JPH0326058B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention, when ending tiles are dropped from the tile dropping opening of a mahjong table, automatically stirs the tiles and arranges them with the tiles facing downward. , relates to an automatic mahjong device that can be placed at a predetermined location on a table.

Prior Art As a conventional automatic mahjong device that uses magnetic force to tilt the surface of the tiles downward while stirring the tiles, there is a device shown in Figures 1 to 3 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-23628). (see official bulletin).

In the automatic mahjong apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, an inclined base 02 is fixed on a substrate 01, and an inclined disk 04 is rotatably supported on the base 02 via a bearing 03. A side wall 05 is formed by bending the disk 04 downward to the outer periphery, and in the suction area A where the outer periphery of the inclined disk 04 is located, the thickness of the tile 012 is placed above the outer periphery of the inclined disk 04. Adsorption rings 07 with magnets 06 are placed concentrically with a slightly wider interval and rotatably attached to the lower surface of the ceiling plate 09 via guides 08, and the inclined disks 04 and 07 are attached by motors 010 and 011. The suction ring 07 is rotated at the same speed, and a magnetic iron plate 013 is embedded in the tile 012 near the back surface of the tile 012, and the tile 01 adjacent to the side wall 05 is stirred on the inclined disk 04.
2, only the tile 012 with the display surface facing downward,
In the suction area A, the tile 012 is suctioned against the suction ring 07 against its own weight, and the tile 012 in the other direction is attached to the tile 01.
Only the tiles 012 suitable for building tiles that are attracted to the suction ring 07 are separated by falling from the suction ring 07 due to their own weight, and are carried out to a tile alignment area (not shown).

Problems to be Solved In the conventional automatic mahjong machines shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the inclined disk 04 is so wide that it is impossible to provide two or more inclined disks 04.
With only one adsorption area A shown in FIG.
You must pick up tile 012 that is lying face down.
The number of times the tiles are transported to the tile arrangement area per unit time is small, and the time required from the winning to the formation of the castle tiles is increased, the game cannot be smoothly progressed, and the player's interest is significantly lost.

Also, tiles 012 whose display surface faces upward or sideways
Now, the iron plate 013 and the suction ring 07 inside the tile 012.
As the distance from the magnet 06 becomes longer, the attraction force decreases, so the tile 012 temporarily attracted to the attraction ring 07 falls downward and collides with the tile 012 below, the reversing member 015, and the conical member 015. As a result, noise and damage are unavoidable.

Furthermore, in order to reliably attract the tiles 012 from the inclined disk 04 to the suction ring 07 in the suction area A, it is necessary to maintain the relative distance between the inclined disk 04 and the suction ring 07 at an appropriate value, and to maintain the peripheral speed of both. Since the parts must be matched accurately, it is necessary to set high levels of partial accuracy and assembly accuracy, resulting in low productivity, difficulty in maintenance, and unavoidable high costs.

Means and Effects for Solving the Problems The present invention relates to an improvement of an automatic mahjong device that overcomes the above-mentioned difficulties, and is capable of storing a large number of tiles dropped from a tile drop opening of a mahjong table and stirring the tiles. An automatic mahjong machine comprising a base, a tile alignment area disposed on the side of the base, and a conveyor that conveys the tiles stirred on the base to the tile alignment area, A magnet or a magnetic material is built in near the display surface of the tile, and the magnet is provided near the surface of the conveyor, and the upper surface of the conveyor is directed not only in the conveying direction but also in the width direction perpendicular to the conveying direction. The present invention is characterized in that a sliding guide means is provided with a smooth sloped surface extending from the lower edge of the conveyor in the width direction of the upper surface of the conveyor to the base plate.

Since the present invention includes a conveyor that conveys the tiles stirred on the base plate to the tile alignment area, it is possible to provide a plurality of conveyors, and a large number of tiles on the base plate can be shortened. By quickly transporting the tiles to the arranging area within the specified time, the time required from winning to building the castle tiles can be greatly shortened, allowing the game to proceed smoothly and increasing player interest. can.

Further, in the present invention, a magnet or a magnetic substance is built in near the display surface of the tiles, and the magnet is provided near the surface of the conveyor, and the upper surface of the conveyor is arranged not only in the conveying direction but also in the conveying direction. On the other hand, in tiles suitable for building tiles whose tile display surface faces downward because they are tilted in the width direction perpendicular to each other, there is a large magnetic force acting between the magnet or magnetic material built into the tile and the magnet of the conveyor, and the conveyor The frictional force acting between the tiles and the transport conveyor exceeds the force of the tiles trying to slide down due to the widthwise inclination of Or, for tiles that are not suitable for building tiles facing sideways, the magnetic force between the tiles and the conveyor is weak, and the frictional force between the tiles and the conveyor is smaller than the force that would cause the tiles to slide down in the width direction of the conveyor. The tiles move in the width direction from the conveyor and slide down, and as a result, only the tiles in a posture suitable for tile building with the tile display surface facing downward are sorted and conveyed to the tile alignment area, and are not suitable for tile building. The tiles in this position are returned to the base plate and stirred by the stirring means, and are returned to a position suitable for building the tiles and sent to the transport conveyor, where the tiles are continuously transported and the transport speed is increased. Extremely high.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since a sliding guide means is provided with a smooth sloped surface extending from the lower edge of the upper surface of the conveyor in the width direction to the base plate, tiles in a posture unsuitable for tile building can be removed from the upper surface of the conveyor. When sliding down from the platform, the tiles can smoothly slide down on the sliding guide means and descend onto the platform, and no large impact force is generated on the sliding tiles, the platform, or the tiles on the platform. Not only is the noise low, but these damages are controlled as much as possible.

Furthermore, in the present invention, by simply setting the inclination angle in the width direction of the conveyor to an appropriate angle range, it is possible to reliably sort out tiles that are suitable or unsuitable for tile building, thereby improving component accuracy and assembly accuracy. It is not necessary to be able to set high standards, productivity can be improved, and maintenance can be easily carried out.

Moreover, in the present invention, a magnet or a magnetic substance is built in near the display surface of the tiles, and a magnet is provided near the surface of the conveyor, and the upper surface of the conveyor is arranged not only in the conveying direction but also perpendicularly to the conveying direction. Since a mechanism for selecting tiles suitable for tile building can be constructed simply by tilting the tiles in the width direction, there is no need for a mechanism other than the tile stirring means to forcibly turn back tiles that are in a posture unsuitable for tile building. The number of types of parts can be greatly reduced, the structure can be significantly simplified, and costs can be significantly reduced.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 10 will be described below.

1 is a tile with a permanent magnet 2 embedded near the display surface 1a (the surface carved with letters and figures), the polarity of the permanent magnet 2 closer to the tile surface 1a is N pole, and the polarity of the opposite side is S
set to pole.

In addition, a base board 3 is arranged at the lower center of the table (not shown), and a tile alignment area section 12 is arranged diagonally above the outside of the base board 3 and parallel to each side of the square. Conveyors 14 are respectively disposed between the protruding guide 8 located on the outer periphery of the platform 3 along the inner side of the section 12 and the entrance section 13 of the tile alignment section 12 on the clockwise side. .

In the base plate 3, a rotating shaft 5, which is rotated clockwise in FIG. 4 by a motor (not shown), is disposed at the center of a fixed disk 4 that receives the tiles 1 that have fallen from a tile drop opening (not shown) on the tabletop. Four stirring arms 6 are integrally protruded in the radial direction from the rotating shaft 5 at a central angle of 90 degrees to each other, and a wall 7 is formed along the lower inner edge of the conveyor 14. A protruding guide 8 is formed adjacent to the lower entrance 15 of the conveyor 14, and a tile return member 9 is provided above the tip of the protruding guide 8.

Further, it is preferable to cover the surface of the fixed disc 4 with an elastic member in order to prevent the tiles 1 that fall and collide with the tiles from being damaged and to suppress impact noise. In order not to impede the movement of 1, it is better to avoid having a large coefficient of friction.

Furthermore, the length of the stirring arm 6 is set to such an extent that it can approach the wall 7, so that the tiles 1 near the wall 7 can also be stirred and pushed out.

Furthermore, inside the wall 7, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, there are
A permanent magnet 10 is buried in the fixed disk 4 near the wall 7, and a permanent magnet 11 is buried in the fixed disk 4 so that the upper surface side has the S pole, and as shown in FIG. When the long side of the tile 1 is facing down and the display surface 1a is facing the wall 7, the repulsive force of the permanent magnets 2 and 10 causes the tile 1 to turn over counterclockwise, and conversely, as shown in Figure 8. When the display surface 1a faces away from the wall 7 side, the tile 1 is tilted counterclockwise by the attractive force of the permanent magnets 2 and 11.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 9, the tile 1 that is pushed forward by the stirring arm 6 and approaches the entrance portion 15 with the width direction of the tile 1 as the traveling direction is centered around the tip of the protruding guide 8. The tile 1 is rotated, the longitudinal direction of the tile 1 is changed to the advancing direction, and the tile 1 is fed into the entrance section 15.

In the tile alignment area 12, as shown in FIG. (the length of 1 lined tiles),
Moreover, the surface thereof is formed to be smooth, and an edge is formed upward to prevent the tiles 1 from falling off to the side, and the tiles 1 pushed out by the pushing means 23 described later are smoothly moved. It's becoming like that.

Further, the tile alignment area section 12 can be raised and lowered by the thickness of the tiles 1 by a lifting drive device (not shown).

The conveyor 14 has a belt conveyor structure as shown in FIG. It consists of a side pulley 18 and an endless belt 19 that spans these pulleys 16, 17, 18, and inside the belt 19,
As shown in FIG. 6, a permanent magnet 20 with the S pole on the tile mounting surface side is embedded, and the display surface 1 of the tile 1
It is designed so that only the tile 1 with a facing downward can be attracted and transported.

The lower boule 18 has its upper portion almost aligned with the surface position of the fixed disk 4, and the plate mounting surface of the belt 19 at the entrance portion 15 of the conveyor 14 and the surface of the fixed disk 4 are approximately aligned. It's starting to connect.

Furthermore, near the upper end of the conveyor 14,
A stopper 21 is provided to prevent the transported tiles 1 from falling to the left side in FIG. 5.

Furthermore, a sliding guide means 22 is provided near the upper inner side of the conveyor 14 to return the tiles 1 with the display surface 1a facing upward to the fixed disk 4, and the guide means 22 is shown in FIG. As such, the inner edge and the upper edge of the endless belt 19 of the conveyor 14 touch,
It is formed into a smooth curved surface facing the fixed disk 4.

Further, the pushing means 23 is operable in response to a detection signal from a sensor 24 attached to the stopper 21, as shown in FIG.

Since the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 to 10 are constructed as described above, they can provide the following effects.

First, the tiles 1 are pushed one after another into a tile drop opening on a table (not shown) and dropped onto the base fixing disk 4.
Next, a motor (not shown) is activated to rotate the rotary shaft 5 and stirring arm 6 in the time direction, and the group of tiles is stirred and pushed toward the entrance section 15 of the conveyor 14. At the same time, by each means shown in FIG. 7 to FIG. Let it reach 15. At approximately the same time, the conveyor 14 is operated to adsorb the tiles 1 with the display surface 1a facing downward and convey them to the upper stopper 21 side. The tile 1 with the display surface 1a facing upward is
Due to the repulsion of the magnets 2 and 10, the magnets land on the inlet portion 11 and immediately fall onto the fixed disc 4, or they are transported halfway due to friction, etc., and are moved to the guide means 22 due to their own weight and repulsion. It may fall, but in any case, it is returned to the base plate 3 side by the widthwise inclination of the belt 19 (FIG. 6). In this way, the tile 1 is in the correct state with the display surface 1a facing downward.
Only the tiles are transported one after another to the tile arrangement area section 12. Then, the tiles 1 are stopped one by one with the stopper 21, and the sensor 24 and pushing means 23 as described above are used.
By the action of
When the first row of tiles (17 tiles) are aligned, the tile alignment area section 12 is lowered by the thickness of the tiles by a lifting device (not shown). After that, the tiles 1 of the second row are arranged one after another on top of the group of tiles of the first row by the same action again, and the castle building tiles are completed. The thus-formed castle tiles are transferred from the tile alignment area 12 to the elevator 25 by a batch extrusion device (not shown). Thereafter, the elevator 25 ascends and causes the castle building tiles to float through the elongated holes at predetermined game positions provided on the tabletop. In this way, the remaining three sets of castle building tiles are completed one after another or simultaneously and come out of the other long holes on the table, completing preparations for the start of the game.

The above embodiment has the following various effects compared to the conventional one.

The time required for stirring the tiles 1, transporting them, forming the castle tiles, and setting them on the tabletop is extremely short, and can be done smoothly and reliably, so that the game progresses smoothly and is useful. In other words, four sets of castle building tiles can be completed almost simultaneously. Furthermore, even if the tiles 1 fall in the middle of the conveyor 14, they are gently returned to the fixed disk 4 by the sliding guide means 20, so the tiles 1 are not damaged and impact noise is suppressed. Furthermore, since the conveyor 14 and the tile alignment area 12 are substantially continuous, the conveyance time is extremely short.

Moreover, since the structure is relatively simple, it can be easily set up, leading to low cost.

In addition, since the rotational speed of the stirring arm 6 of the platform 3 can be changed, the degree of stirring of the tiles 1 or the pushing of the tiles onto the conveyor 14 can be changed as necessary. . Furthermore, the magnet 10 provided on the wall 7, the protruding guide 8, the tile return member 9, and the magnet 11 provided on the fixed disk 4 are extremely simple means, but they can ensure that the tiles 1 are oriented in a predetermined direction. Can be done. Furthermore, the tile alignment area section 12 has an extremely simple structure, yet allows castle building tiles to be formed smoothly. In this case, the conveyor 14 has a simple structure of a belt conveyor type, and the axles of the boleys 16, 17, and 18 are tilted toward the fixed disc 4, so that the belt 19
are also tilted in the same direction, thereby ensuring that the tile 1 with the display surface 1a facing upward can fall toward the fixed disk 4 due to its own weight and repulsion. In this case, the downhill guide means 22 is a smooth inclined surface, and has a simple structure with great effects. The pushing means 23, the stopper 21, and the sensor 24 are in a very close relationship to press the tiles 1 against the tile alignment area 12 and align them smoothly.

In addition to the embodiments described above, the following embodiments can be used.

First, the base plate 3 may be one in which the fixed disk 4 is rotated and the rotating shaft 5 and the stirring arm 6 are fixed, or it may be one in which the rotating shaft 5 and the stirring arm 6 are rotated in opposite directions. are pushed toward the conveyor 14 faster due to the action of centrifugal force.

In addition, the length of the stirring arm 6 may be further increased slightly, and the wall 7 as shown in FIG. 11 or 12 may be used.
A groove 26 may be formed at the bottom of the protruding guide 8, and a notch 27 may be formed at the bottom of the protruding guide 8 to allow the long stirring arm 6 to rotate. is pushed into the entrance section 15 of.

Furthermore, the tile return member 9 can also be provided on the wall 7. Two sets of conveyors 14 having substantially the same structure are arranged side by side or in two stages above and below, and each conveyor 14 forms the first and second stages of the castle tiles.
This is layered using a batch extrusion means (not shown), etc.
It is also possible to complete the castle building tiles, and in this way, the castle building tiles can be completed almost twice as quickly as in the above embodiment.

Further, the conveyor 14 may be of a type other than a belt conveyor, for example, a chain conveyor, an escalator, an apron conveyor, or the like.

Alternatively, the conveyor 14 may have another structure as shown in FIG. 13. This is done by hanging a long plate 28 with a smooth magnetically permeable surface from a part of the fixed disk 4 toward the tile alignment area 12.
A belt 2 with a magnet 20 arranged under the long plate 28
9 is a belt conveyor 3 that moves in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure.
In this case, the tiles 1 with the display surface 1a facing downward are not directly attracted to the belt 29 but are attracted to the long plate 28 and conveyed to the tile alignment area section 12 side. . By tilting the width direction of the long plate 28 toward the fixed disk 4 side, the display surface 2
The tile 1 with 9 facing upward will surely fall to the fixed disk 4 side at the entrance or during transportation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a conventional automatic mahjong device;
Fig. 2 is a top view showing the tilted rotating disk, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the state of adsorption of tiles by the adsorption ring, and Fig. 4 shows the main parts of an embodiment of the automatic mahjong device according to the present invention. A plan view, FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing the inclined conveying means, FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the action of the magnet 10 provided on the wall 7, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the action of the magnet 11 provided on the fixed disc 4. , FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the action of the protruding guide 8, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the tile return member 9.
FIGS. 11 and 12 are explanatory diagrams showing other embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 13 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a tilted conveyance means of still another embodiment.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A platform for storing and stirring a large number of tiles dropped from the tile drop opening of a mahjong table, a tile alignment area provided on the side of the platform, and a platform for stirring the tiles on the platform. an automatic mahjong machine equipped with a conveyor that conveys the tiles that have been displayed to the tile alignment area, wherein a magnet or a magnetic material is built in near the display surface of the tiles, and a magnet is provided near the surface of the conveyor; The upper surface of the conveyor is inclined not only in the conveyance direction but also in the width direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, and a smooth sloped surface extends from the lower edge of the conveyor upper surface inclined in the width direction to the base plate. An automatic mahjong device characterized by being provided with a sliding guide means.