JPH0792869B2 - Cup conveyor for cup-type beverage vending machines - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cup carrier for a cup-type beverage vending machine that directly mixes various beverages such as coffee, cocoa, and black tea in a cup for sale.

[Conventional technology]

As a cup-type beverage vending machine of this kind, the cups are transported along the transport route to the product outlet via the cup feeder, the raw material feeder, the dilution water feeder, the raw material agitator, etc., which are distributed in the machine. Equipped with a belt-type cup transporting device, and in the process of transferring the cup carried out from the cup supply device according to the sales instruction along the transporting route, first insert the designated raw material into the cup, and then another position. After supplying the dilution water with, the raw materials are stirred in the cup to prepare the beverage, and finally the beverage-containing cup is delivered to the product outlet, for example, is proposed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-190783. .

Further, as a cup transfer device, a cup holder for receiving and holding a cup is mounted, and a linear movement mechanism for moving and operating in a uniaxial direction, and one end of the linear movement mechanism is used as a fulcrum, and the linear movement mechanism is horizontally swung around this fulcrum. A cylindrical coordinate type moving mechanism combined with a turning mechanism for moving operation has already been proposed by the same applicant as Japanese Patent Application No. 61-86441.

By adopting such a cup transporting device of the cylindrical coordinate type moving mechanism, it is possible to two-dimensionally set the designation of the cup transporting route within the moving region as compared with the belt type cup transporting device. The degree of freedom in the in-machine layout for various devices such as the supply device can be increased.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

By the way, in the cylindrical coordinate type moving mechanism in which the linear moving mechanism and the turning mechanism are combined as described above, it is necessary to equip each mechanism with a drive motor and its control system, which complicates the structure and its operation control. Is expensive.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a drive and control system of one system so that a cup can be carried along a two-dimensionally designated cup carrying path in a machine. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cup carrier for a cup-type beverage vending machine, which is simplified.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, a telescopic arm having one end of a shaft connected to a swivel mechanism for swiveling operation in a horizontal direction, and a moving stage of a cup holder device attached to the tip of the arm. And a guide rail member that guides the moving stage along a designated cup transport path to a product outlet.

[Action]

In the above structure, when the telescopic arm is swung by the driving operation of the swivel mechanism, the movable stage attached to the tip of the arm is guided by the guide rail member and the cup, the raw material, and the diluting water designated in advance are guided. It will be moved to and from the product outlet via the supply point. Therefore, a series of selling operations can be performed by controlling the moving stage to stop sequentially at a designated position via the turning mechanism on the way of the moving route by program control based on the selling command. Moreover, the drive motor and its control system need only be provided in the turning mechanism, and the structure of the entire device is simplified.

〔Example〕

1 and 2 are a plan view and a side view of a cup carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of a different embodiment.

First, in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, 1 is a moving stage that also serves as a bend stage, which is a housing with an open top and a front equipped with a cup holder 11, and 2 is a direction of arrow P in which the moving stage 1 is mounted at the tip. A retractable arm 3 capable of expanding and contracting is a swivel mechanism that swivels the arm 2 in the direction of arrow Q around this fulcrum with one end of the arm as a fulcrum, and 4 is a movable stage 1 along a designated cup transport path. It is a guide rail member that guides the user.

Here, the telescopic arm 2 has a cylinder 21, one end of which is connected to the drive shaft of the swivel mechanism 3, a plunger 22 fitted and inserted into the cylinder 21, and a spring for projecting and pushing the plunger 22 forward.
Composed as an assembly with 23. A cylinder using air pressure may be used instead of the spring 23, and the arm 2 may be composed of two arms in order to hold the moving stage 1 in a horizontal posture.

On the other hand, the swivel mechanism 3 is composed of a drive motor 31 such as a pulse motor and a speed reduction mechanism 32, and the retractable arm 2 described above is coupled to the output shaft of the speed reduction mechanism. The drive motor is equipped with a pulse encoder or a potentiometer on the output shaft side in order to detect the turning position of the arm 2 and to control the stop positioning of the drive motor 31. Arm 2
Instead of adopting a pulse encoder or the like as the stop positioning control means of the above, it is also possible to previously provide a mechanical stopper mechanism, a limit switch or the like at a designated stop position on the turning movement path,
Further, according to this stop positioning method, an ordinary reversible motor can be used as it is without adopting an expensive pulse motor as a drive motor of the turning mechanism 3.

Further, the guide rail member 4 is a rail having an L-shaped cross section, and the movement track T is between the standby position shown by the solid line position in the figure and the carry-out position shown by the chain line facing the product outlet.
The overall shape is an inverted L-shape with the corners arcuate so as to guide along. Guide rollers 12 and 13 are provided at the tip and bottom of the moving stage 1 so that the guide rail member 4 is in contact with the side surface and the bottom surface and rolls on the rail.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, along the lower guide rail member 4, on the movement locus T of the moving stage 1, cup feeding points C1 and C2 from a cup feeding device, which are not shown, and raw materials from the raw material feeding device The supply points A1, A2, A3 for diluting water supply, the point M for stirring the raw materials, and the outlet V for the beverage-containing cup facing the product outlet are set.

Next, the operation of selling beverages using the above-mentioned cup carrier will be described. In the sale standby state, the movable stage 1 and the telescopic arm 2 are stopped at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. When a sales command is given here, the turning mechanism 3 is first started to move the moving stage 1 to the guide rail member 4
While moving along the guide, the cups are moved to the cup supply points C1 and C2 in accordance with the selection of the product and temporarily stopped, and the cup 5 that has been carried out of the cup supply device is received and held by the cup holder 11. Subsequently, the raw material supply points A1, A2, A3 of the selected type
Move to any of the points and receive the supply of raw materials. Next, the movable stage 1 is moved to the point M by the driving of the turning mechanism 3, where the water for dilution is supplied and the raw materials are stirred to prepare the beverage, and finally the movable stage 1 is moved to the point V. Here, when the customer takes out the beverage-filled cup through the merchandise outlet, the moving stage 1 returns to the standby position again, and a series of selling operations is completed. The series of sales operations are program-controlled by a command from the operation control unit.

Next, another application example is shown in FIG. That is, in the above embodiment, the cup supply points C1 and C2 and the raw material supply points A1 to A3.
Are linearly arranged along the movement trajectory T. However, it is difficult to arrange the cup supply device and the raw material supply device side by side on the left and right in the machine in terms of space limitations and maintenance work. In many cases, the cup supply device is arranged on the front door side of the cabinet and the raw material supply device is arranged rearward in the cabinet. Further, in such an in-machine layout, it is difficult to arrange the cup supply point and the raw material supply point in a straight line. The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is adapted to easily cope with such an in-machine layout, and the basic structure of the cup transporting device is the same as that of the above-mentioned embodiment, but the guide rail member 4 has the same cup and raw material. In the area of the supply points, the cup supply points C1 and C lined up in two rows
The side surface of the rail that guides the moving stage 1 is formed in a wavy shape corresponding to 2 and the raw material supply points A1 to A3.

With this configuration, in the process of turning the telescopic arm 2 by the turning mechanism 3, the telescopic arm 2 expands and contracts following the curved shape of the guide rail member 4, and the movable stage 1 is formed into a wavy shape that passes through the cup and the raw material supply points. It becomes possible to perform a movement operation along the movement trajectory T.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, one end of the shaft is coupled to the swivel mechanism to perform a horizontal swivel operation, a movable stage equipped with a cup holder attached to the tip of the arm, By configuring the cup transfer device with the guide rail member that guides the moving stage along the designated cup transfer path to the product outlet, the drive and control system is installed only in the turning mechanism. The moving stage can be moved along the designated cup transport path while being guided by the guide rail member, greatly simplifying the structure compared to the conventional cup transport device that combines a linear movement mechanism and a turning mechanism. The cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 are a plan view and a side view, respectively, showing the structure of a cup carrier according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the structure of another embodiment. In each figure, 1 ... Moving stage, 11 ... Cup holder, 2 ... Telescopic arm, 21 ... Cylinder, 22 ... Plunger, 23 ...
Biasing spring, 3 ... turning mechanism, 4 ... guide rail member,
5 ... Cup, P ... Arm expansion / contraction direction, Q ... Arm rotation movement direction, T ... Movement stage movement locus.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A cup feeder is carried out along a transport path from a cup feeder, various raw material feeders, a diluting water feeder, a raw material stirrer, etc., which are dispersed and installed in the machine, to a product outlet. The cup is transported, and the raw material specified in the cup is supplied during the transportation, the dilution water is supplied, and the raw material is stirred to prepare the beverage, and then the beverage-containing cup is delivered to the product outlet. A cup transfer device for a cup-type beverage vending machine, comprising: a telescopic arm that pivots in a horizontal direction by connecting one end of a shaft to a pivoting mechanism; and a moving stage equipped with a cup holder attached to the tip of the arm. And a guide rail member that guides the moving stage along a designated cup conveying path to a product outlet. Apparatus.