KR0163685B1 - Variable price setting method of automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of selling a product in a vending machine, and more specifically, to sell a product corresponding to an amount selected by a user instead of a predetermined fixed price in a vending machine that can adjust the sales amount of the product. The present invention relates to a variable price setting method of a vending machine.

A variable price setting method of a vending machine of the present invention is a first step of setting a minimum selling amount (L) and the highest selling amount (H) of a product to be sold in a vending machine including a sales driving unit capable of adjusting a selling amount of a product. A second step of dividing the minimum selling amount (L) and the highest selling amount (H) into a plurality of selling prices (D), and setting a product sales amount corresponding to each selling price (D) divided in the second step. And the third step of storing in the main control unit, and the fourth step of selling the amount of goods corresponding to the selling price (D) corresponding to the amount selected by the buyer.

Description

How to set variable prices for vending machines

1 is a partial block circuit diagram of a vending machine conventionally used.

Figure 2 is a side view of a cup showing a variable product loading state according to the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating the vending machine selling operation according to the present invention.

4 is a side cross-sectional view of a raw material storage tank used in a conventional coffee vending machine.

5 is a front view of a selection button unit showing an embodiment of a price selection button according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

11: coin mechanism 12: bill identifier

13: main control part 14: selection button part

15: display unit 16: sales driving unit

20: paper cup 21: raw material storage tank

22: material discharging gear 23: mixed impeller

24: raw material 25: rotating shaft

141,142,143: amount selection button 144: product selection button

The present invention relates to a method of selling a product in a vending machine, and more specifically, to sell a product corresponding to an amount selected by a user instead of a predetermined fixed price in a vending machine that can adjust the sales amount of the product. The present invention relates to a variable price setting method of a vending machine.

Vending machines can be placed in a variety of places without the need for personnel to sell and are increasingly being used because of the convenience of selling goods at any time when the product is recharged. Such a conventional vending machine has a slight difference depending on the type of goods to be loaded, but usually sells one or two or three kinds of selling price of the goods. For example, coffee vending machines usually sell three to four types of coffee (milk coffee, cream coffee, black coffee) and two types of coffee (general coffee and high-quality coffee) for each coffee (120 won and 150 won, Or 150 won and 200 won).

However, since most vending machines sell goods only at a fixed amount and a fixed price as described above, for example, you want to buy a coffee set at 150 won, When money is short, or when trying to purchase a larger amount of goods than a fixed amount of coffee, there is a problem that does not satisfy the desire of the place of purchase. This applies equally not only to the above coffee vending machines but also to vending machines such as popcorn vending machines which can adjust the sales volume of goods (except that the amount of goods can not be adjusted, such as can vending machines).

The present invention has been made in order to solve the buyer's complaint as described above, the object of the present invention is an automatic machine that can sell the amount of the product corresponding to the amount desired by the buyer in a vending machine that can arbitrarily adjust the sales of the product It is to provide a variable price setting method of the vending machine.

The variable price setting method of the automatic vending machine of the present invention for achieving the above object, in the own vending machine comprising a sales drive unit that can adjust the sales amount of the product, the lowest selling amount (L) and the highest selling amount (H) of the products sold The first step of setting a, the second step of subdividing the lowest selling amount (L) and the highest selling amount (H) into a plurality of selling prices (D), corresponding to each selling price (D) subdivided in the second step It is characterized in that it comprises a third step of setting the product sales amount to be stored in the main control unit, and the fourth step of selling the product amount corresponding to the selling price (D) corresponding to the amount selected by the buyer.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, a partial block circuit diagram of a conventional vending machine in which the method of the present invention is performed will be described with reference to FIG. Typically, the vending machine includes a coin mechanism 11 for inserting coins by the buyer or a bill identifier 12 for inserting 1000 won bills. When the buyer inputs coins or banknotes, the main control unit 13 determines whether the input amount is a sellable amount and indicates that the purchaser is waiting for sale. In the stand-by sale state, the buyer selects the product by pressing the corresponding button of the selection button unit 14. When the product to be sold is pressed, the main control unit 13 controls the sales driving unit 16 to discharge the product. An exemplary operating state of the sales driver will be described with reference to FIG.

4 is a side cross-sectional view showing the structure of a raw material storage tank 21 for storing and dispensing coffee, cream or sugar as raw materials in a conventional coffee vending machine. As shown in the drawing, a raw material discharging gear 22 is installed at the lower side of the raw material storage tank 21, and the mixed impeller 23 connected to the rotating shaft 25 of the motor is used to prevent the raw material 24 from sticking. Is installed. When the buyer selects the product, the sales driving unit (16 in FIG. 1) rotates the raw material discharging gear 22. Accordingly, the raw material 24 is discharged in the direction of arrow A through the discharge port located in front of the raw material discharging gear 22. At this time, the amount of the raw material 24 to be discharged is adjusted by a drive motor (not shown) for rotating the raw material discharging gear 24. That is, the predetermined amount of discharge is determined by operating the drive motor for a predetermined time.

Then, the process of setting the minimum sales volume (L) and the highest sales volume (H) will be described with reference to FIG. 2 is a side view of a disposable paper cup used in a conventional coffee vending machine. In general, a coffee vending machine dispenses a certain amount of water, coffee ingredients, prim, and sugar into the paper cup 20. In the method of the present invention, as shown by the dotted line C on the paper cup 20, the lowest selling state is set as the lowest selling amount (L) and the position indicated by the dotted line A as the highest selling amount (H). The highest sales volume (H) should, of course, be determined within the storage limits of the container. The highest selling amount (H) and the lowest selling amount (L) may, of course, be changed depending on the size of the paper cups sold or the size of the popcorn cups in the case of popcorn.

After setting the minimum selling quantity L and the highest selling quantity H as mentioned above, it can divide into the selling price D as much as needed between them. For example, if the selling price for the lowest selling amount (L) is 100 won and the selling price for the highest selling amount (H) is 200 won, the selling price (D) is set to 10 won and then 100, 110, 120 won. You can set 11 steps, such as,,, 180, 190, 200 won.

The product input amount is set for the selling price (D) of each set as described above. This setting method is as follows. For example, a cream coffee may have 60cc of water, 5g of coffee, 5g of cream, and 5g of sugar for the lowest selling volume (L), 110cc of water, 10g of coffee for the highest selling volume (H), If the cream is 10g and the sugar is 7.5g, the sales driving unit for subdividing the minimum selling amount (L) of water (L) and the highest selling amount (H) of 1100cc into 11 stages and inputting the amount of each subdivided product (16) ), For example, the rotation time of the material discharging gear 22 of FIG. The rotation time data of the raw material discharging gear 22 is stored in the memory unit built in the main control unit 13. In the coffee vending machine, since a plurality of raw materials are mixed, such as coffee, cream, sugar, etc., the sales driving unit controls all the raw material storage tanks 21 to discharge each raw material, and also controls the amount of water discharged.

Table 1 shows an example of the product discharge amount for the selling price as described above.

In the present invention, the operating time of the drive motor for rotating the raw material discharging gear 22 can be achieved by subdividing more conventionally, and can be applied to not only the coffee vending machine but also a vending machine such as popcorn vending machine. . Of course, the popcorn vending machine does not need to dispense various raw materials as in the coffee vending machine, so only the amount of popcorn to be sold is determined, and an example of this is shown in Table 2.

The coffee selling operation and popcorn selling operation by the selling amount control data set as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3.

When the purchaser inputs money into the coin mechanism 11 or the bill identifier 12 of the vending machine, the main control unit 13 detects whether the input amount is the minimum selling amount, in this example, 100 won or more. When the input amount is more than the minimum selling amount, the main control unit 13 displays a lamp located at the rear of the amount selection buttons 141, 142, 143 and the product selection button 144 of FIG. 5 to display the sale status (possible or impossible) of the product. Turn on. When the amount of money entered exceeds the maximum sale amount, the amount more than the amount selected by the buyer as in the conventional method is discharged as change after the product is sold.

In this way, a lamp is displayed on the back of the price selection and product selection buttons 141, 142, 143 and 144, and the buyer selects a desired product and price by pressing a button. For example, if the buyer inputs 100 won, selects coffee and presses the sale amount 100 won, the main control unit 13 recognizes this. When the selection amount and the product are input, the main control unit 13 reads out the corresponding control data set along the amount of money from the memory unit built in the main control unit 13. That is, referring to Table 1, the sales control data corresponding to 100 won is 60cc of water, coffee, cream and sugar 5g respectively. The main control unit 13 rotates the drive motor of the sales driving unit 16 to discharge the raw material corresponding to the read control data. In this case, the desired amount of raw material may be discharged by adjusting the operating time of the driving motor connected to each raw material storage tank 20 and the amount of hot water stored in the water storage tank (not shown). When the driving motor operates, the discharged raw material is discharged and discharged into the paper cup as shown in FIG. At this time, the discharge amount is the level corresponding to 100 won, the level indicated by the dotted line C. If the purchase price selected by the buyer is 200 won, the sales control data corresponding to 200 won is 110cc of water, 10g of coffee, 10g of cream, and 7.5g of sugar. The finally sold amount is the water level indicated by the dotted line A on the paper cup 20. Although only the amount selection buttons 141, 142 and 143 of 100, 150, and 200 won are displayed on the selection button portion of FIG. 5, the selection button can be extended to be allocated to all the amounts set in Table 1. In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the selection amount can be further subdivided or extended.

As another embodiment of the present invention, a case of a popcorn vending machine will be described.

When the amount of money is input through the coin mechanism 11 or the bill identifier 12 by the buyer, the main control unit 13 checks whether the amount of money input is more than the minimum selling amount. The bill identifier 12 is used so that most buyers can use bills because the sales amount of the popcorn is larger than that of the coffee vending machine. In this case, it is more preferable to install the banknote identifier 12 and the coin mechanism 11 together since the purchaser's selection can be expanded.

When the purchaser selects the amount of money by the selection button, the main control unit 13 projects the driving motor or the discharge amount control means to discharge the selected sales amount, and then discharges the predetermined amount. For example, if the purchase price (D) selected by the buyer is 700 won, the main control unit 13 controls 70g of popcorn sold for 700 won, as shown in Table 2. The sales mechanism of this popcorn vending machine can be easily implemented because it is simpler than the coffee vending machine.

In the sale of the vending machine as described above, the merchandise of the vending machine can be purchased as much as necessary depending on the circumstances of the buyer's pocket or the possession of the coin, rather than being sold at a fixed amount. Inducement has the advantage of promoting sales.

Although the invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention, and such variations or modifications will belong to the appended claims. .

Claims (2)

Claims [1] A price setting method of a vending machine including a sales driving unit capable of adjusting a sales amount of a product, the method comprising: a first step of setting a minimum selling amount (L) and a highest selling amount (H) of a sold product; Subdividing the minimum selling amount (L) and the highest selling amount (H) into a plurality of selling prices (D); A third step of setting a product sales amount corresponding to each sale price (D) subdivided in the second step and storing it in the main control unit; And a fourth step of selling the quantity of the product corresponding to the selling price (D) corresponding to the amount selected by the buyer. The variable price setting method of the vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the selling amount set in the first step is varied by the volume of the container.