JPH0922484A - vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Improved so that the product carried out from the product storage rack can be smoothly passed from the product transport mechanism laid inside the cool box to the product transport mechanism outside the store through the product carry-out port. Vending machines that do this. [Structure] With respect to a cold storage box 2 having a heat insulating housing in which a product storage rack 5 is housed, a conveyor mechanism 14 as a product transfer mechanism laid inside the box and a conveyor mechanism 15 provided outside the box.
Commodity carry-out port 4 which is connected to
In the case where the product carry-out door 9 is provided in a and the product carry-out door is opened and closed according to the sales operation to take out the product, the shape of the product carry-out door 9 does not have a concave cross-section that presents a concave surface 9a toward the interior. Between the conveyor mechanism 15 on the outside of the store by extending the product transport mechanism 14 laid on the front side of the product carry-out port and laid inside the storehouse so that the tip of the product transport mechanism 14 projects to the end face on the outside of the storehouse of the product carry-out port 4a. The product delivery interval L2 is reduced to the minimum size.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine for selling frozen or refrigerated products, and more particularly to the structure of a product delivery route in the vending machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The vending machine for frozen and refrigerated products mentioned above is equipped with a cool box serving as a heat-insulating housing in order to cool the sold products at a low temperature, and dispenses them from a product storage rack housed here. Either carry the product out of the cool box and send it directly to the product take-out port, or carry the product taken out of the cool box to the microwave oven installed in the machine, cook it, and then send it to the product take-out port. I have to.

For this reason, a small-sized product carry-out port is opened in a heat-insulating door that connects the inside and outside of the cool box with the product transport mechanism laid on the outside to cover the opening surface of the cool box. The product carry-out door with a heat insulating structure is provided to prevent the outside heat from entering the inside of the warehouse, and the product carry-out door is opened and closed according to the sales operation. Here, FIGS. 2 and 3 show the conventional structure of an automatic vending machine with a built-in microwave oven for selling frozen and refrigerated products as an example. The configurations shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-357578. In each figure, 1 is a vending machine cabinet, 2 is a front outer door,
3 is a cold storage box that is a heat insulating housing constructed of a heat insulating layer such as foamed resin, 4 is a heat insulating inner door that closes the opening surface (front surface) of the cold storage box 3, and 5 is a product storage housed in the cold storage box A rack, 6 is a cooler (evaporator of a refrigerator), 7 is a microwave oven mounted in front of the cool box 3, 8 is a product outlet, and a heat insulating inner door 4 covering the front of the cool box 3 has a product outlet. Four
The product carrying-out door 9 having a heat-insulating structure having an opening a and having a convex sectional shape is provided here. The product carry-out door 9 is opened and closed between a solid line position and a chain line position by an electric door opening / closing mechanism (not shown). When the product is on standby for sale, the product carry-out door 9 enters the product carry-out port 4a and is closed. At the time of sale, the product carry-out door 9 is retracted to the open position, and then the product carried out from the product storage rack 5 is carried out ( For example, after the frozen noodles 10 in a bowl container is taken out to the outside of the refrigerator through the product carrying-out port 4a by the carrying means described later, it is carried into the microwave oven 7 and cooked, and then sent to the product taking-out port 8. There is.

In this case, in FIG. 2, as a product conveying means, a forwardly tilted shooter 11 laid inside the cool box 3 along the product discharge path, and in front of the product carry-out port 4 connected to the shooter 11. The auxiliary shooter 12 laid on the vehicle and the product received from the auxiliary shooter 12 in the microwave oven 7
Horizontal conveyor mechanism 1 for relaying and transporting to the product outlet 8
3 and the like, the product 10 dropped from the product storage rack 5 via the shooters 11 and 12 is taken out of the cool box 3.

On the other hand, in FIG. 3, a conveyor mechanism 14 that is almost horizontal is provided inside the cool box 3 as a product transfer means.
It is equipped with an elevating horizontal conveyor mechanism 15 arranged outside the refrigerator. By laying the almost horizontal conveyor mechanism 14 inside the cool box 3, the occupying height in the box is reduced, so that the volume of the product storage rack 5 is increased by that amount to increase the number of products to be stored. Can be increased. In addition,
In FIG. 3, the microwave oven is not shown in the drawing, and as the conveyor mechanism 14 laid inside the refrigerator, a belt type conveyor mechanism may be used in addition to the roller type conveyor mechanism shown in the figure.

[0006]

By the way, when the product 10 carried out from the product storage rack 5 is taken out forward from the cool box 3 through the door-equipped product carry-out port 4a of the heat insulating inner door 4,
In the shooter transport system shown in FIG. 3, the momentum due to the inertia of the product itself sliding on the shooter does not cause a problem as far as the left, but as shown in FIG. 3, the conveyor mechanisms 14 and 15 are arranged inside and outside the cool box 3 in particular. However, when the product 10 is transferred at a relatively low transfer speed between the conveyor mechanism 14 on the inside of the store and the conveyor mechanism 15 on the outside of the store through the product outlet 4a,
The conventional structure of the product delivery door 9 has the following problems.

That is, as shown in the figure, in the construction in which the article discharge door 9 has a convex cross-section and the convex door surface enters into the commodity discharge port 4a, the conveyor arranged inside the cold storage 3 is shown. In order to avoid the interference between the mechanism 14 and the product unloading door 9, the leading end of the conveyor mechanism 14 is at a position retracted from the rear surface of the product unloading port 4a. For this reason, a gap L1 that is at least larger than the thickness of the heat insulating layer of the heat insulating inner door 4 remains between the tip of the conveyor mechanism 14 and the conveyor mechanism 15 arranged outside the refrigerator. In this case, if the thickness of the heat insulating layer of the heat insulating inner door 4 is set to 60 mm, the distance L1 can be about 100 mm in design.

For this reason, when the product to be sold is a small-sized product, it drops off on the way when passing through the product outlet 4a in the process of transferring from the conveyor mechanism 14 to 15 and is transferred to the conveyor mechanism 15. There is a possibility that there is no. In addition, even for large products, if the distance L1 between the conveyor mechanisms is large, the products may not be delivered and received smoothly, which may cause transport troubles.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to carry out a product carried out from a product storage rack from a product carrying mechanism laid inside the cool storage box. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic vending machine which is configured so that it can be smoothly transferred to the product transport mechanism outside the store after passing through.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a product carrying-out door equipped with a product carrying-out opening which is opened on a wall of a cold storage box has a concave cross-section toward the inside. In addition, at the door closed position, the peripheral edge of the door plate is brought into contact with the front side wall surface of the cool box to close the product outlet.

In the above structure, a conveyor mechanism is used as a product transfer mechanism arranged inside and outside the cool box with the front product transfer port sandwiched therebetween. Particularly, the product transfer mechanism laid inside the store, the tip of which is a product It shall be laid so that it extends so that it projects to the outer surface of the carry-out exit.

[0012]

According to the above construction, even if the tip of the merchandise conveying mechanism laid inside the cold storage is extended to the outer side end surface of the merchandise outlet, it interferes with opening and closing of the merchandise carrying-out door having a concave cross section. There is no fear of Thereby, the product delivery interval between the product transport mechanism inside the store and the product transport mechanism arranged outside the store can be set to the minimum interval without being restricted by the product delivery door. Therefore, when the merchandise transfer mechanism on the inner side of the refrigerator and the merchandise transfer mechanism on the outer side of the refrigerator are delivered, the merchandise can be delivered smoothly without fear of trouble such as dropping of the merchandise.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In the drawings of the embodiments, the same members corresponding to those in FIGS. 2 and 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the microwave oven shown in FIG. 2 is omitted and not shown. That is, in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the product carry-out door 9 provided at the product carry-out port 4a of the heat insulating inner door 4 has a concave cross-section such that the door surface is a concave surface 9a toward the inside of the cool box 3. In the door closed position represented by the solid line, the peripheral edge of the door plate abuts the front side wall surface of the heat-insulating inner door 4 and closes the product outlet 4a. The product delivery door 9 is opened / closed between a solid line position and a chain line position by operating a door opening / closing mechanism (not shown) as in FIGS. 2 and 3. Then, the product outlet 4a is closed when the product is on standby, is temporarily opened at the time of sale, and moves backward above the product outlet 4a.

Corresponding to the above-mentioned concave cross-sectional shape of the product carry-out door 9, the conveyor mechanism 14 laid inside the cool box 3 has its leading end entering the product carry-out port 4a and the outside face of the store. , Or extended so that it projects slightly forward. Further, the conveyor mechanism 15 arranged on the outside of the store is an elevating horizontal belt conveyor mechanism, and when it is on standby for sale, it descends to the solid line position, and at the time of sale, the product delivery door 9 is opened and after moving to the outside of the store, it moves to the retracted position. The commodity that has been raised to the position of the chain line and carried out from the inside of the store via the conveyor mechanism 14 is received.

With such a configuration, the delivery interval L2 between the tip of the conveyor mechanism 14 laid inside the refrigerator and the conveyor mechanism outside the refrigerator is independent of the thickness of the heat insulating layer of the heat insulating inner door 4, and the product delivery door 5 is provided. It is possible to reduce the size of the two conveyor mechanisms to the minimum size in which they approach each other without fear of interference with each other, whereby the transfer and delivery of the product 10 between the conveyor mechanism 14 and the conveyor mechanism 15 can be performed on the way. It can be done smoothly without fear of falling off.

[0016]

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, a cool-down box having a product carry-out door at the product carry-out port opening on the heat insulating wall surface is provided with a product carry-out mechanism laid inside the cool box. The product transfer interval between the product transfer mechanism and the product transfer mechanism arranged outside the store is not restricted by the thickness of the heat insulation layer of the cool box, and there is no interference with the product transfer door to minimize product transfer. It can be done smoothly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the structure of a conventional vending machine in which a shooter is used as a product transport mechanism

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the configuration of a conventional vending machine that uses a conveyor mechanism as a product transport mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vending machine cabinet 2 Front outer door 3 Cooling box 4 Insulated inner door 4a Product carry-out port 5 Product storage rack 6 Cooler 8 Product take-out port 9 Product carry-out door 9a Concave surface 10 Product 14 Warehouse inside conveyor mechanism (product transport mechanism) 15 Outer storage conveyor mechanism (commodity transfer mechanism)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vending machine for selling frozen and refrigerated products, which is provided in a cold storage box as a heat-insulating housing in which a product storage rack is housed, and a merchandise transport mechanism laid inside the box and an outside box. The product carry-out door, which has a heat insulating structure, is provided at the product carry-out port that is connected to the product carry mechanism and opens on the wall surface of the cool box.
In the case where the product carry-out door is closed by the product carry-out door when the product is on standby, and the product carry-out door is retracted to the outside of the product during the sale operation to take out the product, the door shape of the product carry-out door is recessed toward the inside of the product. An automatic vending machine, which has a shape and is arranged so that when the door is closed, the peripheral edge of the door plate is brought into contact with the front side wall surface of the cool box to close the product outlet. 2. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the commodity transport mechanism laid inside the cold storage is extended and extended so that the tip of the commodity transport mechanism projects to the outer side end surface of the commodity carry-out port. And vending machines. 3. The vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the merchandise transport mechanism inside the store and the merchandise transport mechanism outside the store are conveyor type product transport mechanisms.