Article dispensing – Mechanical release or separation of articles – Separately acting series controllers
Patent
1996-10-28
1998-09-01
Terrell, William E.
Article dispensing
Mechanical release or separation of articles
Separately acting series controllers
221289, 221 67, 221266, 221242, G07F 1100
Patent
active
057998230
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the mechanisms included in vending machines, and in particular to a device for releasing the products.
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. In order to exploit at the best the available width, this stack is generally made up of two columns of products placed side by side and staggered, so that by supporting one of them also the other one is supported. The released product comes alternately from the left column and from the right one.
The release is carried out through a rotation of about 90.degree., e.g. counter clockwise, of the basket which moves to a vertical position whereby the products rolls down from the left side, opposite to the side of the right column from which it came down. The direction of rotation of the basket is then inverted in order to take it back in position below the two columns and to support the right column, while another product comes down from the left column for the next release from the right side of the basket when it will rotate 90.degree. clockwise. Therefore, prior art devices must include a mechanism for inverting the direction of rotation of the basket, which oscillates along an arc of about 180.degree. centered on the vertical.
Furthermore, the basket always occupies a portion of the width of the product drop channel, even when it reaches the vertical position. This implies that 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.
In practice, 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 90.degree. rotation in more steps, at each stop of the basket 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 reduce the drop width when the product is released from the other side.
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.
A first fundamental advantage of the present device comes from the unidirectional rotation of the basket, which allows to simplify the mechanical and electrical control of the sales in multiple rows. The resulting device is therefore cheaper and more reliable.
A second advantage of the device according to the invention is the exploitation of the whole width of the drop channel, whereby within the same transverse space it is possible to manage products of greater diameter and/or longer rows. Therefore, the device capacity and the diameter range it can manage are increased without requiring changes.
These and other advantages and characteristics of the device according to the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof referring to the annexed drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a device according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a longitud
REFERENCES:
patent: 3203588 (1965-08-01), O'Neal
Terrell William E.
Tran Khoi H.
Vendo Italy S.p.A.
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