JP3609471B2 - Ball circulation mechanism - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial application fields]
The present invention relates to a ball circulation mechanism for balls circulating in an island where a plurality of pachinko machines are arranged.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent pachinko halls, there are islands where a plurality of pachinko machines are arranged in parallel and a ball counter is installed on the islands.
[0003]
In pachinko halls as described above, the circulation of balls including the collection of balls is performed on an island basis, or a group of multiple islands is used to adjust the increase or decrease in the number of balls. Yes.
[0004]
In addition, a storage tank having a bottom wall inclined downward toward the polishing machine is provided at the bottom of each island. In this storage tank, balls are stored in advance to increase the absolute amount of balls circulating in the island, on the other hand, out balls thrown into the pachinko machine, balls overflowed to the upper part of the island, etc. It has come to be collected.
[0005]
By the way, as shown in FIG. 8, the balls stored in the storage tank are polished by a polishing machine through a passage 72 formed downstream of the storage tank 70, transported to the upper part of the island, and returned to the storage tank 70 again. However, as a characteristic of the spherical ball, the ball (arrow A portion) located on the upstream side far from the passage 72, particularly on the portion close to the bottom wall 74, stays and is difficult to flow.
[0006]
If such a state is left as it is, so-called dead balls are generated in the storage tank 70 and remain and rust, and the supply of balls to each pachinko machine does not smoothly occur.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In view of such facts, an object of the present invention is to provide a ball circulation mechanism that smoothly circulates balls in a storage tank.
[0008]
The ball circulation mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the ball circulation mechanism is a ball circulation mechanism that circulates in an island where a plurality of pachinko machines are arranged. A tank having a bottom wall inclined downward toward the means, and a tunnel configured to be fixed to the bottom wall with an opening of a frame facing downward , and a tunnel leading from the upstream side to the downstream side of the tank. It is characterized by that.
The ball circulation mechanism.
[0009]
The ball circulation mechanism according to claim 2 is characterized in that a guide cover having a larger opening than the upstream opening of the tunnel is provided in the upstream opening of the tunnel.
[0010]
[Action]
In the ball circulation mechanism according to claim 1, a tank for storing balls is provided at the lower part of the island. The bottom wall of the tank is inclined downward toward the lifting and polishing means for polishing and lifting the balls to the upper part of the island. A tunnel is formed on the bottom wall by fixing the opening of the frame body downward, and this tunnel leads from the upstream side to the downstream side of the tank.
[0011]
Accordingly, the balls stored near the upstream of the tank flow toward the lifting and polishing means through the tunnel, and the balls stored near the downstream flow directly toward the lifting and polishing means without passing through the tunnel. For this reason, the stored balls are recirculated evenly regardless of the upstream side or the downstream side of the tank.
[0012]
In the ball circulation mechanism according to the second aspect, a guide cover having a larger opening than the upstream opening of the tunnel is provided at the upstream opening of the tunnel. Since the flow of balls flowing into the tunnel is organized by this guide cover, it is possible to prevent the so-called bridging phenomenon, in which the balls rush into the upstream opening and the balls interfere with each other and hinder smooth flow.
[0013]
【Example】
1 and 2 show an island 10 having a ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
[0014]
The island 10 has a structure in which a plurality of pachinko machines 12 can be attached to both sides in parallel. A ball counter 16 is attached to the end wall 14 of the island 10. The balls counted by the ball counter 16 are discharged onto a V-shaped chute 18 that inclines toward the mini-lift 22 (see FIG. 7) through the hollow portion of the storage tank 20 provided at the lower part of the island 10.
[0015]
As shown in FIG. 5, the storage tank 20 is a box having a rectangular cross section, and the center of the ceiling wall 20A is open along the longitudinal direction. A partition wall 24 extends from the opening edge 23 toward the inside of the storage tank 20 so as to surround both ends of the V-shaped chute 18 in the width direction with a predetermined gap. By the partition wall 24, the balls stored in the storage tank 20 do not flow onto the V-shaped chute 18, and the balls flowing through the V-shaped chute 18 can be preferentially sent to the mini lift 22. Further, the space between the side wall 20C of the storage tank 20 and the partition wall 24 can be effectively used as a ball storage space.
[0016]
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, an acceleration chute 26 is provided on the upstream side of the V-shaped chute 18, that is, below the ball outlet 16 </ b> A of the ball counter 16. The acceleration chute 26 is configured to draw a relaxation curve having a large inclination angle, and a ball falls on this steeply inclined surface.
[0017]
As a result, the initial velocity of the ball dropped from the ball outlet 16A of the ball counter 16 increases, so that even if the V-shaped chute 18 is made steep or the width of the V-shaped chute 18 is not widened, V The number of balls per unit time flowing through the character chute 18 can be increased. Therefore, even if a large number of balls are poured into the ball counter 16, there is no traffic jam near the ball outlet 16A.
[0018]
In the present embodiment, the acceleration chute 26 is configured to draw a relaxation curve. However, if the acceleration chute 26 is continuously connected to the upstream end of the V-shaped chute 18 and has a steep slope, the curve and the clothoid curve are used. The shape of the curve is not specified.
[0019]
Further, the V-shaped chute 18 is a ridge that is inclined downward from both ends in the width direction, and as shown in FIG. 6, the balls can be distributed in an orderly manner so as to snuggle up to the center. Furthermore, the ball that has flowed into the upper rod 26 of the mini-lift 22 installed on the downstream side of the V-shaped chute 18 forms a triangle with the upstream side as the apex on the V-shaped chute 18. Therefore, the balls flowing from the upstream side hit the triangular inclined surface L and are distributed to the left and right, fall into the storage tank 20 through the gap between the partition wall 24 and the V-shaped chute 18 (see FIG. 5), You can avoid clogging. Further, since the balls are equally distributed to the left and right spaces of the storage tank 20, the space of the storage tank 20 can be used effectively.
[0020]
On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the bottom wall 30 of the storage tank 20 is inclined downward toward the mini-lift 22, and the stored balls are allowed to naturally flow down to the mini-lift 22. A channel-shaped frame 34 is fixed to the bottom wall 30 with the opening facing downward, and the opening surface extends from the vicinity of the upstream portion of the storage tank 20 to the vicinity of the lower rod 36 (see FIG. 7). A rectangular tunnel 32 is formed. The opening height of the tunnel 32 is set to be larger than the ball diameter.
[0021]
The upstream opening of the tunnel 32 is covered with a channel-shaped guide cover 38 having a larger opening than the frame 34 so that a part of the frame 34 is overlapped. As a result, the flow of the balls flowing into the tunnel 32 is arranged, so that it is possible to prevent the so-called bridge phenomenon in which the balls rush into the tunnel 32 and the balls interfere with each other to obstruct a smooth flow.
[0022]
As shown in FIG. 7, below the mini-lift 22, a lower rod 36 is provided for receiving balls that have passed through the bottom wall 30 and the tunnel 32 of the storage tank 20. The balls received by the lower rod 36 are sent to the upper rod 28 that receives the balls from the V-shaped chute 18 by the mini-lift 22 and further sent to the rod-shaped foreign matter removing device 44 through the collecting rod 42. In this embodiment, two mini-lifts 22 are provided so as to cope with the increase / decrease of circulating balls. However, in a normal business state, one mini-lift 22 can sufficiently process. Even if both of the mini lifts 22 break down, the balls flow directly to the upper rod 28 through the V-shaped chute 18, so that the necessary balls can be secured and the business can be continued.
[0023]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the balls from which foreign matter has been removed by the foreign matter removing device 44 are sent through a chute 46 to a polishing device 48 provided at the center of the island 10. A polishing cloth (not shown) is attached to the inside of the storage cover of the polishing apparatus 48. A conveying belt is wound around the polishing cloth in the vertical direction. Further, a plurality of hemispherical grooves that can store balls in a single row are formed near the entrance of the polishing device 48. As a result, the balls sent from the chute 46 are sandwiched between the polishing cloth and the conveyor belt and are lifted to the upper part of the island 10 while being polished with the polishing cloth.
[0024]
On the other hand, the discharge port of the polishing device 48 is connected to a replenishment rod 50 that is inclined downwardly symmetrically toward both ends of the island 10. A replenishment hose (not shown) is connected to the replenishment basket 50 at a predetermined interval so as to replenish balls to the pachinko machine 12 and a ball rental machine (not shown).
[0025]
Further, the ball overflowed from between the discharge port of the polishing device 48 and the replenishing rod 50 is sent to a small tank 54 provided on the upper portion of the island 10. The small tank 54 temporarily stores the overflowed ball, and the ball overflowed from the small tank 54 is sent to a junction box 56 provided below. The junction box 56 is connected to tank recovery rods 58 that are symmetrically descending toward both ends of the island 10. Balls overflowing from the junction box 56 are transferred to the tank recovery rods 58 at predetermined intervals. Through the connected recovery hose 60, as shown in FIG. 5, it is evenly refluxed between the partition wall 24 and the side wall 20 </ b> C of the storage tank 20.
[0026]
In this embodiment, the island 10 provided with the magic tank 62 is illustrated as an example in order to circulate balls between a plurality of island groups through the basket 64 and eliminate excess or deficiency of balls. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Of course, the island 10 alone can be applied to a system that circulates balls including recovery of balls.
[0027]
Next, the operation of the tunnel 32 constituting the ball circulation mechanism according to this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, balls stored in advance, balls that have flowed down through the collection hose 60, and balls overflowing from the V-shaped chute 18 are stored in the storage tank 20.
[0028]
Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the balls stored near the upstream of the storage tank 20 flow toward the lower rod 36 (see FIG. 7) of the minilift 22 through the tunnel 32, and are stored near the downstream of the storage tank 20. The ball thus made flows directly toward the lower arm 36 of the minilift 22 without passing through the tunnel 32. For this reason, regardless of the upstream side or the downstream side of the storage tank 20, the stored balls are recirculated evenly.
[0029]
In addition, by providing a plurality of through holes through which balls can pass on the upper wall of the frame 34 constituting the tunnel 32, the balls stored in the middle part of the bottom wall 30 can flow to the tunnel 32 through the through holes. . As a result, the balls are further refluxed evenly.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
Since the present invention is configured as described above, the balls can be smoothly circulated evenly without generating dead balls that do not circulate in the storage tank.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of an island provided with a ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a side view of an island provided with a ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an acceleration chute of the ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a side view showing a ball flow state in the tunnel of the ball circulation mechanism according to the embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a storage tank of a ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a state where balls are accumulated on a V-shaped chute of the ball circulation mechanism according to the embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a mini-lift of the ball circulation mechanism according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a side view showing a flow state of balls in a storage tank in a conventional ball circulation mechanism.
[Explanation of symbols]
20 Storage tank (tank)
30 Bottom wall 32 Tunnel 38 Guide cover

Claims (2)

In the ball circulation mechanism that circulates in the island where multiple pachinko machines are arranged,
A tank provided with a bottom wall with a downward slope toward the lifting and polishing means for polishing and lifting the ball to the upper part of the island provided at the lower part of the island;
A tunnel configured to be fixed to the bottom wall with the opening of the frame facing down, and a tunnel leading from the upstream side to the downstream side of the tank;
A ball circulation mechanism characterized by comprising: The ball circulation mechanism according to claim 1, wherein a guide cover having a larger opening than the upstream opening of the tunnel is provided at the upstream opening of the tunnel.

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