Article dispensing – With article treatment – With cooling or heating
Patent
1986-12-08
1988-09-20
Rolla, Joseph J.
Article dispensing
With article treatment
With cooling or heating
99355, 49 41, A24F 2714
Patent
active
047719133
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to an oven which may be used in a vending machine.
Apparatus for vending heated-on-demand pre-cooked food has been proposed wherein upon insertion of a sum of money containers of food are automatically conveyed from a storage chamber into a heating chamber and then are delivered to a dispensing outlet. The storage chamber may be refrigerated and the heating chamber may be a microwave oven.
In one known type of such apparatus, e.g. that disclosed in French Patent Specification No. 2458851, a microwave oven is disposed below a food storage chamber. Upon activation of the machine a container slides down an inclined plane into the oven and, after heating, slides down a further inclined plane to the dispensing outlet.
A disadvantage of such apparatus is that a considerable proportion of the height of the apparatus above the dispensing outlet is occupied by the said incline planes thus reducing the space available for the storage chamber.
In another known type of apparatus, e.g. that disclosed in British Patent Specification No. 2134503, a microwave oven is disposed to the side of a storage chamber, the selected container being moved laterally from the storage chamber to the oven by a conveyor and then laterally from the oven to the dispensing location by a further conveyor.
This configuration allows a greater proportion of the machine height above the dispensing outlet to be used for the storage chamber, however such a machine must be considerably wider than a machine wherein the oven is disposed below the storage chamber.
The object of the present invention is to provide an oven for use in a vending machine which is more compact than the apparatus of the prior art.
According to the invention we provide an oven comprising a chamber provided with an aperture, a single movable closure element adapted to close said aperture, and conveying means such that when said aperture is open articles may enter the oven from above and may be discharged substantially horizontally from the oven by said conveying means.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic side elevational view of apparatus comprising a first embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic side elevational view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 showing certain movable elements of the apparatus disposed in different positions to those shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a section front view on the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 broken away to illustrate details of its construction;
FIG. 5 is a schematic side elevational view of a second embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 6 is a schematic side elevational view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4 showing a movable element in a different position.
The apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 comprises a metal cabinet shown generally as 10 having a shelf 11 projecting from its front face 12 and an upwardly slidable hatch 13 mounted above the shelf.
The cabinet 10 contains; an insulated storage chamber 14; a microwave oven shown generally as 15; a movable closure element 16; a movable delivery flap 17; a compressor 18; and coin freed control means 19 of known type.
The storage chamber 14 which is cooled by refrigerator 20 is mounted above the oven 15 and holds ten stacks 22 of flanged food containers 23 arranged in two ranks 24 and 25 of five stacks. The stacks 22 are supported above apertures 26 in the floor 27 of the storage chamber 14 by article release means 28 of any suitable type which is selectively operable to release the lowermost container 23a of any selected stack 22.
The oven 15 comprises a housing 29 having a front wall 30; a back wall 31; an upper wall 32 and a lower wall 33.
Two magnetrons 34 are mounted below the lower wall 33. The housing has an aperture 36 which extends from the front edge of the upper wall 32 to the upper edge of the front wall 30 and is bounded by the upper arcuate edges of the side walls 35.
The oven aperture 36 underl
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Johndrow John P.
Taylor Paul R.
Wigg Martin E.
Wright, deceased Harold M.
Noland Kenneth
Rolla Joseph J.
Sankey Vending Limited
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