Article dispensing – Plural sources – stacks or compartments – With discharge means for each source
Patent
1994-11-28
1996-05-14
Skaggs, H. Grant
Article dispensing
Plural sources, stacks or compartments
With discharge means for each source
221131, 221213, 221155, 221193, 221195, 221232, 221242, G07F 1100, B65G 5900
Patent
active
055160034
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a multiple choice vending machine for newspapers or magazines.
It has for its object to extend to products of the press the automated and unmanned distribution format operated by a coin box or a credit card or payment, already existing in a number of fields: food, beverages, cigarettes . . . .
The distribution of newspapers is generally effected in four distinct ways.
First of all, there is home delivery according to which a carrier delivers each morning to the home of each customer, the daily item subscribed to.
The second is by mail effected by administrative services and employees of the post office.
The third covers all commercial distribution at points of sale, including stands in public places: train stations, squares, parks . . . where there are stores, boutiques or departments specializing in the press: libraries, printing plants, specialized departments in supermarkets . . . .
The fourth way concerns automatic distribution of newspapers and magazines.
In this field, automation has not penetrated far, contrary to other fields such as food, tobacco, beverages . . . .
There exist only single item distributors of little mechanism, in which newspapers are first inserted into separate compartments in the manner of beverages or sweets.
This lack is all the more surprising because of the various and numerous difficulties connected with the rapid and damage-free removal of a newspaper from a pile of stacked copies.
By way of example there will be given hereafter several of the important and numerous difficulties: following paper or papers; direction of removal of the upper newspaper; copies.
A vending machine has the general shape of a cabinet capable of delivering automatically into a receptacle one copy of the newspaper which a customer has selected and paid for into a payment device incorporated in the vending machine. The different newspapers are stored by title in stacks on shelves within the vending machine. A dispensing assembly rests on each stack. It permits pushing the newspapers from the stack one after another, moving with the upper newspaper which slides from the stack and bearing on the newspaper below without moving the following newspapers, and directing the newspaper toward a vertical hopper followed by a guardway which guides it to a receptacle accessible to the purchaser.
There are already known several machines of this type, but they are little developed, because their pusher systems seem to be little adaptable to the great variety of formats and weights of newspapers. Moreover, their undependability and their tendency to cause tears constitute also further drawbacks.
To this end, FR-A-2 089 943 and FR-A-2 081 975 describe apparatuses in the form of cabinets for the distribution of newspapers, whose lower part of the cabinet is occupied by the reception space for the newspapers or of any other documents sold or distributed by means of these apparatus. There is as a result a large loss of space or volume and commercial uselessness.
Moreover, the outlet level, hence for grasping the newspaper or the document by its purchaser, being located in the lower part of the apparatus, which is to say near ground level, the purchaser is obliged to stoop over to grasp his purchase, such that certain categories of purchasers, such as physically handicapped and elderly people can encounter access difficulties.
The problem to be solved by the present invention consists in using the lower space of the cabinet, while permitting an outlet level of the newspapers or other documents farther removed from the ground, such that the space lost in known apparatus to this day can be used commercially and that, because of a location of the outlet for the newspapers or other documents at a level farther from the ground, purchasers enjoy better comfort.
The technical characteristics and other advantages of the invention are to be seen from the description which follows, given by way of non-limiting example as to one embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG
REFERENCES:
patent: 1277568 (1918-09-01), Giardi
patent: 2501970 (1950-03-01), Sawitzke
patent: 2576636 (1951-11-01), Opgenorth
patent: 3655092 (1972-04-01), Hall et al.
patent: 3757998 (1973-09-01), Millies et al.
patent: 4821916 (1989-04-01), Dewaele
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