Patent ID: 7255199

Claim:
A circulating type transport apparatus comprising: an endless chain slidably moving on a circulating type transport path; a drive section for circulating the endless chain; and a management device for managing an expiration date of food and drink arranged on plate traveling on the endless chain, the management device including: a camera for capturing a two-dimensional code on a cylindrical base of the plate; a barcode scanner for analyzing the two-dimensional code captured by the camera and extracting a plate number; a management main body for receiving the plate number output from the barcode scanner and collectively managing the travel plates; and a DIO (Digital Input/Output) module, connected to a detection switch disposed on a downstream position of the camera and a discharge mechanism disposed on a downstream side of the detection switch, for performing bidirectional communication with the management main body, a separation distance between the camera and the detection switch being set to be shorter than a diameter Φ of the plate, and the DIO module having: notification means for transmitting a detection signal received from the detection switch to the management main body; and discharge means for operating the discharge mechanism based on a control signal received from the management main body, wherein the management main body includes: a travel management table TBL 1 for managing an elapsed time from a start of travel for all the plates traveling on the circulating type transport path in relation to the plate number; a discharge table TBL 2 for managing a discharge process time for the plates which elapsed time has exceed a predetermined value in relation to the plate number; a discharge flag FG for temporarily storing the fact that the plate which elapsed time has exceeded the predetermined value is detected; and a timer TMR for timing a time from when receiving the detection signal from the DIO module until operating the discharge mechanism.