JPS61193295A - Vending machine - 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 [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a vending machine that sells cups of a beverage made by mixing raw materials from a raw material supply mechanism and hot water from a hot water supply mechanism.

[Technical background of the invention] Conventionally, for example, a regular coffee raw material supply mechanism and a hot water supply mechanism are provided, and a predetermined amount of coffee raw materials is extracted from the coffee raw material supply mechanism by inserting a predetermined amount of coin into the coin mechanism and operating a selection switch. It is known that a predetermined amount of hot water is supplied from the hot water supply mechanism to the extraction mechanism and mixed, and the coffee liquid is extracted through a filter and sold in cups.

[Problems with Background Art] Such vending devices have a problem in that liquid accumulates in the extraction mechanism and the discharge path due to surface tension, for example. In particular, the extraction mechanism has a portion that once receives the extracted liquid, and there is a problem in that a large amount of liquid accumulates in such a portion. Even if there is such a problem, as long as vending operations are performed relatively frequently, the level of liquid that accumulates is approximately fixed, so the amount of drinking liquid supplied to the cup is always approximately constant, and there is no problem. If a considerable amount of time has passed since the last sale, the liquid that has accumulated in the middle of the sale will have evaporated, so if the liquid accumulates in the same way during the current sale, that amount will be added to the cup. There was a problem in that the amount of drinking liquid supplied was reduced. Particularly in the case of beverages that use hot water to make, there is a problem that evaporation is rapid, resulting in a large loss of beverage content and dissatisfied customers.

CObject of the Invention j This invention was made to solve such problems, and provides an automatic vending device that can always keep the amount of beverage sold substantially constant regardless of the length of the sales time interval. The purpose is to

[Summary of the Invention] This invention releases a predetermined amount of raw material from a raw material supply mechanism by inserting a predetermined amount of money into a coin mechanism and operating a switch, and also releases a predetermined amount of hot water from a hot water supply mechanism. In a vending machine that mixes the desired beverage liquid and sells it in cups, there is a counter that counts the elapsed time from the previous sale to the current sale, and a drying time that stores preset drying time data. A memory and a correction value memory storing data for determining the amount of hot water to be added are provided, and the elapsed time on the counter during sales operation is compared with the drying time in the drying time memory, and when the elapsed time on the counter exceeds the drying time, In this case, the amount of hot water discharged from the hot water supply mechanism is controlled to increase according to the data in the correction value memory, thereby compensating for the amount of liquid that has accumulated and evaporated on the way.

[Embodiments of the invention] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is an external view, in which 1 is a signboard advertising items for sale, 2 is an on-sale indicator lamp that indicates a sales status, 3 is a process indicator lamp that indicates an operating process, and 4 indicates an out-of-change status. 5 is a digital display that displays the amount of money inserted; 6 is a money slot for the coin mechanism; and 7 is a return lever for the inserted money. 8 is cafe au lait, instant coffee with sugar and cream, American coffee, regular coffee, regular B coffee, regular C coffee, special coffee, instant coffee with sugar, American coffee, regular coffee, regular B coffee,
Selection switch group 9 for selecting a total of 14 items: regular C coffee, special coffee, and cocoa
As necessary, increase the amount of hot water, reduce the amount of hot water, increase the amount of sugar, reduce the amount of sugar,
7 function switches to specify no sugar, more cream, less cream, 10 is money return slot, 11
is the sales opening where the cup is set.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the configuration of each part housed in the housing, in which 12 is a water inlet joint connected to a water outlet, 13
14 is a water strainer, 14 is a water filter, 15 is a water supply solenoid valve, 16 is a system tank, and 17 is a water heating tank. Water is supplied from the water outlet to the lower part of the water heating tank 17 via the water strainer 13, water filter 14, water supply solenoid valve 15, and system tank 16 in this order. The system tank 16 is provided with a float 18 and a water level switch 19, and the water boiling tank 1 is maintained at a constant water level at all times.
The water level of 7 is kept constant.

An upper heater 20 and a lower heater 21 are provided in the water boiling tank 17. Further, on the outer wall of the central part of the water boiling tank 17, a hot water solenoid valve 22 for instant coffee, a hot water solenoid valve 23 for cocoa, a solenoid hot water valve 24 for regular coffee, and a first temperature sensor 25 are provided. . Further, a limiter 26 and a steam vent pipe 27 are provided in most of the water boiling tank 17, and a second temperature sensor 28 and a temperature fuse 29 are provided at the end of the steam vent pipe 27. Further, a limiter 30 and a third temperature sensor 31 are provided on the lower outer wall of the water boiling tank 17, and a fourth temperature sensor 3 is provided on the upper outer wall.
2 is provided.

The hot water supply electromagnetic valve 24 supplies hot water in the water heating tank 17 to the metering tank 33. A float 34 is housed within this measuring tank 33. The measuring tank 33
The hot water inside is pumped through the check valve 36 by the operation of the procon pump 35.
It is supplied to the extraction mechanism 63 via.

As shown in FIG. 3, the extraction mechanism 63 includes a piston 38 provided in the cylinder 37 so as to be movable up and down.
The tip of the vibro 4 from the procon pump 35 is inserted into. The tip of the piston 38 is a pipe stone 4
The structure is such that the hot water supplied from the building is distributed throughout the building in a shower-like manner. A filter 46 is provided at the lower end of the cylinder 37, and a funnel-shaped coffee liquid receiver 65 is provided on the opposite side of the filter 46. Hot water is supplied into the cylinder 37 at high pressure by the operation of the procon pump 35.

39, 40, and 41 are a regular C coffee canister, a regular C coffee canister, and a regular C coffee canister, which constitute a coffee raw material supply mechanism, respectively. 42 is a canister constituting an instant coffee raw material supply mechanism, 43 is a cream canister, 44 is a sugar canister, and 45 is a canister constituting a cocoa raw material supply mechanism. Each of the canisters 39 to 45 houses a coiled spring that is rotated by a motor for discharging raw materials, and each raw material is discharged by rotating the springs due to the operation of the motor. The amount of raw material discharged at this time is determined by the operating time of the motor. The coffee raw materials discharged from the regular coffee canisters 39 to 41 are supplied onto the filter 46 in the cylinder 37 via a shooter (not shown) when the piston 38 rises. . The filter 46 passes from the supply roll 41 side through the lower part of the cylinder 37 to the take-up roll 4.
It is designed to be wound up on the 8th side.

Coffee extracted into the coffee liquid receiver 65 via the filter 46 is supplied into the mixing bowl 50 via a pipe 49. Raw materials discharged from the instant coffee canister 42, cream canister 43, and sugar canister 44 are directly supplied to the mixing bowl 50 via a shooter 51. Further, hot water from the water boiling tank 17 is supplied to the mixing bowl 50 via the instant coffee supply electromagnetic valve 22 and the pipe 52. Coffee mixed with sugar and cream in the mixing bowl 50 is supplied to a cup 53 set in the outlet 11.

The cocoa raw material discharged from the cocoa canister 45 is supplied to the blender funnel 54. This Brendaf? Hot water from the hot water tank 11 is also supplied to the flannel 54 via the cocoa hot water solenoid valve 23 and pipe 55. The mixed liquid of cocoa raw material and hot water in the blender funnel 54 is stirred by a motor 57 in a blender housing 56 and supplied to the cup 53.

A drainage bucket 58 is installed below the sales outlet 11,
The liquid leaking into the sales port 11 is stored. The amount of liquid accumulated in the drain bucket 58 is detected by a drain switch 59. A bucket 60tfi for storing coffee grounds is installed below the winding roll 48. A fifth temperature sensor 6 is installed at the outlet of the procon pump 35.
1 is provided, and a sixth temperature sensor 62 is provided near where the check valve 36 is attached.

FIG. 4 shows a circuit configuration in which an earth leakage breaker 12 is connected to a plug 71 connected to a commercial AC power source, and the earth leakage breaker 7
2, the output terminal of the first solid state relay 73 is connected to the limiter 26 and the upper heater 20 in series, and the output terminal of the second solid state relay 74 is connected to the limiter 30 and the lower heater 21 in series. Connected. In addition, the power switch 15 is connected to the earth leakage breaker 72.
A control circuit 76 is connected thereto, and a series circuit of the water supply solenoid valve 15, water level switch 19, and drain switch 59 is also connected thereto.

The control circuit 76 includes the selection switch group 8,
A plurality of display lamps 77 are incorporated in each switch corresponding to each switch of the function switch group 9 and the selection switch group 8, and a plurality of indicator lamps 77 are incorporated in each switch corresponding to each switch of the function switch group 9. A plurality of display lamps 78, the on-sale display lamp 2, and the process display lamp 3 are connected. The control circuit 76 also includes various detection switches 79 such as a water cutoff detection switch, a vapor feed detection switch, a pump float detection switch, a cup out detection switch, and a door switch.
are connected, and each of the temperature sensors 25, 28
．． 31.32.61.62 are connected.

The control circuit 76 also includes the pro-con pump 35,
Each hot water supply solenoid valve 22, 23, 24, motor 57, instant coffee raw material discharge motor 80, cocoa raw material discharge motor 81, regular A coffee raw material discharge motor 8
2. A regular C coffee raw material discharge motor 83, a regular C coffee raw material discharge motor 84, a cream raw material discharge motor 85, a sugar raw material discharge motor 86, etc. are connected, and a coin mechanism 87 is also connected. Further, the input terminals of the solid state relays 73 and 74 are connected to the control circuit 76, as well as a start switch 88 and a reset switch 89. Furthermore, the control circuit 76 includes a keyboard 90 having function keys such as a numeric keypad, an input key 1 erase key, and an operation key, a code display 91, and a data display 9.
2. Cassette interface 93, various counters 94
is connected. the start switch 88, the reset switch 89, the keyboard 90, the code display 91,
The data display 92 is used when setting codes and data in the RAM, which will be described later. Further, the cassette interface 93 is a terminal for connecting a cassette tape, and by connecting the cassette tape here, it becomes possible to input and output programs and output data. In addition, various counters 94 count the number of sales of each product,
Used to count total sales.

As shown in FIG. 5, the control circuit 76 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 101, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 103, a clock oscillator 104, an interface circuit 105, and a stabilization circuit. Consists of a power supply 106, etc.
The CPU 101 includes a ROM 102 and a RAM 103.
and an interface circuit 105 are connected via a pass line. The CPU 101 controls each section using the clock from the clock oscillator 104 as a timing base. Is the stabilized power supply 106 a commercial power supply? +! The AC power from 107 is stabilized into DC power and supplied to each part. The interface circuit 105 includes the coin mechanism 87 and each motor 57.8.
Various motors 108 such as 0 to 86, each of the electromagnetic valves 15.
Various solenoid valves 109 such as 22 to 24, the solid state relay 73.74, and each of the lamps 2.3.77.7
Various display lamps 1101 such as 8, the selection switch group 8, the function switch group 9, the various detection switches 79, the temperature sensors 25.28.3
Various temperature sensors 111 such as 1.32.61.62 are connected.

As shown in Figure 6, the RAM 103 contains data for determining the standard amount of raw materials to be discharged at one time when selling each product, the amount to be increased and the amount to be decreased, and the amount of hot water to be used at one time. A data memory 112 stores data that determines the standard amount, increased amount, decreased amount, etc., an elapsed time counter 113 that counts the elapsed time since the last sale, and stores data that determines the additional amount of hot water to be supplied at the time of compensation. and a drying time memory 115 that stores drying time data corresponding to the amount of liquid accumulated in the extraction mechanism 63, pipe 49, etc. due to surface tension that evaporates and disappears.

At the time of sale, the CPU 101 performs the processing shown in FIG. 7 based on the program data in the ROM 102. That is, when a predetermined amount of coins is inserted into the coin mechanism 87 and the selection switch 8 is operated while the on-sale indicator lamp 2 is lit, in this case, if the function switch 9 is operated in advance, the hot water will be turned off. Increase amount, decrease amount, increase amount of sugar, decrease amount, increase amount of cream, decrease amount, and no sugar are set. ), coin mechanism 87
control to accept coins, return change, etc. Next, the load corresponding to the sales product is identified.

The address for reading desired data from the data memory 112 is determined by signals from the function switch 9 and the selection switch 8. Next, it is checked whether the current sale is regular coffee or not. If it is other than regular coffee, the desired raw material discharge motor and hot water supply solenoid valve are operated for a predetermined period of time based on the data read from the data memory 112 by address designation to sell instant coffee and cocoa. In addition, when the selling product is regular coffee, the contents of the elapsed time counter 113 and the drying time memory 1
15, and if the elapsed time has not reached the preset drying time, the desired raw material discharge motor and hot water solenoid valve 24 are set based on the data of the predetermined regular coffee read out from the data memory 112 by address designation. is operated for a predetermined period of time, and the procon pump 35
Then, the brewing mechanism 63 is operated to perform regular coffee sales operations. Further, when the elapsed time is longer than the preset drying time, the correction value memory 114 selects data for determining the amount of hot water from among the data of the predetermined regular coffee read out from the data memory 112 by address designation.
Data is corrected by adding the "Noyu" data. Then, based on the data read from the data memory 112, a desired raw material discharge motor is operated to discharge regular coffee raw materials, and the hot water supply solenoid valve 24 is operated based on the corrected hot water amount data to discharge hot water. The regular coffee sales operation is performed by operating the procon pump 35 and the extraction mechanism 63. At the same time, elapsed time counter 1
Clear 13 and restart.

As a result of the above control processing, once one sale of instant coffee, cocoa and regular coffee is completed, the machine waits for the next sale.

In the embodiment of the present invention having such a configuration, if the drying time set in the drying time memory 115 has elapsed from when regular coffee was sold last time until when regular coffee is sold this time, the coffee in the extraction mechanism 63 is It is determined that the coffee liquid accumulated in the receiver 65, pipe 49, etc. due to surface tension has evaporated and disappeared, and the current supply sl is replenished by the data in the correction value memory 114. Therefore, even if coffee liquid is newly accumulated in the coffee receiver 65 or the pipe 49 due to the current selling operation, the amount has been increased by that amount, so that an appropriate amount of regular coffee is supplied to the cup 53. Therefore, there is no risk of complaints from customers. Also, when the current sales operation is performed before much time has passed since the previous sale, the elapsed time has not reached the drying time, so at this time, the amount of hot water is determined according to the data set in the data memory 112. Become. In other words, at the time of this sale, the coffee liquid from the previous time has accumulated in the coffee receiver 65 of the brewing mechanism 63, the pipe 49, etc., so only the original amount of hot water is released from the hot water tank 17, and an appropriate amount of regular hot water is poured into the cup 53. Coffee will be provided. In this way, when selling regular coffee, it is possible to always sell an appropriate amount of regular coffee regardless of the length of time that has passed since the last sale, and it is possible to improve trust with customers.

In the above embodiment, the amount of hot water is compensated only when regular coffee is sold, but the invention is not limited to this. For example, when selling instant coffee, the amount of hot water is compensated only when selling coffee liquid in the mixing bowl 50. There is a pool of information, and regarding the sale of cocoa, there are also blender funnels 54 and blender housings 5.
There is a pool of cocoa liquid in places such as No. 6, and the amount of hot water may be compensated depending on the length of the sales time interval when selling these products.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, there is provided a vending machine that can always keep the amount of beverage liquid to be sold substantially constant regardless of the length of the M interval at the time of sale, and that can improve customer trust. This is something that can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figures show an embodiment of the invention, and Figure 1 is an external view;
The second factor is a schematic diagram showing the internal configuration, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of the extraction mechanism, FIG. 4 is a circuit configuration diagram, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the main part configuration of the control circuit in FIG. Figure 6 is RA
FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the sales control process by the CPU. 8... Selection switch, 17... Water boiling tank, 24... Hot water supply solenoid valve for regular coffee, 39
．． 40.41...Regular coffee canister,
53...Cup, 63...Extraction mechanism, 76...Control circuit, 82.83.84...Regular coffee raw material discharge motor, 87...Coin mechanism, 101...
CPU (central processing unit), 102...ROM (
read-only memory), 103...RAM
(Random access memory), 112...Data memory, 113...Elapsed time counter, 114...
- Correction value memory, 115...Drying time memory. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] By inserting a predetermined amount of money into the coin mechanism and operating a switch, a predetermined amount of raw material is released from the raw material supply mechanism, and a predetermined amount of hot water is also released from the hot water supply mechanism, and the hot water and raw materials are mixed to produce a desired beverage liquid. In a vending machine that makes and sells cups, there is a counter that counts the elapsed time from the previous sale to the current sale, a drying time memory that stores preset drying time data, and determines the amount of hot water that should be added. Compare the correction value memory storing the data with the elapsed time of the counter and the drying time of the drying time memory during sales operation, and if the elapsed time of the counter is equal to or greater than the drying time, the data of the correction value memory A vending machine characterized by comprising means for controlling an increase in the amount of hot water discharged from the hot water supply mechanism according to the above.