CA1156622A - Vending machine trap door dispenser - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
A vending machine for thin flat sheet articles wherein the article release mechanism comprises two pairs of diametrically opposed swingable trap doors, the trap doors being mounted on respective door mounting blocks and wherein the door mounting blocks incorporate recesses for registering with the article magazine, and article guides automatically aligning with the lower end of the magazine and extending below the level of the doors, whereby to guide individual articles from the magazines through the trap doors to ensure a precisely regulated feeding of articles.

Description

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; The invention relates to vending machines for vending articles of a thin rectangular shape, such as booklets of postage stamps and the like.
Vending machines for thin sheet articles are disclosed in U. S. Patents 2,937,785 and 3,158,288. In such prior art vending machines, the articles are of rectangular shape and are thus stacked alternately across one another.
The cross stacked articles are supported in vertical columns, by means of vertical magazines or storage walls. At the bottom of such magazines, two opposite pairs of trap doors are provided, interlocked by an operating mechanism. One pair of trap doors is held in a horizontalt article supporting position while the other pair of doors is operated to flap downwardly thereby permitting an article supported thereon to drop down.
This principle of operation has been found to be highly reliable and satisfactory and has given many years of trouble free service in the past.
In order to function satisfactorily however it was necessary that a good deal of care was exercised in the assembly and final adjustment of the apparatus. In particular, it was necessary that the vertical magazines or storage walls be very carefully aligned with the trap doors, and trap door supporting frames and the like. It will of course be appreciated that the articles being dispensed by such a mechanism are very light, consisting only of two or three sheets of paper, and the least obstruction will cause a misfeed and jam the mechanism. Presen~

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day manufacturing conditions make it difficult to obtain skilled labour, which can be trained for these relatively exacting and time cons~ming tasks. It is thereEore desirable to provide a modified form of construction in which the various components are self aligning so as to reduce or practically speaking eliminate the requirement for the adjustment of the mechanism during manufacture.
In addition to these manufacturing problems, the servicing of such vending machines in the field also present certain problems.
Such vending machines especially in the case of postage stamps are frequently located out of doors. Repairing or adjusting the mechanism in such locations is often inconvenient. In addition, it may be difficult to train suffi~ient personnel for the pur-poses of staffing service trucks and the like with trained mechanics capable of repairing defective machines.
Accordingly, it is desir~ble to provide in such machines for the entire storage magazine and dispensing mechanism to be readily removable from the machine, and replaceable by a service unit which can simply be reinstalled in its place more or less instantaneously~ and the defective unit returned to a central workshop.
In addition, the refilling of the maga~ine with thin flat articles such as postage stamps has in the past required a certain amount of manual dexterity. In the event that the articles are not installed in the magazine in the correct flat cross stacked manner then they will not feed-smoothly from the magazine. It is again desirable as far as possible that the recharging of such magazine be simplified so as again to both reduce the amount of skill and training required, and also to

2 2 - reduce servicing time.
In particular it is desirable that the vending machine and the article dispensing unit or units shall be completely independent and separable, except for the connection of an electrical cord. In this way the housing can carry the push button controls, and control circuits, and coin rejection mechanism, and the dispensing units can comprise a complete unit having a base, a hopper, a dispensing mechanism and a motor for operating the mechanism. The cord may of course be either on the dispensing unit, or the housing, or both.
With a view to overcoming these various disadvantages, the invention seeks to provide a vending machine for thin flat sheet articles wherein the article release mechanism comprises two pairs of diametrically opposed swingable trap doors, the trap doors`
being mounted on respective door mounting blocks and wherein the door mounting blocks incorporate recesses for registering with the article magazine, and article guides automatically aligning with the lower end of the magazine and extending below the level of the doors, whereby to guide individual articles from the magazines through the trap doors to ensure a precisely regulated feeding of articles.
The invention further provides a vending machine for thin flat sheet articles, such vending machine having a housing, an article dispensing unit having a hopper, a base plate, dispensing machanism, power operated means, and the housing having support means and slide means for receiving the dispensing unit and remotely operable control means on the housing for controlling the power operated means.
The invention further seeks to provide a vending - ~ ~ 156622 machine having the foregoing advantages and further having article support rails within the vending machine housing, for slidably supporting said base plate thereon, and releasable locking means interengagable between said base plate and at least one of said rails, whereby a said dispensing unit may be locked in position thereon, and may be readily released therefrom for replacement.

The invention further seeks to provide a vending machine for thin flat sheet articles, wherein the articles are stored in a vertical stac~, in a magazine, and wherein the maga~ine incorporates one or more releasable wall members, whereby the magazine may be opened up along its vertical lerigth, thereby giving access to the interior to facilitate stacking of articles therein, the wall being replaceable to complete the magazine around the articles after the same has been recharged.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the clai.ms ~llnexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and ~escriptive matter in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.
Il~ T~E D~AWI~GS:~

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Figure 1 is a perspecti~e frontal illustration showing the vending machine according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a similar view showing it opened up;

Figure 3 is a perspective of a stack of articles;

Figure 4 is a side elevation, partly in section along 1 1 5B~22 the line ~-4 of Figure 2;
Figure 5 is a greatly enlarged perspective showing the hinge mechanism;
Figure 6 is a perspective illustration showing the article dispensing unit and magazine;
Figure 7 is a lower plan view looking upwardly beneath Figure 6, showing the details of the article release mechanism;
Figure 8 is a perspective illustration of a portion of the trap doors and guide means, and, Figure 9 is an enlarged perspective of one of the guide means. , Referring now to Figures 1 and 2, it will be seen that the vending machine according to the invention comprises a generally rectangular box-like housing 10 having side walls 12, top walls 14, bottom wall 16 and rear wall 18.
The front door panel 20 is hinged to one o~ the side walls 12, and may be locked shut by means of a loclc and key 22.
On the front face on the door panel 20 there is provided a coin slot 24, and article dispensing openings 25 and door 26, and a coin return door and opening 28. ;~
On the inner face of the door panel 20, there is provided a coin rejector mechanism shown generally as 30, and two article delivery chute means 32. ~;~
The coin rejector mechanism 30 is not described in detail, and is of a type well known in the vending art. It is '' . . .

electrically opexated and is connected by means of a cable 34 to a control box 36 mounted on rear wall 18 of housing 10.
Control DOX 36 is of course provided with any suita~le cable (not shown) wh~reby it may be plugged into a source of electrical power.
Witilin tne housing 10 tllere are located, in this embodiment of the invention two article dispensing units, one of which is indicated generally as 40, the other article dispensing mechanism being omitted for the sake of clarity.
It will ~owever be appreciated that such a further unit 40 would norrnally be incorporated.
'l'he invention is not however restricted to a vending machine having two such article dispensing units 40. There could be a single such unit or ~lere could be rnultiples of such units d~pending on the particular application.
The article dispensing unit 40 is shown in more detail in Figures 4 to 9. The dispensing unit 40 performs two functions namely that of storin~ a sufficient quantity of articles, and also of dispensing or releasing the articles one by one as they are purchased.
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In order to store the articles, generally channel s~a~d verticaL wall members 42 are arranged to form an upstanding hopper or magazi~e-like structure. The four chan~el walls are referenced 4~ a, b, c and d respectively. Each of tlle channel walls 42 a, b & c are of similar construction and are securely fastened together for example by welding or the like (not shown) so that they form a rigid vertical structure.
The upper ends may be flaired outwardly to facilitate insertion of articles thereinO

At their lower ends they ar0 provided with generally 1 1~6622 L shaped mountiny brackets 44. The fourth channel wall 42d may be similar to walls 42a, b and 6, or may be hingedly mounted to wall 42a so that it may be swung to and fro, to give access to the interior of the hopper or magazine thereby facilitating insertion 0f articles therein.
The hinge means which i9 shown in more detail in figure 5 comprises left and right hand hinge flanges 46 and 48, having respective tu~ular sleeve portions 50 and 52 for reception of a hinge pin 54 therethrough. Tne sleeve portion 50 and 52 are spaced apart a greater distance than in conventional hinges, so that the flange portion 48 may be moved vertically upwardly and downwardly with reference to the hinge flange 46, along the hinge pin 54.
Coil springs 56 are located on hinge pins 54 between sleeves 50 and 52.
- It will be noted in Figure 6, that the wall 42d is not provided with a bracket at 44 its lower end, so that it is in fact free to be slid upwardly and downwardly on the two hinge pins 54 against springs 56 and to be swung away from wall 42a giving access to the interior of the magazine.
At the lower ends of the channel walls 42a, b, c and d, there are provided four mounting block members 58a, b, c and d.
The mounting blocks 58 are all fastened to a base pla~2 60 by means such as bolts 62.
A central opening indicated as 64 (see figure 8) is provided through base plate 60, registering with the four walls 42.
As best shown in Figure ~ and geach of the mounting blocks 58 comprises a generally planar centre portion 66, and two side rib portions 68, each of which extend forwardly of the centre portion 66, and are provided with downwardly dependent guide 11~862~

plates 70 and forwardly extending fingers 72.
Further downwardly dependent guide p}ates 74 are provided on the leading edge of the centre portion 66.
Each of the mounting blocks 5~ is mounted on a respective side of openiny 64 in base plate 60, and guide plates 70 and 74 extend through such opening, so as to guide the passage o~ an article therethrough.
In each of fingers 72 there is formed a locating recess 73. Each recess 73 receives one corner of a ~han~el wall 42 and precisely locates it to ensure clean feeding.
Beneath each of the mounting blocks there i5 provided a trap door flap 76, hingedly mounted in hinge pin 77 secured below block 58 on an axis located rearwardly o the front face of guide plates 74 so as to swing between a vertieally- downwardly dependent position and a horizontal position as shown in Figure 8.
Trap door flaps 76 are generally rectangular having two larger sides and two shorter sides.
Each of the trap doors have rectangular recesses 76a registering with guides 74. Recesses 76a are both located along the same longer side, and on the same side as the hinge pin 77. In this way the trap doors can swing downwardly around guides 74 and clear of them, and will hang in a plane offset outwardly from guides 74 so as to avoid interfering with the article dropping therethrough.
The trap door flaps 76 are operated in opposite pairs, so that when one opposite pair is swung u~wardly, the other opposite pair is swung downwardly.
The mechanism by which this is achieved is shown in Figure 7. Such operating mechanism is essentially similar in l l~g622 concept to that already disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent 2,937,785 and 3,158,288, with certain differences. It will be seen to comprise three bell cranks 78, 80 and 82, each of which is pivotally mounted on a bolt 84, on the underside of the base plate 60.
Bell crank 78 is provided with a boss 86 at one end, and boss 87 and a crank pin 88 at the other end. Bell crank 80 is provided with a slotted opening 90 receiving crank pin 88 at one end and a slo~ted opening at 92 at the other end.
Bell crank 82 is provided with a crank pin 94 at one end running in slotted o~ening 92 and is further provided with a boss 96 at the same end as crank pin 94 and a further boss 98 at the other end.
It will thus be seen that all o~ bell cranks 78, 80 and 82 are linked together by crank pins 88 and 94 for swinging movement in unison.
Swinging movement is procured through, for example, bar 100, driven from hub 102, which is in turn driven by any suitable electrical motor and drive train shown generally as 104. ~`
Motor 104 is connected by any sultable means such as cable 106 to control box 36.
Bosses 86, 87, 96 and 98 engage the undersurfaces of respective door flaps 76, and procure swinging movement thereof upon operation of motor 104.
In order -to support each of the article dispensing units 40 inside housing 10, there are provided generally right angular frame members 108, three being shown in this embodiment of the invention for supporting the two article dispensing units 40. It will be appreciated that if more 1 1~6622 . article dispensing units were employed there would be additional such frame members employed. The frame members 108 are provided on their horizontal portions with retaining pins 110 having heads 112, located at spaced intervals therealong. The heads 112 are such that they fit snugly over the` edges of the base plate 60. In this way the base plate 60 may be slid relative to the frames 108, and is retained in position against tipping over by the heads 112.
In order to ensure that the article dispensing units 40 are located accurately with regard to the dispensing chutes 32, locating pins 11~ are provided being operated by springs 116, and seating in suitable openings 118 in base plate~s 60 (Figure 4).
Depression of pin 114 will of course permit base plate 60 and the entire unit 40 to be slid out or servicing. It will be noted that the arrangement of the retaining pins 110 is such that even when the unit 40 is slid half way out, it will still be effectively supported in a cantilever manner so that, for example, the filling of the magazine with articles is made much simpler since the articles may be dropped into the top of the magazine without interference from the top of the housing 10.
Removal of a unit 40 simply involves pulling the base plate 60 all the way out from the retaining pins 110, and unplugging the cable 106 from the control box 36.
The sliding support of the dispensing unit could be achieved in other ways. Thus, the brackets could be modified, and the pins 110 could be placed on the base plate. The pins 110 could clearly be replaced by other forms of slidable support, and other forms of locating means could replace the pins 11~.
In operation, the magazine contains articles, typically thin, flat, rectangular booklets of postage stamps, ~ ~6622 cross-stacked as shown in ~igure 3, with the lowermost article resting on one pair of opposed trap door flaps 76 in their upper position with the other pair of opposed trap door flaps 76 heing swung in their downwardly dependent position.
A purchaser then inserts a suitable quantity of !' coins in the slot 24. The passàge of the coins through the coin rejector 30 will then produce an electrical impulse which passes along cable 34 to control box 36. By suitable relays (not shown) such as are well known in the art, electrical power is passed from control box 36 along cable 106 to operate motor 104 through a predetermined operating cycle. Such movement will drive hub 102 and link 100 causing bell cranks 78, 80 and 82 to swing from one position to the other.
Such swinging movement will cause one pair of opposite trap door flaps 76 to swing upwardly and the other pair to swing downwardly. The pair that swings downwardly will release the article resting thereon.
The next article up in the stack being arranged transversely will then be caught by the other two trap door flaps which are swinging upwardly so that one article only will be dispensed downwardly through the opening 64. ~s it passes through the opening it will be precisely guided by contact with the guides 70 and 74 so that it falls cleanly into one of dispensing chutes 32. The purchaser can then remove the article from one o~ openings 26 on the front of housing 10.
When it is necessary to refill the magazine, all that is required is for the operator to open the door 20 of the housing 10, and partially withdraw the unit 40, by depressing pin 114 and sliding base plate 50 halfway out.

~ 1 ~6622 He then simply raises channel wall 42d against springs 56, so -that channel wall 42d is no longer trapped between the ribs 68 of the mounting block 58, and channel wall 42d is then free to be swung to one side.
He can then readily refill the remaining channel walls 42a, b and c with cross-stacked articles, and then simply swing the channel wall 42d back into position again.
SUPPLEMENTARY DISCLOSURE
Figure 10 is a partially exploded lower perspective view of the operating linkage and trap door flaps, and, Figure 11 is a perspective of the mounting brackets of Figure 10.
Certain modifications can usefully be made to the hinging of the trap door flaps.
As best shown in Figures 10 and 11, the hinge pins 77 extend through suitable openings in the longer sides of trap door flaps 76, and are received in slots 200 formed in hase plate 202 on either side of modified mounting blocks 204.
Pins 77 are held in such slots by being sandwiched between the undersurfaces of blocks 204, and co~ner plates 206, on the underside of base plate 202.
Spacer discs 207 of different thickness separate bell cranks 78, 80 and 82 by different distances from corner plates 206 and are all held in position by bolts 84.
Mounting blocks 204 in Figures 10 and 11 have guide members 208 generally similar to guides 74, but guides 210 are somewhat larger and extended as compared with guides 70, and are cut away to permit entry of hinge pins`77 into slots 200 in base plate 202.
Bell cranks 78, 80 and 82 are unchanged, as is the bar 100, and crank 102 and motor 104, ~ 1~6622 The foregoing is a description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which is given here by way of example only. The invention is not to be taken as limited to any of the specific features as described, 1. but comprehends all such variations thereof as come ; within the scope of the appended claims.

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Claims (5)

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. An article dispensing unit for use in a vending machine of the type wherein articles are stacked vertically above one another and are dispensed downwardly one at a time, said dispensing unit comprising;
supporting means defining an opening;
guide means on said supporting means, having upper and lower ends and extending downwardly through said supporting means within said opening and located in four planes defining four sides of a rectangle, said rectangle defining a predetermined spacing between guide means on opposed sides thereof, for guiding said articles on opposite sides as the same pass through said opening;
an upstanding article hopper on said supporting means above said opening;
four trap door flap members mounted beneath said supporting means, around the four sides of said opening, and being swingable between horizontally extended article supporting positions wherein they extend past said guide means into said opening, and are located in planes spaced above said lower ends of said guide means, and downwardly dependent article release positions wherein they are located in planes spaced outwardly from said guide means whereby to maintain said flap members out of contact with a said article as the same passes through said opening, and, linkage means operatively extending between opposed pairs of said flap members, and operating means therefor, whereby said trap door flap members may bs swung, as aforesaid, in opposed pairs.

2 An article dispensing unit as claimed in Claim 1 wherein said flap members incorporate recess means, said guide means extending downwardly into said recess means, whereby said flap members may swing relative to said guide means, and when in said downwardly dependent position, hang clear of said guide means.

3. An article dispensing unit as claimed in Claim 2 wherein each of said trap door flap members comprises a rectangular plate-like member, having two longer sides and two shorter sides, and including at least one rectangular recess in one of said longer sides, for receiving said guide means therein, and hinge pin means extending along said longer side adjacent said at least one rectangular recess, said hinge pin means being mounted and located whereby to permit swinging of said trap door flap members between a horizontal article supporting position and a vertically dependent article release position, and in said article release position, said flap members hanging clear of said guide means, whereby to permit unobstructed downward movement of an article released by said trap door flap members.

4. An article dispensing unit as claimed in Claim 1 including hinge pin means on said trap door flap members, and pin receiving recesses in said guide means.
CLAIMS SUPPORTED BY SUPPLEMENTARY DISCLOSURE

5. An article dispensing unit as claimed in Claim 1 including block means integral with said guide means, and including hinge means for said trap door flap members, and hinge receiving recesses in said block means.