular auxiliary body 2 in an empty state is removed together with the opening / closing member 3. In this case, it is only necessary to pull out the both 2 and 3 from the tubular substrate 1. Then, each opening / closing piece 5 of the opening / closing member 3 removed at this time returns to its original state due to its elastic restoring force, and can be reused.

As described above, the tubular auxiliary body 2 is in the form of the medal tube cartridge 8 and is the tubular base body 1.
Since they are completely separated and used independently, it is possible to manufacture a plurality of types of medal tube cartridges 8 in which medals 7 are stored in a laminated form for different types. This facilitates the storage and transportation of the medals 7, and avoids problems such as scratches due to collisions between the medals 7 that would otherwise occur when the medals 7 were stored in a box, bag, or the like in a messy state. It

In addition, when the medal 7 is replenished, the tubular auxiliary body 2 cartridged as described above is simply inserted and fitted into the tubular base body 1, and more specifically, the step of the tubular base body 1 is performed. It suffices to push in the tubular auxiliary body 2 until it comes into contact with the portion 1y. As a result, it is not necessary to tighten with a lock nut or insert a medal in a state where both tubular bodies 1 and 2 are connected and fixed as in the conventional case, and the medal can be refilled very easily.

The opening / closing member 3 in the above embodiment is
The structure is provided with a plurality of acute-angled opening / closing pieces 5 obtained by forming the radial cut grooves 6, but the number and shape of the opening / closing pieces 5 are not particularly limited, and the tubular auxiliary body 2
Any other structure may be used as long as it is bent downward by the insertion force of. In addition, this opening / closing member 3
May be, for example, a thin film or the like that seals the lower opening of the tubular auxiliary body 2, and may be broken by the insertion force to be in an open state.

The shape of the engaging portion 4 of the opening / closing member 3 may be any other shape as long as the downward movement is restricted by the tubular substrate 1.

Furthermore, the medal payout device according to the above embodiment is not limited to being applied to a game machine as illustrated above, but can be similarly applied to, for example, a money changing machine.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a component exploded array perspective view showing a main part of a medal payout device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an opening / closing member that is a component of the medal payout device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional front view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional front view showing a state in which a tubular base body and an opening / closing member, which are components of the medal payout device according to the above embodiment, are made into a cartridge.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional front view of an essential part showing the operation of the medal payout device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional front view of an essential part showing the operation of the medal payout device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a vertical sectional front view of an essential part showing the operation of the medal payout device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a partially cutaway side view showing an overall configuration of a conventional medal payout device.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged vertical side view showing the internal structure and operation of a conventional medal payout device.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged vertical side view showing the internal structure and operation of a conventional medal payout device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tubular substrate 1a Inner hole of tubular substrate 2 Tubular auxiliary body 2a Inner hole of tubular auxiliary body 3 Opening / closing member 4 Outer peripheral engaging portion 5 Opening / closing piece 6 Groove (cutting groove) 7 Medals

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A tubular base body having a lower end portion of its inner hole communicating with a medal drop path, a tubular auxiliary body having an inner hole arranged above the tubular base body for accommodating medals in a laminated state, and the tubular base body. In a medal payout device provided with a discharging mechanism for discharging the medals, which are disposed in the lower end portion of the inner hole of the tubular auxiliary body in a laminated manner from the lower layer part, to the medal dropping path in order, The tubular auxiliary body is separable and independent so that at least the outer periphery of the lower end portion of the tubular auxiliary body can be inserted into and removed from the inner hole of at least the upper end portion of the tubular base body, and the tubular auxiliary body is provided in the lower opening portion of the tubular auxiliary body. 2. A medal payout device, characterized in that an opening / closing member that is opened by an insertion force acting due to the insertion fitting into the tubular base body is attached. 2. The opening / closing member includes an outer peripheral engagement portion formed on an outer peripheral edge portion thereof and engageable with an upper end edge of the tubular base body.
The medal payout device according to claim 1, further comprising a foldable opening / closing piece integrally formed from the outer peripheral engagement portion toward the central portion side. 3. The medal payout device according to claim 2, wherein the opening / closing piece of the opening / closing member is configured by forming a plurality of grooves radially extending from a central portion of a flat elastic plate material.