WO1999003077A1

WO1999003077A1 - Automatic dispenser

Info

Publication number: WO1999003077A1
Application number: PCT/FR1998/001521
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gilles Marty; Christian Derrien
Original assignee: Gilles Marty; Christian Derrien
Priority date: 1997-07-11
Filing date: 1998-07-10
Publication date: 1999-01-21
Also published as: FR2765986B1; FR2765986A1

Abstract

The invention concerns an automatic dispenser of articles, comprising a magazine of articles and means for extracting the article selected by the consumer. The invention is characterised in that the magazine (16) is fixed and consists of a plurality of adjacent vertical sections (40) rechargeable from above or from below, and including each a stack of articles. The extracting means consists of a slide (30) mobile horizontally opposite the articles at the base of the magazine (16) sections (40) bearing an arm (38) mobile perpendicularly to the slide (30) path to eject from a predetermined stack the article located at the base of the corresponding section towards a reception chute (18, 62).

Description

AUTOMATIC DISPENSING APPARATUS

The present invention relates to automatic dispensing devices for prepackaged articles comprising a magazine for articles and a means of extracting or handling the article chosen by a consumer.

We generally find such devices in public places to determine points of sale accessible to everyone, substantially at any time of the day and night, and not requiring the physical presence of a seller. The items thus sold are very varied: cigarettes, sweets, newspapers, bottles, condoms, cassettes, records, etc.

The present invention is more particularly, but not exclusively, directed to the distribution of substantially flat articles sold in a substantially rigid case, such as optical discs or audio or video cassettes.

Such a dispensing device is known in particular from document FR-A-2 563 985. According to the teaching of this document, the cassettes are arranged in the different cells of a store of parallelepedic shape. A computer controlled by the buyer calculates the position of the cassette sought on the abscissa and ordered, and controls a handling means displaceable in translation along the three orthogonal axes to come and take the cassette in the determined cell and place it in a distribution chute. Such a device therefore requires a means movable along the three axes, which constitutes a significant source of unacceptable failures for an automatic dispenser, and adds to the complexity, and therefore to the cost, of the device.

The document FR-A-2651904 describes a device similar to the previous one, but whose handling means is capable of carrying out an additional rotational movement. The disadvantages are therefore the same as those mentioned above.

Document FR-A-2641527 also discloses an apparatus making it possible to substantially reduce the aforementioned drawbacks. In fact, in the device described, the handling means only moves along two axes, which clearly reduces the risks of failure of this means. However, one of the two axes of movement of the handling means is inclined to follow the slope of the distribution chute and to avoid too great a fall of the chosen article. The magazine is then tilted correspondingly, which leads to manufacturing complexity, a loss of space in the housing of the device and risks of blocking of the articles in the compartments of the magazine. In addition, the magazine is not easily refillable, since it must be removable in order to be removed at each refill operation of the magazine, then to be replaced with the greatest precision compared to the handling means.

Document GB-A-2072633 is also known, which describes a conventional dispensing device, the magazine of which is fixed and is constituted by a plurality of vertical compartments. The extraction means is constituted by a carriage movable horizontally opposite the articles to be delivered, and which comprises a mechanism fork-shaped ejection. The carriage is moved manually, but an indexing means (balls) allows it to automatically find the appropriate location. An electric coin switch then activates a solenoid which, by a set of lever and spring, ensures the displacement of the ejection fork. It is therefore a rudimentary distribution apparatus, an apparatus which is not, moreover, modular according to the widths of the articles distributed, since the indexing means is a mechanical means necessarily pre-established in the factory.

Document US-A-3 893 589 describes an apparatus comprising two separate magazines between which the chosen article is delivered. Here the device is said to be of a modular type in order to be able to be adapted to the different dimensions of the articles. For this purpose, the two stores are removable separately and are completely changed with the articles. Given the ejection system incorporating a device for retaining the upper article, the device is necessarily dedicated to a given shape or weight of an article. There is therefore, in practice, no modularity within the same store. The chosen item first falls into a cart which then returns to its central rest position before delivering the item. This device therefore ensures the distribution of the item chosen in two stages due to the existence of a specific transport cart.

The present invention is situated in this context and aims to determine an automatic dispensing device which does not have the drawbacks which have just been explained.

According to the present invention, the automatic article distribution apparatus comprises an article magazine and an article extraction means chosen by a consumer, the magazine being fixed and constituted by a plurality of vertical compartments. adjacent top or bottom refillable, each comprising a stack of articles. The extraction means is constituted by a carriage movable horizontally opposite the articles at the base of the compartments of the store.

According to the invention, the carriage carries a movable arm perpendicular to the path of the carriage to expel from a determined stack the article which is at the base of the corresponding compartment towards a reception chute disposed on the side of the store opposite to that where is find the means of extraction.

According to a preferred embodiment, each of the compartments of the store consists of two vertical preformed sheets and each having a bottom. The sheets are separated by horizontal spacers of a length slightly greater than the thickness of the articles.

Preferably, each sheet has a first vertical fold substantially perpendicular to the bottom, so as to form a vertical guide for the articles. Advantageously, the vertical guide is absent on the front face opposite the article which is at the base of each compartment so as to authorize the expulsion of the corresponding article towards the reception chute, while it is partially absent on the rear face opposite the same article, so as to determine a passage for the movable arm of the extraction means.

Preferably also, the aforementioned first vertical fold continues with a second vertical fold substantially parallel to the bottom of the sheet and defining a support zone for the spacers. Preferably, each sheet has a horizontal fold substantially perpendicular to the bottom at the base of the compartment to form a horizontal support stop for the articles.

The invention will be better understood, and other objects, advantages and characteristics thereof will appear more clearly on reading the following description of a preferred embodiment given without limitation and in which three drawing boards are attached in which: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a dispensing device according to the invention, the front door has been opened for clarity;

Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of an extraction means capable of being used in the device according to an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic front view of the magazine of the apparatus according to the invention;

Figure 4 is a schematic top view of the store of Figure 3; and Figure 5 illustrates diagrammatically in perspective the distribution of an article in a chute.

Referring now to the Figures which have just been succinctly described and, more particularly to Figure 1, the automatic dispensing apparatus for articles such as optical discs consists essentially of a vertical box 10 normally closed by a door 12. The box encloses a frame 14 carrying a magazine 16 for the articles to be distributed, while the door 12 comprises, in the example shown, the receptacle 18 for the articles sold disposed in front of a window open to the outside. Computer means 20 arranged here in the door allow the management of the assembly. They include a means of item selection for the buyer, a means of payment, for example by bank card, and a means of ordering an extraction device which will be seen later in more detail in relation to the other Figures.

However, it can now be seen that, in the example shown, when the door 12 opens, the operator has direct access to a free space 22 located above the store and allowing him to reload the latter without having to remove the chassis 14, therefore without unnecessary or complex manipulation. Of course, it is also always possible to reload the compartments from below.

As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the magazine 16 is therefore fixed and vertical. It is, in fact, constituted by a plurality of adjacent vertical compartments which can be recharged from above and each comprising a stack of articles for sale.

Preferably, but not necessarily, each vertical compartment comprises articles different from those of the adjacent vertical compartments. The stack being formed, it is the article at the base of a stack which will be delivered to the buyer. This characteristic makes it possible to avoid that the extraction means is necessarily movable vertically to fetch and extract the correct article, which de facto eliminates one of the translational movements of this means.

The extraction means 28 (which have not been shown in the

Figure 1 for reasons of clarity, but which we see atically dried in perspective in Figure 2) is behind the magazine 16 and at the base of it and aims to expel the article at the base of the stacking determined by the consumer's choice. This extraction means 28 comprises a movable carriage 30 circulating on a set of rails 32 by means of an electric motor, for example a stepping motor of the type with 16 x 750 steps, because excellent accuracy of the position of the carriage is required here. The carriage 30 is provided with a secondary carriage 36 comprising a set of rails 34, perpendicular to the rails 32, with which it moves. The secondary carriage 36 is provided with an arm 38, for example in the form of a bracket. The arm 38 is designed to come to bear on the article chosen at the base of the determined compartment to ensure the expulsion of the article towards a reception chute (not shown) in direct and short relation with the receptacle 18 (Figure 1). The chute is, of course, disposed on the side of the magazine opposite to that where the extraction means 28 is located.

Obviously, this extraction means 28 is totally controlled by the on-board computer means 20.

According to another embodiment illustrated in Figure 5, the secondary carriage 36 may favorably have a secondary arm 70 passing under the magazine 16 and carrying, on the side opposite to the extraction means, a movable guide receptacle 72 of the article chosen 74. The receiving chute 62 is partially closed by a sheet 76 leaving only a small opening 78 through which the article 74 will be released in the chute 62, when the carriage 30 has returned to its rest position at the end from store 16.

In this case, preferably, the movable guide receptacle 72 has no bottom, the article 74 then sliding on the sheet 76 until it naturally falls through the opening 78 in the chute 76. In Figure 3, there is shown atically the store 16 of the articles seen from the front. This store 16 is constituted by a plurality of adjacent vertical compartments 40 which can be recharged from above and each comprising a stack of articles for sale. Obviously, the scales have not been observed in the drawings, since, for example, the casing of a simple optical reading disc has a thickness of approximately 1.0 cm, and a height of approximately 12.5 cm.

Each compartment 40 of the planned magazine 16 receives, for example, more than half a dozen discs stacked on their edges, which means that it has an available space of the order of about 1.1 cm in width and a height of the order of about 100 cm (although these values are in no way limiting).

Each of the compartments 40 of the magazine 16 consists of two vertical preformed sheets 42 and each having a bottom 46, the sheets being separated by horizontal spacers 44 (Figure 4) of a length slightly greater than the thickness of the articles.

As can be seen in Figure 3, each sheet 42 has a first vertical fold 48 substantially perpendicular to the bottom 46 of the sheet, so as to form, on either side, a vertical guide 50, 51 for the articles. The width of this vertical guide 50, 51 is substantially less than the thickness of the articles and the distance between the two guides 50 and 51 of the same sheet is, of course slightly greater than the width of the articles, so as to avoid any blocking of articles.

In Figure 4 which schematically represents the store

16 seen from above, the first vertical fold 48 continues with a second vertical fold substantially parallel to the bottom 46 and defining a bearing area 52 of the spacers 44.

As seen in Figure 3, the vertical guide 50 is absent on the front face opposite the article which is at the base of each compartment, so as to allow the expulsion of the corresponding article towards a chute reception 62 to which we will return later. The other vertical guide 51 of the same sheet is partially absent on the rear face opposite the same article, so as to determine a passage for the movable arm 38 of the extraction means and to avoid a fall towards the rear of the article if the device is somewhat jostled.

In addition, on the one hand to avoid that the last article of a compartment which is then no longer retained in position by the other articles arranged above it, since there are none any more, other On the other hand, to prevent an article from falling involuntarily if the device is jostled, finally to allow validation of a sale, it is favorable to have a mad retaining bar extending to the open location of the front face of the compartments, ie where the vertical fold 48 is absent. Such a bar (referenced 80 in Figure 5) is mounted with limited rotation and lifts naturally under the action of the arm 38 of the extraction means

28 to release an article, but it exerts, by gravity, a slight effort sufficient to hold the article in place if it is not moved by the extraction means.

Each sheet preferably has a third horizontal fold substantially perpendicular to the bottom 46 at the base of the compartment 40 to form a horizontal stop 54 for supporting the stacked articles. Preferably, but not necessarily, the aforementioned third horizontal fold continues with a fourth horizontal fold defining a vertical wall 56 substantially parallel to the bottom 46. This vertical wall 56 has several purposes; in particular, it allows a stiffening of the sheets of the magazine, but also, if desired, but not necessarily, it allows to fix a distribution chute 62 to the magazine 16. Thus, it is no longer necessary to adjust the position of the receptacle 18 for articles relative to magazine 16.

Referring now more particularly to Figure

4, the various sheets 42 are fixed to the uprights of the frame 14 by means of tie rods 58 on which the struts 44 are threaded between each sheet. The tie rods 58 are, for example, constituted by threaded rods tightened by means of suitable bolts 60.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, these spacers 44 and the tie rods 58 ensure modularity of each of the compartments of the store. It is, in fact, extremely easy for the technician ensuring the recharging of the compartments to modify the width on site as a function of that of the articles offered.

According to one embodiment, the chute 62 is fixed to the vertical wall 56 determined by the fourth fold of at least one of the sheets. The chute 62 is then directly connected to the receptacle 18 of the device to avoid any discontinuity in the path of the purchased article.

According to an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 5, as we have seen previously, the chute 62 is not fixed to the magazine 16. We have therefore clearly determined an automatic article dispensing device which overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks. In addition, this device has the advantage of being modular, that is to say being able to receive articles of the same kind, but of different thicknesses, for example housings comprising a single disc, and housings comprising several discs which are, by their very nature, thicker, or video cassettes, or even books, all in the same store, the compartments of which are easily adapted. It suffices, in fact, to simply modify the length of the spacer of the single corresponding compartment.

Although we have represented and described what is currently considered to be the preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is obvious that those skilled in the art will be able to make various changes and modifications without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined below.

In particular, the extraction means can be actuated and driven by means other than by a stepping motor circulating on a rail. One can thus envisage other types of transmission, for example a worm or a set of pulleys and belts, and other type of actuation, for example a direct current geared motor provided with a counting sensor for the position accuracy.

In addition, the number of vertical compartments of the store is in no way limited to the number shown in the Figures. Finally, a flat end plate can be added if desired.

The management of the automatic article distribution device is, of course, ensured by significant computer means including, on the one hand, the selection by the buyer of the article he wishes and, on the other hand, a payment terminal by bank card of the purchased article.

Such a terminal must normally be connected by a telephone line to the management center for authorized bank cards for checking them. This also makes it possible to connect these devices to a remote maintenance service to compensate for any failures in the on-board electronic system or to warn an operator that it is necessary to recharge at least one compartment of the store. In addition, since distribution devices of this type are often subject to vandalism, such a device can also be favorably connected directly to a remote surveillance service.

Claims

R E V E N D I C AT I O N S

1 - Apparatus for automatic distribution of articles comprising a magazine for said articles and a means of extracting the article chosen by a consumer, the magazine (16) being fixed and constituted by a plurality of adjacent vertical compartments (40) which are refillable from above or from below, and each comprising a stack of said articles, said extraction means being constituted by a carriage (30) movable horizontally opposite said articles at the base of the compartments (40) of said store ( 16), characterized in that the carriage (30) carries an arm (38) movable perpendicular to the path of said carriage (30) to expel from a determined stack the article which is at the base of the corresponding compartment towards a chute receiving (18, 62) disposed on the side of the magazine (16) opposite to that where said extraction means is located.

2 - dispensing device according to claim 1, characterized in that each of said compartments (40) of the store (16) is constituted by two vertical preformed sheets (42) and each having a bottom (46), said sheets (42 ) being separated from each other by horizontal spacers (44) of a length slightly greater than the thickness of said articles.

3 - dispensing device according to claim 2, characterized in that each sheet (42) has a first vertical fold (48) substantially perpendicular to said bottom (46), so as to form a vertical guide (50, 51) of said articles. 4 - Dispensing apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the thickness of said vertical guide (50, 51) is substantially less than the thickness of said articles.

5 - A dispensing device according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that said first vertical fold (48) continues with a second vertical fold substantially parallel to said bottom (46) and determining a support area (52) of say spacers (44).

6 - Dispensing apparatus according to one of claims 3 to 5, characterized in that said vertical guide (50) is absent on the front face opposite the article which is at the base of each compartment (40) so authorizing the expulsion of the corresponding article, while it (51) is partially absent on the rear face opposite the same article, so as to determine a passage for the movable arm (38) of the extraction means.

7 - Dispensing device according to claim 6, characterized in that Ton has a mad retaining bar (80) mounted with limited rotation and extending to the open location of the front face of the compartments, where the vertical fold (48 ) is absent.

8 - Dispensing device according to any one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that each sheet (42) has a third horizontal fold substantially perpendicular to said bottom (46) and at the base of said compartment (40) to form a horizontal stop (54) for supporting said articles.

9 - Dispensing apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that said third horizontal fold continues with a fourth horizontal fold defining a vertical wall (56) substantially parallel to said bottom (46).

10 - Dispensing apparatus according to claim 9, characterized in that said receiving chute (62) is integral with the base of said store (16) and is fixed to the vertical wall (56) determined by said fourth fold d '' at least one of the said sheets

(42).

11 - Dispensing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that said movable arm (38) is mounted on a secondary carriage (36), said secondary carriage (38) having a secondary arm (70) carrying , on the side opposite to said extraction means with respect to said magazine (16), a movable guide receptacle (72) of the chosen article.

12 - Dispensing apparatus according to claim 11, characterized in that the receiving chute (62) is partially closed by a sheet (76) leaving only an opening (78) through which the article (74) falls into the receiving chute (62).