Automatic vending machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9741196-B2
Application number	US-201214356334-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2012
Priority date	Nov 14, 2011
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

A controller, when a normal cooling operation is being performed, forward-drives a lower-side and an upper-side in-box blower fans, thereby causing internal air cooled by an evaporator to circulate within a commodity storage box in such a way that it enters a rear face duct through a lower-side opening and is discharged from an upper-side opening, and when a cold-maintaining operation is being performed, stops driving the lower-side and the upper-side in-box blower fans, and when a cooling recovery operation is being performed, forward-drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and reverse-drives the upper-side in-box blower fan, thereby causing internal air cooled by the evaporator to enter the rear face duct through the lower-side opening and causing internal air to enter the rear face duct through the upper-side opening, and also causing internal air entered the rear face duct to be discharged from the intermediate opening.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An automatic vending machine comprising:
an automatic vending machine main body, an opening formed in a front face of which is opened and closed by means of a door body and inside which a commodity storage box is defined;
a commodity-accommodating device which is provided inside the commodity storage box and which vertically accommodates commodities that have been introduced thereinto and dispenses the lower most commodity when receiving a sell command;
a duct disposed vertically inside the commodity storage box and adjacent to the commodity-accommodating device, the duct having
a lower-side opening at a lower side of the commodity storage box,
an upper-side opening at an upper side of the commodity storage box and directly communicating with the lower-side opening, and
an intermediate opening between the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening, and directly communicating with the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening;

a flapper member disposed swingably at the intermediate opening to close the intermediate opening by means of a weight of the flapper member and swing to open the intermediate opening if a pressure inside the duct is greater than a pressure outside the duct;
a cooler which is provided in the commodity storage box in a vicinity of the lower-side opening of the duct for cooling an internal atmosphere inside the commodity storage box;
a lower-side in-box blower fan disposed at the lower-side opening of the duct for circulating the internal atmosphere between the inside and the outside of the duct;
an upper-side in-box blower fan disposed at the upper-side opening of the duct for circulating the internal atmosphere between the inside and the outside of the duct; and
a controller
which, when a normal cooling operation is being performed, drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan such that the internal atmosphere which has been caused to enter the duct through the lower-side opening circulates within the commodity storage box in such a way that the internal atmosphere is discharged from the upper-side opening, thus cooling all of the commodities accommodated in the commodity-accommodating device, and
which, when a cold-maintaining operation is being performed, stops driving the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan, and
which further, when a cooling recovery operation is being performed subsequent to the cold-maintaining operation, drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan such that the internal atmosphere enters the duct through the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening to change the pressure difference between the inside of the duct and the outside of the duct so that the flapper member swings to open the intermediate opening and that the internal atmosphere which has entered the duct through the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening is discharged from the intermediate opening thereby cooling the commodities in a lower region from the intermediate opening,

wherein the controller sequentially performs the normal cooling operation, the cold-maintaining operation, and the cooling recovery operation in accordance with a preset time schedule.

2. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1 , wherein
the lower-side opening is provided further toward the lower region than the commodity-accommodating device, and
the upper-side opening is provided further toward an upper region than the commodity-accommodating device.

3. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1 , wherein
the lower-side in-box blower fan is provided in front of the lower-side opening, and
the upper-side in-box blower fan is provided in front of the upper-side opening.

4. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1 , wherein when the cooling recovery operation is being performed,
if an internal temperature inside the commodity storage box is equal to or less than a predefined threshold, the controller drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan such that the internal atmosphere enters the duct through the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening and that the internal atmosphere which has entered the duct is discharged from the intermediate opening thereby cooling the commodities in the lower region from the intermediate opening, and
if the internal temperature exceeds the predetermined threshold, the controller drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan such that the internal atmosphere which has cooled the commodities accommodated in the commodity-accommodating device circulates within the commodity storage box in such a way that the internal atmosphere enters the duct through the upper-side opening and is discharged from the lower-side opening thereby cooling the commodities accommodated in the commodity-accommodating device.

5. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1 , further comprising a ventilation passage that allows the internal atmosphere to pass between an internal door which constitutes the door body and which opens and closes a front face opening of the commodity storage box, and the commodity-accommodating device in the commodity storage box.

6. The automatic vending machine according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an intermediate in-box temperature sensor disposed at a height corresponding to the intermediate opening for detecting a temperature inside the commodity storage box at an intermediate region,
wherein when the cooling recovery operation is being performed, and
when the intermediate in-box temperature sensor detects the temperature of the commodity storage box at the intermediate region of the commodity storage box to be equal or lower than a predetermined temperature, the controller drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan to allow the internal atmosphere to enter the duct through the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening to change the pressure difference between the inside of the duct and the outside of the duct so that the flapper member swings to open the intermediate opening and allow the internal atmosphere to discharge from the duct through the intermediate opening, and
when the intermediate in-box temperature sensor detects the temperature of the commodity storage box at the intermediate region to be greater than the predetermined temperature, the controller drives the lower-side in-box blower fan and the upper-side in-box blower fan to allow the internal atmosphere to enter the duct through the upper-side opening and discharge from the duct through the lower-side opening, while the flapper member closes the intermediate opening.

7. An automatic vending machine comprising:
an automatic vending machine main body, an opening formed in a front face of which is opened and closed by means of a door body and inside which a commodity storage box is defined;
a commodity-accommodating device which is provided inside the commodity storage box and which vertically accommodates commodities that have been introduced thereinto and dispenses the lower most commodity when receiving a sell command;
a duct disposed vertically inside the commodity storage box and adjacent to the commodity-accommodating device, the duct having
a lower-side opening at a lower side of the commodity storage box,
an upper-side opening at an upper side of the commodity storage box and directly communicating with the lower-side opening, and
an intermediate opening between the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening, and directly communicating with the lower-side opening and the upper-side opening;

a flapper member disposed swingably at the intermediate opening to close the inte

Assignees

• Fuji Electric Co Ltd
• Coca Cola Co

Inventors

• Yamagami Yuuhei
• Sugimoto Koji
• Yamazaki Yasuhiro

Classifications

• G07F9/105 Primary

  Heating or cooling means, for temperature and humidity control, for the conditioning of articles and their storage (dispensers for food articles requiring a processing by temperature treatment or conditioning before they are ready for dispensing G07F17/0064) · CPC title

• F25D2317/0684

  the fans allowing rotation in reverse direction · CPC title

• F25D2317/0682

  Two or more fans · CPC title

• F25D31/007

  Bottles or cans · CPC title

• F25D17/06

  by forced circulation · CPC title