Article dispensing – With recorder – register – indicator – signal or exhibitor – Dispenser part position or adjustment indicator
Patent
1988-09-12
1989-10-03
Bartuska, F. J.
Article dispensing
With recorder, register, indicator, signal or exhibitor
Dispenser part position or adjustment indicator
221 6, 221 90, G07F 1106
Patent
active
048710865
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to article dispensing apparatus and in particular apparatus suitable for dispensing video tape cassettes. The apparatus is conveniently embodied in a vending machine which is capable of selling and/or renting such cassettes. However the dispensing apparatus has other applications.
According to one aspect of the invention we provide article dispensing apparatus comprising a row of substantially identical containers pivotally mounted side-by-side on a supporting structure, each container being in the form of a pocket closed at one end and open at the other and having a transparent front panel so that an article in the container can be seen by a user of the apparatus, each container being pivoted at a position adjacent the corner between its front face and its closed end to the structure so as to be pivotable between a closed position, wherein an article in the container is inaccessible, and in open position wherein an article can be removed from or replaced in the container by a user of the apparatus, latch means associated with each container to hold it in its closed position and operable to release the container to enable it to move to its open position, and control means operable by said user to operate a selected latch means to allow the associated container to move to its open position.
Other features of the invention will be clear from the following description and claims.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail and by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a vending machine embodying apparatus of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a section through one of the containers shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an end elevation of the container shown in FIG. 2; and
FIGS. 4 and 5 are plan and elevational views of a sleeve to receive a video tape cassette and capable of being received in oen of the containers.
Referring now to FIG. 1, the vending machine there shown comprises a master unit 10 and a slave unit 11 which are connected together and are supported by a rectangular, framelike leg 12.
The master unit contains a control panel 14 which in turn contains a display 15, a wipe-through card reader 16, a key pad 17, a coinage receiver 18, a bar code reader 19, a card reader 20 for reading a credit card and a printer outlet 21.
The tape cassettes are received in columns of containers, there are four such columns of containers indicated generally at 22, 23, 24 and 25. The columns 22 and 23 are in the master unit and the columns 24 and 25 are in the slave unit. The columns are made up of modules of eight containers, each of the columns having four such modules except column 23 which has only two. The control and operation of all the containers is from the control panel 14. Additional slave units having additional columns of containers may be added to the right-hadn end of the assembly and controlled from the control panel 14.
FIG. 2 is a horizontal section through one of the columns 22 to 25 and shows a container 26.
The container is moulded from a high strength transparent plastic material and is in the form of a pocket of generally rectangular cross section as shown in FIG. 3. Thus the pocket has a transparent front face 27, a closed end 28 and an open end 29. The container has a back face 30 having an aperture 31 therein. A projection 32 in the form of a rib extends rearwardly from the back face 32 and is continued at 33 along the closed end 28. The rib has an abutment surface 34 nad an inclined surface 35. The rib extension 33 on the closed end terminates in a pocket 36. It iwll be seen that the open end 29 of the container is cut away so that an article received therein may be grasped when the container is open, as will be described, and that the rear face 31 diverges at tis upper end, in FIG. 2, as indicated at 37 ending in an abutment 38.
The rear face 30 is formed on its internal surface with pairs of ribs 38 and 40 on either side of the aperture 31 and these ribs provide a groove 41 between them as shown in FIG. 3.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1098264 (1914-05-01), Jaeger et al.
patent: 1726525 (1929-09-01), Clark
patent: 4024954 (1977-05-01), Staar
Davies Robert
Johndrow John P.
Bartuska F. J.
Sankey Vending Limited
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