JPS61248832A - Delivery device for sheetlike article - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To restore an underlayer article to the inside of a stocker and deliver the topmost layer alone, by making a flexible sheetlike article go up by suction, while releading one side contact of an article peripheral edge of a first regulating part of a regulating body earlier than the second regulating part, and guiding it with an incline on an upper surface of the first regulating part. CONSTITUTION:A front end of a peripheral edge on an upper surface of a suction card 1 to be lifted by a lifting mechanism 29 is made contact with a first regulating part 43 of a regulating body 41 while the rear end with a second regulating part 44, respectively, and when further the card 1 is made go up, the contact with the first regulating part 43 is released whereby a curve in the card 1 is also released. The topmost layer card 1 attracted to a suction plate 28 remains unchanged in its state but the underlayer card 1 solves the curve with its own elasticity, separating, and is restored to a box body 10 by a downward incline 45 of the first regulating part 43. Then, the topmost layer card 1 is separated from the suction plate 28 in an almost paralleling direction with card upper and lower surfaces in a pulling-out manner, thus the card 1 is delivered piece by piece to a stocker 8 from a deliver port 62.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a dispensing device used in a vending machine for elastically deformable sheet-like articles such as telephone cards.

(Prior art) A device for dispensing sheet-like articles includes a mechanism that sucks the top layer of articles among the articles stacked vertically on a stonker and raises it above the stocker, and a mechanism that sucks the lifted article. Some are equipped with a mechanism that separates them from the mechanism and transports them to the dispensing port.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) When an article in the uppermost layer and an article in the lower layer are electrostatically attracted in a stocker, not only the article in the uppermost layer but also the articles in the lower layer are dispensed at the same time. There is.

Therefore, we have provided a stocker that stacks elastically deformable sheet-like articles vertically, a suction mechanism that can be sucked onto the top surface of the sheet-like articles, and a suction mechanism that can be moved up and down between the top surface of the articles and the upper position of the stocker. a lifting mechanism; a regulating body that presses the article lifted by the suction mechanism and the lifting mechanism against the upper surface facing peripheral edge of the article and curves the article into an upwardly convex shape;
Articles that have been lifted until they are uncurved by the regulating body,
A sheet-like article dispensing device may be considered that includes a separating mechanism that separates the sheet-like article from the suction mechanism and a dispensing port for discharging the article separated by the separating mechanism.

As a result, when the uppermost layer article is curved in an upwardly convex shape by the regulating body, if there is a lower layer article electrostatically attracted to the uppermost layer article, that article is also curved upwardly in a convex shape.

Then, a force is applied to the article due to its own elasticity to undo the curvature. In this case, the uppermost layer of articles is not uncurved because it is attracted by the attraction mechanism. However, since the lower layer articles are not adsorbed by the suction mechanism, the curvature is resolved, and as a result, they are separated from the uppermost layer articles and can fall back into the stocker.

However, according to the above-mentioned dispensing device, if the suction between the article and the suction mechanism is not sufficient at a position above the regulating body and the suction is removed before the article is subjected to the separation action from the separation mechanism, the article may fall onto the regulating body. There is a risk that it will run over. Furthermore, there is a risk that the articles electrostatically adsorbed to the lower surface of the articles in the uppermost layer may also ride on the regulating body. As described above, there is a problem in that when an article rides on the regulating body, the subsequent dispensing operation cannot be performed.

In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a dispensing device that can reliably dispense sheet-like articles one by one and does not interfere with the dispensing operation.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The technical means taken by the present invention to achieve its object is characterized by stacking and storing sheet-like articles 1 that can be elastically bent into an i-shape, one above the other. The stocker 8, an adsorption mechanism 28 capable of adsorbing the upper surface of the sheet-like articles l, an elevating mechanism 29 that can freely raise and lower the adsorbing mechanism 28 between the upper surface position of the articles l and the upper position of the stocker 8, and the adsorbing mechanism 28 and the elevating mechanism 28. Mechanism 2
a regulating body 42 that presses the article 1 lifted by the upper surface of the article 1 into contact with the upper surface facing peripheral edge of the article 1 to curve the article 1 in an upwardly convex shape;
A sheet-like article comprising a separating mechanism 52 that separates the article 1 that has been lifted up until it is uncurved by the regulating body 42 from the suction mechanism 28, and a dispensing port 62 for the article 1 separated by the separating mechanism 52. In the dispensing device 2, the article 1
The first regulating part 43 of the regulating body 42 that comes into contact with one of the upper surface facing peripheral edges comes into contact with the rising article 1 earlier than the second regulating part 44 of the regulating body 42 that comes into contact with the other side. The second regulating portion 4 is released to bring the article 1 into the uncurved state.
4 can come into contact with the upper surface of the article 1 more inwardly than the first regulating section 43, and the contact between the article 1 and the second regulating section 44 is as follows.
The article 1 is held until it is separated by the separation mechanism 52, and furthermore, the upper surface of the first regulation part 43 is connected to the second regulation part 4.
It has an inclined surface 45 that gradually slopes downward in four directions.

(Function) When the article 1 is released from the curvature by the regulating body 42 and then separates from the adsorption mechanism 28 without receiving a separating action from the separating mechanism 42, the article 1 moves to the inclined surface 4 on the upper surface of the first regulating part 43.
5 and falls back into the stocker 8.

(Example) Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

1 to 4 show a dispensing device 2 incorporated into a vending machine for elastically deformable telephone cards 1, 3 is a bottom wall, a side wall 4 is erected from the left end, and a rail is provided from the right end. A mounting wall 5 is erected. L-shaped rails 6.7 are laid on the bottom wall 3 and the rail mounting wall 5 in the front-rear direction, and a gap is provided between the lower surface of each rail 6.7 and the upper surface of the bottom wall 3. Note that an optical sensor 11 is attached to the rail 6 of the bottom wall 3.

A stocker 8 is installed inside the dispensing device and is composed of a frame 9 and a box 10.

The frame body 9 includes left and right side plates 9a, 9b, a bottom plate 9C, and a back plate 9d.
and a bent plate 9e which is interposed between the front ends of the left and right side plates 9a and 9b and bent into a chevron shape when viewed from the side. A guide portion 12.13 is formed on the lower surface of the bottom plate 9C and is inserted into the gap between the rail 6.7 and the bottom wall 3 so as to be movable back and forth. It is said that it can be taken in and taken out freely.

Further, a notch 14 for preventing interference with a switch piece 68, which will be described later, is formed in the back plate 9d.

The box 10 can be freely inserted and removed from above between the left and right side plates 9a and 9b of the frame 9, and is open at the top as shown in FIG. 7, so that the telephone cards 1 are stacked and stored vertically.

A plurality of air vent openings 15 are provided in the side wall and bottom wall of the box body 10. Further, an opening 16 is provided at a position on the bottom plate 9c of the frame body 9 corresponding to the opening 15 on the bottom wall of the box body 10, through which the sensor beam from the optical sensor 11 can pass. A sellout can be detected by opening and closing the openings 15 and 16. Further, on the upper surface of the front and rear side walls of the box body 10, there are card protrusion prevention pieces 17.1.
8 is provided protrudingly.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a stocker regulating plate, which is attached to the left side of the side wall 4, and has a knob 20 at the upper end, a long hole 21 in the vertical direction below it, an opening 22 below it, and a locking claw at the lower end. 23
has. A headed guide pin 24 inserted through the elongated hole 21 is attached to the side wall 4, and a cut-and-raised portion 25 from the side wall 4 is inserted into the opening 22, so that it can be freely moved up and down. A long hole 26 with an open front end is formed at the lower end of the side wall 4, and a locking pin 27 that engages with the locking pawl 23 is inserted into the long hole 26 and attached to the left side plate 9a of the stocker 8. installed. As a result, the locking pawl 23 and the locking pin 27 are engaged and disengaged by vertical movement of the stocker regulating plate 19, and the insertion and removal of the stocker 8 can be controlled and released.

Next, 28 is a well-known suction cup that can be sucked onto the top surface of the telephone card 1.

Reference numeral 29 denotes a lifting mechanism which allows the suction cup 28 to be moved up and down between the upper surface of the telephone card 1 and the upper position of the stocker 8. The elevating mechanism 29 mainly includes a first arm 30, a second arm 31, an elevating cam 32, and a geared motor 33.

The first arm 30 is formed by bending a plate material, and has opposing left and right walls 30a and 30b. A guide roller 34 is attached to the left wall 30a, and the guide roller 34 is inserted into a vertically curved cam groove 35 formed in the side wall 4.

The second arm 3I is also formed by bending a plate material, and its upper end is pivotally connected to the upper end of the first arm 30 via a pin 36. Further, the lower end is pivotally connected to the side wall 4 by a support shaft 37. A cam roller 38 is attached to the right side surface.

The geared motor 33 is attached to the side wall 4 and is formed by a drive motor 39 and a gear box 40 containing a reduction gear, and an output shaft 41 protrudes from the right side of the gear box 40.

The cam 32 is attached to the output shaft 41 of the geared motor 33 and rotates in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1, and the cam roller 38 of the second arm 31 is mounted and supported on the cam contour surface. As a result, when the cam 32 rotates, each arm 30.31 swings up and down, and the first arm 30 and the suction cup 28 move up and down along the cam groove 35. Here, the state shown in FIG. 1 where the cam radius from the rotation center of the cam 32 to the cam contour surface is at its maximum and contacts the cam roller 38 is the standby state, and the suction cup 28 is in the highest raised state. Furthermore, when the cam 32 rotates and the cam radius contacts the cam roller 38 at the minimum portion, the suction cup 28 is in its lowest position. The lowermost position of the suction cup 28 is such that it can be sucked onto the upper surface of the lowest telephone card 1 in the stocker 8. Also, cam 3
A circumferential surface 32a having a constant cam radius is formed over a constant length on the two contour surfaces, and when the cam roller 38 is supported at that portion, the suction cup 28 does not move up and down for a constant period of time.

Next, 42 is a regulating body, which includes a suction cup 28 and a lifting mechanism 29.
The telephone card 1, which has been lifted up by the above, is pressed into contact with the front and rear opposite peripheral edges of the upper surface of the telephone card 1, and is curved in an upwardly convex shape as shown in the fourth figure. The dividing body 42 has a first regulating part 43 also shown in FIG. 5 and a second regulating part 4 also shown in FIG.
3.

The first regulating portion 43 is formed of a plate material, the direction perpendicular to the plate thickness is the left-right direction, and is attached to the side wall 4 at a position above the front end of the box body 10 via a bent portion at the left end.

In addition, it is bent into an F-shape, and the lower end is folded back in an overlapping manner. Then, the folded part 4 at the lower end
3a is projected backward from the front end of the box body 10, so that it can come into contact with the front end of the periphery of the upper surface of the telephone card 1 being raised. Further, the upper surface of the first restricting portion 43 is an inclined surface 45 that gradually slopes downward in the direction of the second restricting portion 44 at the rear.

In addition, 46 is the card protrusion prevention piece 17 of the box body 10,
The notch 47 is for preventing interference with the roller 53 of the separation mechanism 52, which will be described later.

The second regulating portion 44 is also formed of a plate material, the direction perpendicular to the plate thickness is the left-right direction, and is attached to the side wall 4 at the rear end position of the box body 10 via a bent portion at the left end. The second regulating section 44 is
A standing wall 44a along the rear side wall of the box body 10, and an upper wall 44b bent from the upper end of the standing wall 44a to be perpendicular to the front.
It is formed of an inclined wall 44c bent forward and upward from the front end of the upper wall 44b, and a switch mounting wall 44d fixed to the rear surface of the inclined wall 44c. The upper wall 44d and the inclined wall 44c are projected forward from the rear end of the box 10, so that they can come into contact with the rear end of the periphery of the upper surface of the telephone card l being lifted up. In addition, 48 is a card protrusion prevention piece 1 at the rear of the box body 10.
8, 49 is a notch for preventing interference with the suction cup 28, 50 is an opening for preventing interference with a switch piece 70, which will be described later, and 51 is a notch for preventing interference with a switch 68, which will be described later.

The dimension in the front-rear direction in which the second restriction part 44 projects forward from the rear end of the box body 10 is larger than the dimension in the front-rear direction in which the first restriction part 43 projects backward from the front end of the box body 10. . As a result, the second regulating part 44 can come into contact with the upper surface of the telephone card 1 more inwardly than the first regulating part 43, and when the telephone card 1 is further raised, The contact with the first regulating portion 43 is released first, and the bending of the telephone card 1 is released.

Next, 52 is a separation mechanism that separates the telephone card 1, which has been lifted up until the bending by the regulating body 42 is released, from the suction cup 28 by pulling it out in a direction substantially parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of the telephone card 1. . The separation mechanism 52 is mainly composed of three pull-out rollers 53, 54, 55 and a geared motor 56.

The geared motor 56 is attached to the side wall 4 and is formed by a drive motor 57 and a gear box 58 containing a reduction gear, and an output shaft 59 protrudes from the right side of the gear box 58.

Among the three pull-out rollers 53, 54.55, one 53 is connected to the output shaft 59 of a geared motor 56 and driven to rotate in the direction of arrow B in the figure, and the other two rollers 54.5
5 is rotatably attached to the side wall 4. The driven roller 53 and the other roller 5 in front of it
A belt 60 is wrapped around the rollers 4 and 4, and another roller 55 is brought into contact with the two rollers 53 and 54 from below, and the three rollers 53, 54, and 55 are rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure.

The front end of the telephone card 1, which has been raised by the suction cup 28 and the elevating mechanism 29, is caught between the driven roller 53 and the roller 55 that abuts from below. This is because when the guide roller 34 is guided by the forwardly curved portion of the curved cam groove 35, the first arm 30 swings forward and bites at that time. The telephone card 1, which has been bitten between the rollers 53, 55, is pulled out and separated from the suction cup 28 by the rotation of the rollers 53, 54, 55, and is subjected to a pulling force in a direction substantially parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of the telephone card 1. Ru. Here, when the telephone card 1 is bitten between the rollers 53 and 55, the rear end thereof is kept in contact with the second regulating part 44.

In other words, the contact with the second restricting portion 44 is maintained until the separating mechanism 52 applies the separating action.

Next, reference numeral 61 denotes a dispensing passage for the telephone card 1, which is located in front of the contact position of the rollers 54, 54 rotatably attached to the side wall 4, and has an opening at the front end as a dispensing port 62. The passage 61 has upper and lower surfaces formed by the guide bracket 63 attached to the side wall 4 and the bending plate 9e of the stocker 8.

The guide bracket 63 includes an upper wall 64 that forms the upper surface of the passage 61 and a rear wall 6 that forms the lower end of the entrance 65 of the passage 61.
6'.

A dispensing passage 61 in which the upper surface 9e'' of the bending plate 9e of the stocker 8 is inclined downward toward the dispensing port 62.
It is said to be the lower surface of

Next, 67 is a first limit switch, which is attached to the left side of the switch mounting wall 44d of the second regulating part 44, and its switch piece 68 comes into contact with and separates from the rear surface of the box body 10 when the stocker 8 is taken in and taken out. turned ON and OFF.

A second limit switch 69 is attached to the right side of the limit switch mounting wall 44d of the second regulating part 44, and its switch piece 70 is located on the upper blade of the box body 10, and is raised by the suction cup 28 and the raising mechanism 29. When the telephone card 1 is brought into contact with and separated from the upper surface of the telephone card 1, it is turned ON and OFF.

A third limit switch 71 is attached to a bracket 72 attached to the side wall 4, and its switch piece 73 is located between the aforementioned driven pull-out roller 53 and the pull-out roller 55 that comes into contact with it from below. Both rollers 53
, 55, it is turned ON and OFF by touching and separating the front end of the telephone card 1 stuck between the terminals 55 and 55.

A fourth limit switch 74 is attached to a bracket 75 attached to the side wall 4. A switch actuating piece 76 is attached to the cam 32 of the lifting mechanism 29 so as to rotate together with the cam 32, and the actuating piece 76 is moved to the switch piece 77 of the fourth limit switch 74 by one rotation of the cam 32.
Connect and separate to turn ON and OFF.

A dispensing operation is performed by incorporating the dispensing device 2 having the above configuration into the main body of the vending machine for the telephone card 1. When an input signal is received, the geared motor 33 of the vertical lifting mechanism 29 is first driven, and as the cam 32 rotates, the arms 30 and 31 are lowered, and the suction cup 28 is attracted to the top surface of the telephone card 1 inside the box 10. be done. Next, the telephone card 1 attracted to the suction cup 28 is lifted by the rotation of the cam 32, and the regulating body 42 presses into contact with the front and rear facing edges of the upper surface of the telephone card 1, so that the telephone card 1 is curved in an upwardly convex shape.

At this time, if the lower layer telephone card 1 is electrostatically attracted to the lower surface of the uppermost layer telephone card 1 that is attracted to the suction cup 28, the lower layer telephone card 1 is also curved upwardly. Then, a force acts on the telephone card 1 due to its own elasticity to try to eliminate the curvature. In that case, the uppermost telephone card 1 is attracted to the suction cup 28, so the curvature is not eliminated, but the lower layer telephone card 1 is uncurved as shown by the chain line in FIG. As a result, the telephone card 1 is separated from the top layer telephone card 1 and falls back into the box body 10.

Here, the position of the suction cup 28 where the contour surface of the cam 32 is the circumferential surface 32a and the suction cup 28 does not move up and down for a certain period of time is the position where the telephone card 1 is in a curved state. This ensures the separation of the lower layer telephone card 1 that has been electrostatically attracted.

Note that when the lower layer telephone card 1 is uncurved,
Due to its elastic force, it tends to pop out in the front and back direction, but this is prevented by the pop-out prevention pieces 17 and 18 of the box body 10.

Next, when the telephone card 1 is further raised, the contact between the telephone card 1 and the first regulating part 43 is caused by the second regulating part 44.
The curvature caused by the regulating body 42 is released before the contact with the regulating body 42 is made. After that, the telephone card 1 is separated by the separation mechanism 5.
By driving the geared motor 56 of No. 2, the pulling roller 5
3, Phone card 1 from sucker 28 by 54.55
It is separated in a drawn-out manner in a direction substantially parallel to the upper and lower surfaces. In this case, since the suction cup 28 is attracted to the top surface of the telephone card 1, a large suction force is not applied to the pulling force acting approximately parallel to the top and bottom surfaces of the telephone card 1, and the suction cup 28 and the telephone card Separation from 1 is performed smoothly.

Here, in order to release the curvature of the telephone card 1 by the regulating body 42, the front end of the telephone card 1 comes into contact with the first regulating part 43, and the second regulating part 4
The upper surface of the first restricting part 43 becomes an inclined surface 45 that gradually slopes downward in the direction of the second restricting part, and the suction cup 28 is released from the separating mechanism 52.
The rear end of the telephone card 1 is in contact with the second restricting portion 44 until it is separated from the second restricting portion 44. Therefore, even if the telephone card l is not sufficiently attracted to the suction cup 2B and separates from the suction cup 28 before receiving the separation action from the separation mechanism 52, the first restriction portion It is possible to fall back into the box 10 while being guided by the slope 45 on the upper surface of the box 43. Thereby, the telephone card 1 will not ride on the regulating body 42, and the subsequent payout operation will not be hindered. In addition, the telephone card 1 electrostatically adsorbed to the bottom surface of the telephone card 1 on the top layer.
It is also possible to prevent the body from riding on the regulating body 42 in the same way.

Next, the telephone card 1 separated from the suction cup 28 by the pull-out rollers 53, 54, 55 passes through the dispensing passage 61 and is dispensed from the dispensing opening 62.

Then, when the series of dispensing operations is completed and the cam 32 makes one revolution, the drive of the geared motor 33.56 is stopped by the operation of the fourth limit switch 24, and the machine returns to the standby state. Note that if the box 10 is forgotten to be inserted and the switch piece 68 of the first limit switch 67 does not come into contact with the box 10, the geared motor 33.56 will not be driven and the payout operation will not be performed. Furthermore, if the switch pieces 68 and 73 of the second limit switch 69 or the third limit switch 71 are not brought into contact with the telephone card l due to a suction error, the operation of the fourth limit switch 74 will be ignored even if the cam 32 rotates once. , repeat the above payout operation again.

When the telephone cards 1 are sold out, the stocker 8 can be pulled out laterally to the front and the box 10 can be replenished with telephone cards 1. At this time, since the upper surface 9e1 of the bending plate 9e of the stocker 8 is the lower surface of the dispensing passage 61, the dispensing device 2 can be made compact even if the stocker 8 is taken in and out from the side. That is, the lower surface of the payout passage 61 needs to be inclined downward toward the payout port 62 in order to guide the telephone card 1 to the payout port 62. Therefore, if the dispensing port 62 is separately provided above the stocker 8 so as not to interfere with the lateral movement of the stocker 8, the vertical dimensions of the dispensing device 2 will become large. Moreover, if the dispensing port 62 is provided at the left and right positions of the stocker 8, the left and right dimensions will become large. This can be made compact by making the upper surface 9e' of the stocker 8 the lower surface of the dispensing passage 61 as described above.

In the above embodiments, a telephone card is exemplified as the sheet-like article 1, but it is needless to say that the sheet-like article 1 is not limited to this, and any article that can be elastically deformed may be used. Further, although a suction cup is used as the suction mechanism 28, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a suction device whose internal pressure can be made negative by a vacuum pump may be used. In that case, the separation mechanism 52 can be used as the operation control mechanism for the vacuum pump. And the first regulation part 4
3 and the second regulating portion 44 are formed separately, but they may be formed integrally.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the sheet-like article dispensing device according to the present invention, the first regulating portion of the regulating body that comes into contact with one side of the upper surface facing peripheral edge of the article is larger than the second regulating portion of the regulating body that comes into contact with the other side. The second regulating part is more capable of contacting the upper surface of the article inward than the first regulating part so that the contact is released earlier than the regulating part as the article rises, and the article is brought into the uncurved state. The article and the second regulating section are kept in contact with each other until the article is subjected to a separating action by the separating mechanism, and the upper surface of the first regulating section is formed into an inclined surface that gradually slopes downward in the direction of the second regulating section. Therefore, even if there is a suction error or the like, the article will not ride on the regulating body, and the dispensing operation will not be hindered.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings relate to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a side view of the dispensing device, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same, FIG. 3 is a rear view of the same, and FIG. 4 is a side view of the same article in a curved state. FIG. 5 is a rear view of the first regulating section, FIG. 6 is a front view of the second regulating section, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the box. 1... Chill phone card, 2... Payout device, 8.
...Stocker, 28...Adsorption mechanism, 29...Elevating mechanism, 42...Regulating body, 43...First regulating part, 44
. . . second regulating portion, 45 . . . inclined surface, 52 . . . separating mechanism, 62 .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A stocker 8 for vertically stacking and storing sheet-like articles 1 that can be elastically deformed; a suction mechanism 28 capable of adhering to the upper surface of the sheet-like articles 1; a lifting mechanism 29 that can be raised and lowered between positions, and a regulating body 42 that presses the article 1 lifted up by the suction mechanism 28 and the lifting mechanism 29 against the opposing periphery of the upper surface thereof and curves it in an upwardly convex shape. , the article 1 that has been lifted up until the curvature caused by the regulating body 42 is released is moved to the suction mechanism 28
In a sheet-like article dispensing device 2 that includes a separating mechanism 52 that separates the article 1 from the article 1 and a dispensing port 62 for the article 1 separated by the separating mechanism 52, the regulating body 42 that comes into contact with one of the upper surface facing peripheral edges of the article 1 is provided. The first regulating part 43 of the article 1 is larger than the second regulating part 44 of the regulating body 42 that contacts the other one.
The second regulating part 44 is made more inwardly contactable with the upper surface of the article 1 than the first regulating part 43 so that the rising of the second regulating part 44 releases the contact first and brings the article 1 into the uncurved state. , the contact between the article 1 and the second regulating portion 44 is maintained until the article 1 is subjected to a separating action by the separating mechanism 52, and further,
A sheet-like article dispensing device characterized in that the upper surface of the first regulating part 43 is an inclined surface 45 that gradually slopes downward in the direction of the second regulating part 44.