JPH0263028B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a ball alignment structure of a pachinko ball flow gutter that aligns pachinko balls flowing down one after the other in a row.

<Prior Art> A conventional pachinko ball flow gutter that aligns pachinko balls vertically and horizontally on the way down, simply has a gently downwardly sloping channel whose width is gradually narrowed from the upstream side to the downstream side.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, in the conventional pachinko ball flow gutter described above, the length and inclination angle of the flow path greatly affect the alignment effect, and making the flow path short and at a steep angle does not ensure reliable flow. No alignment effect could be expected, and in particular, it was difficult to reliably level the vertically stacked balls. For this reason, conventional ball flow downspout becomes long and long. There were many restrictions on the mounting direction, mounting position, etc.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The present invention has been proposed in view of the above, and has a bottom portion inclined in the length direction and left and right side wall portions standing up from the side edges of the bottom portion. In a ball flow down gutter in which the width and the spacing between the left and right side walls are gradually narrowed from the upstream side to the downstream side, the spacing between the left and right side walls is set slightly larger than the diameter of the balls to align the balls in a line. A protrusion protruding toward the other side wall is formed on one side wall within a height of one ball from the bottom surface, and a protrusion is formed on the other side wall opposite to the protrusion. The spacing between the balls is slightly larger than the diameter of the balls to form a depression that allows the balls to flow down in a line.

<Function> When the aligned parts are stacked one above the other and the balls flow down, the lower ball hits the protrusion formed within the height of one ball from the bottom and changes the direction of flow to the depression side. . On the other hand, the balls in the upper row flow down without being affected by the protrusion. Therefore, the positional relationship between the lower ball and the upper ball is shifted left and right with respect to the flow direction. When the lower ball changes its direction of flow toward the recess and travels further than the upper ball, the distance between the balls flowing down the lower step is slightly expanded. Therefore, the upper ball is likely to fall into the interval between the lower balls, and the upper ball falls into the interval between the lower balls. This ensures that the balls flow down in one step.

<Example> Hereinafter, an example will be described in which the present invention is applied to a ball supply chute that supplies balls to each Pachinko machine from a ball supply gutter provided above a row of Pachinko machines.

As shown in FIG. 1, a row of pachinko machines 3 is constructed by arranging a plurality of pachinko machines 1 in parallel and installing ball lending machines 2 as appropriate between the pachinko machines 1, 1.
A supply gutter 4 for pachinko balls is placed above the row of pachinko machines 3.
A ball flow lower gutter according to the present invention is connected to the supply gutter 4 as a ball replenishment chute 5 for each pachinko machine and ball rental machine 2.

The ball replenishing chute 5 supplies pachinko balls in the replenishment gutter 4 to the pachinko machine 1 and the ball rental machine 2 while arranging them in a line. A flow path 6 facing below the ball drop opening 4' of the replenishment gutter 4, which slopes gently downward, is meandered in a gentle arc shape, and the width of the flow path 6 is gradually narrowed toward the downstream side. In order to make the width of the flow path 6 gradually narrower in the downward direction, the bottom part 7 is
The width of the ball is gradually narrowed to make the width of the lower end of the slope slightly larger than the diameter of the ball, and the inner surface 8a of one side wall is made almost vertical from the upstream side to the downstream side so that the ball can easily line up in a line on the way down. The other side wall inner surface 8b is formed to gradually rise from a gentle slope on the upstream side and become substantially vertical on the downstream side. Therefore,
The ball supply chute 5 has left and right side wall surfaces 8a, 8b during which a large number of balls that have fallen from the ball drop opening 4' of the supply gutter 4 to the inclined end flow down due to the slope of the bottom section 7.
This makes it possible to flow into the ball leveling section 9 which is aligned and integrally connected to the lower end of the slope. In this way, even if the balls are lined up on the left and right sides by the left and right side wall surfaces 8a and 8b, as shown in FIG.
In this case, the vertically overlapping balls are arranged in one layer by the ball alignment structure unique to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 8, the spherical leveling portion 9 includes a downward L-shaped frame 9a that has a substantially U-shaped cross section and is bent downward from the middle of its length, and one part of the frame 9a. It is composed of a side plate 9b that closes the side opening part, and has a downward L-shaped flow path 10 that is composed of a frame body 9a and a side plate 9b. The inlet 11 of the flow path 10 has a height slightly higher than twice the diameter of the sphere, and a width approximately equal to the diameter of the sphere. Further, an upper edge portion 12 extending obliquely upward is provided on the upper edge of the inlet 11, and the upper edge portion 12
The inclined lower end of the frame body 9a is continuous with the ceiling surface of the frame body 9a, and the height from the bottom part 13 gradually decreases from the inlet 11 and curves, and the downwardly opening outlet 17 has a width slightly wider than the spherical diameter. It's summery. Therefore, the normal state in which the balls flow down one above the other, that is, the state in which the balls are placed above the contact points of the lower row where they touch each other (the upper ball is placed in the valley formed by the contact of the lower balls) When the balls in the upper stage flow down to the leveling part 9, the balls in the upper stage are subjected to the descending action of gravity and are also subjected to a pressing force as they flow down due to the curve of the ceiling surface of the frame body 9a, so that the balls in the upper stage are easily moved. The balls fit between the balls on the lower row to form a single row. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, even if the balls flow into the ball leveling section 9 with the centers of the upper and lower balls overlapping on the vertical line, the ball alignment structure ensures that the balls are aligned in one row.

The ball alignment structure has a protrusion 14 formed on the inner surface of one side wall constituting the left and right walls of the channel 10, and a recess 15 formed on the inner surface of the other side wall opposite to the protrusion 14, as shown in the drawings. In the embodiment, the protrusion 1 is provided on the side plate 9b.
4 is provided, and a recessed portion 15 of the frame body 9a is formed.

The protruding portion 14 bends the flow direction of the lower ball rolling on the lower surface portion 13 and changes the flow speed by bending to forcibly guide the lower ball to the recessed portion 15. , is formed within the height of one ball in the lower row. The protrusion 14 shown in FIGS. 8 to 11 has a substantially elliptical surface, and the upper surface slopes downward toward the distal end of the protrusion. Note that the protruding portion 14 may be formed by expanding a part of the metal side plate 9b, or may be separately molded from synthetic resin or the like and fixed to the side plate 9b.

The recess 15 is a relief part for smoothly flowing down the lower ball whose flowing direction has been changed by the protrusion 14, and the distance between the inner surface of the recess 15 and the surface of the protrusion 14 is set to one ball. The distance is set to such an extent that only one person can pass through. Further, a guide support part 16 is formed above the recessed part 15 at a height where the upper ball passes through, and which projects into the inside of the flow path 10. This guide support part 16 is in contact with the side surface of the upper ball, and reliably prevents the upper ball from changing its flow direction when the lower ball changes its course, and is in contact with the inner surface of the side plate 9b. The spacing is set so that only one ball can pass through. Note that the guide support portion 16
The length is almost the same as the length of the protruding portion 14, and the downstream end portion is located near the bent portion 10′ of the flow path 10.

As shown in FIG. 12, in the ball alignment structure having the above configuration, the protruding portion 14 guides only the lower ball A toward the recessed portion 15, and the positional relationship between the upper ball B and the lower ball A is can be forced to deviate from side to side with respect to the flow direction. In this way, the positional relationship between the lower ball A and the upper ball B is shifted to the left and right with respect to the flow direction, and the lower ball A changes its flow direction to the recessed part 15 side and becomes lower than the upper ball B. When the ball goes around further, the distance between the balls A and A flowing down the lower stage is slightly enlarged. Therefore, the upper ball B is the lower ball A,
It becomes easy to be interrupted within the interval A. Therefore, when the vertically stacked balls A, B... pass through the ball leveling section 9, the lowering action of the upper ball B is promoted,
The water flows down in a uniform layer.

The balls that have been reliably leveled in this way flow down to the ball lending machine 2 via the flexible pipe 18 connected to the outlet 17, or to the ball supply counting machine 1.
9 and then flows down into the ball storage tank (not shown) of the pachinko machine 1. Therefore, when the balls in the ball rental machine 2 are rented out and there is a shortage, balls are replenished from the flexible pipe 18, and when the balls in the ball storage tank of the pachinko machine 1 are insufficient, a command from the management room or The ball replenishment counter 19 is activated by a command from a ball shortage detector (not shown), and a predetermined number of balls are replenished into the ball storage tank of the pachinko machine 1.

Note that the protruding portion 14 of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and may have any configuration as long as it can change the direction of flow of the lower ball. For example, in other embodiments of the protrusion 14 shown in FIGS. 13 to 15, the surface for guiding the ball is an inclined arcuate surface, and in the embodiment shown in FIGS. The outflowing plate member is provided on the inner surface of the side plate 9b at a height that can guide only the lower ball A, for example, at approximately the same height as the center of the ball A. In addition,
In other embodiments shown in FIGS. 13 to 18, a recess 15 is formed on the inner surface of the frame 9a in correspondence with the protrusion 14, as in the previous embodiment.

Further, in the above embodiment, the flow path 10 of the spherical leveling portion 9
Although the ball is bent into an inverted L-shape, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a gutter that allows the ball to flow down in a straight line.

<Effects of the Invention> As explained above, according to the present invention, a protrusion that protrudes toward the other side wall is formed on one side wall within a height of one ball from the bottom surface, On the other side wall facing the protrusion, we formed a recess with the protrusion slightly larger than the diameter of the balls so that the balls could flow down in a row, so the protrusion allowed the lower stage to flow down. Not only can the downward direction of the ball be changed to forcibly shift the positional relationship between the ball and the upper ball to the left or right, but the lower ball is forced to take a sudden detour due to the protrusion, so the lower ball can The spacing between the balls downstream is expanded. Therefore, a situation arises in which the balls in the upper row are likely to fall into the space between the balls in the lower row, thereby ensuring that the balls in the upper row fall within the space between the balls in the lower row, forming one row.

As described above, according to the present invention, the balls flowing downward in a vertically overlapping manner can be reliably leveled to one level by the action of the protruding portion and the recessed portion, so that there is almost no possibility that the balls will become clogged. Further, compared to the conventional ball flow down gutter which causes the ball alignment effect depending on the inclination angle and the length of the flow path, the ball flow down gutter according to the present invention can be designed to have a shorter overall length. Therefore, restrictions regarding the mounting position and direction are relaxed, and installation can be easily performed even in a narrow space.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1 is a front view of a row of pachinko machines, Fig. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the supply gutter and ball supply chute, and Fig. 3 is a front view of the ball supply chute. Figure 4 is a plan view of the ball supply chute, Figure 5 is a sectional view of the slanted upper end of the ball supply chute, Figure 6 is a sectional view of the middle of the ball supply chute, and Figure 7 is the slanted lower end of the ball supply chute. 8th cross-sectional view of
The figure is an exploded perspective view of the sphere leveling part, Figure 9 is a partially cutaway front view of the sphere leveling part, Figure 10 is a left side view of the sphere leveling part, and Figure 11 is a part of the sphere leveling part. FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the flow path, FIG. 13 is a front view of another embodiment of the protrusion, FIG. 14 is a plan view of the protrusion shown in FIG. 13, and FIG. The figure is a sectional view of the protrusion shown in Fig. 13, Fig. 16 is a front view of the third embodiment of the protrusion, Fig. 17 is a plan view of the protrusion shown in Fig. 16, and Fig. 18 is a front view of the protrusion shown in Fig. 16. FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of the protrusion shown in FIG. 16; In the figure, 1 is a pachinko machine, 2 is a ball rental machine, 4 is a supply gutter, 5 is a ball supply chute, 8a and 8b are the inner surfaces of the side walls, 9 is a ball leveling part, 9a is a frame, 9b is a side plate,
14 is a protrusion, and 15 is a recess.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. It has a bottom part inclined in the length direction and left and right side walls standing up from the side edges of the bottom part, and the width of the bottom part and the interval between the left and right side walls are set from the upstream side to the downstream side. In the ball flow down gutter, which is gradually narrowed to A protruding part is formed within the height range of one ball from the bottom part, and a ball is formed on the other side wall part opposite to the protruding part by making the distance between the protruding part and the protruding part slightly larger than the diameter of the sphere. A hollow part is formed that allows the balls to flow down in a row, and the lower balls of the balls flowing down by overlapping the aligned parts are guided to the hollow part side by the raised part, and the lower balls and the upper balls are guided. A ball alignment structure for a pachinko ball flow gutter, characterized in that the positional relationship with the balls is shifted left and right with respect to the flowing direction so that the balls in the upper stage are inserted into the interval between the balls in the lower stage.