JPH0821124B2 - Cup type vending machine - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention has a beverage injecting section provided at an appropriate place in the machine separately from the selling section, and moves the cup after infusing the beverage to sell it to the selling section. More specifically, the present invention relates to a cup-type vending machine suitable for preventing dusts from falling inside the cup when the cup is sold.

(B) Conventional technology Conventionally, as a cup type vending machine of this type, the cup falls into a selling port provided at a relatively low position on the front surface of the main body, as in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-16278. Some drinks are poured into a cup from a drink supply nozzle facing the sales port.

Further, as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-278695, beverages are not supplied at this selling port, but sequentially while the cups are moving inside the machine.
A cup-type vending machine that employs a sales system that supplies and stirs beverages, sugars, etc., and sends the prepared cup beverages to a sales outlet has also been proposed.

(C) Problem to be Solved by the Invention In the latter device (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-278695), since there is no beverage pouring out at the sales outlet, the place is not contaminated with the beverage and it becomes hygienic.

However, even in both devices, when the cup is taken out, it is inconvenient to take out the cup because the customer has a take-out door that can be opened by hand. In addition, since the position of the sales outlet is also low, it is difficult for the customer to take out because the customer needs to lower his posture.

In view of the above points, the present invention raises the cup into which the beverage has been injected, and as a sales system that carries it out to a sales unit provided at a high position, simplifies the removal of the cup, and, in terms of the configuration of this system, the cup An object of the present invention is to provide a cup-type vending machine which controls the movement of the cup so that dusts on the automatic opening-and-closing type sales door at the upper part of the ascending path are not dropped into the cup.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, a beverage injecting section is provided at an appropriate place in the machine separately from a sales section, and a cup after injecting the beverage is horizontally transferred to a horizontal transfer path. In a cup-type vending machine that moves from a beverage injecting section to a selling section through a cup transfer path consisting of a channel and sends out the cup, a cup gripping mechanism holds a cup sent out from a cup supply device provided inside the machine. , A cup back-and-forth moving device for injecting a beverage and moving it substantially horizontally to the position of the ascending transfer path after the beverage is infused, and receiving the beverage-filled cup moving from the beverage injecting part, elevating the cup, A cup raising device for moving to the selling section provided, and a selling door for opening and closing the carry-out opening so that the ascending cup can be delivered to the selling section through a cup carrying-out opening above the cup raising transfer path. A sales door drive device for opening and closing the sales door, a door opening end detecting means for detecting an opening end of the sales door, and a cup position detection for detecting a moving position of a cup transferred by the cup front-rear moving device. And a control means for controlling the cup forward / backward moving device so that the cup is moved to a cup rising position below the sales door so that the cup is moved after the sales door is opened. E) Action When the cup is moved from the beverage injecting unit to the cup raising device, the sales door starts to open.

If the sales door has finished opening during the cup movement,
The control unit moves the cup as it is, and moves the cup to the cup lifting device that is on standby below the sales door. However, when the sales door is not fully opened, the control unit stops the movement of the cup, waits until the door is completely opened, and then reopens the cup to move it to the cup raising device.

Therefore, when the beverage cup moves to the cup lifting device, the sales door is already open, and the garbage on the sales door has fallen down through the cup rising path, so that it does not enter the cup. can do.

(F) Example An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The cup-type vending machine according to the present invention, in the sales department, rather than injecting the beverage into the released cup, the beverage injecting part is disposed separately from the sales department at appropriate places in the machine, The sales department has a structure in which drink-filled cups are carried out.

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a cup-type vending machine according to the present invention. The sales section 1 is of a counter table type which is widely opened laterally, which is greatly different from the conventional rectangular-type sales outlet. I am trying. Then, while a part of the counter table portion 2 is raised in a dome shape and an opening hole for taking out the product is provided therein, the counter table portion 2 approaches the bottom of the dome portion and has a dome shape in the same manner. Is rotatably provided, and the sales door 3 is formed with a hole that coincides with the opening hole when it is opened. Therefore, the opening hole is normally closed by the sales door 3, and the outlet for the beverage-containing cup is formed by matching the holes. The sales door 3 is located above the cup ascending path through which the beverage-containing cup ascends, and has the function of preventing dust from entering the warehouse during standby and tampering with it.

Further, the sales section 1 is provided at a height position H (for example, 900 mm) which is higher than the conventional height position. Specifically, it is formed just below the panel portion 4A to which the selection button 4 is attached, and is a dented sales portion that is recessed in the back.
It has a horizontal dimension with a height that does not hinder the removal of the. Then, the cup already filled with the beverage comes out to the sales section 1, and therefore the supply section to which the cup, the beverage, the ice, etc. are delivered is separated from the sales section 1 in the cabin. It is configured so as to be dispersed in. Four
Is a product selection button.

2 and 4 are perspective views showing the external structure of the selling mechanism in the main body for performing the above-mentioned selling operation. FIG. 2 shows the drink infusion of the cup and the movement of the cup after the infusion to the cup lifting device. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a situation in which the beverage-filled cup is raised by the cup raising device, and FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a situation in which the beverage-filled cup is approaching the sales department. .

In each drawing, reference numeral 5 denotes a cup gripping device having openable cup gripping pieces 7A, 7B for gripping the cup 6 sent from the cup supply device in response to a sales instruction. The cup gripping device 5 is a cabinet of a vending machine. The slider 9 is slidably mounted on the rail 8 arranged substantially horizontally inside the
It can be slid forward and backward. A cup front-back transfer device for sliding the cup gripping device 5
As 50, a rack gear mechanism can be used.
For example, a configuration may be considered in which a rack is formed in the lateral direction on the back side of the rail 8 and a pinion that meshes with the rack and a drive motor for the pinion are provided on the slider 9 side.

The opening degree of the cup gripping pieces 7A and 7B that are on standby to accept the cup can be adjusted according to the size of the cup used.

As a mechanism for opening / closing the cup gripping pieces 7A, 7B, an appropriate mechanism such as opening / closing with a rotationally driven cam can be adopted.

By the way, a beverage supply device, an ice maker and the like (none of which are shown) are provided above the position shown in FIG. Beverage dispensing nozzles from them 10
And the ice discharge hose 11 faces the cup 6.

The beverage selected by the customer is then compounded and dispensed through the beverage dispensing nozzle 10.

At this time, the beverage supply device is a coffee beverage prepared by diluting syrup with carbonated water to prepare a carbonated beverage, or dissolving powdered raw materials such as coffee in hot water and adding sugar and milk as needed. To prepare. Similarly, the ice making machine sends ice through the ice discharging hose 11 into the cup held by the cup gripping device 5 when the customer performs a product selection operation.

When beverage and ice are supplied to the cup, the cup gripping device 5
Is slid in the direction of arrow A by the cup front-rear transfer device 50, reaches the position shown in FIG. 3, and stops at a predetermined position. Reference numeral 12 is a cup raising device for moving and raising the cup that has come to this predetermined position.

As shown in FIG. 5, the cup lifting device 12 has a drive motor 15 in which an endless belt 14 or an endless chain is longitudinally arranged between a pair of pulleys 13, 13 pivotally supported by support shafts 20, 20. Thus, the tray member attached to the endless belt 14 or the endless chain, that is, the coaster 18 is configured to be slidable up and down along the guide rod 19 in the forward and reverse directions. Then, the coaster 18 is normally waiting at a position slightly below the bottom surface of the cup 6 moving in the A direction, and when the cup 6 comes, it slightly rises to support the cup bottom surface,
Put it on it.

After that, the cup gripping pieces 7A and 7B are opened, and the cup gripping pieces 7A and 7B are opened.
The changeover from A, 7B to Coaster 18 is done. Next, after the cup gripping pieces 7A, 7B are further opened so as not to hinder the rise of the cup 6, the coaster 18 is raised again by the forward rotation of the cup raising device 12 to prevent the cup from falling. The cup guide opening portion 21 having a shape slightly larger than the diameter is inserted into the cup guide opening portion 21 and stopped at a slightly extended position.

FIG. 4 shows the situation in which the cup 6 has come out on the counter table 2 of the sales department 1. As can be understood from the drawing, the cup 6 containing the beverage is formed by opening the sales door 3. It appears in the sales department 1 and is carried out as if it were coming out from under the carry-out port 22. At this time, of course, sales door 3
Opens to form an outlet 22 through which the cup exits.

As described above, a series of gripping the released cup → injecting the beverage into the cup → moving to the cup raising device after the beverage injection → transferring the cup to the cup raising device → raising the cup → carrying out to the sales department Then, the cup beverage is provided to the customer.

The overall flow of this selling operation is more fully understood in FIG. That is, when the cup dropper 23 operates according to the sales instruction, the cup passes through the cup chute 24,
It is gripped by the cup gripping pieces 7A, 7B. After gripping the cup, beverage is injected from the beverage pouring nozzle 10 and the like, and the entire cup gripping device 5 is laterally moved by the cup front-rear transfer device 50, and is moved as Cup1 → Cup2 → Cup3. At the position of Cup3, the cup is moved to the cup raising device, and the cup raising device 12 rises to the position of Cup4 by the cup raising device 12. On the other hand, at the sales door 3, when the beverage injection is completed,
It begins to open and forms the carry-out port 22. In this way, the cup 6 is carried out from the carry-out port 22 to the sales department 1.

The problem here is that before the sales door 3 has finished opening, the cup 6 comes to the position of Cup3 first and the cup lifting device 12
If it is a cup movement that can be transferred to
When the trash on top of it opens, it goes into the cup ascending path and falls into the cup 6 to serve unsanitary drinks to the customer.

The present invention is designed to eliminate this problem.
For that purpose, an intermediate position detection sensor S ₂ for detecting passage of the cup is provided on the way of the cup moving path from the beverage injecting section to the cup raising device 12. Further, the sales door 3 is provided with a door opening detection switch (or optical sensor) S ₁₁ such as a micro switch. A standby position sensor S ₁ for detecting the cup (Cup ₁ ) at the position of the beverage injecting unit and a front position stop sensor S ₃ for detecting the cup (Cup 3) coming to the cup lifting device 12 are also arranged on the cup moving path. Has been done. Then, the intermediate position detection sensor S ₂ and the door opening / closing detection switch S ₁₁ drive-control the cup front-back transfer device 50, and after the sales door 3 is opened, the cup 6 moves to reach the cup lifting device 12. Control.

 The control block circuit diagram is shown in FIG.

In the figure, when the beverage injection end signal is generated, the signal is input to the timer T and the sales door drive circuit 3D. The timer T operates for a fixed time, and its output is input to the OR circuit 40. Here, the operation time of the timer T secures the time until the cup reaches at least the intermediate position, and the output state is continued during that time. The AND gate 42 can be driven under the condition that the output from the OR circuit 40 and the signal that the front position detection sensor S ₃ does not detect the cup, that is, the cup has not reached the front position. The cup front-rear transfer device drive circuit 50D is connected to the rear stage. Therefore, when there is a beverage infusion end signal, the drive circuit 50D operates while the timer T is operating, whereby the cup is moved and temporarily stopped after the operating time of the timer T has elapsed. On the other hand, the AND circuit 41 has a sales door open detection switch for detecting the end of opening of the sales door 3 opened by the sales door drive circuit 3D.
The door open detection signal from S ₁₁ and the cup intermediate position passage signal from the intermediate position detection sensor S ₂ are input.

Therefore, when the cup 6 reaches the intermediate position, the sales door 3
If the open circuit is completed, the AND circuit 41 produces an output at both outputs of the sensor S ₂ and the sensor S ₁₁ , and the drive circuit 50D continues to operate via the OR circuit 40 and the logic circuit 42, and the cup 6 moves as it is.

However, if the sales door is not open when the cup 6 passes through the intermediate position, the cup 6 is temporarily stopped at the intermediate position and waits until the sales door 3 is completely opened. Eventually, when the sales door 3 opens and the detection signal from the sensor S ₁₁ is obtained,
The drive circuit 50D is restarted, and the movement of the cup 6 is restarted.

In this way, while the cup is moving, whether or not the door has been opened is monitored, and if the door is completely opened, the cup moves as it is, and if it is not opened, the cup is stopped midway and waits until it is completely opened. As a result, dust on the sales door 3 does not enter the cup 6.

In FIG. 5, S is a cup clogging detection sensor arranged immediately above the cup gripping device 5. When the falling cup 6 is not properly gripped by the cup gripping pieces 7A and 7B and is tilted, The light rays are continuously blocked by this cup to detect clogging of the cup, and the cup gripping pieces 7A and 7B are temporarily opened and closed to prompt the cup 6 to drop. In addition, a cup waste port 31 and a drain bucket 32 are arranged below the position of Cup2 to eliminate unsold cups that have stagnated midway due to power failure during the transfer of the cups by the time of the next sale. In order to keep it, no matter where the cup is in the transfer route, it is forcibly moved to the position of Cup 2 after the power failure is restored, and the cup is discarded together with this so that the cup gripping pieces 7A, 7B are opened and discarded. I have to.

And S ₄ , S ₅ , S ₆ and S ₇ are arranged in the cup ascending path,
It is a position detection sensor that drives and controls the cup lifting device 12. Further, S ₁₂ is a cup presence / absence detecting sensor for detecting whether or not the cup 6 is taken out by the customer. When the cup 6 is taken out and the cup is exhausted, the cup raising device 12 is re-operated to slightly move the coaster portion 18. Lowered position (Sensor S ₇
Wait at the position where is detected.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when the cup is moved from the beverage injecting section to the cup raising device, the cup movement is performed after the sales door at the upper portion of the cup raising path is completely opened. Since it is controlled so that it ends, the garbage etc. already on the sales door part has fallen down through the cup rising path by the time the cup with a drink enters the cup rising path, and it enters the cup. Therefore, it is possible to prevent dust from entering during the sales process. Therefore, it becomes a highly reliable cup-type vending machine that secures hygiene, gives a sense of security to customers.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall external perspective view of a cup-type vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external configuration diagram of a vending mechanism showing a process of injecting a beverage into a cup and moving the cup after infusion, Three
The figure shows the external view of the sales mechanism showing the situation immediately after the transfer to the cup lifting device. Fig. 4 shows the external view of the sales mechanism showing the situation where the cup appears in the sales department from below. Fig. 5 shows the sales. FIG. 6 is a side view schematically showing the structure of the main part of the mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the present invention for controlling the movement of the cup from the beverage injecting section to the cup raising device. 1 …… sales department, 3 …… sales door, 5 …… cup holding device,
6 …… Cup, 7A, 7B …… Cup gripping piece, 10 …… Beverage pouring nozzle, 12 …… Cup lifting device, 50 …… Cup forward / backward transfer device, S ₂ …… Intermediate position detection sensor, S ₁₁ …… Sales door detection sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A beverage injecting unit is provided at an appropriate place in the machine separately from the selling unit, and the cup in which the beverage has been infused is transferred from the beverage injecting unit to the selling unit via a cup transfer path including a horizontal transfer path and an ascending transfer path. In a cup type vending machine that moves to and delivers to a cup, the cup delivered from a cup supply device provided inside the machine is held by a cup gripping mechanism, and a drink is injected,
After the beverage is poured, the cup front-rear moving device that moves the beverage substantially horizontally to the position of the ascending transfer path, and the beverage-filling cup that is moving from the beverage pouring unit is lifted and raised to the sales unit provided at the upper position on the front surface of the main body. A cup raising device that moves the raising cup, a selling door that opens and closes the carry-out port so that the raising cup can be delivered to the selling unit through a cup carrying-out port above the cup raising transfer path, and the opening and closing drive of the selling door. A selling door driving device, a door opening end detecting means for detecting an opening end of the selling door, a cup position detecting means for detecting a moving position of a cup transferred by the cup front and rear moving device, and a cup below the selling door. And a control means for controlling the cup forward / backward moving device so that the cup is moved to a raised position after the sales door is opened. Dynamic vending machine.