The invention relates to a wine bottle fixing device and a wine cabinet, and particularly relates to a wine bottle fixing device and a wine cabinet having a sensing function.
Generally, the most common way to store wine bottles is to place the wine bottles in a wooden wine cabinet. However, along with increase of the amount of stored wines, a storage time of each bottle of wine is often difficult to control. Moreover, as years pass by, it is often easy to forget the type and a storage location of each bottle of wine, and if combined with uncertain factors such as flaking of labels of the wine bottles over time, it will cause difficulties in wine management. Therefore, how to easily and effectively management the stored wine is a problem that needs to be solved at present.
The invention is directed to a wine bottle fixing device, which is adapted to fix a wine bottle and sense whether the wine bottle is inserted.
The invention is directed to a wine cabinet, which has the aforementioned wine bottle fixing device.
The invention provides a wine bottle fixing device, adapted for insertion of a bottle neck portion of a wine bottle to fix the wine bottle. The wine bottle fixing device includes a cylindrical body, a sliding component and a first sensing assembly. The cylindrical body surrounds an accommodating space and has an opening, where the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle is adapted to be inserted into the accommodating space through the opening. The sliding component is slidably disposed at the cylindrical body, and is adapted to slide between a first position and a second position along an axis. The first sensing assembly includes a first sensor and a first sensed component corresponding to the first sensor. One of the first sensor and the first sensed component is disposed on the sliding component, and the other one is disposed beside the opening of the cylindrical body. When the sliding component is located at the first position, the sliding component is close to the opening, and the first sensor is adapted to detect the first sensed component. When the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle is inserted into the cylindrical body, the wine bottle pushes the sliding component to slide from the first position to the second position, so that a sensed value of the first sensor sensing the first sensed component is changed.
In an embodiment of the invention, the wine bottle fixing device further includes an elastic component disposed in the accommodating space, and the elastic component is located between a bottom wall of the cylindrical body and the sliding component. When the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle is inserted into the cylindrical body, the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle pushes the sliding component to slide to the second position, the elastic component is compressed by the sliding component to accumulate elastic potential energy. When the bottle neck portion leaves the cylindrical body, the elastic component is adapted to release the elastic potential energy to push the sliding component to return to the first position.
In an embodiment of the invention, the wine bottle fixing device further includes at least one roller set, where each of the roller sets includes a plurality of rollers. The cylindrical body includes a plurality of slots formed on a wall surface and communicated with the accommodating space. The rollers are rotatably disposed on the slots and partially stretched into the accommodating space. When the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle is inserted into the accommodating space, the rollers are adapted to contact the wine bottle.
In an embodiment of the invention, the cylindrical body includes a plurality of roller frames corresponding to the slots, and the roller frames are located at an outer side of the wall surface of the cylindrical body. Each of the roller frames has an inclined track. A shaft rod of each roller penetrates through the inclined track. Each of the inclined tracks includes a first end and a second end opposite to each other, where the first end is close to the opening and away from the wall surface, and the second end is away from the opening and close to the wall surface.
In an embodiment of the invention, the number of the at least one roller set is two, where one of the roller sets is disposed around the cylindrical body and is close to the opening, and the other one of the roller sets is disposed around the cylindrical body and is away from the opening.
In an embodiment of the invention, orthographic projections of the rollers of the roller sets on a bottom wall of the cylindrical body are staggered from each other.
In an embodiment of the invention, the first sensing component is a magnetic sensor, and the first sensed component is a magnet.
The invention provides a wine cabinet including a cabinet body, a door plank pivotally connected to the cabinet body and a plurality of the aforementioned wine bottle fixing devices disposed in the cabinet body.
In an embodiment of the invention, the wine cabinet further includes a second sensing assembly, the second sensing assembly includes a second sensor and a second sensed component corresponding to the second sensor, where one of the second sensor and the second sensed component is disposed on the door plank, and the other one is disposed on the cabinet body. When the door plank is closed, the second sensor is adapted to detect the second sensed component. When the door plank is rotated relative to the cabinet body to open, the second sensed component leaves a sensing range of the second sensor.
Based on the above description, in the wine bottle fixing device of the invention, the sliding component is slidably disposed on the cylindrical body, and one of the sensed component and the sensor is disposed on the sliding component, and the other one is disposed beside the opening of the cylindrical body. Therefore, when the wine bottle is inserted into the cylindrical body from the opening, the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle pushes the sliding component, so that the sensed value of the sensor sensing the sensed component is changed. In this way, the sensing assembly of the invention is capable of automatically detecting whether the wine bottle is put into the wine bottle fixing device. The wine cabinet of the invention has the aforementioned wine bottle fixing devices, and is capable of efficiently managing storage time of the stored wines, and providing an objective basis for the user to judge whether the wine is suitable for drinking at this time point.
To make the aforementioned more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with drawings are described in detail as follows.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
In the embodiment, the wine cabinet 200 selectively has a smart system management function. For example, the wine cabinet 200 may has a recognizer, which may obtain information of such bottle of wine by, for example, scanning a barcode of the wine bottle to be put in or photographing a wine label thereon, and transmit the information to the system, and then the wine bottle 10 is fixed to the wine bottle fixing devices 100. In this way, the wine cabinet 200 may record which wines are placed in it.
When the user wants to take a bottle of wine, a door plank 220 of the wine cabinet 200 may be a display panel, which may display all kinds of information of the wines stored in the wine cabinet 200, or may even be connected to the system through the Internet to provide information related to meals that are suitable for these wines to the user, or may even suggest or remind the user to add which kinds of wine. After the user selects the bottle of wine to be taken from the wine cabinet 200 according to the information displayed on the door plank 220, a lamp next to the bottle of wine may be lighted to indicate which bottle of wine the user wants to take.
Moreover, the door plank 220 may also be selected by the user to serve as a transparent door plank or a display panel. When the user selects the door plank 220 to be transparent, the user may clearly observe a wine storage status within the wine cabinet 200 through the door panel 220. When the user selects the door plank 220 to be the display panel, the display panel may display related information of the stored wines. Certainly, in other embodiments, the wine bottle fixing devices 100 are not limited to be configured on the wine cabinet 200, but may also be configured on equipment with other functions, which is not limited by the invention.
A structure of the wine bottle fixing device 100 is described in detail below.
In detail, the sliding component 120 is slidably disposed at the cylindrical body 110, and the sliding component 120 is adapted to slide between a first position P1 and a second position P2 along an axis A. In the embodiment, the axis A and a horizontal line H have an included angle there between. To be specific, the axis A is slightly higher than the horizontal line H at the opening 114, and in the drawings, the opening 114 is close to the right side, so that the axis A is inclined in the drawings in a right-up-left-down manner. The cylindrical body 110 is configured on the wine cabinet 200 along the axis A. Namely, the opening 114 of the cylindrical body 110 is slightly higher than a bottom wall 110b. The included angle between the axis A and the horizontal line H is, for example, 3 degrees and 30 degrees, though the invention is not limited thereto.
Since the bottle neck portions 15 of different wine bottles 10 are probably different, and a diameter of the bottle neck portion 15 is about between 27 cm and 33 cm, when the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the cylindrical body 110, the wine bottle 10 is more easily fixed in the accommodating space 112 and is not easy to slip out of the cylindrical body 110 due to the inclination design. Certainly, in order to save a space, in the embodiment, the included angle between the axis A and the horizontal line H may not be too large, which may be, for example, 5 degrees, so that the wine cabinet 200 (
In the embodiment, the cylindrical body 110 further includes a sliding chute 116 formed on a wall surface 110a of the cylindrical body 110, and the sliding chute 116 extends along the axis A and is communicated with the accommodating space 112 of the cylindrical body 110. Moreover, the sliding component 120 further includes a push portion 122 located in the accommodating space 112 and a protrusion portion 124 connected to the push portion 122, and the protrusion portion 124 of the sliding component 120 protrudes out of the wall surface 110a of the cylindrical body 110 from the sliding chute 116.
In the embodiment, when the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the wine bottle fixing device 100, the push portion 122 of the sliding component 120 is pushed by the wine bottle 10, and slides in the accommodating space 112, and the protrusion portion 124 of the sliding component 120 is accordingly moved. A part of the protrusion portion 124 slides in the sliding chute 116, and the other part of the protrusion portion 124 protrudes out of the wall surface 110a of the cylindrical body 110.
Moreover, in the embodiment, the wine bottle fixing device 100 further includes a first sensing assembly 130. Further, the first sensing assembly 130 includes a first sensor 132 and a first sensed component 134 corresponding to the first sensor 132. In the embodiment, the first sensed component 134 is a magnet, and the first sensor 132 is a magnetic sensor, and is, for example, a Hall effect sensing component. Certainly, in other embodiments, sensing principles and types of the first sensed component 134 and the first sensor 132 are not limited thereto.
In the embodiment, the first sensed component 134 is disposed on the sliding component 120, for example, disposed on the protrusion portion 124 of the sliding component 120. The first sensor 132 is disposed beside the opening 114, for example, disposed on the wine cabinet 200 (
In the embodiment, when the wine bottle 10 is not inserted into the cylindrical body 110, the sliding component 120 is located at the first position P1, and the first sensor 132 disposed beside the opening 114 may detect the first sensed component 134 located on the protrusion portion 124. Therefore, it is learned that the wine bottle 10 is not yet inserted into the cylindrical body 110. When the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the cylindrical body 110, the sliding component 120 is moved from the first position P1 to the second position P2 to drive the first sensed component 134 to depart from the first sensor 132, and a sensed value of the first sensor 132 sensing the first sensed component 134 is changed, so that it is learned that the wine bottle 10 has been inserted into the cylindrical body 110. Namely, when the sensed value of the first sensor 132 sensing the first sensed component 134 is gradually decreased, it represents that the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the cylindrical body 110. Conversely, when the sensed value of the first sensor 132 sensing the first sensed component 134 is gradually increased, it represents that the wine bottle 10 leaves the cylindrical body 110.
Certainly, in other embodiments, positions of the first sensed component 134 and the first sensor 132 may also be reversed. Namely, the first sensed component 134 may also be disposed beside the opening 114, and the first sensor 132 may also be disposed on the sliding component 120 as long as the sensed value of the first sensor 132 sensing the first sensed component 134 is changed when the wine bottle 10 pushes the sliding component 120 to the second position P2.
Moreover, it should be noted that in other embodiments that are not illustrated, the first sensed component 134 is not necessarily disposed on the convex part 124, it may be disposed at any place of the sliding component 120 as long as the first sensor 132 may detect the first sensed component 134 when the sliding component 120 is located at the first position P1, and as long as the sensed value of the first sensor 132 sensing the first sensed component 134 is changed when the sliding component 120 is away from or close to the first position P1, which is not limited by the invention.
Referring to
When the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the accommodating space 112 in the cylindrical body 110 from the opening 114, the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 pushes the sliding component 120, and the sliding component 120 is moved to the second position P2. Now, the elastic component 140 is compressed by the sliding component 120 to accumulate elastic potential energy. In this case, the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 is stuck in the cylindrical body 110, and the sliding component 120 is fixed to the second position P2. When the user takes out the wine bottle 10 to make the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 to leave the cylindrical body 110, the elastic component 140 is adapted to release the elastic potential energy to push the sliding component 120 to return to the first position P1.
The wine bottle fixing device 100 of
In the embodiment, one of the roller sets 150 is disposed around the cylindrical body 110 and is close to the opening 114, and the other one of the roller sets 150a is disposed around the cylindrical body 110 and is away from the opening 114. Moreover, the rollers 152 of the roller set 150 and the rollers 152 of the roller set 150a are configured in interleaving. In other words, orthographic projections of the rollers 152 of the roller sets 150 and 150a on the bottom wall 110b of the cylindrical body 110 are staggered from each other. The design of the rollers 152 makes the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 to be easily inserted and taken out.
Moreover, in the embodiment, the cylindrical body 110 has a plurality of slots 118 formed on the wall surface 110a, and a plurality of roller frames 119 corresponding to the slots 118. The slots 118 are communicated with the accommodating space 112 of the cylindrical body 110. Each of the roller frames 119 is disposed at the corresponding slot 118, and is located at an outer side of the wall surface 110a. The rollers 152 are rotatably disposed on the roller frames 119. Each of the roller frames 119 further has an inclined track 119a, a shaft rod 152a of each roller 152 rotatably penetrates through the corresponding inclined track 119a, and the rollers 152 are partially stretched into the accommodating space 112 through the slots 118 (shown in
Therefore, in the embodiment, during a process that the bottle neck portion 15 of the wine bottle 10 is inserted into the cylindrical body 110, the bottle neck portion 15 contacts the rollers 152, and drives the rollers 152 to roll from the first ends E1 to the second ends E2 along the inclined tracks 119a by the friction with the rollers 152 (
It should be noted that in the embodiment, when a thicker bottle neck portion 15 is inserted, the rollers 152 may probably only be able to roll a small distance from the first end E1 of the inclined track 119a, and the rollers 152 has already clamped the bottle neck portion 15 tight. When a thinner bottle neck portion 15 is inserted, the rollers 152 may probably roll from the first end E1 of the inclined track 119a to a position close to the second end E2 so that the rollers 152 clamp the bottle neck portion 15 tight. Therefore, according to such design, the wine bottle fixing device 100a of the embodiment may fix the bottle neck portion 15 with a larger diameter and size range.
In the embodiment, the second sensing assembly 230 includes a second sensor 232 and a second sensed component 234 corresponding to the second sensor 232. The second sensor 232 is, for example, disposed on the door plank 220, and the second sensed component 234 is, for example, disposed on the cabinet body 210. Therefore, when the door plank 220 is in the close state as shown in
Based on the above design, in the embodiment, the wine cabinet 200 has a function of reminding the user that the door plank 220 is not closed, so as to avoid a change of temperature and humidity in the wine cabinet 200 to affect the quality of the stored wines. For example, when the user forgets to close the door plank 220 or the door plane 220 is not completed closed, the second sensor 232 cannot detect the second sensed component 234. In this case, a warning sound may be sent to alert the user, and until the second sensor 232 detects the second sensed component 234 due to close of the door plank 220, sending of the warning sound is stopped, so as to achieve a power-saving effect or prevent deterioration of the wines stored in the wine cabinet 200. Certainly, in other embodiments, the second sensor 232 does not necessarily need to cooperate with the warning sound, and any design of the wine cabinet with the smart system may be adjusted according to an actual requirement.
It should be noted that in other embodiments, the sliding component 120, the rollers 152 and the second sensing assembly 230 of the invention may all be simultaneously or independently configured in the wine bottle fixing devices 100 and 100a. Moreover, in the figures of the invention, only two possibilities are illustrated as examples, and descriptions of other possibilities are omitted, though the invention is not limited thereto.
In summary, in the wine bottle fixing device of the invention, the sliding component is slidably disposed on the cylindrical body, and one of the sensed component and the sensor is disposed on the sliding component, and the other one is disposed beside the opening of the cylindrical body. Therefore, when the wine bottle is inserted into the wine bottle fixing device from the opening, the bottle neck portion of the wine bottle pushes the sliding component, so that the sensed value of the sensor sensing the sensed component is changed. In this way, the sensing assembly of the invention is capable of automatically detecting whether the wine bottle is put into the wine bottle fixing device. The wine cabinet is capable of efficiently managing storage time of the stored wines, and providing an objective basis for the user to judge whether the stored wine is suitable for drinking at this time point. Moreover, in the invention, based on the design of the rollers gradually inclined inward, the wine bottle fixing device may be adapted to the bottle neck portions with a larger size range.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the invention covers modifications and variations provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/772,635, filed on Nov. 29, 2018. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62772635 | Nov 2018 | US |