CN110741417A

CN110741417A - Goods delivery device of vending machine

Info

Publication number: CN110741417A
Application number: CN201880041078.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 上畑祐吾; 松本昭
Original assignee: Three Retail Refrigerator Co
Current assignee: Three Retail Refrigerator Co; Sanden Retail Systems Corp
Priority date: 2017-06-19
Filing date: 2018-05-15
Publication date: 2020-01-31
Also published as: DE112018003123T5; TWI704532B; JP2019003539A; WO2018235508A1; TW201905859A; KR20200019879A

Abstract

Provided is a commodity carrying-out device of an automatic vending machine, which can detect the sold-out of commodities before carrying-out operation of the commodities, and can sell suspended commodities with 1 or more than 2 commodity holding members in an empty state even if the feeding amount of the commodity holding members is not set. Each hook (22) is mounted on a chain (23) so that the state is different between the time of suspending a commodity and the time of suspending no commodity, and a sold-out detection switch (28) for detecting the state of the hook (22) of the non-suspended commodity is provided before the position of transporting the commodity, so that the sold-out of the commodity can be detected before the operation of transporting the commodity. This makes it possible to support an electronic wallet incapable of refund processing, and also makes it unnecessary to set a feed amount corresponding to a commodity even when 1 or 2 or more commodity holding members are left empty and commodities are hung, which is advantageous in that a sales failure due to erroneous setting does not occur.

Description

Goods delivery device of vending machine

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a product carrying-out device of a vending machine that sells products having various shapes and sizes, such as boxed or bagged snacks.

Background

Conventionally, as this type of vending machine, there is known a commodity carrying device of the vending machine, which includes a plurality of hooks for hanging and holding a commodity, a jointless chain for attaching the hooks at intervals, and front and rear pairs of sprockets around which the chain is wound, and which carries out the commodity by moving the hooks for holding the commodity forward by rotation of the chain and releasing the commodity from the hooks and dropping the commodity by reversing the chain of the sprocket in front (see, for example, patent document 1).

In this commodity carrying-out device, if a commodity hung on a hook rises from the hook at a reverse rotation position of a chain, a lever in contact with the commodity is pushed up to open a micro switch, and if the commodity is separated from the hook and falls, the lever is lowered to close the micro switch, thereby detecting the carrying-out of the commodity and stopping the rotation of the chain.

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2004-70552.

However, , in the conventional example, if money is put in and a product is selected, a carry-out operation is started, and the sold out portion of the product is detected by the detection position of the lever by the hook not holding the product, and the money is returned.

However, there is a problem that such setting work is manually performed, and therefore, there is a case where an erroneous setting occurs, for example, if the feed amount of the hook for 1 commodity is set to be shorter than an appropriate feed amount, a plurality of commodities are carried out in the carrying-out operation times, and if the feed amount of the hook for 1 commodity is set to be longer than an appropriate feed amount, the commodity is judged to be sold despite the fact that commodities exist, although the commodity is sold out.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a product carrying-out device of an automatic vending machine, which can detect a sold-out portion of a product before carrying-out operation of the product, and can sell 1 or 2 or more product holding members at intervals even if a feed amount of the product holding members is not set.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a product carrying-out device for a vending machine, comprising: a plurality of commodity holding members for holding commodities, an endless member for mounting the commodity holding members at intervals, and a drive mechanism for rotating the endless member, wherein each commodity holding member is moved in a predetermined direction by the rotation of the endless member, and the commodities are released from the commodity holding members at a predetermined commodity carrying-out position, thereby carrying out the commodities; in the article carrying-out device of the vending machine, the article holding members are attached to the jointless member so that the state is different between the time of holding the article and the time of not holding the article; immediately before the commodity carrying-out position is reached, a sold-out detection means for detecting a commodity holding member holding a commodity or a commodity holding member not holding a commodity is provided.

Thus, immediately before the commodity carrying-out position is reached, the sold-out detection means detects a commodity holding member holding a commodity or a commodity holding member not holding a commodity, and therefore, the sold-out of a commodity can be detected before the commodity carrying-out operation is performed. At this time, even when the article holding member in a state in which no article is held is detected, the rotation of the jointless member is continued, and when the article holding member in a state in which no article is held is detected and the number of detections reaches a predetermined upper limit number, it is determined that the article is sold out, so that, for example, when 1 or 2 or more article holding members are left empty to hold articles such as when a large-sized article is sold, it is not necessary to set the feed amount depending on the article.

Effects of the invention

According to the present invention, since a sold-out of a product can be detected before the product shipment operation is performed, it is possible to support an electronic wallet in which a refund process cannot be performed, and it is possible to improve convenience for a user who pays using the electronic wallet. Further, in the case where 1 or 2 or more commodity holding members are left empty to hold commodities, there is no need to set the feed amount in accordance with the commodities, and there is an advantage in that a sales failure due to erroneous setting does not occur.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a front view of an automatic vending machine including an article storage column according to embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a side cross-sectional view of the vending machine.

Fig. 3 is a right side view of a key part of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 4 is a left side view of key parts of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 5 is a right side view of the hook and chain.

Fig. 6 is a front sectional view of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the hanger.

Fig. 8 is a side view of the feed amount detecting switch.

Fig. 9 is a block diagram showing a control system.

Fig. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit.

Fig. 11 is a right side view showing a key part of the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 12 is a left side view of a key part showing the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 13 is a right side view showing a key part of the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 14 is a right side view showing a key part of the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 15 is a right side view showing a key part of the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 16 is a right side view showing a key part of the operation of the commodity carrying-out device.

Fig. 17 is a right side view showing a key part of a modification of the hook.

Detailed Description

Fig. 1 to 16 show embodiments of the present invention, and show a product carrying-out device of a vending machine that sells products having various shapes and sizes, such as boxed or bagged snacks.

The vending machine is provided with a vending machine body 10 having a transparent front face , a plurality of commodity carrying-out devices 20 arranged above the vending machine body 10, commodity buckets 30 for accommodating commodities carried out of the commodity carrying-out devices 20, a bucket moving mechanism 40 for moving the commodity buckets 30 in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, and a control unit 50 for controlling the operation of the commodity carrying-out devices 20.

The vending machine body 10 has a front opening opened by an outer 11, a transparent glass window 11a is provided in a portion of the outer 11 except for a front lower portion and side portions so that the inside of the vending machine body 10 can be visually observed from the outside through the glass window 11a, a banknote insertion slot 12, a coin insertion slot 13, an amount display portion 14, a coin return slot 15, a product selection operation portion 16, a card reader/writer 17, and a product take-out slot 18 are provided in the front of the vending machine body 10, a product storage box 19 is provided in the vending machine body 10, and each product dispensing device 20 is disposed in the product storage box 19.

The commodity carrying-out device 20 is configured to carry out a bag-shaped commodity A containing food such as snack food, for example, and a plurality of commodity A are provided in the vertical direction and the width direction in the commodity storage container 19. the commodity carrying-out device 20 includes a device main body 21 extending in the front-rear direction, a hook 22 as a plurality of commodity holding members for suspending and holding the commodity A below the device main body 21, a chain 23 as an endless member for attaching the hooks 22 at intervals, a pair of sprockets 24 for winding in front and rear of the chain 23, a motor 25 as a driving mechanism for rotating the sprocket 23, a feed amount detecting switch 26 for detecting the feed amount of the chain 23, a carry-out detecting switch 27 for detecting the carry-out of the commodity A, and a sell-out detecting switch 28 for detecting the sell-out of the commodity A.

The device main body 21 has pairs of side plates 21a facing each other with a space in the width direction, and a chain 23 to which each hook 22 is attached, each sprocket 24, a motor 25, and a sold-out detection switch 28 are arranged between the side plates 21a, and the lower end between the side plates 21a is open, and the lower end side of the hook 22 below the opening is positioned outside.

The hook 22 is composed of a mounting portion 22a mounted on the chain 23, and a hook-shaped hanging portion 22b formed below the mounting portion 22a, and the hanging portion 22b is formed to be narrower in width than the mounting portion 22 a. The mounting portion 22a is provided with a 1 st engagement hole 22c and a 2 nd engagement hole 22d spaced apart from each other in the front-rear direction for mounting to the chain 23.

The chain 23 is composed of a plurality of links 23a and a plurality of connecting pins 23b which rotatably connect the links 23a to each other, and end sides of the connecting pins 23b are formed to extend by a predetermined length outside in the width direction of the links 23 a. on end sides of the partial connecting pins 23b, the 1 st engaging hole 22c and the 2 nd engaging hole 22d of the hook 22 are engaged, thereby rotatably mounting the hook 22 on the chain 23. in this case, the 1 st engaging hole 22c is formed in a circular hole shape having an inner diameter equal to that of the connecting pin 23b so as to rotatably engage with the connecting pin 23b, and the 2 nd engaging hole 22d is formed in an elongated hole shape which enables the other connecting pin 23b to move in the radial direction. that the hook 22 is rotatably mounted on the chain 23 with the connecting pin 23b engaged with the 1 st engaging hole 22c as a center, and the connecting pin 23b engaged with the 2 nd engaging hole 22d is rotatably mounted on the end side of the chain 3982 or another end side, thereby restricting the rotation of the connecting pin 23b engaged with the end side 22d, and the hook 22b is suspended in a state where the hook 22 is suspended by the rotating spring 22e, and the hook 22 is suspended in a, and the state where the hook 22a is not rotating in which the state where the hook 22a is pressed by the spring mounting portion 22e, and the spring 22a is pressed upward, and the hook 22b is pressed by the spring 22e, thereby restricting rotation, and the hook 22 b.

Each sprocket 24 has 6 tooth portions 24a provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the sprocket 24, and is rotatably attached to the front end side and the rear end side of the apparatus main body 21 via support shafts 24b, and each sprocket 24 rotates together with the chain 23 by meshing the tooth portions 24a with each other between the coupling pins 23b of the chain 23.

The motor 25 is coupled to the rear sprocket 24 (the position of the motor 25 is not shown), and the chain 23 is driven by rotating the rear sprocket 24.

The feed amount detection switch 26 is composed of a well-known microswitch arranged on the side of sprockets 24 at the front and rear, and is turned on/off by moving a rod 26b pressing a contact portion 26a of the switch up and down via a cam disk 26c rotating coaxially with the sprocket 24. the cam disk 26c has 2 cam projections 26d provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the cam disk 26c, and if the cam disk 26c rotates with the sprocket 24 , as shown in fig. 8(a), the cam projection 26d pushes down the rod 26b to press the contact portion 26a, and the feed amount detection switch 26 is turned on, and further, as shown in fig. 8(b), if the cam projection 26d is disengaged from the rod 26b, the rod 26b returns to the original position to release the contact portion 26a, and the feed amount detection switch 26 becomes off, in this embodiment, the hook 22 is arranged with 3 link pins 23b of the chain 23 interposed, and therefore, the interval of the cam projections 26d reaches 3 teeth 24a (3 link pins 24 a), and the feed amount detection switch 22 corresponds to 1 feed amount of the sprocket 22.

The carry-out detection switch 27 is composed of well-known microswitches arranged on side surfaces of the apparatus main body 21, and is turned on/off by moving the lever 27b of the contact portion 27a of the push switch up and down by the commodity a held on the hook 22, that is, if the hook 22 holding the commodity a is raised at the reverse rotation position of the chain 23, the lever 27b is pushed up by the commodity a to push the contact portion 27a, the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned on, and if the commodity a is detached from the hook 22 and dropped, the lever 27b is lowered to release the push of the contact portion 27a, and the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned off.

The sold-out detection switch 28 is composed of a known micro switch disposed in the device main body 21, and the hook 22 in a state of suspending the commodity a passes through without contacting the contact portion 28a of the switch, and the hook 22 in a state of not suspending the commodity a contacts the contact portion 28a, and the contact portion 28a is pressed by the hook 22, so that the sold-out detection switch 28 is opened.

The commodity bucket 30 is disposed in a space between the rear surface side of the outer member 11 and each commodity carrying-out device 20, and is moved in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction by the bucket moving mechanism 40.

The bucket moving mechanism 40 is composed of a 1 st driving unit 41 for moving the commodity bucket 30 in the left-right direction, and a pair of 2 nd driving units 42 of left and right for moving the 1 st driving unit 41 in the up-down direction, and the 2 nd driving units 42 are respectively disposed on both sides in the width direction in the vending machine main body 10. the 1 st driving unit 41 supports the commodity bucket 30 movably by a not-shown guide rail extending in the left-right direction, and moves the commodity bucket 30 in the left-right direction along the guide rail by a not-shown motor.A. the 2 nd driving unit 42 supports the 1 st driving unit 41 movably by a guide rail 42a extending in the up-down direction, and moves the commodity bucket 30 in the up-down direction along the guide rail 42a by a not-shown motor.

The control unit 50 is constituted by a microcomputer, and is connected to the product selection operation unit 16, the feed amount detection switch 26, the carry-out detection switch 27, and the sold-out detection switch 28. The control part 50 stores the upper limit number N1 of the number of times of detecting the hook feed amount of the sold commodity. In this case, the upper limit number of times N1 may be set to, for example, the number of all hooks 22 attached to 1 chain 23, or may be set to a predetermined number of times (for example, 6 times) smaller than the number of all hooks 22.

In the vending machine configured as described above, if money is inserted and any product is selected by the product selection operation unit 16, the product bucket 30 is moved by the bucket moving mechanism 40 to the product carry-out device 20 corresponding to the selected product, and the product a is carried out from the product carry-out device 20 and stored in the product bucket 30. Subsequently, the commodity bucket 30 containing the commodity a is moved to the commodity carrying-out port 18 by the bucket moving mechanism 40, and the commodity a in the commodity bucket 30 is carried out to the commodity take-out port 18.

In the commodity carrying-out device 20, the hook 22 holding the commodity a is moved forward by the rotation of the chain 23, and the commodity a is separated from the hook 22 and dropped by the reverse rotation of the chain 23 by the forward sprocket 24, thereby carrying out the commodity a.

Here, the operation of the control unit 50 when the commodity is carried out by the commodity carrying out device 20 will be described with reference to the flowchart of fig. 10. Here, the case where 1 article a is hung on each hook 22 is shown.

First, if a product is selected by the product selection operation unit 16 (S1), it is determined whether the selected product is sold out (S2), and if it is sold out, the process returns to step S1. When it is determined at step S2 that the product is not sold out, the motor 25 is rotated (S3) to rotate the chain 23. Here, before the feed amount detection switch 26 is turned on/off, that is, before the feed amount of 1 amount of the hook 22 is detected (S4), as shown in fig. 11, the hook 22 holding the article a is raised at the reverse rotation position of the chain 23, and after the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned on by pushing up the lever 27b by the article a as shown in fig. 12 (S5), as shown in fig. 13, the article a is detached from the hook 22 and dropped, and the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned off (S6), the number of times N of detection of the hook feed amount is set to an initial value "0" (S7). Here, if the feed amount of 1 amount of the hook 22 is detected (S8) and the sold-out detection switch 28 is not opened (S9), the motor 25 is stopped (S10), and the process returns to step S1 to assume the sales standby state.

Further, in step S5, before the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned on, when the feed amount of 1 quantity of the hook 22 is detected in step S4, it is assumed that a carry-out abnormality such as the product a not being hung on the hook 22 occurs, and the motor 25 is stopped (S11), and an error state of the carry-out abnormality is assumed (S12). in step S , in step S5, after the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned on, in step S6, before the carry-out detection switch 27 is turned off, when the feed amount of 1 quantity of the hook 22 is detected in step S4, it is assumed that a carry-out abnormality such as the product a being hung and not falling down occurs, and the motor 25 is stopped (S11), and an error state of the carry-out abnormality is assumed (S12).

When the feed amount of 1 hook feed amount of the hook 22 is detected in step S8, as shown in fig. 14, the product a is not present in the lower hook 22, and when the sold-out detection switch 28 is opened in step S9, the number of times N of detection of the hook feed amount is increased by "1" (S13), and if the number of times N of detection does not reach the upper limit number of times N1(S14), the rotation of the motor 25 is continued as it is, and the process returns to step S8, and thereafter, the operations of steps S8, S9, S13, and S14 are repeated, and in step S9, the sold-out detection switch 28 is determined to be opened each time, and in step S14, when the number of times N of detection of the hook feed amount reaches the upper limit number of times N1, the motor 25 is stopped (S15), and the determination is made as sold-out (S16).

In addition, as shown in fig. 15, when 1 hanger 22 is left empty for a product B having a large depth and suspended at an interval corresponding to the size of the product B, as shown in fig. 16, the contact part 28a of the sold-out detection switch 28 is pressed by the hanger 22 from which the product B is not suspended, and in step S9, when the sold-out detection switch 28 is opened, the number of times N of detection of the amount of hanger feed is increased by "1" (S13), and if the number of times N of detection is not reached to the upper limit number of times N1(S14), the rotation of the motor 25 is directly continued and the process returns to step S8, and if the product B is suspended by the lower hanger 22, the sold-out detection switch 28 is not opened in step S9, and it is not determined to be sold-out, the motor 25 is stopped (S10), and the process returns to step S1 to reach a sales standby state.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, each hook 22 is attached to the chain 23 so that the state is different between when a product is suspended and when a product is not suspended, and since the sold-out detection switch 28 for detecting the state of the hook 22 in which a product is not suspended is provided immediately before the position where a product is to be shipped, it is possible to detect that a product is sold out before the product shipment operation is performed. Thus, even if a product is selected by the product selection operation unit 16, and a product is desired to be purchased from the card reader 17 by the electronic wallet, when the product is sold out, the payment processing of the electronic wallet is not performed, and therefore, it is possible to support the electronic wallet which cannot perform the refund processing, and it is possible to improve the convenience of the user who pays by using the electronic wallet.

Further, even when the hook 22 in the state where no commodity is hung is detected, the rotation of the chain 23 is continued, and when the hook 22 in the state where no commodity is hung is not detected and the number of detection times reaches a predetermined upper limit number, it is determined that the product is sold out, so that when 1 or 2 or more hooks 22 are left empty and the commodity B is hung, for example, when a large-sized commodity B is sold, there is no need to set the feed amount in accordance with the commodity, and there is an advantage in that a sales failure due to erroneous setting does not occur.

Further , since each hook 22 is rotatably attached to the chain 23 so that the rotational position is different between the suspended commodity state and the non-suspended commodity state, the sold-out detection can be easily performed by the rotational state of the hook 22.

In this case, since the hook 22 is biased by the spring 22e in the predetermined rotational direction, the hook 22 is rotated to the position where the commodity is not hung, and therefore, the hook 22 can be reliably rotated to the position where the commodity is not hung.

Further, since the hook 22 is rotatably supported by the connecting pin 23b of the chain 23, it is not necessary to separately provide a member for rotatably supporting the hook 22, and the structure can be simplified.

In the above embodiment, the case where the hook 22 is biased by the spring 22e in the predetermined rotational direction is shown, but as shown in a modification of fig. 17, for example, as shown by a one-dot chain line in the figure, the hook 22 may be formed such that the portion of the hook 22 is expanded and the position of the center of gravity G is closer to the opposite side of the connecting pin 23b on the other side than the connecting pin 23b on the side which is the rotational center, and the hook 22 is rotated to the position where the commodity is not hung by the self weight of the hook 22.

In the above embodiment, the case where the hook 22 in the state of the unweighted commodity is detected by the sold-out detection switch 28 is described, but a hook in the state of the suspended commodity may be detected.

Further , although the hook 22 is rotatably attached to the chain 23 in the above embodiment, it may be attached to move up and down freely.

In the above embodiment, the case where the commodity A, B is hung and held by the hook 22 as the commodity holding member is described, but the present invention can also be applied to the case where: for example, a chain is provided so as to extend in the vertical direction, and the commodity is held by a plate-like commodity holding member attached to the chain, and the commodity is released from the commodity holding member by reversing the commodity holding member at the lower end of the chain (a so-called commodity storage column of a chain elevator system).

Description of the reference numerals

20 … commodity carrying-out device, 22 … hook, 22e … spring, 23 … chain, 24 … chain wheel, 25 … motor, 26 … feed quantity detecting switch, 27 … carrying-out detecting switch, 28 … sold-out detecting switch and A, B … commodity.

Claims

A commodity carrying-out device of an automatic vending machine of any one of types 1 to , the device including a plurality of commodity holding members for holding commodities, an endless member for mounting the commodity holding members at intervals, and a drive mechanism for rotating the endless member, wherein the commodities are carried out by moving the commodity holding members in a predetermined direction by the rotation of the endless member and releasing the commodities from the commodity holding members at predetermined commodity carrying-out positions,

mounting each of the commodity holding members on the jointless member so that the state is different between the state when the commodity is held and the state when the commodity is not held;

a sold-out detection means for detecting a commodity holding member holding a commodity or a commodity holding member not holding a commodity is provided immediately before the commodity carrying-out position.
2. The commodity carry-out apparatus of the vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the rotation of the jointless member is continued even when the sold-out detecting means detects a commodity holding member in a state of holding a commodity or a commodity holding member in a state of not holding a commodity, and when the number of detections by the sold-out detecting means reaches a predetermined upper limit number, it is determined that the commodity is sold out.
3. The commodity carry-out device of the vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the sold-out detection means is constituted by a switch which is in contact with a commodity holding member holding a commodity or a commodity holding member not holding a commodity.
4. The product carry-out apparatus of an automatic vending machine according to claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein each of the product holding members is rotatably attached to the endless member so that a rotation position is different between a state in which the product is held and a state in which the product is not held.
5. The product carry-out apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each of the product holding members is configured to be biased by a spring in a predetermined rotational direction to rotate to a position where the product is held or a position where the product is not held.
6. The article carrying-out device of an automatic vending machine according to claim 3, wherein each of the article holding members is configured to be rotated by its own weight to a position where the article is held or a position where the article is not held.
7. The article carry-out apparatus of an automatic vending machine according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, wherein the endless member is formed of a chain,

each commodity holding member is rotatably supported by a connecting pin connecting links of the chain to each other.
8. The product carry-out apparatus of an automatic vending machine according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, wherein each of the product holding members is formed to hold a product in a suspended manner.