JPS62221096A - Cup type beverage vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field to which the invention pertains]

The present invention relates to a cup-type beverage vending machine that sells a beverage prepared by adding hot or water to various powdered raw materials such as coffee, cocoa, and black tea in a cup.

[Prior art and its problems]

First of all, Figure 9 shows the conventional general beverage supply system of the cup-type beverage vending machine mentioned above.
, 3 is a cup supply mechanism that accommodates a large number of cups 4, and 5 is a product takeout port equipped with a bending stage 5a. When a sales command is given in such a configuration, first, a couple destined for one is delivered from the cup supply i-structure 3 to the bending stage 5a via the cup holder 2. Next, a predetermined amount of powder raw material from the powder raw material box 1 of the selected type is delivered to the raw material shooter 1.
At the same time, the hot water valve 2a of the hot water tank 2 is opened and hot water is poured into the mixing bowl 6 through the hot water hose 2b, where the powdered raw material and hot water are mixed. Stir to prepare hot beverages. Further, the stirred and blended beverage flows down the drinking water bath 6a from the mixing bowl 6, and is discharged and supplied to the cup 4 which is already waiting to be transferred to the bending stage 5a. Once this beverage supply is completed, the cup containing the beverage can be freely taken out through the product outlet 5. The above description has been about the operation of selling hot beverages, but if a cold beverage is selected, the powdered raw material and a small amount of hot water necessary to dissolve the raw material are supplied into the mixing bowl, and after stirring, Cold water is supplied from an unused cold water tank to prepare a cold drink, and ice is dropped into the cup 4 from an ice maker. By the way, as mentioned above, in the conventional cup-type beverage vending machine for powdered raw materials, the cup 4 is placed on standby for delivery to the bending stage 5a according to the sales command, and the powdered raw material and hot water are placed in the mixing bowl 6 of the raw material stirring mechanism. After supplying or cold water, a beverage is prepared by stirring and mixing, and this beverage is poured from the bend stage 6 into the cup 4 through the beverage hose 6a, and p! A method is adopted in which the products are sold in bulk. However, such cup-type beverage vending machines have the following problems. That is,
During the process of preparing and supplying beverages, residue of the dissolved beverage remains inside the mixing bowl 6 and the subsequent drinking water bath 6a. A hygienic problem arises in that small mouths develop and multiply, which can be mixed into beverages the next time they are sold. Furthermore, powder raw material box 1. Because the raw material chute 1a and the mixing bowl 6 are arranged close to each other, the raw material powder is exposed to the steam generated during hot water supply and may adhere to the outlet of the raw material box 1 or the wall surface of the raw material chute ρ. There is also the problem of contaminating this area. For this reason, in the past, daily maintenance work such as cleaning the mixing bowl and beverage hose, and wiping off the adhering materials from the outlet of the raw material box and raw material chute was performed frequently to maintain hygiene. This work is time-consuming and extremely troublesome, and simplification of this maintenance work is a major challenge for cup-type beverage vending machines. On the other hand, the same applicant has developed a cup-type beverage vending machine that solves the sanitary problems of the conventional cup-type beverage vending machine and improves maintainability by eliminating the associated cleaning work. It has been suggested. (
(Japanese Patent Application No. 60-12903) Next, an outline of this cup-type beverage vending machine will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. The same parts as in Fig. 9 are given the same reference numerals. 7 in Fig. 9 is a cabinet, and there is a product outlet 5 on the front surface Ji7a.
is open, and a drain tray 7b, which also serves as a base for a cup conveyance mechanism to be described later, is installed in the middle of the chamber. In addition, in the upper part of the cabinet 7 there is a powder raw material box 1 containing various raw materials. Hot water tank 2. A cup feeding mechanism 3° and a beverage stirring mechanism indicated by reference numeral 8 are installed in parallel and dispersed manner around the interior of the refrigerator as shown. On the other hand, in the refrigerator, a cup conveying mechanism 9 is installed above the drain tray 7b and circulates in the refrigerator in a horizontal direction via the product outlet 5 described above. This cup conveyance mechanism 9 consists of an endless conveyor belt 9a stretched around a pulley along a predetermined circulating route, a belt drive motor 9b, and a cup holder 9c connected to the bell) 9a, the details of which will be described later. During the sales operation cycle, the cup holder 9c is transported around the circumference of the belt 9a. Further, the raw material stirring mechanism 8 mentioned above is an elevating type agitator, and as described later, when the cup containing the powdered raw material reaches the raw material stirring position, it descends from the raised standby position and is attached to the tip of the stirring motor shaft. A stirring blade is inserted directly into the cup, and the raw materials are stirred in this state. In addition, in the cup conveyance mechanism 9, on the circular movement path of the cup holder 9c, there is a cup shooter 3a of the cup supply mechanism 3 mentioned above, raw material chutes 1a and lb leading to various powder raw material boxes 1, and a hot water supply in the A water tank 2. Each open end of the hose 2b and the product outlet 5 are located side by side in order, and the raw material stirring mechanism 8 described above is provided at the same position as the open end of the hot water supply hose 2b. In the illustrated example, five powder raw material boxes 1 are arranged side by side, and one group contains, for example, coffee. Raw material boxes for tea and cocoa are arranged and raw material shooters 1a are placed opposite each other, and raw material boxes for sugar and milk are arranged in other groups and raw material shooters 1b are arranged facing each other. Here, a point A-E is set on the circulation route of the cup conveyance mechanism 9, which is a stopping position of the cup holder 9c. Among these, point A is the cup unloading position, B, C
are different types of raw material shooters in powder raw material box 1.
The powder raw material delivery position corresponding to a and lb is designated, D is the position where hot water is supplied and raw materials are stirred, E is the cup take-out position to the product take-out port 5, and the cup holder 9c is in the standby position for each sales operation. Starting from point A, it is transported around the inside of the refrigerator in the direction of the arrow, starting from point A and returning again, and at each point A to E during this circular movement, the cup is taken out, raw materials are supplied, hot water is supplied, raw materials are stirred, etc. The product is then transported to the product outlet. That is, in the sales standby state, the cup holder 9c of the cup transport mechanism 9 is in a standby position at point A, and when a sales command is given here, the cup supply mechanism 3 operates to carry out one cup 4 and transfer it to the cup-n-user. 7th through 3a
The cup is transferred to the cup holder 9c waiting at point A in the figure. When the cup holder is transferred, the cup transport mechanism 9 is started and the cup holder 9c is transferred along the circulation path. When the cup 4 moves from point 8 to point B together with the cup holder 9c, the cup conveyance mechanism 9 temporarily stops, and the powder raw material for the selected beverage is directly thrown into the cup from the raw material box l through the cup shooter la. . After this raw material input is completed, the cup conveying mechanism 9 moves again and stops at point C, and further raw materials such as sugar and milk are loaded into the cup 4, and then moves to point D. First, the tit valve 2a of the hot water tank 2 is opened, and the amount of hot water necessary to melt the powdered raw material is injected into the cup 4 through the hot water supply hose 2b. At the same time, the stirring blade of the raw material stirring mechanism 8 descends from the raised standby position and is inserted into the cup 4, and the stirring motor is started here to stir the raw material in the cup and dissolve the powdered raw material in hot water. The motor stops and the stirring blade returns to the raised standby position, and hot water is additionally supplied here to prepare a specified amount of hot beverage in the cup 4. When the beverage is prepared in this way, the cup conveyance mechanism 9 starts moving again, conveys the cup 4 containing the beverage to a point E facing the product outlet 5, and stops at this position. When the customer takes out the cup from the product outlet, it is detected that the cup holder 9c is empty, the cup transport mechanism 9 resumes movement, and the cup holder 9c returns to the original waiting point A and stops. However, at this point, the series of sales cycles ends and the device returns to the sales standby state again. By the way, as mentioned above, the machine is equipped with a cup transport mechanism,
In a cup-type beverage vending machine, which sequentially supplies publications and hot water into the cup carried out during this traveling process, and mixes the beverage by directly stirring powdered raw materials and hot water in the cup, the cup conveyance mechanism When operating 9 in accordance with the cycle of beverage sales operation, each point A mentioned above must be followed.
In addition to the stop positioning control corresponding to -H, the setting of the moving speed of the cup holder 9c has an important meaning.In other words, the moving speed of the cup holder should be as fast as possible in order to shorten the sales time from product selection to product delivery. However, if the moving speed of the cup holder is kept constant and set at a high speed throughout the entire circular movement route, during the moving section after blending the beverage, the cup 4 containing the liquid beverage will suddenly start and stop, causing the inside of the cup to On the other hand, if the moving speed of the cup holder is set to a low speed during the entire cycle, there is no risk of drinks overflowing. There are problems such as a decline in service quality.

[Object of the invention] This invention has been made in view of the above points.
＞Aiming at cup-type beverage vending machines that are equipped with the above-mentioned cup conveyance mechanism so that raw materials are stirred directly within the cup, the operation control of the cup conveyance mechanism is aimed at safely handling drinks-filled cups at low speeds. An object of the present invention is to provide a cup-type beverage vending machine that can improve service to customers by transferring products to a take-out port inside the machine and shortening the overall sales operation time until products are taken out. . SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cup conveying mechanism with an operation control means for its drive motor, and a controller that gives a control command to the operation control means, and a It has a function to control the positioning of each stop of the cup holder along the route, and a function to variable set the cup holder movement speed corresponding to each movement section between the stop position and the next stop position. In the moving section where the cup containing the cup is transferred, the speed is reduced to low speed.
In other moving sections, the operation is controlled by setting high speeds, which allows the cup to be safely transferred to the product outlet without overflowing the prepared beverage, while shortening the overall sales time. This is how it was done.

[Embodiments of the Invention] Fig. 1 is an operation control system diagram of a cup conveyance mechanism according to an embodiment of the invention, Figs. 2 and 3 are time charts of its operation control and flow charts of its operation program, and Figs. 5 and 6 are configuration diagrams of different embodiments of each stop position detection means shown together with the cup conveyance mechanism, and the same members corresponding to FIGS. 7 and 8 are given the same reference numerals. It is. First, in the operation system diagram in Figure 1, cup transport lam9
For the drive motor 9b, an inverter 10. is used as a frequency converter which is an operation control means for the drive motor 9b. and a controller 11 that gives control commands to the inverter 10
The controller 1 constitutes the operation control system.
The output frequency of the inverter 10 is changed according to the motor control signal from the drive motor 9b to control the operation of the drive motor 9b. The controller 11 is mainly composed of a microcomputer, and starts executing a predetermined program command upon receiving a sales signal, and also stops at each stop determined on the route of the cup transport system 9 shown in FIG. position point) A-H
Limit switch group 1 that provides a position detection signal corresponding to
Based on the input signals from 2A to 12III, the controller controls the stop positioning of the cup holder as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and at the same time controls the speed at a preset movement speed for each movement section. 11 is executed step by step. In addition, Fig. 2. In FIG. 3, T1 to T4 are respectively cup supplied. This is the stop time of the cup conveyance mechanism 9 controlled by a timer, which is set in advance for each stop position for carrying out the raw material and supplying hot water/stirring the raw material. Also, each movement section A between the stop position on the circulation route of the cup conveyance mechanism and the next stop position
-B, B-C, CD. Regarding D-E and E-A, in the moving section D→E where the cup containing the prepared beverage is transferred, the moving speed is set to fJIj to prevent the beverage in the cup from overflowing during transfer. In contrast, in other moving sections where empty cups, cups containing only powdered raw materials, or cup holders are transferred without cups, the moving speed is high in order to shorten the sales time. is set to . Furthermore, the arrangement of the limit switches 12A to 12H described above in the machine is shown in FIG. 4, and the cup holder 9C reaches the position corresponding to each stop position point A-H specified on the route of the cup holder 9C. is deployed to detect. In addition, in FIG. 5, the drive motor 9
b is supported by a support stand 9d, and is conductively connected to a drive pulley 9g of a belt 9a via gears 9e and 9f. As described above, the controller 11 controls the stop positioning of the cup transport mechanism 9 and sets the movement speed in each movement section, and the drive motor 9b of the cup transport mechanism is controlled via the inverter 10 according to FIGS. 2 and 3. By controlling the machine in a different operation mode, the cup containing the beverage can be safely transferred to the product outlet at a low speed to prevent the beverage from overflowing from the cup, while at the same time transferring other moving sections at high speed to speed up the cup transfer time. This makes it possible to shorten the overall sales time from the sales order to the delivery of the product, thereby improving customer service. In the above embodiment, cup supply and raw material transport are performed. Stop time T1 to T4 by timer for hot water supply/stirring
In addition to this timer control, for example, ff1ff is set at the bottom of the cup holder 9C.
It is also possible to install an i-sensor to detect the load on the cup holder and to control the stop and restart of the cup transport mechanism 9. Further, by installing the weight sensor, it is possible to detect when a product is taken out from the product outlet from the vending machine. Further, in the above embodiment, a limit switch was used as the stop positioning control means for each side of the cup transport m, but instead of this limit switch, as shown in FIG. A rotary encoder 13 is connected to the rotary encoder 13 via the transmission gear 9h, and the output signal from the encoder 13 is inputted to the controller 11 shown in FIG. It is also possible to calculate and obtain the cup transport mechanism to stop the cup conveyance mechanism at a pre-specified stop position. Furthermore, it is also possible to employ a stepping motor as the rA motor 9b and control the stop positioning of the cup transport mechanism based on commands from the controller 11. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a cup conveying mechanism is provided inside the machine! Targeted at cup-type beverage vending machines that are equipped with la-equipped powder raw materials and hot water to be stirred directly within the cup.
An operation control means for the drive motor of the cup conveyance mechanism;
and a controller that gives control commands to the operation control means, and the controller has the ability to control each stop position of the cup holder on the tour route, and for each movement section between one stop position and the next stop position. By having a variable setting function for the corresponding cup holder movement speed, and by setting the speed to a low speed in the movement section where the cup containing the prepared beverage is transferred, and to the lower speed in other movement sections, it is possible to sell beverages. The cup conveyance mechanism can be set to the proper side in the operation mode that corresponds to each process of operation, and the prepared liquid beverage can be safely transferred from the cup to the product outlet at low speed without overflowing. It is possible to improve service to customers by increasing the cup transfer speed and shortening the sales time from sales command to product delivery.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an operation control system diagram of a cup conveyance mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are an operation time chart and an operation program flowchart of the cup conveyance mechanism according to FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 respectively. 5 is a plan view and a side view showing the upright configuration of the position detection limit switch shown together with the cup conveyance mechanism; FIG. 6 is a layout configuration diagram of an embodiment in which a rotary encoder is used as the position detection means; and FIG. figure. FIG. 8 is a front view and a plan view of a cup-type beverage vending machine equipped with a cup conveyance mechanism to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 9 is a beverage system diagram of a conventional cup-type beverage vending machine. In each figure, l: powder raw material box, la, lb: raw material chute, 2: hot water tank, 2a: hot water supply valve, 2b: hot water supply hose, 3-pinch supply mechanism, 3a: cup chute, 4: cup, 5 :Product outlet, 5a Nihendo stage, 8: Raw material stirring mechanism, 9:
Cup transport m structure, 9a: transport belt, 9bi [dynamic motor, 9c: cup holder, 10: inverter as drive morph operation control means, 11: controller, 12A
-12E: Rimint switch as position detection means, 13: Rotary encoder as position detection means,
A-E: Each stop position of the cup holder set on the circulation route of the cup conveyance mechanism Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 8 Fig. 9

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) A motor-driven cup conveying mechanism for moving cup holders along a circular route in the machine via a product takeout port, and a cup supply distributed throughout the cup holder's circular route. It is equipped with a mechanism, a powder raw material box for various beverages, a hot water tank, etc., and a raw material stirrer that stirs the raw materials in the cup.The cup transport mechanism is driven by a sales command, and the cup is first transported on its circulation route. The cup is carried out from the supply mechanism to the cup holder, and in the subsequent moving process, the selected powder raw materials and hot water are sequentially introduced into the cup, and the raw materials are stirred in the cup using a raw material stirrer to prepare the beverage. A cup-type beverage vending machine in which a cup containing a beverage is transferred to a product outlet for sale, comprising an operation control means for a drive motor of the cup conveyance mechanism, and a controller that gives a control command to the operation control means. , and the controller has a function to control the positioning of each stop of the cup holder on the tour route, and a function to variable set the cup holder moving speed corresponding to each movement section between the stop position and the next stop position, Moreover, the cup-type beverage vending machine is characterized in that the speed is set at low speed during the movement section where the cup containing the prepared beverage is transferred, and at high speed during the other movement sections. 2) The cup type beverage vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the drive motor operation control means is an inverter as a frequency converter interposed in the power supply circuit of the drive motor. Beverage vending machine. 3) In the cup-type beverage vending machine according to claim 1, a position detection limit switch is provided corresponding to each stop position on the circulation path of the cup holder, and the operation signal of the limit switch is transmitted to the position detection limit switch. A cup-type beverage vending machine characterized by controlling the stop positioning of a cup holder as a detection signal. 4) In the cup-type beverage vending machine according to claim 1, a rotary encoder as a position detection means is conductively connected to the drive motor of the cup conveyance mechanism, and the output signal of the rotary encoder is used as a position detection signal to detect the cup. A cup-type beverage vending machine characterized by controlling the stop position of a holder.