Article dispensing – With discharge assistant – With separate holdback means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-29
2001-11-27
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Article dispensing
With discharge assistant
With separate holdback means
C221S289000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321936
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to the mechanisms included in vending machines, and in particular to a device for releasing products arranged in a stack within the machine.
It is known that vending machines for products packed in envelopes having the shape of a surface of revolution, such as typically cans and bottles of drinks, usually include a basket located below the stack of products and suitable to control the release thereof The release is carried out through a rotation of the basket, e.g. counter-clockwise, which moves to a vertical position whereby the products rolls down from the left side. Since the basket always occupies a portion of the width of the product drop channel, even when it reaches the vertical position, the maximum product diameter which can be managed by said device depends on the distance from the channel wall to the edge of the basket in the vertical position. Therefore, the width of the drop channel is not completely exploited in this way.
An improved and simplified device which overcomes said drawback is disclosed in EP 757 827 granted to the same applicant.
Furthermore, in order to exploit the depth of the device, not only a single product at a time but a whole row of products horizontally aligned one behind the other comes down into the basket. The sequential release of the products making up said row (usually 2 or 3) is achieved by providing a series of horizontal projections of increasing width on the wall of the drop channel along the depth of the device. By carrying out the above-mentioned rotation of the basket in more steps, at each stop there is only one product which has sufficient room, between the basket edge and the projection positioned by that product, to roll out of the basket and thus be released, whereas those behind it in the row are retained by the respective wider projections. Once the drop channel width is established, the limit to the number of products making up a row is given by the fact that the widest projection must not be wider than the basket in the vertical position, otherwise said projection would excessively reduce the drop width.
A further drawback of using such projections for managing the drop sequence of the products aligned in a row comes out when the machine is used alternately for different products. For the sake of example, a same row of products could include four 33 cl cans or two 50 cl bottles. Therefore while in the first case four projections of increasing width will be provided, in the second case the projections will be two only and probably of different width with respect to the first case.
As a consequence, upon re-supplying of the machine with a product different from the previous one it will be necessary to change manually the number and/or arrangement of the retaining projections. Moreover it is also necessary to change, through a suitable switch, the setting of the number of stops of the basket according to the number of products making up the row. This obviously implies an increase in labour, a greater complexity of the machine and a poor flexibility in the use thereof
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a device which overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks.
This object is achieved by means of a device having the characteristics cited in claim
1
. Other advantageous characteristics are disclosed in the depending claims.
A first fundamental advantage of the present device is that it can be used for dispensing different products without requiring the manual adaptation of the mechanical elements which retain the products. This clearly results in a reduction of labour and a greater flexibility of use of the vending machine.
A further advantage which can be obtained through a particular embodiment of the present device is its capability of self-adjustment according to the type of products to be dispensed, whereby the operator's intervention is merely limited to the re-supplying.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3158289 (1964-11-01), Van Brunt
patent: 3165231 (1965-01-01), Heiser
patent: 0237628 (1987-09-01), None
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld L.L.P.
Noland Kenneth W.
Vendo Italy S.p.A.
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