Article dispensing – With discharge assistant – Plural or combined with manipulating means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-15
2001-06-05
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Article dispensing
With discharge assistant
Plural or combined with manipulating means
C221S279000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06241121
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an article storage device for an automatic vending machine, such as one which allows vendible articles actually contained therein to be viewed from outside, and more particularly to an article storage device of this kind which stores a large number of articles in horizontal rows.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, as an article storage device of this kind, one as shown in
FIG. 14
is known. The article storage device
70
includes pushers
73
arranged respectively in two article passages
72
formed in an article rack
71
. A large number of articles S are stored in the article passages
72
in a manner placed one behind another in a horizontal row in a front-rear direction each in an upright position, between each of the pushers
73
and a transparent stopper
74
arranged on a front side of the article rack
71
. The pushers
73
are mounted to the article rack
71
such that each pusher
73
is movable in the front-rear direction, and urged by a spiral spring, not shown, arranged at a rear end of the article rack
71
to constantly press on the articles S from a rear side of the article rack
71
. Each pusher
73
is connected to the spiral spring by way of a flat belt, not shown. The flat belt has one end thereof connected to the spiral spring, and extends such that it reaches a front end of the article rack
71
and then makes a U-turn to extend rearward to have the other end thereof connected to the pusher
73
. During a vending operation for vending an article S, the stopper
74
is pivotally moved to open the article passage
72
, whereby a foremost one of the articles S is pushed forward from the article passage
72
by the pressing load of the pusher
73
to dispense the same for vending.
At a predetermined position of each flat belt, there is formed a hole, not shown, while the article rack
71
has switches, neither of which is shown, each having a lever engageable with the hole. These switches and holes constitute part of a detecting device for detecting whether articles S are sold out. When all the articles in one of the article passages
72
are sold out and the corresponding pusher
73
has reached its extreme forward position, the lever is engaged with the hole of the flat belt to turn on the switch, thereby detecting that the articles S are sold out.
In the article storage device
70
constructed as above, the pressing load of the pusher
73
is basically sufficient if it has a magnitude required for smoothly moving all the articles S stored in the article passage
72
. On the other hand, according to the conventional article storage device
70
described above, the spiral spring is used as means by which the pusher
73
obtains the urging force for pressing on the articles S. Spiral springs generally have a characteristic that the urging forces thereof are not largely changed with respect to a stroke thereof. Therefore, as shown by a dotted line in
FIG. 13
, even if the number of articles stored in the article passage
72
is decreased, the pressing load of the pusher
73
for pressing on the articles S is not sharply reduced.
As a result, even when the articles S received in the article passage
72
are considerably decreased in number, an excessively large pressing load which makes little difference from a pressing load applied when a lot of articles S are stored in the article passage
72
is applied to the articles S. Therefore, if containers for the articles S are made of soft materials, deformation or breakage thereof can be caused, resulting in spoiled commercial values of the articles. For the same reason, when the number of articles S stored in the article passage
72
is considerably decreased, the total frictional resistance of the articles S is decreased, and hence the moving speed of the articles S during a dispensing operation becomes very high. This causes an article S to be dispensed with a large force, thereby causing the above deformation or breakage or incapability of a normal execution of the vending operation. Further, since each spiral spring is arranged at the rear end of the article rack, the effective storage length of the article passage
72
is reduced by space in which the spiral spring is arranged.
Further, the detecting device for detecting whether the articles S are sold out is comprised of switches or the like provided separately from the article rack
71
. Hence, a separate space exclusively provided for the detecting device is required. In addition, since the detecting device is configured such that the lever of each switch is engaged with a hole formed in a long flat belt, the lever can be hindered from being engaged with the hole in the flat belt due to inaccurate location of the hole or stretching of the flat belt caused by use thereof. In such a case, it is impossible to detect whether the articles S are sold out.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide an article storage device for an automatic vending machine, which is capable of properly storing and dispensing articles without causing any deformation or breakage of the articles, compact in construction, and at the same time capable of reliably detecting whether the articles are sold out.
To attain the above object, the present invention provides an article storage device for an automatic vending machine, comprising an article rack received within a body of the automatic vending machine and having an article passage for storing a large number of articles placed one behind another in a horizontal row in a front-rear direction, a stopper arranged at a front end of the article passage in a manner movable between an engagement position in which the stopper faces the article passage, for holding the articles, and a dispensing position in which the stopper is withdrawn from the article passage, for dispensing the articles, a pusher inserted into the article passage in a manner movable in the front-rear direction between an extreme forward position thereof and an extreme rearward position thereof, for pressing on the articles, and a drive mechanism connected to the pusher and having a helical tension spring for urging the pusher forward.
According to this article storage device for an automatic vending machine, in order to press on articles, the pusher is inserted into the article passage in a manner movable in a front-rear direction between its extreme forward position and its extreme rearward position. The pusher is urged forward by the helical tension spring of the drive mechanism. Therefore, when the stopper arranged at the front end of the article passage is moved to the dispensing position, articles stored in the article passage are pushed by the pusher and dispensed from the article passage. The helical tension spring urging the pusher has an urging force increasing or decreasing at a larger rate with respect to a stroke thereof than the spiral spring used in the conventional article storage device. Hence, when the number of articles in the article passage is decreased, the pressing load of the pusher becomes considerably reduced according to a decrease in the number of articles, whereby the pressing load of the pusher can be adjusted to a suitable magnitude in accordance with the number of articles stored. Therefore, even when containers for articles are made of soft materials, it is possible to prevent deformation or breakage of such containers, to preserve the commercial values. For the same reason, the speed of motion of articles during dispensing thereof is reduced, so that it is possible to prevent deformation or breakage of the articles and eliminate trouble in vending the same, thereby ensuring a smooth vending operation of the automatic vending machine.
Preferably, a plurality of the article racks are in vertical arrangement, each of the article racks being placed on a shelf provided within the body of the automatic vending machine, in a manner movable in the front-rear direction, the pusher being provided on the shelf on which one of the article racks immediately above a corresponding o
Darby & Darby
Noland Kenneth W.
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd
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