JP3185062B2 - Additional tank for refillable medal payout mechanism - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a game machine such as a slot machine or a vending machine (hereinafter referred to as a slot machine) which is used by inserting coins and medals (hereinafter simply referred to as medals). The present invention relates to an additional tank of a refillable medal payout mechanism for increasing the medal storage capacity of the payout mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In slot machines and the like, it is common to use a refillable medal payout mechanism to pay out medals.

A refillable medal payout mechanism is used for paying out winning medals in a gaming machine, paying out change in a vending machine, and the like. The hopper for storing medals and a mechanism for paying out a predetermined number of medals by an external signal. The discharge mechanism is integrally assembled (for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-21)
No. 086). In the hopper, a large amount of medals are stored in advance and used for payout, but medals inserted by the user are also automatically inserted into the hopper,
Since the medals are replenished, there is an advantage that the frequency of replenishing medals can be reduced.

[0004]

In the prior art, since the hopper and the payout mechanism are integrally formed, if the medal storage capacity of the hopper is increased, the whole becomes large and heavy. There has been a problem that it is extremely inconvenient to incorporate it into a machine. In particular, in gaming machines, the number of medals to be paid out is generally about a fraction of the number of medals to be thrown in. Therefore, the medal storage capacity must be particularly large, In consideration of the time when the medals become full, a mechanism for smoothly overflowing the overflowing medals is indispensable (the above-mentioned publication).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems and circumstances of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a tank body that can be mounted on a hopper of a medal payout mechanism, and form an overflow hole with an overflow chute in the tank body. As a result, the medal storage capacity can be arbitrarily expanded,
In addition, the present invention relates to an additional tank of a refillable medal payout mechanism that can allow overflowing medals to overflow smoothly.

[0006]

According to the structure of the present invention for achieving the above object, an upper portion is opened, an opening communicating with a medal payout mechanism is provided at a bottom portion, and the medal payout mechanism can be mounted on a hopper. A tank body, a drawer-type refill chute movably mounted on the upper part of the tank body, a receiving chute fixed to the upper part on the front side of the tank body and receiving a medal falling from above through the input chute; The gist of the present invention consists of an overflow hole formed in a side surface of the main body at a position lower than the receiving chute and an overflow chute obliquely rising from a lower edge of the overflow hole.

[0007] The overflow hole may be provided at the rear of the side surface of the tank body, and may be a stepped hole having a high front side and a low rear side.

[0008]

With this configuration, the tank body has a drawer-type refill chute at its upper part. When refilling medals, the replenishment chute is drawn forward to perform replenishment work. It can be simple and convenient. Further, since the overflow hole is provided with an overflow chute and is opened at a position lower than the receiving chute, overflowing medals can be smoothly overflowed. By mounting the tank body on the hopper of the medal payout mechanism, the medal storage capacity of the medal payout mechanism can be arbitrarily increased.

When the overflow hole is provided at the rear portion of the side surface of the tank body, the medal is thrown into the tank body via the receiving chute, and if the medals accumulated on the front side of the tank body become higher than a certain level, the extra medals are removed from the rear side. And the overflow chute slides down and can easily overflow outside through the overflow hole. At this time, since the overflow hole is a stepped hole, even if a medal may stay on the overflow chute, the subsequent medals will not pass through the overflow chute and will be in front of the overflow hole. It is possible to overflow directly through the upper part.

[0010]

Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The additional tank of the refillable medal payout mechanism is a tank body 1 mounted on the hopper 22 of the medal payout mechanism 20.
1 and a drawer-type refill chute 12 mounted on the tank body 11 (FIGS. 1 and 2).

The medal payout mechanism 20 includes a base frame 2
1, a hopper 22, a rotating plate 23, and a motor 24 are assembled.

The hopper 22 is an open-topped container into which a large number of medals (not shown) are randomly inserted, and the rotating plate 23 is obliquely mounted inside the hopper 22. The rotating plate 23 forms a slope reaching the bottom of the hopper 22 via the partition plate 22a, and is connected to the motor 24 via gears 24b and 24a.

On the surface of the rotating plate 23, a large number of projections 23 are provided.
are formed in a circular array, and a convex portion 23b is formed in a disk shape at the center thereof. Then, when the rotating plate 23 is rotated by the motor 24, the medals in the hopper 22 are formed with the projections 23a, 23a.
The medals picked up in this way can be individually ejected through the ejection holes 25 and paid out to the outside. However, the discharge hole 25 is formed by the guide member 25a extending to the upper surface of the rotating plate 23, the base frame 21, and the cover plate 25b, and is opened in the side surface of the hopper 22 below the front part of the tank body 11. Shall be

The tank body 11 is open at the top and has an opening 11a at the bottom that communicates with the hopper 22 of the medal payout mechanism 20, and is formed in a hopper shape as a whole (FIGS. 1, 2 and 3). (Fig. 3).

A receiving chute 11b is fixed obliquely on the upper front side of the tank body 11, and
An overflow hole 11c is formed at the rear of the side surface of the first side. The overflow hole 11c has a
It is assumed that it is opened at a lower position, and its shape is a stepped hole that is high on the front side and low on the rear side. An overflow chute 11d is attached to the overflow hole 11c, and the overflow chute 11d is fixed so as to rise obliquely from a lower edge of the overflow hole 11c. The overflow chute 11d is formed diagonally so that one side is in contact with the rear wall of the tank body 11 and the other side is gradually narrowed from bottom to top.

At the top of the tank body 11,
A pair of rails 11e, 11e are provided.

The refilling chute 12 is formed in a frame shape as a whole, has a handle 12a on the front surface, and has
The legs 12b are protruded. Legs 12b, 12b
Is fitted to the rails 11e, 11e of the tank body 11,
The rails 11e, 11e can be slid, so that the refill chute 12 as a whole
It is attached to the tank body 11 so as to be able to move back and forth.

The replenishing chute 12 is provided with a guide plate 12c descending rearward and a top plate 12d, and the space between the guide plate 12c and the top plate 12d is a vertically communicating space.

Above the receiving chute 11b, a shooting chute ST from a medal selector (not shown) is arranged. However, it is assumed that the medal selector determines the authenticity of medals inserted by the user and discharges only authentic medals to the inserted shoot ST.

When refilling the medals into the medal payout mechanism 20, the replenishing chute 12 is pulled out forward (two-dot chain line in FIG. 3). Accordingly, the refill chute 12 can be protruded to the front of the tank main body 11, so that even if other mechanical parts including the medal selector are fully mounted above the tank main body 11, the medal of the medal can be prevented. The refilling operation is very easy. The medals are applied not only to the hopper 22 of the medal payout mechanism 20 but also to the tank body 1.
Even with respect to 1, the medal storage capacity as a whole can be significantly increased as compared with the case where only the medal payout mechanism 20 is used, since the medal can be stored as long as the medal is not overflown from the overflow hole 11c.

After the hopper 22 and the tank body 11 are sufficiently replenished with medals, the replenishing chute 12 is pushed backward to open the lower portion of the input chute ST (solid line in FIG. 3), and the machine is used.

When a user inserts a medal, the medal is inserted into the tank body 11 via a medal selector (not shown) and a shooting chute ST. However, in the medal selector, in addition to the authenticity determination of the medals, the genuine medals are counted, and the counting result is used as basic information for determining the operation contents of the machine thereafter.

In this way, the medal is stored in the tank body 11
When the amount becomes excessive, medals overflow to an external auxiliary tank (not shown) through the overflow hole 11c and are discharged.

The medals thrown in through the throwing chute ST fall on the receiving chute 11b.
The medal from the receiving chute 11b is
When the dimensions of the receiving chute 11b and the like are determined so as to drop slightly forward from the center or the center of the tank, the medals in the tank body 11 are piled up and stored in front of the tank body 11. (Fig. 3
Curves A, B).

Then, the height of the pile of medals is
As shown by the curve A, when the extra medals are passed over the lower portion of the overflow hole 11c, the extra medals can slide down the upper surface of the overflow chute 11d and overflow smoothly to the outside. At this time, if the medal stays on the overflow chute 11d or the like for some reason, the height of the medal increases further (curve B in the figure), but when the medal height exceeds the upper part of the overflow hole 11c. The medals can overflow directly from the overflow hole 11c to the outside without passing through the overflow chute 11d. Therefore, the height of the medals does not exceed the curve B at the maximum.

In the above description, the overflow hole 11
The formation position and shape of c can be arbitrarily changed as long as they are the side surfaces of the tank body 11. For example, the overflow hole 11c may be provided at the front side or the center of the side surface of the tank body 11, and the shape thereof may be a simple square or rectangle instead of a step hole.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, by providing an overflow hole with an overflow chute in a tank body mountable on the medal payout mechanism, the tank body communicates with the hopper of the medal payout mechanism. Then, the medal storage capacity as a whole can be arbitrarily increased, and extra medals can smoothly overflow from the overflow hole. Therefore, the medal payout mechanism itself is small and compact. This is an excellent effect that it is extremely convenient when incorporated in a slot machine or the like.

Further, since a drawer-type refill chute is attached to the tank body, refilling of medals can be performed very easily by pulling the replenishment chute forward, so that there is a margin for refilling medals. Since there is no need to prepare a space above, there is also a practical effect that the design margin of the entire machine can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall exploded perspective view.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory cross-sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory cross-sectional view of a main part corresponding to a line YY in FIG. 1;

[Description of Signs] ST: input chute 11: tank body 11a: opening 11b: receiving chute 11c: overflow hole 11d: overflow chute 12: refill chute 20: medal payout mechanism 22: hopper

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A tank body mountable on a hopper of the medal payout mechanism, and a drawer mounted on the upper part of the tank body so as to be movable back and forth. A refilling chute having a shape, a receiving chute fixed to the upper part on the front side of the tank body and receiving a medal falling from above through the input chute, and a hole formed in a side surface of the tank body at a position lower than the receiving chute. An additional tank for a refillable medal payout mechanism, comprising an overflow hole that overflows and an overflow chute that rises obliquely from the lower edge of the overflow hole. 2. The additional tank according to claim 1, wherein the overflow hole is provided at a rear portion of a side surface of the tank main body, and is a stepped hole having a high front side and a low rear side.