TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an automatic vending machine.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, an automatic vending machine consists of a discriminating device of inputting coins, a commodity loading rack, and a commodity taking out device, and a conventional automatic vending machine utilizes the coin discriminating device detecting whether the inputting coin is a normal one or an illegal one as a counterfeited coins as a locking device of the commodity taking out device.

The conventional automatic vending machine as this has been very inconvenient to use because not only it had much a worry making a trouble in case trying an operation by continuously inputting the illegal coins but also it had to handle again an operating lever of the commodity taking out device even after inputting an normal coin. And, because the driving means of the commodity loading rack and the commodity taking out device are

made by an electric motor and an automatic control system of the commodity rack and also the commodity taking out device is made by an electric and electronic parts such as a limit switch, since it has to employ an electric circuit and a driving power for driving and controlling, there has been problems that not only a manufacturing cost was needed much, a maintaining and repairing were difficult, and whole volume of the automatic vending machine has become bigger, but also it could be installed only at a place capable of supplying a driving power, and it could not become to use in case of electricity failure.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present invention solves various conventional problems such as these, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic vending machine which is made such that a rotary feeder loaded with commodities in cylindrical form can be rotated by a resilient member such as twist coil spring and an operation of the rotary feeder is controlled by utilizing a motion energy of a coin at a time when the coin is dropped so that the commodity can be taken out.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG.l is a perspective view of an automatic vending machine in accordance with the present invention,

FIG.2 is a front view showing an internal structure of the automatic vending machine of the present invention,

FIG.3 is a rear view of a rotary feeder shown in FIG.2.

FIG.4 is a front view of a rotary feeder driving wheel shown in FIG.2 and FIG.3, and

FIG.5A and FIG.5B are magnified front views of a rotary feeder control mechanism showing an operating state of the automatic vending machine in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERAL FOR MAJOR PARTS

10 : Rotary feeder 12 : Driving wheel 14 : Control mechanism 16 : Guide chute 18 : Coin throwing inlet 20 : Gate

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described more in

detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The invention is made as shown in FIG.2 by a rotary feeder 10 loaded with commodities in cylindrical foam, a control mechanism 14 for controlling and limiting a driving wheel 12 of the rotary feeder 10 and a rotation of the driving wheel 12, a guide chute 16 of coins C making the control mechanism 14 to be operated, and a gate 20 closing a coin throwing inlet 18 at a time when the rotary feeder 10 did one rotation so that the loaded commodities G are all taken out.

The rotary feeder 10 and the driving wheel 12 are engaged to be able to rotate together.

A number of grooves 22 to be inserted with the commodities G are formed at front surface of the rotary feeder 10 in circumferential direction, and a protrusion 24 for operating the gate 20 to be concretely described hereinafter is formed to a circumference. A cylindrical side wall 26 having an internal ratchet gear of the driving wheel 12 to be concretely described hereinafter is formed at rear surface of the rotary feeder 10, a boss 28 is formed at center of the cylindrical side wall 26, and pawls 30,30' are resiliently fixed at around of the boss 28 by twist coil springs 32,32'.

The driving wheel 12 has a smaller diameter than the rotary feeder 10, in which a hole 34 to be inserted to the boss 28 of the rotary feeder 10 is formed at center, an internal ratchet gear 36 to be inserted within the cylindrical side wall 26 and to be hooked with the pawls 30,30' is formed, and teeth form 38 of the gear is formed at circumference.

The boss 28 of the rotary feeder 10 piercing through the hole 34 of the driving wheel 12 is inserted to a shaft 41 projected from a bottom of main body 40 to be freely rotated, and a twist coil spring

42 is inserted to the shaft 41.

An end 42-1 of the twist coil spring 42 is supported to the main body 40, while another end 42-2 of the twist coil spring 42 is supported to the rotary feeder 10 so that it is made to be able to load as winding a main spring of mechanical watch by rotating the rotary feeder 10 counterclockwise.

The control mechanism 14 controlling the rotation of the driving wheel 12 is made by a lever 44, a rotation controlling plate 46, and a gear 48 engaged with teeth form 38 of the driving wheel 12.

The lever 44 is pivoted by a pivot 50 at the main body 40, a trigger 52 to be struck by a dropping coin C is projected at an end, and a pawl 54 is formed to the trigger 52.

A ratchet 56 is pivoted by a pivot 58 at another end of the lever 44, and the ratchet 56 is resiliently fixed by a twist coil spring 60.

An end 60-1 of the twist coil spring 60 is supported to the ratchet 56, and another end 60-2 is supported to the lever 44.

The lever 44 is made to be limited with a moving width by a stopper 62 fixed to the main body 40, and the ratchet 56 is made to be limited with its moving width by a guide protrusion fixed to the main body 40. The rotation controlling plate 45 and the gear 48 are supported to the main body 40 to be able to rotate together by a pivot 66.

A guide ring 68 of the ratchet 56 is made to surface of the rotation controlling plate 46, a hole 72 to be inserted with a protrusion 70 capable of being hooked with the ratchet 56 with a predetermined intervals is formed at circumference of the guide ring 68, and a protrusion 74 capable of being hooked with the pawl 54 is fixed at rear surface of the rotation controlling plate 46.

In the present invention, the gear 48 and the teeth form 38 of the rotary feeder driving wheel 12 are designed such that one revolution of the rotation controlling plate 46 and the gear 48 correspond a groove 22 distance to be inserted with the commodity

at the rotary feeder 10, i.e., one pitch.

The numbers of the protrusions 70,74 in the rotation controlling plate 46 are set in accordance with the numbers of coins C corresponding to a price of the commodity G.

The guide chute of the coin C is made by a slant chute 16-1 for discriminating an illegal coin and a chute 16-2 extended in long toward the control mechanism 14. The slant chute 16-1 is inclined to forward and it has an illegal coin discharging outlet 78 adjusted with magnitude by an adjusting plate 76.

An illegal coin receiving container 80 is provided at around of the illegal coin discharging outlet 78.

The chute 16-2 extended toward the control mechanism 14 is extended in long toward the regular coin receiving container 82 located at downside, and a bent portion 84 positioned with the trigger 52 of the control mechanism 14 is formed.

The bent portion 84 makes the regular coin to be smoothly advanced toward the regular coin receiving container 82 after it is collided with the trigger 52 of the control mechanism 14. The gate 20 is pivoted by a pivot 84 to the main body 40 so as to be eccentric to one side, and as

shown by dotted line and real line in FIG.2, it is made such that the coin throwing inlet 18 is opened in usual time, while the coin throwing inlet 18 can be closed by a swing by colliding with the protrusion 24 of the rotary feeder 10 at a time when the rotary feeder 10 is turned by one revolution, i.e., when the commodities are all sold.

And, a reverse rotation prevention of the driving wheel 12 driving the rotary feeder 10 is executed by the pawls 30,30' attached to the rotary feeder 10, and as a means for more effectively executing the reverse rotation prevention, another pawl 88 supported by a pivot 85 to the main body 40 is resiliently fixed by a twist coil spring 90, and the pawl 90 is made to be engaged with the teeth form 38 of the driving wheel 12 so that the reverse rotation of the driving wheel 12 can be more effectively executed.

A guide 92 for preventing that the commodities inserted to the rotary feeder 10 are left is supported to the main body 40 at around of the rotary feeder 10.

And, a commodity taking out means 98 is formed at down portion of a cover 96 connected by a hinge 94 at upper side to the main body 40.

Explaining an operation and effect of the present invention constructed as these, it will be as follows.

Exemplary drawings of the present invention are

shown in FIG.2, FIG.5A and FIG.5B, as a case which is set so as the commodity G is taken out by one by four coins.

In accordance with the automatic vending machine of the present invention, as shown in FIG.2, when the rotary feeder 10 inserted with the commodities in radial form is turned counterclockwise, i.e., as winding a clock main spring, the driving wheel 12 assembled to be able to rotate together with the rotary feeder 10 is rotated counterclockwise whereby an energy is accumulated to the twist coil spring 42.

At this moment, the rotation toward clockwise direction of the driving wheel 12 according to a release of the twist coil spring 42 is prevented by the pawl 88 engaged with the gear teeth form 38 of the driving wheel 12 and the control mechanism 14.

Thus, in a state that the energy is accumulated whenever the rotary feeder 10 and the driving wheel 12 can be rotated clockwise, in other word, in a standby state that even when the commodity G can be taken out, when the regular coin C is thrown in through the coin throwing inlet 18, the regular coin C is dropped along with the guide chute 16.

At every time the dropping regular coin C passes the bent portion 84 made at chute 16-2 extended toward the control mechanism 14 and thereby colliding with

the trigger 52 attached to the lever 44 of the control mechanism 14 located toward the bent portion 84, the rotation controlling plate 46 constituting the control mechanism 14 by the pawl 54 formed to the lever 44 and the ratchet 56 pivoted with the lever 44 is rotated by a distance of the protrusions 70,74 formed to front and rear surfaces of the rotation controlling plate 46.

That is, the rotation controlling plate 46 is intermittently rotated at every time the four regular coins are thrown in.

In other word, immediately after a last fourth regular coin C which is a coins of set numbers is passed, the rotation controlling plate 46 is done by one revolution by a resiliency restoring force of the twist coil spring 42 accumulated with energy capable of rotating the rotary feeder 10 clockwise, and corresponding to this, the rotary feeder 10 is rotated at an angle corresponding to a distance of the inserted commodity, i.e., one pitch, and a commodity inserted to the groove 22 located at a same vertical line as the commodity taking out outlet 98.

At this moment, the driving wheel 12 operating together with the rotary feeder 10 completes one commodity G selling operation because the rotation controlling plate 46 which has been engaged with the

driving wheel 12 is stopped again by the pawl 54 of the lever 44 and the ratchet 56 and simultaneously the rotation is advanced clockwise by the pawl 88 resiliently fixed to the main body 40. In accordance with the automatic vending machine of the present invention as this, since the commodities G are loaded in a state that the energy which is going to rotate clockwise by a resiliency is accumulated at a time when another end 42-2 of the twist coil spring 42 supported with one end 42-1 to the main body 40 is twisted counterclockwise through the driving wheel 12 assembled so as to be able to rotate together with the rotary feeder 10, and which is made to be able to sell the commodities by making the driving wheel 12 to be rotated with a predetermined angle by operating the control mechanism 14 suppressing the clockwise rotation of the driving wheel 12 by a dropping motion energy of the throwing in regular coin C, and since it does not uses any electric motor to be supplied with electric power as previously known automatic vending machine or an electric and electronic type instruments such as a limit switch, a manufacturing cost can be reduced and volume can be made smaller, and particularly, since the driving wheel 12 is mounted in a state stacked behind the rotary feeder 10, a width of the automatic

vending machine can be greatly reduced, and it can be set up at a place having no electric power, and a price setting is easy since a selling price of the commodity G can be set by the numbers of the protrusions 70 on the rotation controlling plate 46, and the commodity selling is originally stopped since it is made to close the coin throwing inlet 18 by the gate 20 operating when the rotary feeder 10 is rotated by one revolution at a time of absence of stock of the commodity G.

In other word, a coin returning means is not required as in a conventional automatic vending machine in which a signal of commodity stock absence was only electrically displayed and the coin throwing in is possible.

Accordingly, a troublesome for unnecessarily operating in vain the automatic vending machine by a consumer is prevented, and a unbelievable sense of the automatic vending machine can be dissolved. Since the automatic vending machine in accordance with the present invention as this has almost no worry about damage and needs not to open the cover 96 except when loading the commodities G, it has advantage that a maintaining and repairing cost are needed less.