JPH0950559A - Commodity take-out port device for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve serviceability to customer by allowing the customer to easily take out a commodity discharged from a commodity rack in a storage and carried out to a commodity take-out port. SOLUTION: A commodity litter 8 is arranged on the bottom side of the inside of a commodity take-out port 6 formed on an outer door 5 of a cabinet, and when a commodity 7 discharged from the commodity rack in the storage by vending operation opens an inner door flapper 4a and is delivered to the take-out port 6, the lifting stage 10 of the lifter 8 is raised from a down stand-by position through an electric crank mechanism and the commodity loaded on the stage 10 is lifted up to near the flapper 6a. When a customer takes out the commodity from the port 6, the closing of the flapper 6a is confirmed and then the stage 10 is moved down to the stand-by position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product outlet device provided on an outer door of a vending machine for selling cold products and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, FIG. 4 shows a schematic structure of an automatic vending machine to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1 is a vending machine cabinet that serves as a heat-insulating housing, 2 is a product rack housed in the cabinet 1, 3 is a product unloading shooter arranged below the product rack 2, and 4 is a cabinet 1.
Insulated inner door 4a arranged on the front side of the product, 4a is a flapper connected to the shooter 3 and provided at the product outlet of the inner door 4, 5 is an outer door, and 6 is a product outlet provided in the outer door 4. The take-out port 6 is provided with a flapper 6a for taking out a product which the customer manually opens and closes. Although not shown, the cabinet 1 is provided with a cooler for keeping the product cold.

The product selling operation in such a configuration is well known, and the product 7 dispensed from the product rack 2 based on the sales command slides down the slope of the shooter 3 under its own weight, and the flapper 4a (hereinafter referred to as "the flap" provided on the inner door 4). The inner door flapper) is pushed open and the product is taken out into the product outlet 6. As a result, the customer pushes the flapper 6a (hereinafter referred to as “take-out flapper”) provided at the product take-out opening 6 inward and inserts his / her hand into the product take-out opening 6 to take out the product 7 freely. it can.

On the other hand, the depth of the inside of the commodity outlet 6 is determined by design as follows. That is, in order for the inner door flapper 4a to return to the closed position without interfering with the product 7, after the product 7 rolls down into the product outlet 6 by pushing the inner door flapper 4a open. Between the bottom plate and the lower end of the inner door flapper 4a, a height dimension at least larger than the maximum product size is secured.

[0005]

By the way, since the internal depth of the product take-out port 6 having the above-described structure is set in accordance with the maximum size of the product 7, the product is sold at the time of selling a small size product. There is an inconvenience that the product 7 cannot be taken out unless the hand is inserted deeply into the take-out port 6.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to solve the above problems and to easily take out a product delivered to a product outlet regardless of the size of a product to be sold. Another object of the present invention is to provide a product take-out device for a vending machine with improved serviceability.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a lifter for lifting a product is provided inside a product take-out port, and a product delivered from a product rack in accordance with a selling operation is provided. When the inner door flapper is pushed open and delivered into the product outlet, the lifter is operated to be lifted from the lowering standby position and the product placed on the lifter is lifted to the removal position.

The lifter has a lift stage that can swing in the vertical direction with its rear end as a fulcrum, a crank mechanism for lifting and lowering the stage, a drive motor for the crank mechanism, and a bottom dead center of the lift stage. It shall be configured in combination with a self-propelled cam switch that detects the dead center position and stops the drive motor. Then, in accordance with the sale operation, the lifter confirms the opening operation of the inner door flapper based on the detection signals of the opening / closing detectors provided on the inner door flapper and the outlet flapper, and lifts the lifter from the standby position. The opening / closing operation of the outlet flapper associated with the take-out is confirmed and the lowering operation is controlled to the standby position.Furthermore, as a safety measure for customers, when the outlet flapper is opened while the lifter is rising, It is good to temporarily stop the lifter.

With the above structure, when the product dispensed from the product rack at the time of sale rolls down into the product outlet, the lifter rises to the removal position waiting for this and the product placed on the elevating stage is near the removal flapper. Lift up to. Therefore, the customer can easily take out the product placed on the lift stage of the lifter by inserting his or her hand into the product outlet regardless of the size of the product. Moreover, if the customer opens the take-out flapper and inserts his / her hand into the product take-out port while the lifter is moving up, by suspending the lifter,
It is safe because there is no risk of the customer's hands being accidentally caught in the lifting stage and injured.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the drawings of the embodiment, the same members corresponding to FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals. That is,
In FIGS. 1 and 2, a box body 6b that constitutes the product outlet 6
A lifter 8 for lifting products is incorporated on the bottom side of the. The lifter 8 has an elevating stage 10 pivotally supported at its rear end through a support shaft 9 so as to be vertically swingable, and an assist spring (torsion coil spring) 11 provided on the shaft of the support shaft 9.
A crank rod 12 having one end pin-coupled to a U-channel frame 10a coupled to the rear surface of the lifting stage 10, a crank shaft 13 coupled to the other end of the crank rod 12, and a bearing 14 for the crank shaft 13. A self-propelled cam switch 16 including a drive motor 15 connected to the crankshaft 13, a cam 16a arranged on the shaft of the drive motor 15, and a detection switch 16b (operates at the top dead center and the bottom dead center of the lifting stage 10). (A combination of a timing switch and a position detection switch).

Reference numeral 17 is a control unit (microcomputer) for the lifter 8 and is used for the self-propelled cam switch 1 described above.
6, the signals of the opening / closing detection switch 18 of the inner door flapper 4a and the opening / closing detection switch 19 of the outlet flapper 6a are taken in to control the operation of the drive motor of the lifter 8 as described later.
Next, the lifting operation of the lifter 8 having the above configuration will be described. First, in the standby state for sale, the lift stage 10 of the lifter 8 stands by at the lowered position shown by the solid line in the figure. Here, the product 7 dispensed from the product rack (see FIG. 4) in the warehouse based on the sales instruction pushes open the inner door flapper 4a, rolls into the product outlet 6, and is placed on the elevating stage 10. Then, based on the signal from the open / close detection switch 18, the drive motor 15 of the lifter 8 is started by a command from the control unit 17, the crankshaft 13 is rotated 180 ° from the standby position, and the lifting stage 10 is represented by the chain line in the figure. Raise to the take-out position. Then, when the elevating stage 10 reaches the top dead center, the drive motor 15 is stopped and controlled by the signal of the self-propelled cam switch 16. The inner door flapper 4a returns to the closed position by its own weight before the lifter 8 starts to move upward.

If the customer opens the take-out flapper 6a during the ascent of the elevating stage 10 (before reaching the top dead center), the hand inserted from the merchandise taking-out port 6 is moving up and down. As a safety measure to prevent the risk of being caught in the vehicle, the drive motor 15 is immediately stopped and the flapper 6
The customer is alerted with a display, voice, etc. displayed so that he / she removes his / her hand. When the flapper 6a is closed, the drive motor 15
Is restarted to raise the elevating stage 15 to the final top dead center position.

At this point, the customer pushes open the take-out flapper 6a and inserts his / her hand into the product take-out port 6, and the elevator stage 1
If you take out the product 7 on 0, the flapper 6a
Is closed by its own weight, and the drive motor 15 is rotated by a command from the control unit 17 based on the signal of the opening / closing detection switch 19 that detects this closing operation, and the elevating stage 10 is lowered. Then, when the crankshaft 13 rotates 180 ° and the elevating stage 10 reaches the bottom dead center, the self-propelled cam stage 1
The drive motor 15 is stopped by the detection signal of 6 and the standby state is restored. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the lifting operation of the lifter 8 when selling the product.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the product lifting lifter is provided inside the product take-out port, and the product taken out from the product rack in the warehouse at the time of sale is carried into the product take-out port. When the lifter is operated, the lifter is operated to automatically lift the product placed on the lifting stage to a position where it can be easily taken out.Therefore, regardless of the size of the product being sold, the customer can reach deep inside the product outlet. It is possible to easily take out the product placed on the lifter lifting stage without inserting the product, which improves the take-out property of the product and improves the serviceability to the customer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a product outlet device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing the mechanism of the lifter in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the lifting operation of the lifter according to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a vending machine which is an implementation target of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vending Machine Cabinet 2 Product Rack 4 Inner Door 4a Inner Door Flapper 5 Outer Door 6 Product Outlet 6a Outlet Flapper 7 Product 8 Lifter 9 Spindle 10 Elevating Stage 13 Crankshaft 15 Drive Motor 16 Self-Propelled Cam Switch 17 Control Part 18 Inner door flapper open / closed detection switch 19 Outlet flapper open / closed detection switch

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A product ejection device with a flapper for ejecting a product, which is provided on an outer door of a cabinet. Behind the product ejection port is a product ejection port of an inner door leading to a merchandise product ejection passage in the warehouse. A product equipped with a door flapper is equipped with a lifter for lifting the product inside the product take-out port, and the product dispensed from the product rack is pushed into the product take-out opening by pushing the inner door flapper according to the sales operation. At this time, the lifter is operated to move upward from the lowering standby position to lift the product placed on the lifter to the take-out position. 2. The product ejection device according to claim 1,
A lifter detects a lift stage that can swing up and down with its rear end as a fulcrum, a crank mechanism that moves the stage up and down, a drive motor for the crank mechanism, and the bottom dead center and top dead center positions of the lift stage. A product take-out device for a vending machine, characterized by being combined with a self-propelled cam switch that stops the drive motor. 3. The product take-out device according to claim 2,
Based on the detection signals from the open / close detectors provided on the inner door flapper and the outlet flapper, confirm the opening operation of the inner door flapper and lift the lifter from the standby position to open the outlet flapper when the product is taken out. , A product take-out device for a vending machine, which controls the lowering operation of the lifter to the standby position after confirming the closing operation. 4. The product take-out device according to claim 3,
If the outlet flapper is opened while the lifter is rising,
A product outlet of a vending machine characterized by temporarily stopping the lifter.