JPH0571990U - vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To provide an automatic vending machine capable of surely detecting whether or not a product has been received in a bucket, and minimizing the number of members that require mounting accuracy. [Structure] An optical sensor 17 for detecting a product received in a bucket 7 is composed of a pair of a light emitting element 17a and a light receiving element 17b. The elements 17a, 1
7b approach each other with the bucket 7 in between. As a result, the optical path of the optical sensor 17 is shortened, and the product received in the bucket is reliably detected.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine in which a product received in a bucket is detected by an optical sensor and the bucket is moved to an upper product outlet based on the detection signal.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 The applicant has proposed a vending machine of this type disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-195890. In this vending machine, a conveyor device on which products are placed is arranged on the left and right with a bucket of an elevator mechanism in between, and the products are conveyed to the central bucket by driving the conveyor device. Whether or not the product has been conveyed to this bucket is detected by optical sensors installed above and below the vending machine.When the product in the bucket is detected, the elevator mechanism is driven to take the bucket out of the product. It is designed to be moved to the side. However, in such a detection structure for carried-out goods, since the optical path of the optical sensor is extremely long from the upper end to the lower end of the bucket movement range, a malfunction may occur even if the optical sensor is slightly soiled. Had a point. In order to solve such a drawback, the applicant has proposed the vending machine disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 2-149483. This vending machine has a pair of a light emitting element and a light receiving element on both sides of the conveyor device on the unloading side, and a reflection that reflects the light emitted from the light emitting element in front of the conveyor device toward the light receiving element. A member is provided to detect the product in the bucket that has moved to this optical path.

[0003]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, even in the latter vending machine, since the light from the light emitting element is once radiated in front of the conveyor device and then reflected back to the light receiving element side by the reflecting member, the optical path is long. Moreover, when the reflecting member is dirty, there is a problem that the detection accuracy thereof is significantly reduced. In addition, not only the mounting accuracy of each element is required to be strict in the mounting structure, but also the mounting accuracy of the reflective member must be strict, which causes a complicated mounting work. There was a point.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to reliably detect whether or not a product has been received in a bucket and to require mounting accuracy. An object of the present invention is to provide a vending machine that minimizes the number of members.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises a bucket for receiving a product carried out from a product storage unit and an optical sensor for detecting the received product in the bucket, and based on a detection signal of the optical sensor. In an automatic vending machine that moves a bucket to an upper product outlet, the optical sensor is composed of a pair of a light emitting element and a light receiving element, and the optical axis of the optical sensor passes diagonally in the bucket. The elements are faced diagonally with the bucket in between.

[0006]

[Action]

 According to the vending machine of the present invention, since the pair of light emitting element and light receiving element face each other diagonally with the bucket in between so that the optical axis of the optical sensor passes diagonally within the bucket, each element is a bucket. , And the optical paths of the optical sensors are shortened.

[0007]

【Example】

 1 to 6 show an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a box-shaped vending machine main body having an opening on the front side, and a heat-insulating inner door 1a is attached to the front opening, and a commodity outlet 1b is provided below the inner door 1a. It is provided.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a product storage portion provided inside the inner door 1a, which is a well-known serpentine column for stacking and storing beverage cans, and operates the product unloading device (not shown) to store the lowest stored product. You can drop one by one by its own weight. As shown in FIG. 1, a total of five product storage units 2 are arranged side by side in the width direction of the vending machine body 1, and the products can be individually carried out. Further, the product outlet 1b of the inner door 1a is provided only at a position corresponding to the conveyor 6 described later, that is, only for the fourth product storage unit 2 from the right side in the drawing, and below each product storage unit 2. Is provided with an inclined shoe 3 for guiding the fallen product S 1 to the product outlet 1b. A product outlet is not provided at the position corresponding to the bucket 7 described later, that is, the leftmost product storage unit 2, and the product is guided to the adjacent product transfer port 1b below the product storage unit 2. An inclined seat 4 is provided.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an outer door that covers the front of the inner door 1a, which has a product sample chamber, a sales button, and the like (not shown), and is openably and closably attached to the vending machine body 1. Further, a product outlet 5a is provided on the front surface of the outer door 5, and the product outlet 5a is located above the product outlet 1b and in front of the leftmost product storage section 2. ing. Reference numeral 5b is a product receiver provided inside the product outlet 5a.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a conveyor provided at a lower front portion of each of the product carry-out ports 1b. As shown in FIG. 1, an endless feed belt 6a extending between the product carry-out ports 1b and both ends of the feed belt 6a are provided. It comprises a supporting pulley 6b. In this conveyor 6, the pulley 6b is rotated by a motor (not shown), and the feed belt 6a is rotated in the direction of the arrow in the figure.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a bucket that receives the products carried out from the product storage unit 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the bucket main body 7 a has an open top surface, and the bucket main body 7 a is provided with a protrusion. It is composed of a pair of reversing levers 7b, and each side surface of the bucket body 7a is shaped so as to gradually widen upward. Each of the reversing levers 7b extends obliquely upward, and a hole 7c into which the pin 8 can be inserted is provided at the base thereof. Further, a through hole 17d through which the optical axis of an optical sensor 17 described later passes is provided on one side surface of the bucket body 7a.

Reference numeral 9 denotes an elevating mechanism for moving the bucket 7 up and down, and a guide member 10 vertically provided inside the outer door 5 as shown in FIG. 4, and a slider 11 vertically moving along the guide member 10. , A driving motor 12. The guide member 10 has a substantially U-shaped cross section, and guide grooves 10a extending in the vertical direction are formed on both side surfaces of the guide member 10. Further, a reversing shaft 13 is attached to the upper end of the guide member 10 so as to extend through the respective guide grooves 10a and extend laterally. The slider 11 is formed into a substantially U-shaped cross section, and rollers 11a mounted in pairs on the upper and lower sides of the inner side surfaces of the slider 11 are slidably engaged with the respective guide grooves 10a. In addition, support pieces 11b for attaching buckets are provided on both sides of the upper end of the slider 11, and each support piece 11b is provided with a hole 11c through which the pin 8 is inserted. That is, by connecting the hole 11c and the hole 7c of the bucket 7 with the pin 8, the bucket 7 is supported by the slider 11 so as to be vertically rotatable. On the other hand, the motor 12 is attached to the lower portion of the guide member 10, and the first sprocket 14 is attached to the rotation shaft thereof. A second sprocket 15 is attached to the upper part of the guide member 10, and the sprockets 14 and 15 are connected by an endless chain 16. Further, a part of the chain 16 is connected to a fixed portion 11d provided on the slider 11. That is, in the elevating mechanism 9, the chain 16 is rotated by the normal rotation and the reverse rotation of the motor 12, and the slider 11 connected to the chain 16 is vertically moved along the guide groove 10a of the guide member 10. Can be moved. Further, the upper stop position and the lower stop position of the slider 11 are determined by the detection of a sensor (not shown). The bucket 7 rises and descends together with the slider 11 starting from a position slightly lower than the conveyor 6, and in the raised position, the reversing lever 7b hits the reversing shaft 13 and the pin 8 is centered as shown in FIG. In addition, it is turned upside down toward the product outlet 5a.

Reference numeral 17 denotes an optical sensor for detecting a product received in the bucket 7, which is composed of a pair of a light emitting element 17a and a light receiving element 17b facing each other with the bucket 7 in between. In this optical sensor 17, the light emitting element 17a is arranged above the front end side of the bucket 7, and the light receiving element 17b is arranged below the rear end side of the bucket 7, and the optical axis thereof passes through the through hole 17d of the bucket 7 It is designed to pass diagonally in the vertical direction. In other words, the product received in the bucket 7 blocks the optical path of the optical sensor 17, so that the detection signal is transmitted. The elements 17a and 17b may be arranged opposite to each other.

Next, the operation of the vending machine of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 5, and 6.

First, when the sale button is pressed after the coin is inserted, the product S is dropped from a predetermined product storage unit 2 (see the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2), and the dropped product S is passed through the inclined shoe 3. As shown in FIG. 5 (a), the product is unloaded from the product exit 1b. At that time, the product S dropped and carried out from the leftmost product storage unit 2 in FIG. 1 is guided by the inclined shoe 4 and carried out from the second product carry-out port 1b from the left. Next, the product S carried out from the product carry-out port 1b is carried to the bucket 7 in a horizontal posture in which the longitudinal direction matches the width direction of the vending machine body 1 as shown in FIG. 5 (b). .. Then, when the product S received in the bucket 7 is detected by the optical sensor 17, the bucket 7 is lifted by the lifting mechanism 9 as shown in FIG. 6, and the lifting causes the reversing lever 7b to hit the reversing shaft 13, The bucket 7 is turned upside down around the pin 8 toward the product outlet 5a, and the product S in the bucket 7 is loaded into the product receiver 5b of the product outlet 5a.

As described above, according to the vending machine of the present embodiment, the pair of the light emitting element 17a and the light receiving element 17b are vertically moved with the bucket 7 in between so that the optical axis of the optical sensor 17 may pass obliquely within the bucket 7. Since they face each other obliquely, the elements 17a and 17b can be brought close to each other with the bucket 7 in between. Therefore, the optical path of the optical sensor 17 can be shortened, and even if the light-projecting surface or the light-receiving surface of each element 17a, 17b is somewhat dirty, the product can be reliably detected. Further, since the elements 17a and 17b are close to each other, it is not necessary to provide a reflecting member in the optical path of the optical sensor 17 as in the conventional case. Therefore, only the elements 17a and 17b are required to be attached with high precision, and the optical sensor 17 can be attached very easily.

[0018]

[Effect of the device]

 As described above, according to the vending machine of the present invention, the optical path of the optical sensor can be shortened, so that the product can be reliably detected even if the light emitting surface or the light receiving surface of the optical sensor is slightly dirty. can do. In addition, since the number of members that require mounting accuracy can be minimized, the mounting work of the optical sensor can be performed extremely easily.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a main part of a vending machine showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] Side sectional view of a main part of a vending machine

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a bucket

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a lifting mechanism.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view showing a transportation state of products.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the bucket.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 ... Product storage unit, 5a ... Product outlet, 7 ... Bucket, 1
7 ... Optical sensor, 17a ... Light emitting element, 17b ... Light receiving element,
S ... commodity.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A bucket that receives a product carried out from a product storage unit, and an optical sensor that detects the product received in the bucket, and the bucket picks up the product above the bucket based on a detection signal of the optical sensor. In an automatic vending machine that moves to an outlet, the optical sensor is composed of a pair of a light emitting element and a light receiving element, and each element is vertically slanted with a bucket in between so that the optical axis of the optical sensor passes diagonally in the bucket. A vending machine characterized by being confronted with.