JPH0628565A - Merchandise housing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a merchandise container which can make the operation range of an article pushing-up member small in the direction of the back/forth of the merchandise container and expand the capacity of the merchandise container. CONSTITUTION:The pushing-up member 30 for carrying-out article is attached to a guide shaft 20 extending along the front of the merchandise container 10 in the vertical direction and connected to an swinging arm 40 provided on the side of the merchandise container 10, and a driving arm 43 rotated by a motor 50 is freely engaged with the follower board 45 of the swinging arm 40 to allow the swinging arm 40 to swing to ascend/descend the pushing-up member 30 so that the operation range of the pushing-up member 30 is made small in the direction of back/forth of the merchandise container 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a product storage device used in an automatic vending machine for beverages in cans or bottles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a vending machine of this type, products are stacked and stored in a plurality of vertically extending product passages, and they are dropped and carried out one by one from the lower end of the product passages. Most of them are the mainstream, but recently, as an indoor type vending machine, the actual application is 3-105.
The one described in No. 616 is also proposed.

In this vending machine, as shown in FIG. 6, inside a vending machine body 1 whose upper surface is openable and closable, a product container 2 having an opening for product insertion on the upper surface, and a product container 2
A pair of upper and lower sprockets 3 and 4 arranged on one side surface of the
An endless chain 5 attached to each sprocket 3, 4 and a plurality of push-up members 6 attached to the chain 5.
And a chain drive motor 8 connected to the lower sprocket 4 via a belt 7 for raising the commodity A stored in the commodity container 2 by the push-up members 6. Then, the product is sequentially carried out to the product outlet 1a provided on the front surface of the vending machine body 1.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the push-up members 6 attached to the chain 5 have a structure of raising the inner side of the product container 2 and lowering the outer side thereof, There has been a problem that the operating range of the member 6 is increased in the front-back direction of the product container 2 and the capacity of the product container 2 is reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to reduce the operating range of the product pushing member in the front-rear direction of the product container so as to increase the capacity of the product container. It is to provide a product storage device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the product storage device of the present invention has a product container having an opening for product insertion on the upper surface, and extends vertically along the front surface of the product container. A guide member, a product pushing member slidably attached to the guide member, a swing arm having one end connected to the product pushing member and the other end rotatably supported by the product container, and rotated by a motor. And a drive arm for engaging the driven portion of the swing arm to raise the swing arm, and when the swing arm reaches the uppermost point, disengages from the driven portion and lowers the swing arm.

[0007]

According to the commodity storage apparatus of the present invention, the motor is actuated to rotate the drive arm, whereby the drive arm is engaged with the driven portion of the swing arm and the swing arm is raised. After that, when the swing arm reaches the uppermost point, the drive arm disengages from the end edge of the driven portion, and the swing arm descends. As a result, the product push-up member connected to the swing arm moves up and down along the front surface of the product container, and the product is unloaded from the product container, so compared to the case where the product push-up member is attached to the chain and inverted. The operating range of the product pushing member is reduced in the front-back direction of the product container.

[0008]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention. This product storage device is provided in the same vending machine body as in the conventional example, and has a product container 10 having an opening for product insertion on the upper surface, a guide shaft 20 attached to the front side of the product container 10, and a guide. A push-up member 30 that is slidably attached to the shaft 20 for carrying out a product, a pair of swing arms 40 that raises and lowers the push-up member 30, a geared motor 50 that drives the swing arm 40, and a product container 10. And a product locking mechanism 60 provided on the upper part of the front side of the product.

As shown in FIG. 1, the product container 10 has a front surface and an upper surface opened, and the product A can be stored in bulk through an opening 10a on the upper surface which serves as a product insertion port. Inside the product container 10, a bottom plate 11 inclined forward and downward is attached like a raised bottom, and a notch 11a is formed at the front end of the bottom plate 11 to allow passage of a push-up member 30 described later. A front plate 12 extending upward from the front end of the bottom plate 11 is provided on both side surfaces of the product container 10 with a slight forward inclination, and the gap between the front plates 12 is equal to the width of the cutout 11a. There is.

The guide shaft 20 is arranged in front of the front plate 12, extends vertically along the front plate 12, and has its lower end fixed to the bottom surface of the commodity container 10.

The push-up member 30 is formed in a plate shape as shown in FIG. 2, and the tip end thereof is bent slightly upward. The lower surface of the push-up member 30 has two mounting pieces 30 protruding downward.
a are formed at intervals in the width direction, and each mounting piece 30a is rotatably connected to a slider 31 slidably mounted on the guide shaft 20 via a shaft pin 32.
Further, as shown in the bottom view of FIG. 3, a notch 30b is formed in the center of the push-up member 30 in the width direction, as shown in the bottom view,
The guide shaft 20 can be inserted into the notch 30b without resistance. That is, the push-up member 30 can be rotated upward to the position shown by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 2, and at the lower position, it is held substantially horizontally by the contact with the upper surface of the slider 31 as shown by the solid line. In addition, the slider 31
A connecting pin 33 extending in the width direction is attached to each of both ends, and both ends of the connecting pin 33 are elongated holes 10 provided on both side surfaces of the product container 10.
It is connected to the swing arm 40 via b. The angle θ1 formed by the upper surface of the push-up member 30 and the guide shaft 20 at the lower position is set to 70 ° to 90 °, and the bending angle θ2 of the tip of the push-up member 30 is set to 5 ° to 40 °. Is appropriate.

Each swing arm 40 is arranged on the outer side of both side surfaces of the product container 10, and a long hole 40a extending in the longitudinal direction is formed at the tip thereof, and the connecting pin 33 of the slider 31 is formed in the long hole 40a. It is inserted freely. A shaft pin 41 that rotatably supports the base end of each swing arm 40 and a support plate 42 thereof are attached to the back surface of the product container 10, and each swing arm 40 rotates in the up-down direction with the shaft pin 41 as a fulcrum. You can move. Further, drive arms 43 for swinging the swinging arms 40 are provided outside the both side surfaces of the product container 10, and the drive arms 43 are rotatably attached to the product container 10. The drive arm 43 is composed of two arms extending on both sides of the rotary shaft 43a, and the rollers 4 are attached to the tips of both arms.
4 is attached. Further, a driven plate 45 for transmitting the power of the drive arm 43 is attached to the swing arm 40,
The driven plate 45 extends below the swing arm 40, and the roller 44 of the drive arm 43 is engaged with and disengaged from a part of the periphery of the driven plate 45. Furthermore, at the lowest point of the swing arm 40, a buffer member 46 that receives the tip of the swing arm 40 is installed.

The geared motor 50 is arranged below the bottom plate 11, and its rotary shaft 50a is connected to the rotary shaft 43a of the drive arm 43 via the belt 51 so that the drive arm 43 can be rotated clockwise in the drawing. It has become.
Further, the motor 50 is connected to the micro switch 52 arranged above the product container 10, and the micro switch 52
When the commodity A on the rising push-up member 30 comes into contact with the contact 52a, the rotation of the motor 50 is stopped.

The product locking mechanism 60 is composed of a carry-out element 61 for locking the product A on the push-up member 30 and a solenoid 62 for moving the carry-out element 61 up and down. 62 operates to release the product A held by the carry-out piece 61 to the front of the product container 10.

The commodity storage device configured as described above is
Although not shown, a plurality of vending machine main bodies are provided in the width direction so that different types of products can be stored. That is, when a product selection button (not shown) is pressed, the product locking mechanism 60 is activated, and the product A on the push-up member 30 rolls and drops in front of the product container 10 and is carried out to a product outlet (not shown). At this time, the carried-out product A is separated from the micro switch 52, so that the motor 50 operates and the drive arm 43 rotates. As a result, one roller 44 of the drive arm 43 causes the driven plate 45 of the swing arm 40 to move.
The rocking arm 40 is lifted. After that, when the swing arm 40 reaches the uppermost point, the roller 44 of the drive arm 43 disengages from the end edge of the driven plate 45, and the swing arm 40 descends in a free fall state. At that time, although the push-up member 30 hits the product A in the descending path, when the push-up member 30 hits the product A, the push-up member 30 rotates upward as shown in FIG. 5 and descends without being caught by the product A. Further, the push-up member 30 has the bottom plate 11
When it reaches the lower side, it returns to the horizontal state, and the shock of the swing arm 40 is absorbed by the buffer member 46. In order to ensure the horizontal state of the push-up member 30, a part of the buffer member 46 may be extended and pressed against the slider 31 of the push-up member 30. Next, the swing arm 40 reaching the lowest point
The other roller 44 of the drive arm 43 is locked to the driven plate 45 of (1), and the push-up member 30 moves up again. As a result, one of the products A on the front side in the product container 10 is pushed up by the push-up member 30.
When the product A contacts the contact of the micro switch 52, the motor 50 stops. Then, the product A is restrained by the product locking mechanism 60 and stands by until the next carry-out signal is given.

As described above, according to the product storage device of this embodiment, the push-up member 30 for carrying out the product is attached to the guide shaft 20 extending in the vertical direction along the front surface of the product container 10, and the side surface of the product container 10 is provided. Swing arm 4
The push-up member 30 is connected to 0, and the drive arm 43 rotated by the motor 50 is engaged with and disengaged from the driven plate 45 of the swing arm 40 so that the swing arm 40 is swung to raise and lower the push-up member 30. Therefore, the operating range of the push-up member 30 can be reduced in the front-rear direction of the product container 10 as compared with the conventional chain rotation type.
The capacity of the product container 10 can be increased accordingly. In addition, when lowering the push-up member 30, the swing arm 4
Since 0 is allowed to fall freely, the vertical movement of the push-up member 30 can be performed quickly.

[0017]

As described above, according to the product storage device of the present invention, the operating range of the product pushing member can be made smaller in the front-back direction of the product container, so that the capacity of the product container is increased accordingly. The product storage efficiency is significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a product storage device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional side view of a push-up member.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the push-up member.

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional plan view of a product container.

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view of the push-up member.

FIG. 6 is a side sectional view of a vending machine including a conventional product storage device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Product container, 10a ... Opening part, 20 ... Guide shaft, 30 ... Pushup member, 40 ... Oscillating arm, 43 ... Drive arm, 45 ... Follower plate, 50 ... Geared motor, A ... Product.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A product container having an opening for product insertion on an upper surface, a guide member extending vertically along a front surface of the product container, and a product pushing member slidably attached to the guide member. , A swing arm having one end connected to the product push-up member and the other end rotatably supported by the product container; and a swing arm that is rotated by a motor and locked to a driven part of the swing arm to raise the swing arm. And a drive arm for moving the swinging arm downward when the swinging arm reaches the uppermost point, the drive arm being disengaged from the driven portion.