JPH10269428A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine capable of uniformizing the temp. of articles in a cooling chamber, hardly vending the article out of the desired temperature range and reducing power consumption. SOLUTION: This automatic vending machine 1 in which a cooling cabinet chamber B is formed, on the left or right side of merchandise storage cabinet 3, by circulating cooling air by providing a cooler 9 composed of a compressor 9a or the like and a cooling air blower 10, and a warming chamber C is formed, on the other side, by circulating warming air by providing a warmer 11 and a warming air blower 12 is provided with an auxiliary air blower 13 for supporting the circulation of cooling air and an operation control means with which the operation of auxiliary air blower 13 can be controlled. Thus, since air is surely circulated in the cooling cabinet chamber B, the temperature of article stored in an article storage column 5 can be made uniform while excluding nonuniformity. Further, since the operating time of cooler 9 can be shortened, power consumption is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine for partitioning the inside of a product storage compartment into left and right sides by a heat insulating partition plate, storing cold products in one room, and storing hot products in the other room. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a vending machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-334542 is known as this kind of vending machine.

In this vending machine, a plurality of serpentine-type product storage columns are arranged on the left and right in a product storage, and a gap for a heat insulating partition plate is provided between each of the product storage columns. In addition, when a heat insulating partition plate in which this gap is covered with an iron plate is inserted, the product storage is partitioned into right and left,
At the lower left side of the product storage, cooling means capable of blowing cool air toward the lower center of the product storage is installed, and at the lower right, heating means capable of blowing warm air toward the lower center of the product storage are provided. is set up. With this arrangement, the left-side product is a cold storage room for storing cold products and the right-side product is a heating storage room for storing hot products based on the heat-insulating partition plate.

[0004]

However, in the conventional vending machine, since the cooling device and the heating device are arranged at the left end and the right end, respectively, of the lower part of the product storage, the following drawbacks occur in the cooling storage room. There is. That is, when the heat insulating partition plate is inserted so that the volume of the cooling storage room is larger than the volume of the heating storage room, the products stored in the product storage column near the center of the product storage are the products adjacent to the cooling device. There is a problem that the cooling is insufficient compared with the products stored in the storage column, and the product temperature is not uniform in the product storage. This is because it is difficult for the cooling air blown by the cooling blower attached to the cooling device to reach the products stored in the product storage column near the center, and it is difficult to completely insulate the heat with the heat insulating partition plate. This is also because heat in the heating room leaks into the cooling room. This causes unevenness in the product temperature between the product storage columns in the cooling compartment. Therefore, if the operation of the cooling device is controlled to cool the product stored in the product storage column adjacent to the cooling device to a desired product temperature, the chance of selling a product having a temperature higher than the desired temperature increases. On the other hand, based on a product stored in a product storage column remote from the cooling device, not only does the opportunity to sell a product that is lower than the desired temperature and sometimes is frozen is increased, but also the cooling device is operated for a long time. Because of the necessity, the power consumption of the vending machine is disadvantageously increased.

[0005] This problem is particularly caused when a heat insulating partition is inserted so that the volume of the cooling compartment becomes larger than the volume of the cooling compartment to partition the product storage, or when the product is stored without inserting the heat insulating partition. This occurs remarkably when all of the refrigerators are used as cooling refrigerator rooms.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to reduce the chance of selling products outside a desired temperature range by making the temperature of the products stored in the cooling compartment uniform. Another object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine with low power consumption.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a heat insulating partition plate is inserted into a gap and is detachable. The cooling chamber is formed by circulating the cooling air by providing a cooling blower attached to the other, and the heating chamber is formed by circulating the heating air by arranging the heating device and the heating blower attached to the other on the other side. The formed vending machine is characterized in that an auxiliary blower for assisting the circulation of the cooling air and operation control means capable of controlling the operation of the auxiliary blower are provided.

According to the present invention, the circulation of the air in the refrigerator by the cooling blower can be assisted by the auxiliary blower. Therefore, when the volume of the cooling refrigerator room is large depending on the insertion position of the heat insulating partition plate. Even if there is, it is possible to reliably circulate the air in the refrigerator.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine according to the first aspect, the cooling device is disposed in a product storage at a lower portion of one of right and left ends of the product storage.
The cooling blower is arranged so that cooling air is blown in the direction of a heat insulating partition plate, and the auxiliary blower is provided in a product storage and at a lower central portion of the product storage. And

According to the present invention, the case where the heat insulating partition plate is inserted so that the volume of the cooling room is larger than the volume of the cooling room, which is a case where the above-mentioned problems occur remarkably, or the heat insulating partition plate When using all of the product storage as a cooling room without inserting the auxiliary blower, the auxiliary blower is securely placed in the cooling room, so the auxiliary blower must reliably circulate the cooling air in the cooling room. Can be. When the heat insulating partition plate is inserted so that the volume of the cooling chamber is smaller than the volume of the heating chamber, the auxiliary blower can assist circulation of the heated air in the heating chamber.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine according to the first or second aspect, the operation control means operates the auxiliary blower in conjunction with the operation of the cooling device or the cooling blower. Is controlled.

According to the present invention, the operation of the auxiliary blower can be controlled in accordance with the operation state of the cooling device or the cooling blower, so that the air in the cooling room can be efficiently circulated. it can.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the vending machine according to any one of the first to third aspects, the operation control means includes the auxiliary air blower from the start of the cooling device to the first stop of the operation. The control is performed to stop the operation of the vessel.

Here, the start of the cooling device means that the temperature of the cooling room reaches a desired cooling temperature during the operation of the cooling device and the cooling device is started to maintain the temperature within a predetermined temperature range. In the case where the operation start and the operation stop are repeated, this means a value excluding the operation start. For example, when the operation of the vending machine is started, the case where the operation of the cooling device is temporarily stopped after the operation of the cooling device is temporarily stopped for storing goods or changing the insertion position of the heat insulating partition plate or the like corresponds to the start of the cooling device.

According to the present invention, during the period from the start of the cooling device to the first stop of the operation, the flow rate of the internal air circulating in the cooling storage chamber is reduced by stopping the auxiliary blower, so that the specific gravity of the cooling air is reduced. Thereby, the cooling rate of the goods stored in the lower part of the cooling storage room can be improved.

[0016]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of a vending machine according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the vending machine, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the vending machine. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the control device of the vending machine, and FIG. 4 is a graph showing a flowchart showing the operation of the control device.

This vending machine 1 is, as shown in FIG.
The vending machine main body 2 has a product storage 3 and a machine room 4 at the top and bottom, and a plurality of serpentine-type product storage columns 5 are provided on the left and right in the product storage 3. Each of the product storage columns 5 has a gap A between adjacent columns 5, and the product storage 3 is partitioned into right and left by interposing a heat insulating partition plate 6 in the gap A. In addition, 7a is a heat-insulating inner door that opens and closes the entire surface of the product storage 3, and 7b is an outer door that opens and closes the entire surface of the inner door 7a.

This product storage 3 is, as shown in FIG.
Cooling and heating are performed by the cooling device 9 and the cooling blower 10, and the heating device 11 and the heating blower 12. Here, the heat insulating partition plate 6 is inserted so as to cool the three product storage columns 5 on the left side and heat the one product storage column 5 on the right side. The cooling device 9 includes a compressor 9 a and a condenser 9 b installed in the machine room 4, an evaporator 9 c installed on the lower back side of the product storage column 5 on the left side of the product storage 3, and an expansion valve (not shown). By circulating the air in the refrigerator blown by the cooling blower 10 attached to the evaporator 9c to the evaporator 9c through the duct 8 (broken arrow),
The left room (cooling room B) is cooled, and the products in the three left product storage columns 5 are cooled. On the other hand, the heating device 11 is composed of an electric heater arranged on the right side of the product storage 3, and circulates the inside air blown by the heating blower 12 attached thereto to the heating device 11 (broken line). Arrow),
The room on the right side (heating storage room C) is heated, and the products in one product storage column 5 on the right side are heated.

Further, an auxiliary blower 13 is disposed at the lower center of the product storage 3 to assist circulation of air in the storage. The auxiliary blower 13 is provided so as to be able to blow air to the right of the product storage 3, that is, in the direction of the heat insulating partition plate 6. Thereby, the heat insulating partition plate 6 is attached to the auxiliary blower 13.
When the auxiliary blower 13 is inserted in the right side of the air conditioner and the auxiliary blower 13 is in the cooling storage room B, the auxiliary blower 13 can assist circulation of the cooling air.

The operation of the compressor 9a, the cooling fan 10, the heating device 11, the heating fan 12, and the auxiliary fan 13 is controlled by a control device 14 shown in FIG. The control device 14 includes a CPU 14a, a memory 14b, and an interface circuit 14d.
4d shows a compressor 9a, a cooling blower 10, a heating device 11, a heating blower 12, an auxiliary blower 13, and a cooling chamber thermistor 1.
5a and the heating chamber thermistor 15b are connected.

The cooling chamber thermistor 15a is connected to the cooling chamber B
And detects the internal temperature T _C of the cooling chamber B, and inputs the temperature signal to the CPU 14a via the interface circuit 14d. In addition, the heating room thermistor 1
5b is disposed warming compartment chamber C, to detect the internal temperature T _H of the heating chamber chamber C, and inputs the temperature signal via the interface circuit 14c to CPU 14a.

The control device 14 stores, in its memory 14b,
It stores a control program for controlling the temperature of the cooling room B and the heating room C, and compresses the data via the interface circuit 14d based on the temperature signals from the cooling room thermistor 15a and the heating room thermistor 15b. The operation of each device such as the device 9a is controlled.

Next, one control method realized by the vending machine 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the control device 14 in the case where the heat insulating partition plate 6 is inserted into the gap A on the right side of the auxiliary blower 13 and the volume of the cooling chamber B is larger than the volume of the heating chamber C. Will be described. Note that the control of the control device 14 when the heat insulating partition plate 6 is inserted into the gap A on the left side of the auxiliary blower 13 is not different from the conventional one, and the description is omitted here.

In this control, the cooling chamber temperature T _C of the cooling chamber B is stored in the memory 14b in advance.
With respect to the cooling temperature T _C1 and the second cooling temperature T _C2 which is higher than this, T _C1 <T _C <T _C2 such that
The cooling chamber B is cooled. For example, 4 ° C. is used as T _{C1 and} 6 ° C. is used as T _C2 . Similarly,
Warming cabinet compartment temperature T _H of the heating chamber chamber C is, for the second heating producing temperature T _H2, a first heating temperature T _H1 and the temperature lower than this, which is previously stored in the memory 14b , T _H2 <T _H <T
_The heating chamber C is heated so as to be _H1 . For example, 59 ° C. is used as T _{H1 and} 61 ° C. is used as T _H2 .

The control of the heating device 11 and the heating blower 12 in the heating chamber C is performed by means similar to those conventionally used, independently of the cooling control of the cooling chamber B. . In other words, the advance first heating temperature T _H1 in the memory 14b, stores the second heating producing temperature T _H2, which is a temperature lower than the first heating temperature, the heating chamber chamber thermistor 15b
Is detected warmed cabinet compartment temperature T _H when the second lower than the warming producing temperature T _H2, is to operate the heating device 11 and heated air blower 12 through the interface circuit 14d by warming compartment chamber If the temperature T _H is higher than the first heating temperature T _H1, the
By stopping the operation of the heating device 11 and the heating blower 12, it is possible to maintain the heating chamber temperature _TH in a predetermined temperature range.

Next, control of the cooling device 9, the cooling blower 10, and the auxiliary blower 13 in the cooling storage room B will be described. This control is started when the vending machine 1 is powered on or restarted, and first, TRUE (true) is assigned to the initial flag F. Here, the initial flag F is a variable stored in the memory 14b and stores whether the operation of the cooling device 9 is immediately after the start of the vending machine 1.

Next, the operation of the cooling device 9 is started (step S2), the operation of the cooling blower 10 is started (step S3), and the cooling of the cooling chamber B is started.

Next, it is evaluated whether or not the first flag F is TRUE (step S4).
If TRUE (true), the process proceeds to step S6 without operating the auxiliary blower 13, and if FALSE (false), the auxiliary blower 13 is operated to assist the circulation of the cooling air, and the processing is started. Is moved to step S6 (step S5).

[0029] In step S6, repeating the comparison of the refrigerator compartment temperature T _C is the refrigerator compartment to be lower than the first cooling temperature T _C1 temperature T _C in the first cooling temperature T _C1, the refrigerator compartment temperature T _{If C} has become lower than the first cooling temperature T _C1 , the process proceeds to step S7 to stop the cooling operation (step S6).

Next, the operation of the cooling device 9 is stopped (step S7), the operation of the cooling blower 10 is stopped (step S8), and the cooling of the cooling chamber B is stopped.

Next, it is evaluated whether or not the first flag F is TRUE (step S9).
If TRUE, set the first flag F to FALSE (false)
And the process proceeds to step S12 (step S1).
1) In the case of FALSE (false), the operation of the auxiliary blower 13 is stopped, and the process proceeds to step S12 (step S1).
0).

[0032] Finally, in step S12, repeating the comparison of the refrigerator compartment temperature T _C is the refrigerator compartment to be higher than the second cooling temperature T _C2 temperature T _C and the second cooling temperature T _C2, refrigerator If the room temperature T _C has become higher than the second cooling temperature T _C2 , the process proceeds to Step S2 to restart the cooling operation (Step S12).

By the above processing of steps S1 to S12, the auxiliary blower 13 does not operate from the start of the cooling device 9 until the first stop, and thereafter the cooling blower 10 does not operate.
Operation and operation stop in conjunction with

Next, with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, a description will be given of the merchandise temperature of the merchandise stored in the vending machine 1 according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing the temperatures of the products stored in the three product storage columns 5 in the cooling storage room B in FIG. 2, where X1 is the leftmost and is adjacent to the cooling device 9. A product stored at the lower part of the product storage column 5 is shown, X2 is a product stored at the lower part of the product storage column 5 next to the product storage column 5, and X3 is further next to the product and a heat insulating partition plate 6 is shown.
3 shows the products stored in the lower part of the product storage column 5 adjacent to. Also, in FIG. 5, FIG.
The heat insulating partition plate 6 is inserted into the gap A to cool the three left product storage columns 5 and to heat the right one product storage column 5. FIG. The four product storage columns 5 are cooled by not using any of the gaps A and using the entire product storage 3 as the cooling room B. Further, in the figure, circles and triangles indicate the product temperature in the vending machine 1 having the auxiliary blower 13 according to the present embodiment, and crosses and squares indicate conventional automatic vending machines without the auxiliary blower. It indicates the product temperature at the machine,
This is the temperature measured when the product temperature has stabilized after a sufficient time has elapsed since the cooling device was started.

As can be seen from this graph, according to the vending machine 1 of the present embodiment, the temperature unevenness between the product storage columns can be reduced as compared with a conventional vending machine without an auxiliary blower. it can. In particular, there is a remarkable effect in lowering the product temperature in the product storage column 5 adjacent to the heat insulating partition plate 6 (see FIG. 5A).

FIG. 6 shows the temperature of the product stored at the position indicated by X1 from the time when the cooling device 9 is started, with the horizontal axis representing time, and the solid line indicates the automatic operation according to the present embodiment. The one-dot broken line of the vending machine 1 is that of a vending machine that controls the operation of the auxiliary blower from the start of the cooling device.

As can be seen from this graph, when the vending machine was provided with an auxiliary blower, the operation of the auxiliary blower was stopped from the start of the cooling device until the first stop. It can be seen that the cooling rate is faster. Therefore, according to the vending machine 1 according to the present embodiment, the cooling speed is improved, so that the cooling time is reduced, whereby the power consumption can be reduced.

[0039]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since the air in the cooling compartment is circulated reliably, the temperature of the goods stored in the cooling compartment can be made uniform. As a result, the chance of selling a product having a temperature other than the desired temperature is reduced, and the operation time of the cooling device can be shortened, so that power consumption is also reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the case where the heat insulating partition plate is inserted so that the volume of the cooling compartment is larger than the volume of the cooling compartment, which is a case where the above-mentioned problems occur remarkably. When the entire product storage is used as a cooling room without inserting a heat-insulating partition, the auxiliary blower is securely placed in the cooling room, so the auxiliary air blower ensures the cooling air in the cooling room. Can be circulated.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the operation of the auxiliary blower can be controlled in accordance with the operation status of the cooling device or the cooling blower, so that the air in the cooling compartment can be circulated. Can be performed efficiently.

Further, according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to improve the cooling speed of a product stored in the lower part of the cooling storage room, which has a short time to sale, so that the product at a temperature other than the desired temperature can be improved. And the power consumption is further reduced by shortening the operation time of the cooling device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the vending machine of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control device of the vending machine.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device of the vending machine.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a temperature of a product stored in each product storage column of the vending machine.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing a change in temperature of a product stored in a vending machine from the start of a cooling device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Vending machine, 3 ... Commodity storage, 5 ... Commodity storage column, 6 ... Heat insulation partition plate, 9 ... Cooling device, 9a ... Compressor, 1
0: cooling blower, 11: heating device, 12: heating blower,
13 ... Auxiliary blower, 14 ... Control device, 15a ... Cooling room room thermistor, 15b ... Heating room room thermistor

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of product storage columns are arranged side by side in a product storage with a gap therebetween, and a heat insulating partition plate that can be inserted and removed is inserted into the gap. A cooling chamber is formed by circulating cooling air by providing a device and a cooling blower attached thereto, and a heating device and a heating blower attached to the heating device are provided on the other side to heat by circulating heated air. A vending machine having a storage room, comprising: an auxiliary blower for assisting the circulation of the cooling air; and operation control means capable of controlling the operation of the auxiliary blower. 2. The cooling device is disposed in a product storage at a lower portion of one of left and right ends of the product storage, and the cooling blower is configured to blow cooling air in a direction of a heat insulating partition plate. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary blower is provided in a product storage and at a lower center part of the product storage. 3. 3. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the operation control means controls the operation of the auxiliary blower so as to interlock with the operation of the cooling device or the cooling blower. . 4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit performs control to stop the operation of the auxiliary blower from a start of the cooling device to a first stop of the operation of the cooling device. The vending machine described.