JPS6320942Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] This invention relates to a vending machine that is provided with a cooling mechanism below an article storage column and that cools and vends articles.

This type of vending machine uses an evaporator fan motor to circulate cold air generated from an evaporator into an article storage column.

By the way, in general, in a vending machine, the articles stored in the article storage column are sequentially discharged from the bottom to the vending outlet. Therefore, when cooling the articles, it is not necessary to cool all the articles stored in the column, and in short, it is sufficient to cool the articles near the bottom for sale. From this point of view, even if the evaporator fan motor is operated intermittently, when the evaporator fan motor is stopped, the cold air accumulates at the bottom, so the items at the bottom will be cooled without any problem. . Energy saving can be achieved by switching the operation of the evaporator fan motor from continuous to intermittent. However, although this method is fully applicable when the product sales efficiency is relatively low, it cannot be applied when the product sales efficiency is high because there is a risk of selling products that have not been sufficiently cooled. That is, when the sales efficiency of goods is high, it is required to operate the evaporator motor continuously.

In light of the above, if a changeover switch is provided so that the evaporator motor can be selected between continuous operation and intermittent operation according to the sales efficiency of the goods, it is possible to always sell sufficiently cooled goods and to save energy. will be possible.

On the other hand, when the evaporator fan motor is operated intermittently, it is conceivable to use a thermoswitch that opens and closes in response to the temperature near the evaporator to control the compressor. In this way, during intermittent operation, the evaporator fan motor will be operated intermittently in synchronization with the compressor. Further, when the evaporator motor is operated continuously, only the compressor is operated intermittently. However, if you use a thermoswitch that detects the temperature near the evaporator to operate the evaporator fan motor intermittently, for example, when the compressor and evaporator motor are stopped, the lower part of the refrigerator will have colder air. Because of the accumulation, a temperature difference occurs between the temperature detected by the thermoswitch and the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column when the thermoswitch closes and restarts the compressor and evaporator fan motor. In other words, the temperature at the bottom of the column is higher than the temperature detected by the thermoswitch. On the other hand, when the evaporator motor is operated continuously, cold air is constantly circulating inside the warehouse, so there is almost no difference in temperature between the temperature detected by the thermoswitch and the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column when the compressor is restarted. . This means that if the above-mentioned changeover switch is configured to select continuous operation or intermittent operation of the evaporator fan motor depending on the sales efficiency of the product, the degree of cooling will be different when the evaporator fan motor is operated continuously or intermittently. A problem arises in that products with different temperatures are sold, making it impossible to equalize the temperature of the products being sold.

This idea was developed in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to select between continuous operation of the evaporator motor or intermittent operation using a thermo switch, depending on the sales efficiency of goods, so that goods are always To provide a vending machine that can sufficiently cool and sell items, save energy, and even out the cooling temperature of the items to be sold.

By the way, when the evaporator fan motor is operated continuously, even if the thermo switch detects the temperature near the evaporator and operates the compressor to the maximum, the temperature near the evaporator and the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column are approximately equal, so the thermo switch will eventually It's safe to assume that the switch senses the temperature at the bottom of the column and restarts the compressor. However, when the evaporator fan motor is operated intermittently, the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column will be higher than the temperature detected by the thermoswitch when the thermoswitch detects the temperature near the evaporator and restarts the compressor and evaporator motor. ing.

On the other hand, to equalize the cooling temperature of the goods being sold means that when the compressor and evaporator motor are restarted by the thermoswitch, the temperature at the bottom of the goods storage column will be either continuous or intermittent. It should be constant regardless of what happens. To achieve this, the temperature detected by the thermoswitch when restarting the compressor when the evaporator fan motor is operated continuously, and the temperature detected by the thermoswitch when restarting the compressor when the evaporator fan motor is operated intermittently. It should be higher than .
In other words, when operating the evaporative fan motor continuously, use a thermoswitch that restarts the compressor at a relatively high temperature, and when operating the evaporative fan motor intermittently, use a thermoswitch to restart the compressor and evaporative fan motor at a relatively low temperature. You can use a thermoswitch to restart it.

This invention was made based on the results of such investigation, and is intended to accomplish the above-mentioned purpose.

Hereinafter, embodiments of this invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view schematically showing the internal structure of a vending machine, in which 1 is a housing, and 2 is a door attached to the front of the housing 1. As shown in FIG. Although not shown on the front of this door 2, there is a coin slot, selection switch,
A sales lamp, etc. is provided, and on the rear side there is a coin mechanism that accepts coins inserted from the coin slot and outputs a sales signal, and a sales signal from this coin mechanism and a selection signal from the selection switch. A control circuit is installed to control the operation of a bending mechanism installed at the bottom of the article storage column, which will be described later. A sales outlet 3 is provided at the bottom of the door 2. Inside the casing 1, an article storage column 4 is provided at the upper part, a cooling mechanism 5 is provided at the lower part, and between the lowest part of the article storage column 4 and the sales opening 3 there is provided an article storage column 4 for dropping articles. A chute 6 is provided. The cooling mechanism 5 is divided into two stages, upper and lower, by a partition plate 7. The lower stage is provided with a compressor 8, a condenser 9, and a condenser fan motor 10, and the upper stage is provided with an evaporator 1.
1. An evaporator fan motor 12 is provided. In the vicinity of the evaporator 11, there is a
A temperature sensing portion 13 of a pair of thermoswitches is provided. The cooling mechanism 5 generates cold air from the evaporator 11 by repeating a refrigeration cycle in which the refrigerant compressed by the compressor 8 is condensed by the condenser 9 and evaporated by the evaporator 11.
It is moved inside the housing 1 by the Evafan motor 12.
In other words, the inside of the refrigerator is cooled.

FIG. 2 shows a drive circuit for the compressor 8 and the evaporator motor 12, and l ₁ and l ₂ are power supply lines connected to a commercial AC power source (not shown) via a power switch or the like. Both lines l ₁ , l ₂
In between, the compressor 8 is connected in series with one contact 141 of the first two-contact changeover switch 14 and the first thermoswitch 15, and the other contact 1 of the first two-contact changeover switch 14 is connected in series.
42 and the second thermoswitch 16 are connected in series. Further, the evaporator fan motor 12 is connected between the lines l ₁ and l ₂ via one contact 171 of the second two-contact changeover switch 17, and the other contact 172 of the second changeover switch 17 is connected between the two lines l 1 and l 2 . and the second thermoswitch 1
6 are connected in series. Said first and second
The changeover switches 14 and 17 are interlocked with each other, and one contact 141 of the first changeover switch 14
is closed, one contact 171 of the second changeover switch 17 is closed, and when the other contact 142 of the first changeover switch 14 is closed, the other contact 172 of the second changeover switch 17 is closed. It's starting to close. That is, one contact 141 of the first changeover switch 14 and one contact 171 of the second changeover switch 17 open and close in unison, and the other contact 142 of the first changeover switch 14 opens and closes in unison.
and the other contact 172 of the second changeover switch 17 are adapted to open and close in unison. The first and second thermoswitches 15 and 16 open and close in response to the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 13, and as shown in FIG. The thermo switch 15 closes when it detects a first temperature level T1 or _higher , and closes when a second temperature level lower than the first temperature level _T1 is detected.
It is designed to open when it detects T ₂ or less. Further, the second thermoswitch 16 closes when it detects a third temperature level T3 or higher which is lower than the first temperature level _T1 and higher than the second temperature level _T2 , and closes when the second temperature level T3 _or higher is detected. It is designed to open when it detects T ₂ or less. That is, the first and second thermoswitches 15 and 16 have the same temperature level when they open, but the first thermoswitch 15 has a higher temperature level when it closes. There is. The difference in temperature level when both thermoswitches 15 and 16 are closed is, for example, the temperature near the evaporator 11 and the article when the second thermoswitch 16 is closed when cold air circulation is not being performed. It is set to be approximately equal to the difference in temperature from the lowest temperature of the storage column 4.

In the device according to the embodiment of the present invention having such a configuration, for example, the first and second changeover switches 14, 17
When set to one of the contacts 141 and 171, the evaporator fan motor 12 is always connected between the lines _l1 and _l2 , so the evaporator fan motor 12 is continuously operated regardless of the temperature situation near the evaporator 11. . On the other hand, the compressor 8 is operated intermittently by opening and closing the first thermoswitch 15.
That is, the compressor 8 is activated by closing the first thermoswitch 15 when the temperature near the evaporator 11 exceeds the first temperature level _T1 .
When the temperature drops below the second temperature level _T2 , the first thermoswitch 15 is opened to stop the operation. During this operation, the cold air inside the warehouse is constantly circulated by the evaporator fan motor 12, so the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column 4 when the compressor 8 restarts is equal to the temperature near the evaporator 11 T ₂ It is almost equal to .

In this way, when the evaporator fan motor 12 is continuously operated, the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column 4 is controlled within the range of the opening/closing operating temperature of the first thermoswitch 15. In addition, when this evaporator motor 12 is continuously operated, the article storage column 4
Since cold air is always supplied to the entire product storage column 4, the products are cooled not only at the bottom of the product storage column 4 but also throughout the entire product storage column 4. Therefore, even when sales efficiency is high, cooling sales can be adequately handled. I can do it.

Furthermore, when the first and second changeover switches 14 and 17 are set to the other contacts 142 and 172, the evaporator fan motor 12 and compressor 8 are connected between the lines _l1 and _l2 via the second thermoswitch 16. Since it is connected, not only the compressor 8 but also the evaporator fan motor 12 are operated intermittently. That is, the compressor 8 and the evaporator fan motor 12 are operated when the temperature near the evaporator 11 is at the third temperature.
When the temperature reaches the temperature level _T3 or above, the second thermoswitch 16 is closed to operate, and when the temperature falls below the second temperature level _T2 , the second thermoswitch 16 is opened to stop the operation. In this operation, when the operations of the compressor 8 and the evaporator fan motor 12 are stopped, the circulation of the cold air inside the refrigerator is stopped, so that the cold air inside the refrigerator gradually descends as time passes. Then, the second thermo switch 16 closes and the compressor 8 and the evaporator motor 1 are closed.
2 restarts, there is a difference between the temperature near the evaporator 11 and the temperature at the bottom of the article storage column 4. However, in anticipation of this temperature difference, the temperature near the evaporator 11 when the second thermoswitch 16 is closed is set lower than the temperature near the evaporator 11 when the first thermoswitch 15 is closed. 4, the temperature does not change when the evaporator fan motor 12 is operated continuously or intermittently.
The cooling state of the articles discharged from the article storage column 4 is the same as when the evaporator motor 12 is operated continuously.
It can be made uniform regardless of continuous operation or intermittent operation. Furthermore, in this case, the cold air remains at the bottom of the article storage column 4 for a long time even when the circulation of cold air by the evaporator motor 12 is stopped, so the sales efficiency is relatively low.
If the quantity of articles stored in the lower part of the article storage column 4 is enough to cover the amount of articles to be sold between the time when the column 2 is stopped and the time when the column 2 is restarted, it is possible to sufficiently cope with cold sales. In this case, since the evaporator fan motor 12 is operated intermittently, it is possible to save energy.

In the above embodiment, two thermoswitches have a common temperature-sensing section, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this, and each thermoswitch may have its own temperature-sensing section. Good too.

As detailed above, according to this invention, a cooling mechanism consisting of a compressor, an evaporator, an evaporator motor for circulating cold air, etc. is provided below the article storage column, and the articles in the column are cooled and sold automatically. In this system, it is possible to select whether to operate the evaporator motor continuously or intermittently using a thermo switch depending on the sales efficiency of the product, allowing the product to be kept sufficiently cool and sold at all times, while also saving energy. In addition, it is possible to provide a vending machine that can uniformize the cooling temperature of sold articles during continuous operation and intermittent operation of the evaporator motor.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figures show an embodiment of this invention; Fig. 1 is a sectional view schematically showing the internal structure, Fig. 2 is a drive circuit diagram of the compressor and evaporator motor,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the operating temperature characteristics of the first and second thermoswitches. 4... Article storage column, 5... Cooling mechanism, 8...
... Compressor, 11 ... Evaporator, 12
... Eva fan motor, 13 ... Temperature sensing part of thermo switch, 14, 17 ... 2-contact changeover switch,
15...first thermoswitch, 16...second thermoswitch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a vending machine that is provided with a cooling mechanism consisting of a compressor, an evaporator, an evaporator fan motor for cold air circulation, etc. below an article storage column, and cools and vends the articles in the article storage column, the temperature near the evaporator a first thermoswitch that detects the temperature and closes when the temperature rises above a first temperature level and opens when the temperature falls below a second temperature level lower than the first temperature level; a second thermoswitch that closes when the temperature reaches or exceeds a third temperature level that is lower than the first temperature level and higher than the second temperature level and opens when the temperature drops below the second temperature level; a first two-contact changeover switch that connects the compressor to a power source via the first thermostat or connects the compressor to the power source via the second thermoswitch;
The two-contact changeover switch connects the evaporator fan motor to the power supply when the compressor is connected to the power supply via the first thermoswitch, or the first two-contact changeover switch connects the compressor to the power supply when the compressor is connected to the power supply via the first thermoswitch. a second two-contact changeover switch that connects the evaporator fan motor to the power source via the second thermostat when the evaporator fan motor is connected to the power source via the second thermoswitch; A vending machine characterized in that the cooling temperature of the article is made uniform during continuous operation and intermittent operation of the evaporator motor by switching first and second two-contact changeover switches.