JPH10289375A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine which can forcibly open an inside door even at its non-opening time to prevent any commodity from being left unsold in a rear commodity store part. SOLUTION: When a 1st take-out mode is selected by an external remote controller 100 to prevent the commodities from being left unsold in a rear store part, the inside doors of all commodity store rooms are opened in sequence and the commodities stored in the rear store part are successively carried to a front store part. When a 2nd take-out mode is selected by the controller 100, the inside doors which are kept waiting are opened in sequence after the commodities of the front store part are sold. Then the commodities are successively carried to the front store part from the rear store part. Thus, it suffices to replenish the new commodities to the rear store part after both modes are over.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine having front and rear storage sections, and after selling the products in the front storage section, transporting the products in the rear storage section to the front storage section and selling them. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as a vending machine of this type, the applicant has already proposed an application according to Japanese Patent Application No. 8-54920.

This vending machine has a structure in which a large number of individually partitioned product storage rooms are arranged in a plurality of upper and lower stages, and the products stored in the product storage rooms are individually sold. In addition, this product storage room has two storage portions communicating with each other in the front and rear, and when selling products, first sell the product in the front storage portion, and after the product sale, it became empty. The product in the rear storage section is transported to the front storage section, and the transported product is sold next time.

In such a selling operation, a front door of the front storage unit has a small door for opening and closing the front storage unit, and a front surface of the rear storage unit has an inner door for opening and closing the front storage unit.
Products are sold by opening these doors.

[0005]

However, in the conventional vending machine, after the merchandise in the front storage section is sold, the merchandise in the rear storage section is immediately conveyed to the front storage section. May be noticed by the purchaser of the front product, which may give motivation to steal the product, which is not preferable.

In order to solve such a problem, a method is conceivable in which, when a product in the front storage section is sold, the operation of opening the inner door is delayed by a predetermined time by a timer thereafter. When such a method is adopted, since the products remain in the rear storage room for the delay time, the products are replenished in the front storage room, and old products remain unsold in the rear storage unit forever. There was a problem that.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, it is an object of the present invention to automatically open an inner door even when it is not yet time to open the inner door, and to prevent an unsold product from remaining in a rear storage section. To provide vending machines.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems. A small door installed at a portion facing the front of the room, and an inner door that partitions each product storage room back and forth to form two storage units, and has a predetermined waiting time after the products in the front storage unit are sold. A first mode in which, in a vending machine that opens the inner door after the elapse and carries out and replenishes the goods in the rear storage unit to the front storage unit, all the inner doors are sequentially opened without waiting for the elapse of the waiting time; A second mode for sequentially opening the inner doors that wait for the elapse of the waiting time without waiting for the elapse of this time.

According to the present invention, since the inner door is opened after a while after the product in the front storage section is sold, the replenishment operation of the product from the rear storage section to the front storage section is performed by the purchaser. It will be done after leaving.

Here, when the first mode is operated as an operation for preventing unsold products in the rear storage unit, the inner doors of all the product storage rooms are sequentially opened to be stored in the rear storage unit. Are sequentially transported to the front storage unit. On the other hand, when the second mode is selected, the products in the front storage unit are sold, and the inner doors, which are waiting times for the opening operation, sequentially open, and the products stored in the rear storage unit are opened. It is sequentially conveyed to the front storage section. After the end of each mode, new products may be added to the rear storage unit.

[0011]

1 to 13 show an embodiment of a vending machine according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view of the vending machine, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the vending machine, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the product storage room, FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view of the product storage room showing a state in which products are stored in the rear storage unit, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the opening and closing operation of the small door, FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the external remote controller, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram relating to product sales and control of each door of the vending machine. 9 is a flowchart showing a sales processing operation, FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing small door control, and FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing inner door control 1 and FIG.
2 is a flowchart 2 showing the inner door control, and FIG.
And a flowchart showing a second extraction mode.

The mechanical structure of a vending machine according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. That is, in this vending machine, an inner box 2 having a front opening is provided in a vending machine main body 1 constituted by a vertically long insulated box, and the front opening of the vending machine main body 1 can be opened and closed by an outer door 3. I have. Further, a ventilation duct 4 is formed between the vending machine main body 1 and the inner box 2, and the air cooled by the evaporator 6 by the blower 5 is circulated through the ventilation duct 4 (one point in FIG. 2). (Indicated by a dashed line arrow), the inside of the refrigerator is being cooled. A middle door 7 is provided at the front opening of the inner box 2, while a number of product storage rooms 8 are formed in a plurality of stages vertically and horizontally inside the inner box 2, and face each product storage room 8. Middle door 7
Is provided with a small door 9 of a product storage room 8. Also,
Each product storage room 8 is formed by incorporating a large number of wires 8a vertically and horizontally so that cool air can flow between the product storage rooms 8 adjacent to each other.

A coin slot 10, a bill slot 11, a return lever 12, a return slot 13,
On the other hand, a segment display 14 for displaying the amount of money to be inserted and the like are provided.
Is installed, and the sellable lamp 15a (FIG. 8) in the selection switch 15 is turned on or blinks. Further, the vending machine has a money processing device 16 for processing money inserted from the coin insertion slot 10 and the bill insertion slot 11.

In the vending machine configured as described above, each of the commodity storage rooms 8 is divided into two parts, that is, front and rear, and this structure will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The product storage room 8 has a front and rear partition door mechanism 81, and the storage doors 81 form front and rear storage sections 82a and 82b for storing the product A.
The partition door mechanism 81 is provided with a substantially gate-shaped support frame 8.
11 has an inner door 812 pivotally supported. The inner door 812 is turned up and down to open and close the rear storage portion 82b. A torsion coil spring 812b is wound around the rotating shaft 812a to urge the inner door 812 in the opening direction. On the other hand, an inner door solenoid 813 is provided to regulate the rotation of the inner door 812 in the opening direction, and an inner door open / close detector (a microswitch in this embodiment) for detecting the driving state of the solenoid 813
814.

The solenoid 813 has a hook 815b having a hook 815a at the tip of the plunger.
And a substantially L-shaped operating piece 816 are attached. The hook claw 815a is opposed to a locking hole 815c protruding from the back surface of the inner door 812, and when the tip of the plunger of the solenoid 813 is at a lower position, the hook claw 815a is locked in the locking hole 815c and the inner side. When the door 812 is kept closed, on the contrary, when the door 812 is on the upper position, the hook 815a is disengaged from the locking hole 815c, and the inner door 812 can be opened. On the other hand, the tip of the operating piece 816 faces the open / close detector 814. When the tip of the plunger is at the lower position, the open / close detector 814 does not detect the drive of the solenoid 813. The operation of the solenoid 813 is detected.

In the commodity storage room 8 divided into two parts by the partition door mechanism 81, a transfer device 83 for placing and moving the commodity A is provided. The transport device 83 includes a product placing means 831 and a coil spring 832.

The product placing means 831 has a dish-shaped product tray 831a, and the product A is placed on the product tray 831a.
Is to be placed. In addition, this product tray 8
The two sides of the product tray 831a are fitted on the center of the product tray 831a, and the connecting tube 831c is further inserted into the product storing room 8. Are penetrated by the track wire 831d arranged before and after. Thereby, the product tray 831a is moved to the front and rear storage sections 82a,
It is slidable over 82b. The guide rail 831b and the track wire 831d are connected and fixed to support plates 841 and 842 arranged in front and behind the product storage room 8.

The coil spring 832 is disposed between the connecting cylinder 831c and the support plate 842 on the rear side of the product storage chamber 8, and has a track wire 831d penetrating therethrough to urge the product tray 831a forward. It is supposed to.
Thus, when the product tray 831a is waiting in the rear storage unit 82b (FIG. 4), the product tray 831a
Is pressed against the back of the closed inner door 812,
On the other hand, when the inner door 812 is opened (FIG. 5), the inner door 812 is pushed out to the front storage portion 82a by the urging force of the coil spring 832.

A small door 9 for opening and closing the front storage section 82a is provided in front of the front storage section 82a. The opening and closing mechanism of the small door 9 will be described with reference to FIG. That is, this opening / closing mechanism has a small door solenoid 91 and a small door opening / closing detector (micro switch in this embodiment) 92 for detecting opening / closing of the small door 9. The solenoid 91 and the open / close detector 92 are respectively located inside the small door 9, and the plunger of the solenoid 91 can be freely engaged with and disengaged from a locking hole 93 a of a projection 93 extending toward the inside of the small door 9. . Here, when the small door 9 is closed and the solenoid 91 is not energized,
The plunger of the solenoid 91 is locked in the locking hole 93a. On the other hand, when the solenoid 91 is energized to release the locked state between the plunger and the locking hole 93a, the small door 9 is opened as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. In addition, small door 9
Is in the closed state, the projection 93 presses the actuator of the open / close detector 92 to detect the closed state. On the other hand, when the small door 9 is in the open state, the projection 93 moves away from the actuator. An open state is detected.

In the vending machine configured as described above, the inner door 812 is forcibly opened and the rear storage section 82 is opened.
An external remote controller shown in FIG. 7 and a drive control circuit shown in the block diagram of FIG. 8 are provided to realize control for transporting the product A of FIG.

The external remote controller 100 has keys 101 and 102 operated when refilling the product, a key 103 operated when refilling the product, and a first ejection mode key 104 and a second ejection mode key for forcibly opening the inner door 812. 10
5. Up / down key 10 for selecting product storage room 8
6, 107 and a start key 108 for starting operation. The drive control is performed by CPUs 200 and 210 having a microcomputer configuration.
U200 has a timer 201 and a counter 202. The CPU 200 includes a return lever 12, a money handling device 16, an external remote controller 100, and a selection switch 1.
5 to control the segment display 14 and the sellable lamp 15a via the display drive circuit 221 and the sellable light drive circuit 222 based on these signals, and to send a control signal to the CPU 210. It has become. The CPU 210 includes a small door open / close detector 92.
The detection signal of the inner door open / close detector 814 is input, and the small door solenoid 91 and the inner door solenoid 813 are drive-controlled via the small door solenoid drive circuit 223 and the inner door solenoid drive circuit 224, and the CPU 200 opens and closes the small door. The detection / non-detection data of the detector 92 and the inner door opening / closing detector 814 are transmitted.

The operation of selling a product in the drive control circuit will be described with reference to FIG. First, it is determined whether or not payment has been made in the sales standby state, and if there has been payment, the payment amount is displayed on the segment display 14 (S1, S2). As a result, the sellable lamp 15a of the commodity storage room 8 that can be selected within the payment range is turned on (S3). Next, when the return lever 12 is operated, the balance is returned and the sale ends (S4, S5). However, when the selection switch 15 of the lit product storage room 8 is selected, the selected product storage room is selected. 8 flashes, and the reduced amount obtained by subtracting the price of the selected product from the deposit amount is displayed on the segment display 1.
4, the small door of the selected product storage room 8 is controlled (S6 to S9).

This small door control will be described with reference to FIG. In this small door control, first, the selected product storage room 8 is selected.
(S10). This allows
As shown in FIG. 6, the plunger of the solenoid 91 is disengaged from the locking hole 93a, and the small door 9 is opened as shown by the two-dot chain line. On the other hand, the opening / closing detector 92 detects the opening operation of the small door 9 (S11), and waits for the closing operation of the small door 9. When the small door 9 is closed, the closed state is detected by the open / close detector 92, and the power supply to the solenoid 91 is stopped (S12, S13). Thereby, the solenoid 91
Is locked in the locking hole 93a again, and the small door 9 is maintained in the closed state.

When such small door control is completed, one is subtracted from the number of products (two) in the selected product storage room 8, as shown in FIG. , And a time (delay time; for example, 5 minutes) until the inner door control of the product storage room 8 is performed is set in the timer 201 (S14 to S16). The delay time can be arbitrarily changed by the external remote controller 100. Next, when there is a balance equal to or higher than the product price, the process returns to step 3 to wait for the operation of the return lever 12 or the selection switch 15 (S17). When the selection switch 15 is pressed, the small door control is performed again and the product is controlled. Sell A. And
When the balance becomes lower than the product price, the balance is forcibly refunded. The selling operation is completed by such control.

Next, the inner door control set by the timer in the above-described selling operation flow will be described with reference to FIG.
That is, it is determined whether or not the product is in the sales standby state.
It is determined whether or not there is a set number (S
1, S2). If there is a product storage room 8 with a number set in this determination, it is determined whether or not the delay time set in the timer 201 has elapsed, and further, whether or not the transport condition of the rear storage unit 82b is satisfied. S3, S4). Here, the transfer condition of the rear storage section 82b means that the small door 9 is securely closed, and when this condition is satisfied, the inner door control is performed.

The inner door control will be described with reference to FIG. In the inner door control, first, the solenoid 813 of the selected product storage room 8 is energized for 2 seconds (S5, S5).
6). The energization of this solenoid 813 causes the plunger to move upward, causing the hook 815a to engage with the locking hole 815.
c, and the inner door 812 is opened. On the other hand, the upward movement of the plunger also moves the operation piece 816 upward, presses the actuator of the open / close detector 814, and detects the drive of the solenoid 813 (the product in the rear storage portion 82b is carried out to the front side. (A carry-out signal).) When this carry-out signal is input, the solenoid 813 is turned off, and it is further determined whether or not 5 seconds have elapsed since the start of the inner door control, and the inner door control is ended after the elapse of 5 seconds (S
7 to S9).

On the other hand, when the carry-out signal has not been input yet in step 7, the solenoid 813 is stopped for 2 seconds, and the solenoid 813 is energized again for 2 seconds, and the carry-out signal is input. Is determined (S
10 to S14). Here, when the carry-out signal is input, the solenoid 813 is turned off in the same manner as described above (S1).
5) Go to step 9 to end the inner door control. On the other hand, when the carry-out signal is not input even when the solenoid 813 is energized, the solenoid 813 is turned off, and the fact that the solenoid 813 is abnormal is displayed through the segment display 14 (S16, S17).

As described above, the solenoid 81 is operated a plurality of times.
Driving 3 is performed in consideration of the fact that the inside of the inner box 2 is at a low temperature, and the plunger of the solenoid 813 freezes, which may cause an operation failure.

When the inner door control of one product storage room 8 as described above is completed, the process returns to step 1 again, and the other product storage rooms 8 requiring the inner door control are sequentially controlled in the same manner. The product A in the storage section 82b is transported to the front storage section 82a,
It will be ready for the next sale.

The product A in the front and rear storage portions 82a and 82b is sold by the small door control and the inner door control. FIG. 13 shows a removal mode when the product A is refilled or replaced with a new product. It will be described with reference to FIG. First, the key 101 is pressed to start the operation, and further, the first extraction mode 104 or the second extraction mode 105 is selected (S1, S2). Here, when the first extraction mode key 104 is selected,
Regardless of whether or not the product A remains in the rear storage portion 82b of each product storage room 8 and whether or not the set time of the delay timer shown in step 3 of FIG. This is performed sequentially over the room 8 (S3, S4). As a result, the products A in all the rear storage sections 82b move to the front storage sections 82a, and the first removal mode ends. When selecting the first removal mode, it is necessary to open the middle door 7 and remove the product A from the front storage portion 82a in advance.

On the other hand, when the second removal mode 105 is selected, the number is set in the same manner as in step 2 of FIG. 11 (the product A in the front storage portion 82a is sold and the timer delay time has not yet elapsed). It is determined whether or not there is a room 8, and if there is a product storage room 8 numbered here, the inner door control of the corresponding product storage room 8 is sequentially performed (S5, S6, S7). Thus, regardless of whether or not the set time of the delay timer has elapsed, the rear storage portion 82b
The product A stored in (the rear storage portion 82b where the product A remains) moves to the front storage portion 82a, and the second extraction mode ends.

As described above, in each of the first and second unloading modes, the product A in the rear storage section 82b can be transported to the front storage section 82a without waiting for the set time of the delay timer. The product A can be refilled in the storage portion 82b in a short time, and the new product A with the date of manufacture can be refilled in the rear storage portion 82b, and the old product can be stored in the front storage portion 82a. Can be prevented.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Without waiting for the waiting time in both the first and second modes,
Products stored in the rear storage unit can be transported to the front storage unit, so products can be refilled in the open rear storage unit in a short time, and new products with the date of manufacture can be stored in the rear storage unit. Since old products can be refilled and stored in the front storage section, unsold products of the old products can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a vending machine.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a vending machine.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a product storage room.

FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view of a product storage room showing a state in which products are stored in a rear storage unit.

FIG. 5 is a side cross-sectional view showing a state in which a product in a rear storage unit is transported to a front storage unit.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the opening and closing operation of the small door.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing an external remote controller.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram relating to vending machine product sales and door control;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a sales processing operation.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing small door control.

FIG. 11 is a first flowchart illustrating inner door control.

FIG. 12 is a second flowchart illustrating the inner door control.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing first and second extraction modes.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... vending machine main body, 7 ... middle door, 8 ... product storage room, 9 ...
Small door, 82a, 82b ... storage unit, 812 ... inner door, 20
0, 210 ... CPU, 201 ... timer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A middle door arranged over a front surface of each of a plurality of product storage rooms provided in a vending machine main body, and a small door installed at a portion of the middle door facing the front surface of each of the product storage rooms. And an inner door that partitions each of the product storage chambers back and forth to form two storage sections, and opens the inner door after a predetermined waiting time has elapsed after the product in the front storage section has been sold, and In a vending machine that carries out and replenishes the goods in the storage section to the front storage section, a first mode in which all of the inner doors are sequentially opened without waiting for the elapse of the waiting time, and an inner door that waits for the elapse of the waiting time. A vending machine comprising a control means having a second mode for sequentially opening operation without waiting for elapse of time.