JPH11296732A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic vending machine which reduces leakage of cold air for commodity replenishing work as much as possible without hindrance to this work by a simple and inexpensive structure. SOLUTION: This automatic vending machine is provided with a cooling box 3 which has a commodity throwing-in hole 3b in the front, plural commodity storage parts 5 which are arranged in parallel in the cooling box and where commodities are stored, a heat insulating door 4 which opens and closes the commodity throwing-in hole 3b of the cooling box 3, and plural auxiliary doors 10a and 10b which are freely turnably provided on the inside of the heat insulating door 4 and open and close the commodity throwing-in hole 3b. Since this vending machine is provided with plural auxiliary doors opening and closing the commodity storage parts on the inside of the heat insulating door, only the auxiliary door corresponding to the commodity storage part to be loaded is opened at the time of commodity replenishment to reduce the open area of the commodity throwing-in hole of the cooling box. As the result, air in the cooling box scarcely goes away to suppress the rise of the temperature. Further, the structure is simple and inexpensive because auxiliary doors are freely turnably provided.

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 selling frozen products such as ice cream.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a vending machine of this type is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-14396. As shown in FIG. 5, the vending machine 51 is provided with a so-called spiral-type product column, and has a plurality of product columns 53 for storing frozen products in the upper half of a product storage 52. In addition, a cooling device (not shown) for cooling the products in the product column 53 is provided below the product storage 52. The product storage 52 is provided with one heat-insulating door 55 that opens and closes a product insertion port 54 on the front side. When replenishing products, the vending machine 5
After opening the main door 1 (not shown), the heat-insulating door 55 is opened, and the product is loaded into the product column 53 from the product input port 54.

[0003]

In such a conventional vending machine 51, when replenishing commodities, cool air in the commodities storage 52 leaks to the outside from the opened commodities insertion port 54,
As the temperature in the product storage rises, there is a problem that the product is easily frosted and the heat load of the cooling device increases. In particular, in recent vending machines, the number and types of goods stored have increased due to market demands, and vending machines have tended to become larger. This tends to increase the amount of cold air leakage at the time, and this problem has become remarkable. In addition, as a countermeasure to this problem, it has been conventional to open and close the product slot with a sheet that slides on the rail, but in this configuration, the seat can slide smoothly by freezing the rail. In some cases, the product may be lost, which may hinder the replenishment of the product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has a simple and inexpensive structure that does not hinder the replenishment of goods and minimizes the leakage of cold air during the replenishment. An object is to provide a vending machine that can reduce the number of vending machines.

[0005]

In order to achieve this object, a vending machine according to the present invention comprises a cooling box having a product insertion port on a front face, and a plurality of cooling chambers arranged side by side in the cooling box to store goods. It is characterized by comprising a product storage section, a heat insulating door for opening and closing a product input port of a cooling cabinet, and a plurality of auxiliary doors rotatably provided inside the heat insulating door and opening and closing the product input port. And

According to this vending machine, since a plurality of auxiliary doors for opening and closing the product storage section are provided inside the heat insulating door, the auxiliary door corresponding to the product storage section for loading when refilling the product. By opening only the opening, it is possible to reduce the open area of the product inlet of the cooling cabinet. As a result, it becomes difficult for the cool air in the cooling box to escape, and the temperature rise can be suppressed.

Further, since the auxiliary door is provided rotatably, the structure is simple and inexpensive, and even if the fulcrum of the auxiliary door is frozen, there is little influence on the opening / closing operation and the auxiliary door can be easily manufactured. It can be opened and closed at any time, so that there is no hindrance to the refilling operation.

In this case, the product storage section is arranged in the cooling cabinet in the left-right direction, and a plurality of auxiliary doors are constituted by left and right auxiliary doors attached to the left and right sides of the cooling cabinet in a double-opening manner. Is preferred.

[0009] In this configuration, the auxiliary door has a simple double-panel structure with double doors, and an auxiliary door corresponding to a product storage unit to be refilled among products among a plurality of product storage units arranged side by side in the left-right direction. By opening only the door, it is possible to perform loading while reliably suppressing cold air leakage.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the vending machine of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine B includes a box-shaped vending machine main body 1 and a main door 2 for opening and closing the front surface thereof. On the front of the main door 2 is a product display 2 for displaying the content of a product such as ice cream.
a, a coin insertion slot 2b, an amount display portion 2c for displaying the amount of inserted coins, a return lever 2d for returning coins, a product exit door 2e for taking out products, and a coin for taking out returned coins. A return port 2f and the like are provided.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a cooling cabinet 3 having an open front is defined in the vending machine main body 1.
A heat insulating material 3a is provided on the peripheral wall. The upper part of the front of the cooling cabinet 3 is a commodity inlet 3b, and the vending machine main body 1 is provided with a single heat insulating door 4 having a heat insulating structure for opening and closing the commodity inlet 3b. The heat-insulating door 4 is opened and closed when a product is replenished, and is rotatably attached to the left front end of the vending machine main body 1. A lever 4a for holding the locked state of the heat insulating door 4 is attached to the front surface of the heat insulating door 4.

A heat insulating door 6 having a heat insulating structure, which is opened and closed when maintenance or the like of a cooling device 9 described later is performed, is provided below the heat insulating door 4. The heat-insulating door 6 has an opening at a central portion. The opening portion is provided with a sales port door 6a for guiding a falling commodity to the commodity outlet 12.

A plurality of commodity columns 5a for accommodating frozen goods such as ice cream are accommodated in the cooling cabinet 3 in two front and rear rows, four in the front row, five in the rear row, and arranged side by side in the left-right direction. Have been. The product column 5a in the front row is moved in the left-right direction (arrow A in FIG. 4) by a slide mechanism (not shown).
Direction). Each product column 5a has a vertically long rectangular shape, and its front and lower surfaces are open.

A spiral 5b for storing a product is provided in each product column 5a. This spiral 5b
Is fixed to a shaft 5d which is rotated by a drive motor 5c. When the product is sold, the shaft 5d is rotated by 180 degrees via the drive motor 5c, so that one lowermost product is dropped, and Payout from column 5a. In addition, a loading door 5e that is opened and closed when a product is loaded on the spiral 5b is provided on the front surface of each product column 5a. The above-mentioned product column 5a, spiral 5b, drive motor 5c, shaft 5d, and loading door 5e constitute a product storage unit 5. Further, a chute 7 is provided below the product storage unit 5, and the products paid out from the product storage unit 5 are guided to the product outlet 12 through the chute 7.

An evaporator 9a and an evaporator fan 9b are arranged at the bottom of the cooling cabinet 3. The evaporator 9a exchanges heat between the cool air in the cooling cabinet 3 and the refrigerant, and the evaporator fan 9b sends air to the evaporator 9a to promote heat exchange. Also,
At the bottom of the vending machine main body 1 (below the cooling box 3), a compressor 9c for compressing the refrigerant, a condenser 9d for exchanging heat between the outside air and the refrigerant, and wind is sent to the condenser 9d to promote heat exchange. And a condenser fan 9e for performing waste heat to the outside. These evaporators 9a,
From the evaporator fan 9b, the compressor 9c, the condenser 9d, and the condenser fan 9e, the cooling device 9
Is configured.

As shown in FIG. 4, the cooling cabinet 3 is provided with an auxiliary door 10 for keeping cold according to the present invention inside the heat insulating door 4, that is, between the product storage section 5 and the heat insulating door 4. . The auxiliary door 10 includes a pair of left and right auxiliary doors 10a and 10b. The left and right auxiliary doors 10a and 10b are respectively attached to the front ends of the inner side surfaces of the left and right side walls of the cooling cabinet 3 by a rotating shaft 1
It is rotatably mounted with 0c as a fulcrum, and opens and closes the product slot 3b of the cooling cabinet 3 in a double-opening manner. The auxiliary doors 10a and 10b are made of a transparent acrylic resin or the like, and a handle (not shown) is provided on the front surface.

Next, a procedure for refilling the product storage unit 5 with a product will be described. First, the main door 2 and the heat insulating door 4 are opened. Next, the product storage unit 5 is checked via the transparent auxiliary doors 10a and 10b, and one of the auxiliary doors 10a and 10b located in front of the product column 5a to be loaded is opened with a handle. For example, when a product is loaded into the right product column 5a, as shown by a solid line in FIG. 4, the left auxiliary door 10a is kept closed, only the right auxiliary door 10b is opened, and the right half of the product is stored. Only part 5 is opened. Then, the loading door 5e is opened, and the product is loaded on the spiral 5b. When the loading of the product is completed, the loading door 5e is closed, and the loading operation is similarly performed on the other product columns 5a belonging to the right half.

When the loading of the right half of the product column 5a is completed, the right auxiliary door 10b is closed and the left auxiliary door 10a is closed.
Is opened (in a state indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 4), and a product is loaded into the product column 5a in the left half, thereby completing the loading operation to the product column 5a in the front row. When refilling a product in the product column 5a in the rear row, the loading operation can be performed in the same manner by sliding the product storage section 5 in the front row in the left-right direction (the direction of arrow A).
When the loading operation to all the product columns 5a is completed, the heat insulation door 4 and the main door 2 are closed,
End the refilling operation.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a product can be loaded into the product column 5a with only one of the left and right auxiliary doors 10a and 10b provided inside the heat insulating door 4 being opened. Cooling cabinet 3 during operation
Can be greatly reduced as compared with the conventional vending machine 51 shown in FIG. As a result, it becomes difficult for the cool air in the cooling cabinet 3 to escape, and it is possible to suppress the rise in temperature. Thereby, it is possible to reduce the frost on the product and suppress the rise in the heat load of the cooling device 9. it can.

Further, since the auxiliary door 10 is provided rotatably, the structure is simple and inexpensive, and even if the fulcrum of the auxiliary door 10 is frozen, the opening / closing operation thereof is less affected. 10 can be easily opened and closed, so that there is no trouble in the refilling operation. In order to similarly obtain the effects of the present embodiment as described above, for example, the heat insulating door 4 may be
It is also conceivable to divide the sheet into a double door structure. However, in this case, in order to secure the heat insulation performance of the heat insulation door 4 at all times, it is necessary to provide a sufficient seal structure at the joint of the heat insulation doors, and the structure becomes complicated, resulting in an increase in cost. I will. This embodiment does not employ such a structure, and achieves the above-described effects with a simple and inexpensive structure.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but can be implemented in various modes.
For example, in the embodiment, the auxiliary door 10 has two auxiliary doors 10.
a, 10b, but is not limited to this, and may be composed of three or more. Thus, the open area of the product insertion port 3b can be further reduced, and the cool air leakage can be more effectively suppressed. Further, the embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a vending machine that sells frozen products, but from the viewpoint of suppressing an increase in heat load due to loading, an automatic vending machine that cools and sells products such as canned beverages. Applying the present invention to vending machines,
Of course it is possible. In addition, the detailed configuration can be appropriately changed within the scope of the present invention.

[0022]

As described above, the vending machine of the present invention is
With a simple and inexpensive structure, there is an effect that cold air leakage during the replenishment operation can be reduced as much as possible without causing any trouble in the replenishment operation of the product.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.
It is a front view and (b) side view.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the vending machine of FIG. 1 with a main door opened.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of the vending machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal cross-sectional view showing a situation at the time of loading of the vending machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a horizontal sectional view showing a state of loading of a conventional vending machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 3 Cooling box 3b Product inlet of cooling box 4 Insulated door 5 Product storage section 5a Product column 10 Auxiliary door 10a Left auxiliary door 10b Right auxiliary door 10c Auxiliary door rotation axis B Vending machine

Claims (2)

[Claims] A cooling cabinet having a product insertion port on a front surface thereof; a plurality of product storage sections arranged in the cooling cabinet to store products; and a heat insulating door for opening and closing the product insertion port of the cooling cabinet. A vending machine, comprising: a plurality of auxiliary doors rotatably provided inside the heat-insulating door, for opening and closing the product insertion port. 2. The left and right auxiliary doors, wherein the commodity storage section is arranged in the cooling cabinet in the left-right direction and the plurality of auxiliary doors are attached to the left and right sides of the cooling cabinet in a double-opening manner. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the vending machine is configured.