JPS60232190A - Automatic mahjongg apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

The present invention relates to a so-called automatic mahjong device that automatically stirs the tiles, aligns them in a predetermined direction, and installs them at a predetermined location on two tables.In general, an automatic mahjong device mainly consists of: A tile dropping opening provided on the tabletop, a platform that stirs the tiles dropped from the opening, a tile transfer means that picks up tiles in a predetermined orientation from the platform and transfers them to the tile alignment table, and a completion on the tile alignment platform. It consists of a means for transporting the tiles to a predetermined location on the tabletop. One conventional automatic mahjong device of this type was the
There was one described in Publication No. 3628. In this automatic mahjong machine, a rotating disk with an inclined rotation axis is rotated, and the centrifugal force causes the tiles to be pushed around the outer periphery of the rotating disk. A tile with the display surface facing downward is attracted to a suction ring that rotates at the same circumferential speed as the board, using magnetic force (the suction ring and the tile have built-in magnets), and the tile that is attracted to this suction ring is placed on another spot. The tiles were separated, and the tiles, with their display faces facing downwards, were arranged side by side in order to form four sets of tile walls. However, in the automatic mahjong machine described above, it is difficult to rotate the rotating disc and the suction ring at a speed of 1,000,000 times since centrifugal force acts on each tile that is attracted by the suction ring. Because the delivery of tiles is only done in one place, it takes time to form a tile wall, and as a result, the interest immediately after the game starts and the original number of tiles (the original number at the beginning of the tile distribution or in the first drawing). If there is an old head tile and a character tile, resulting in a no-win match), it becomes impossible to start the next game, and the player's interest is lost. Who is the inventor? He invented an automatic mahjong machine described in Japanese Patent Application No. 176824/1984 (see Figures 8 and 9).
2, the tiles with built-in magnets 01, which have been stirred by the tile stirring arm 03 and pushed to the peripheral side of the base plate 02, reach the entrance part 05 of the belt conveyor type inclined conveyance means 040,
The magnetic force of the magnet 06 attached to the surface of the conveyance means 040 attracts the tile 01 with its display surface (the surface carved with letters and figures) facing downward and in its longitudinal direction and upward. The tiles are transported to the four tile arrangement areas 07. The tile o1 that has reached the entrance 08 of the tile alignment area 07 is
A pushing member 09 that reciprocates along the longitudinal direction of the tile arranging area 07 pushes the tiles 01 into the tile arranging area 07 one by one, and the pushing member 010 forces the tiles 01 to be aligned one by one in the upper and lower 2'' directions. - The surplus tiles 01 are swung toward the conveying means 04, are deflected from the conveying means 04 by the knocking member 010, slide down the inclined guide surface 011, and are returned onto the single board 02;
The tiles were to be pushed by the tile agitation arm 03 to another conveying means entrance section 05. However, since the surplus tiles 01 slide down the inclined guide surface 011 sideways, the display surface faces down and one tile 01 is rotated by 9oo or 180 degrees, causing it to slide down the slope guide surface 011. When the tile is pushed and conveyed by jet, it may be returned to the base board 02 as an unsuitable tile. In addition, the tiles 01 that have slid down the inclined guide surface 011 and have been returned onto the base plate 02 are not immediately pushed into the next conveying means population section 05 adjacent thereto, but are stirred and pushed upwards of the base plate 02 for more than half a rotation. Sometimes it's bad. For this reason, a predetermined number of tiles are arranged in the three tile arrangement area section 07.
When the supply of tiles to the remaining tile alignment area 07 is not completed, the tile is placed in a timely manner at the conveyance means entrance 05 leading to the remaining tile alignment area 07 with the display surface facing downward. The present invention has a low probability of being sent, and the four conveying means 04 could not sufficiently achieve the intended purpose of shortening the time required to form a tile wall. The purpose of this invention is to overcome the problems and improve the automatic mahjong device, and the purpose thereof is to provide an automatic mahjong device that takes less time from dropping the tiles into the opening to completing the formation of the tile castle wall. In the present invention, a plurality of tile alignment areas are disposed above a tile agitation and delivery means that drops L tiles from a tile dropping opening on a table, stirs them, and sends them out to the surrounding area, and the tile agitation and delivery means send out L tiles. Among the tiles that were placed, the longitudinal force of the tiles was 1
an inclined conveying means for conveying only the tiles with the display surfaces facing down facing in the conveyance direction and feeding them in the width direction of the tiles into each of the tile alignment areas; The tile agitation and delivery means and the inclined conveyance means are driven! The tiles that have been stirred by this (near) are fed into the entrance of the inclined conveying means, and only the tiles whose longitudinal direction is oriented toward the conveying direction and whose display surface is facing down are transferred to the tile alignment area by the inclined conveying means. Then, the tiles are conveyed to the tiles and sequentially fed into the tile alignment area in the width direction of the tiles to form a tile wall. Further, in the present invention, when the number of tiles supplied to the tile alignment area reaches a predetermined number, the direction of the tiles supplied from the inclined conveying means to the tile alignment area is changed to cause the tiles to be deflected to the side.

[
] A guide means for directing the longitudinal direction of the tile deflected by the tile deflecting means to the conveying direction of the adjacent inclined conveying means on the delivery side and guiding the same tile to the entrance of the adjacent inclined conveying means. At the same time, among the plurality of tile alignment areas, in a tile alignment area where the number of tiles supplied reaches a predetermined number earlier than other tile alignment areas, a tile alignment area is attached to the same tile alignment area. The tile deflecting means operates, and the tile that is about to be sent into the tile alignment area is deflected by the tile deflecting means and sent into the guide means, so that the longitudinal direction of the tile is aligned with the adjacent slope. It is directed in the conveying direction of the conveying means and guided to the entrance of the adjacent inclined conveying means, and immediately conveyed and fed into the adjacent tile alignment area by the adjacent inclined conveying means. Therefore, according to the present invention, in the tile alignment area where the number of tiles supplied has not reached a predetermined number, not only the tiles sent out by the tile stirring and sending 7 means, but also the tiles aligned for which the tile castle wall has already been completed are stored. Since it is not possible to supply tiles with the display surface facing down by the inclined conveyance means attached to the area, the display surface is faced down and the tiles are aligned in the longitudinal direction in the tile alignment area where the tile wall is not completed. It is possible to supply tiles suitable for forming a tile wall one after another in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the area, so that all the tiles can be completed as quickly as possible. An embodiment of the present invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 7 will be described above. The automatic mahjong device of this embodiment has a rectangular parallelepiped-shaped casing 1 and a top board 2 that covers the upper opening of the casing 1 so as to be openable and closable, and mahjong can be played on the top board 2. . There is a tile drop opening 3 in the center w5 of the front panel 2 that can be opened and closed.
is provided, and each time there is an interest (up) or a half-round (no win), this opening 3 is opened as shown in Fig. 2, and the tiles 4 on the front board 2 are allowed to fall onto the base board 10. It has become. Therefore, the tile 4 is like the stone shown in FIG. An iron plate 9 is buried adjacent to the display surface 5, and the display surface 5 is preferentially attracted by the magnetic force of the permanent magnet described later. It consists of a fixing plate part 11 for catching the falling tiles 4, and a wall part 12 surrounding the fixing disc part 11.The surface of the fixing disc part 11 is designed to prevent the tiles 4 from being scratched in the event of a falling impact. It is covered with a k-th elastic cushioning material 13 for suppressing impact noise. However, in order to prevent the movement of the tiles 4 from being obstructed, it is better to avoid materials with large friction on the surface of the elastic cushioning material. Furthermore, a rotating shaft 15 driven by a motor 12vc is provided approximately at the center of the fixed disk portion 11, and four tile stirring arms [6 are integrally attached to the upper end of the rotating shaft 15, and the tile stirring arms [6] are integrally attached to the upper end of the rotating shaft 15. The stirring arm 16 rotates along the surface of the fixed disk portion 11 in the direction of the arrow in FIG. Furthermore, the tile stirring arm 16 has a rectangular center part 17 that joins the rotating shaft 15, and is oriented in a substantially radial direction so that the stirring part [8] coincides with the extension line of each side of the rectangular center part 17. a cylindrical portion 19 that is bent in a direction opposite to the rotational direction Δ at its tip and extends in the circumferential direction;
At the tip of the circumferential portion 19, there is further a portion bent in the same direction as the stirring portion [8]. Further, the conveying means 21 has a belt conveyor structure as shown in FIG. Tys Mizuku Suizu magnets 26 are attached to the surface of the belt portion with magnetic poles alternately changed along its longitudinal direction, and two blocks of the same size made of synthetic resin are interposed among the large number of permanent magnets 26. (The width of the belt O is approximately equal to or slightly narrower than the width of the tiles 4.) Furthermore, a tile dropping member 29 is fixed at a proper position on a portion of the base plate wall portion 12 along the endless belt B.
9 is formed with a lower guide surface I that slightly overhangs from the wall portion IZ above the endless belt B, and an upper guide surface 31 that overhangs greatly, and the permanent magnet of the conveying means 21 Among the tiles 4 placed on the 26 and conveyed, only the tiles 4 whose display surfaces 5 face down and match the longitudinal car conveying direction contact the lower guide surface 30 and are conveyed by the endless belt. Even if the tiles 4 are pushed sideways from the tiles 5, the iron plate 9 in the tiles 4 approaches the Hikyu magnet of the endless belt 5 and the magnetic force is strong, so none of the tiles fall off the endless belt 5 and are transported upwards as they are. It looks like this. Furthermore, a tile alignment area 32 is disposed close to and parallel to the outside of the conveyance means 21, and an exit path of the conveyance means 21 is connected to an artificial area of the tile alignment area 32 in a direction perpendicular thereto. 33, a stopper 37 is provided in the tile alignment area portion 33, a sensor 38 is disposed in several stages on the stopper 37, and a pushing means 39 is provided adjacent to the stopper 38 in the tile alignment area portion 33. : 32 is provided so as to be able to reciprocate along the longitudinal direction, and when the tile 4 is sent to the tile alignment area population 33 by the conveying means 21 and comes into contact with the stopper 37, the pushing means 39 are moved by the detection signal of the sensor 38. The tiles 4h' are pushed into the tile alignment area 32 one after another by reciprocating. Therefore, the tile alignment area 32 has a width approximately equal to the vertical length of the tiles 4, and a bottom plate 34 whose length is approximately equal to the length of a normal tile castle wall (the length of 17 tiles 4 arranged in the tile width direction). - The length is equal to the bottom plate 34, and the side plate 36 has a top and bottom width approximately equal to the thickness of two stacked 4 tiles.The side plate 36 is disposed inside the casing 1 from the bottom plate 34, Alignment area section 32
The first 17 tiles 4 sent into the area are pushed into the area 32 along the inclined bottom plate 35 (see Figure 2) near the entrance 33, and the first row of these 17 tiles 4 is aligned. When the end is completed, the inclined bottom plate 35 swings downward, and the back surfaces 6 of the 17 tiles 4 in the first stage become the same as the upper surface of the exit section of the conveyance means, and then the tiles 4 that are pushed in are placed in the first stage. When the 34 tiles are stacked in two levels on top of the 17 tiles 4 in the tile alignment area 32, the bottom board 34 Elevator 4 closer to the outside of the casing than that
After being raised to the same height as 0, the side plate 36 is moved toward the outside of the casing, and the tile wall on the tile alignment area 32 is placed on the elevator 40. Another tile 4 on the front wall 2 is thrown onto the base plate 10 from the tile drop opening 3, and when the opening 3 is closed, the elevator 40 rises and the tile castle wall floats above the front plate 2. It looks like this. In addition, a gate member 41, which is a part of the tile deflecting means, is provided in the exit path of the conveying means, and is rotatable about a vertical axis.
Until the gate member 41 is pushed in, the conveying means 21
When the 34 tiles are pushed into the tile alignment area 32, the gate member 4 is projected into the transport path by the operation of a solenoid (not shown), etc.
The tiles 4 transported by the transport means 21 are placed in the tile alignment area 3
It is not supplied to 2 and is designed to be deflected to the side. Further, a sliding chute 42 is formed along the platform wall 12 from the inside of the conveying means outlet section to the conveying means entrance section 27 located on the side in the tile agitating direction, and the protruding gate member The tiles 4 deflected laterally from the conveyance means 21 by the tile 4 slide down the chute 42 with their longitudinal direction aligned with the direction of descent of the chute 42, and reach the next conveyance means entrance 27. , and are immediately transported to the same transport means 21. Furthermore, at the exit part 43 of the downhill chute 42, as shown in FIG.
The tiles 4 that have slid down do not flow into the fixed plate section 11, but are guided directly to the next conveying means entrance section 27. Since the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 7 is constructed as described above, the tile wall is formed in the following order. After the mahjong game ended and the first game ended in a no-win situation, the tile drop opening 3 was opened, and the tiles 42 on the front board 2 fell from the same opening 3 onto the base board 10, blocking the same opening 3. Then, motor I4
At the same time as rotates, the conveying means 21 is driven, and the tiles 4 on the fixed plate part 11 are agitated by the rotation of the tile agitating arm 16 and sent to the inlet part 27 of the conveying means 21. At the conveyance means entrance section 27, due to the magnetic force between the iron plate 9 inside the tiles 4 and the permanent magnet attached to the endless belt O, the tiles 4 are attracted to the permanent magnet A of the endless belt O and are conveyed diagonally upward. ,
Even if the display surface 5 of the tile 4 is faced down and its longitudinal direction coincides with the conveying direction, only the tiles 4 are pushed out to the side by the tile dropping member 29, they are sent to the conveying means outlet path, and the tiles 4 The tiles whose display surface 5 is raised upward, or tiles whose side surface 7 or end surface 8 is in contact with the permanent magnet 26 are pushed out laterally by the tile dropping member 29 and are removed. In addition, through the conveyance means exit section 28, the tile arrangement area population 33
The tiles 4 that have reached this point are moved one by one to the tile alignment area section 32 by a pushing means 39 that reciprocates in response to a detection signal from a sensor.
Get pushed into it. A total of 34 tiles 4, 17 on the top and 17 on the top and bottom, are placed in the tile alignment area 3.
2 Pushed in and 1 gate member 41-#-transporting means 21
The conveyance means 2 is projected into the conveyance path (see Fig. 5).
The tiles 4 conveyed by 1 are turned at right angles and guided to the downhill chute 42, and slide down the downhill chute 42,
It reaches the entrance 27 of the next conveying means 210 adjacent thereto. In this conveying means 21, the tiles 4 sent out by the tile agitating arm 6 and the tiles 4 that have slid down the sliding chute 42 are conveyed together. Since the tiles are placed face down and their longitudinal direction coincides with the conveying direction, they are not removed by the tile dropping member 29 as proper tiles suitable for being sent to the tile alignment area section 32, and in this conveying means 21, The tiles are pushed into the tile alignment area 32 at a high conveyance density. Therefore, if one tile alignment area 32 has not completed supplying 34 tiles 4, two out of the four tile alignment area units 32 are properly transported by the conveying means 21 that has completed one conveyance. Since the tile 4 that has become a tile is immediately sent to the primary conveying means 21 as a proper tile, the time it takes to complete the 4 tile castle wall quest is greatly shortened. In addition, it is only necessary to select an appropriate shape for the gate member 41 and attach one downhill chute 42, resulting in a simple structure and low cost. In the embodiment described above, an endless bell) 2 is used as the inclined conveying means.
Although the 5Vc Mizuku boroseki 26 is provided, a negative pressure conveying means may be used in which the endless belt 5 is provided with many small holes and air is sucked only from the upper surface of the side end belt 5.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an internal plan view showing an embodiment of an automatic mahjong apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view thereof. Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line 1-m in Figure 1, Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the tv-rv m line in Figure 3, and Figure 5 is the main part. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the conveying means, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the tile dropping member, FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Casing, 2...Front board, 3...Tile drop opening, 4...Tile, 5...Display surface, 6...Back surface, 7
...Side surface, 8...End surface, 9...Iron plate, 10...
Base board, 11...Fixing plate part, 12...Wall part, 13...
・Elastic cushioning material, 14...Motor, 15...Rotating shaft,
16... Tile stirring arm, 17... Rectangular center, [8
... Stirring part, 19... Circumferential part, Processing... Extrusion part, 21... Conveying means, η, B... Upper pulley,
U...lower pulley 5°. Endless belt, 26... Permanent magnet, n... Conveying means inlet, public... Conveying means outlet, 29... Tile dropping member, blade... Upper guide surface, 31... Lower guide Face, 32・
...Tile arrangement area, 33-...Tile arrangement area entrance, 34
...Bottom plate, 35...Slanted bottom plate. 36... Side plate, 37... Stopper, A... Sensor 39... Pushing means, 40... Elevator, 41
...Gate member, 42...Downhill chute, 43...
- Downhill chute exit section, 44...bottom surface. Figure 1 Ama Figure 5 Bird Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] A tile agitation and delivery means for stirring and sending tiles dropped from a tile drop opening on a table to the surrounding area, a plurality of tile alignment areas disposed above the tile agitation and delivery means, and a tile agitation and delivery unit. Among the tiles sent out by the means, only the tiles whose longitudinal direction is oriented in the transport direction and whose display surface is face down are transported and sequentially sent to each of the tile alignment areas in the width direction of the tiles. When the number of tiles supplied to the tile alignment area reaches a predetermined number, the tilted conveyance means has the same number as the tile alignment area, and when the number of tiles supplied to the tile alignment area reaches a predetermined number, the direction of the tiles supplied from the inclined conveyance means to the same tile alignment area is changed. A tile deflecting means for deflecting the tiles to the side, and a tile deflecting means that directs the longitudinal direction of the tiles deflected by the tile deflecting means in the conveying direction of the delivery side adjacent inclined conveying means. An automatic mahjong device characterized by a guide means for guiding the user to the entrance of the means.