Power saving apparatus of an automatic vending machine and method thereof

• US 5,947,327 A
• Filed: 05/30/1997
• Issued: 09/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Kwangju Electronics Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Hee-Soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Noland, Kenneth
• Application Number:
  US08/866,184
• Time in Patent Office: 830 Days
• Field of Search: 221/2, 221/6, 221/7, 221/9, 221/13, 221/17, 221/150 R, 221/258
• US Class Current: 221/6
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty

Abstract

The present invention is disclosed to provide a power saving apparatus and a method for reducing an electric power of the automatic vending machine when goods stored or provided at an inner part of the automatic vending machine is maintained at a goods sold out state or when an error occurs due to some trouble at a predetermined load(s) of the inner part of the automatic vending machine. In the automatic vending machine, with an operating time of a heater and a compressor being reduced power consumption to be used at the sales stop state of the automatic vending machine can be reduced according to reduced operating time of the inner load at a predetermined ratio.

Claims

1. A power saving apparatus of an automatic vending machine, the apparatus comprising:

a goods sold-out state detecting part for judging and detecting a sold-out state of goods stored and/or provided at a predetermined part of the automatic vending machine;

an inner apparatus within said automatic vending machine including a coin sensing mechanism, a goods selecting part and a goods extracting part,

a failure detecting part for detecting a trouble state of the inner apparatus of the automatic vending machine;

a control part for determining the sold-out state of the goods stored at said automatic vending machine by a detecting signal from said failure detecting part, and for generating a control signal for controlling an operating time of each load of the inner apparatus of said automatic vending machine;

a display part for displaying the no sales state according to the display control signal output from the control part; and

a driving control part for adjusting and controlling the operating time of each load according to a control signal output from the control part.

2. A power saving method of an automatic vending machine, the method comprising the steps of:

displaying an operating state through a display part of the automatic vending machine after prosecuting a predetermined initial work when an AC voltage provided from an outside is supplied with the automatic vending machine;

detecting a goods sold-out state by the goods sold-out state detecting part while being sold the goods provided at the automatic vending machine;

detecting a trouble or failure of an inner apparatus including a coin selecting mechanism, a goods selecting part and a goods extracting part of said automatic vending machine by the failure detecting part while being sold the goods provided at the automatic vending machine;

displaying a no sales state according to the goods sold-out state, a trouble or failure of the inner apparatus of the automatic vending machine; and

reducing an operating time of each load at a predetermined rate.