Article dispensing – With discharge assistant – Plural or combined with manipulating means
Patent
1996-11-22
1998-04-07
Skaggs, H. Grant
Article dispensing
With discharge assistant
Plural or combined with manipulating means
221226, 221256, 221289, 221296, 221279, A47G 1932, A47J 4701
Patent
active
057354332
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing sliced bread and is particularly directed to a simple to use apparatus which can keep bread fresh, which provides for hygienic dispensing of bread and which can be used in kitchens, food outlets and the like.
BACKGROUND ART
Bread products are consumed by the majority of the population on a daily basis. These bread products, if left open to the atmosphere go stale. This is not desirable. Both paper and plastic bags have been used to package bread products to try to prevent bread products from becoming stale. This, however, has been met with limited success. Paper bags tend to be difficult to seal and therefore allow the atmosphere to contact the bread products. Plastic bags have the advantage of being air tight but can and are easily torn through daily use of entering and resealing the bag. Thus, the advantage of plastic bags is limited.
As with many household foodstuffs, bread products are open to attack from household vermin, such as rats, mice, cockroaches and weevils. However, bread products seem to be more inclined to be eaten by these vermin than most other products. The present solution has been to place the bread products in solid wall containers commonly known as bread boxes. This works well in that typically it keeps household vermin from eating the bread products. These bread boxes are usually large and unsightly and take up substantial space in the kitchen area. Bread boxes usually are not air tight and therefore the bread products must be sealed before they are placed in the box.
The consumption of bread products is a normal every day occurrence for the normal family. Individuals in the family usually eat bread at various intervals during the normal day. Each person, to remove the desired amount of bread products, has to unseal the bag, pick up the bread products and reseal the bag. This results in the bread products quickly becoming stale and the bread product that is not consumed by the individual removing the bread, is touched. If the person has not washed his or her hands this may allow disease to spread to the bread products especially in food outlets such as sandwich bars.
Bread containers which dispense bread slices are known. Examples are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,905,869, 4,500,145 and 4,213,540. These bread dispensers are either positioned horizontally in which case a spring or other type of biasing member is required to push bread along the dispenser and to the outlet, the outlet typically being a pivoting door, or the container is upright with bread being dispensed from the top of the container which again requires a spring or pulley arrangement to push bread upwardly towards the dispenser.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus which may overcome the abovementioned disadvantages or provide the consumer with a useful or commercial choice.
In one form the invention resides in an apparatus for dispensing sliced bread comprising a rigid container body in which a plurality of bread slices can be placed, the container body being generally closed to prevent the bread from becoming stale and having an upper inlet to allow bread slices to be placed in the container body, the container body further having a generally open lower end through which bread slices can pass,
a base assembly linearly moveable between a closed position where it closes the open lower end of the container body, and an open position where the base assembly is spaced from the open lower end to allow bread to be removed from the apparatus, the base assembly having a bread support platform which can support the lowermost slice of bread in the container body when the base assembly is in the closed and open positions,
biasing means to naturally bias the base assembly into its closed position; and,
separating means adjacent the lower end of the container body, and moveable between a retracted position where bread slices can move past the separating means and into the base assembly and an extended position whe
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