JPH10320618A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide such an automatic vending machine that the article takeout door is opened without letting a consumer grip the door of an article takeout opening and the consumer can easily take many articles out. SOLUTION: This vending machine is equipped with article storage containers 20 and 200 where articles (a) discharged from an article stack rack storing articles are temporarily stored and the article takeout door 260 which opens and closes an opening part 31 for taking the articles (a) out of the article storage containers 20 and 200. In this case, the article storage containers 20 and 200 have switches 230 which are turned on when the weight of more than one or two articles is applied and the article takeout door 260 is opened when the switch is in the ON state and closed when the switch 230 is in the OFF state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine, and more particularly to a vending machine in which a consumer can open a door of a take-out port without grasping the take-out port and easily take out a large number of products. About the machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a product take-out section in a general vending machine. As shown in the figure, the conventional product take-out unit is configured such that a product (for example, a can a shown in the figure) falling from a product loading rack is collected at the center and dropped, and the product is dropped through the chute 10. A product storage container 20 in which products are temporarily stored;
A product take-out door 4 rotatably installed at a predetermined position on the front cabinet 30 so that the products in the product storage container 20 can be taken out of the vending machine.
It consists of 0.

In a conventional vending machine, after a consumer inserts or inserts a bill into a bill or a coin inserter (not shown), a consumer selects a commodity displayed on a commodity display stand, and selects a lower part thereof. When the button is pressed, the assay (assa
y) The product falls through the rack and the eject mechanism and is stored in the product storage container 20. Subsequently, when the consumer pulls and turns the product take-out door 40, the product in the product storage container 20 can be taken out.

[0004]

However, since the product take-out door 40 of such a product take-out opening has to be supported by hand when taking out the product, when taking out two or more products, the product take-out door 40 must be used. There is a problem that the next product must be taken out after placing the taken out product on the ground or at an appropriate place.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and the present invention has been made so that a consumer can open a product take-out door without grasping the door, and the consumer can easily take out a large number of products. The purpose is to provide vending machines.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vending machine according to the first aspect, wherein the commodity (a) discharged from a commodity loading rack for storing the commodity is selected by a consumer. Product storage containers (20, 20) temporarily stored
0) and a product take-out door (260) that opens and closes an opening (31) for taking out the product from the product storage container to the outside, wherein one or more of the product storage containers are provided in the product storage container. A switch (230) for inputting when the weight of the product is added, wherein the product take-out door is opened when the switch is in an input state and closed when the switch is in a non-input state. And

[0007] The vending machine of the second aspect is characterized by the first aspect.
The vending machine according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the product storage container is supported by an elastic body (210) so as to be movable in the direction of gravity, and a storage plate (220) for receiving the product.
Wherein the switch is disposed below the storage plate, and is input by the storage plate that has received the product and moved a predetermined distance or more below gravity.

In the present invention, the elastic member refers to a compression spring or the like.

The vending machine according to a third aspect of the present invention is the vending machine according to the second aspect, wherein the input of the switch,
An electric circuit (240) for determining non-input, and a pinion (25) driven by the electric circuit and attached to the rotating shaft (251).
A motor (250) having 2) and an arc shape;
A bracket (262) meshing at least a part of the tooth-shaped portion (261) with the pinion, wherein the bracket is driven by the pinion and moves along the arc shape. The product take-out door can be opened and closed, and the electric circuit drives the motor so that the bracket opens the product take-out door when the switch determines that the switch is in an input state. Is determined to be in a non-input state, the motor is driven so that the bracket closes the product take-out door.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vending machine comprising: a chute provided so as to collect products falling from a product loading rack at a center; and a product storage container for temporarily storing the products dropped through the chute. In a vending machine having a product take-out door rotatably installed at a predetermined position of a front cabinet so that products in the product storage container can be taken out to the front, the product has fallen from the product loading rack to the product storage container. The micro switch is turned on by the weight of the product and the product take-out door opens,
When the product is taken out of the product storage container, the micro switch is turned off and the product take-out door is closed.

[0011] According to the above invention, when a product of a vending machine such as a can is dropped or placed on a storage plate installed in a product storage container, the storage plate resists the elastic force of the elastic body. To descend. Then, when the switch is input by lowering the storage plate, a predetermined mechanism including an electric circuit, a motor, a pinion, and a bracket is operated, and a product removal door is opened.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view schematically showing a portion including a product take-out door provided with an automatic opening / closing device in a vending machine according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the same parts as those in FIG. 2 showing the prior art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

In the vending machine according to the present invention, a chute 1 installed so as to collect and drop products (for example, cans a shown in the figure) falling from a product loading rack for storing products at the center.
0, a product storage container 20 for temporarily storing the product dropped through the chute 10, and a product storage container 2
In a vending machine provided with a product take-out door 260 rotatably installed at a predetermined position of the front cabinet 30 so that a product at 0 can be taken out (outside) of the vending machine, a product take-out door is provided. It has a structure in which an automatic opening / closing device 200 for opening / closing 260 is installed.
The automatic opening / closing device 200 has a micro switch 230, and opens the product take-out door 260 when the micro switch 230 is input (ON) and closes the product take-out door 260 when the micro switch 230 is not input (OFF). When the product of the vending machine falls, the micro switch 230 is input (ON) by the weight of the product, and is released (OFF) when the consumer takes out the product.

Hereinafter, the configuration of the automatic opening and closing device 200 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, the automatic opening / closing device 200 includes a product storage plate 220 and a microswitch 23.
0, PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) board 24
0, a motor 250, a bracket 262, a product take-out door 260, and the like.

The product storage plate 220 is stored in the product storage container 20, and the lower surface thereof is supported by the compression spring 210. The product storage plate 220 moves downward due to the weight of the product when the product falls thereon, and rises to its original position due to the elastic force of the compression spring when the product is removed.

The micro switch 230 is provided on the product storage plate 2.
Below the one end of 20, it is installed at a fixed distance from the product storage plate 220. As described above, the product storage plate 2
When the product falls on the product 20 and the product storage plate 220 moves downward due to the weight of the product, the lower surface of the product storage plate 220 acts on the microswitch 230, so that the microswitch 230 is turned on. When the product is taken out and the product storage plate 220 returns to the original position, the input of the microswitch 230 is released (turned off).

The PLC board 240 is connected to the microswitch 230 and recognizes whether the microswitch 230 is on or off. PLC board 240
Follows the on / off operation of the microswitch 230,
The motor 250 is driven by the signal processing, and the motor 2 is driven.
The 50 rotation shafts 251 and the pinion 252 installed on the rotation shaft 251 are rotated forward or backward.

The pinion 252 meshes with an arcuate tooth 261 formed on the bracket 262.
For this reason, when the pinion 252 performs forward rotation or reverse rotation,
The bracket 262 moves back and forth along the arc, and as a result, the product take-out door 260 is opened and closed by one end of the bracket 262.

At the lower end of the product take-out door 260, a contact portion 263 is formed which is in close contact with the product take-out opening 31 when the product take-out door 260 is closed.

Next, the operation of the vending machine according to the present invention will be described.

In the vending machine according to the present invention, the consumer
After inserting a bill or inserting a coin into a bill or coin slot (not shown), select a product displayed on the product display and press the select button.The product falls through the assay rack and the eject mechanism , Commodity container 20
To be housed. At this time, the product depends on its weight,
Commodity storage plate 220 against the elasticity of compression spring 210
Press down. The pushed product storage plate 220 moves downward, and turns on (turns on) the microswitch 230.

On the other hand, when the PLC board 240 determines the input of the microswitch 230, it determines that the commodity has fallen into the commodity container 20. As a result, the PLC board 24
In the case of 0, the motor 250 is driven so that the rotation shaft 251 rotates counterclockwise, and the product take-out door 260 is opened.
That is, the rotation of the rotation shaft 251 causes the bracket 262 meshing with the pinion 252 to move, and the bracket 2
The end of 62 pushes the product removal door 260. One end of the pushed product take-out door 260 is hinged to the front cabinet 30 at one end, so that the product take-out door 260 rotates around the hinge and opens.

Next, when the consumer takes out the product from the product outlet 31, the restoring force of the compression spring 210 raises the product storage plate 220 to its original position. As a result, the input of the microswitch 230 is released, the microswitch 230 enters a non-input (off) state, and
A signal to that effect is sent to C board 240. PLC board 2
When determining that the microswitch 230 is in the non-input (off) state, the control unit 40 rotates the motor 250 clockwise. As a result, the product take-out door 260 is closed.

On the other hand, one or more products are stored in the product storage plate (22).
When the selection button is further pressed after dropping to the position (0), the number of products increases one by one according to the number of times of pressing, with the product take-out door 260 being opened. In this case, even if the consumer takes out the products in order, until the last product is taken out, the micro switch 230 keeps the input (on) state, so that the product take-out door 260 does not close, and the consumer can Products can be easily taken out.

In the above, only one specific embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail, but the present invention is not limited to this, and any person having ordinary knowledge in this field can be used. Various changes and modifications can be made based on the technical concept of the present invention.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the product selection button is pressed, the product take-out door opens automatically, and when taking out some products, the product take-out door does not close until the last product is taken out, so that consumers can take out products easily. is there.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view schematically showing a portion including a product take-out door provided with an automatic opening / closing device in a vending machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a product take-out unit in a general vending machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a Commodity 10 Chute 20 Commodity container 30 Front cabinet 31 Commodity take-out opening 200 Automatic opening / closing device 210 Compression spring 220 Commodity accommodating plate 230 Micro switch 240 PLC board 250 Motor 251 Rotation axis 252 Pinion (gear) 260 Commodity take-out door 261 Toothed part 262 Bracket 263 Close contact

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A merchandise container for temporarily storing merchandise discharged from a merchandise loading rack for storing merchandise according to a consumer's selection, and an opening for taking out the merchandise from the merchandise container to the outside. A vending machine provided with a product take-out door that opens and closes, comprising: a switch that is input when one or more weights of the product are added to the product storage container, wherein the product take-out door has the switch. A vending machine which is opened when in an input state and closed when the switch is in a non-input state. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the product storage container has a storage plate for receiving the product, which is supported by an elastic body so as to be movable in the direction of gravity. The switch is disposed below the storage plate,
A vending machine characterized in that the vending machine receives the product and inputs the product by the storage plate which has moved downward by a predetermined distance or more under gravity. 3. The vending machine according to claim 2, wherein an electric circuit for discriminating input / non-input of the switch, a motor driven by the electric circuit and having a pinion on a rotating shaft, and an arc shape are provided. A bracket that meshes with a toothed portion formed at least in part on the pinion, wherein the bracket is driven by the pinion and moves along the arc shape so that the product take-out door. When it is determined that the switch is in the input state, the electric circuit drives the motor so that the bracket opens the product take-out door, and the switch is in the non-input state. When it is determined that the product has come out, the motor is driven so that the bracket closes the product take-out door. Vending machine for. 4. A chute installed so as to collect products falling from a product loading rack at the center, a product storage container for temporarily storing the products dropped through the chute, and a product in the product storage container. And a product take-out door rotatably installed at a predetermined position of the front cabinet so that the product can be taken out to the front. Is in an input state, the product take-out door is opened, and when the product is taken out of the product storage container, the micro switch is turned off and the product take-out door is closed.