EP1271432A1 - Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires - Google Patents

Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1271432A1
EP1271432A1 EP01830421A EP01830421A EP1271432A1 EP 1271432 A1 EP1271432 A1 EP 1271432A1 EP 01830421 A EP01830421 A EP 01830421A EP 01830421 A EP01830421 A EP 01830421A EP 1271432 A1 EP1271432 A1 EP 1271432A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
series
compartments
compartment
magazine
access
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Ceased
Application number
EP01830421A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Paolo Borra
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Damian SRL
Original Assignee
Damian SRL
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Damian SRL filed Critical Damian SRL
Priority to EP01830421A priority Critical patent/EP1271432A1/fr
Publication of EP1271432A1 publication Critical patent/EP1271432A1/fr
Ceased legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
    • G07F9/00—Details other than those peculiar to special kinds or types of apparatus
    • G07F9/02—Devices for alarm or indication, e.g. when empty; Advertising arrangements in coin-freed apparatus
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
    • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
    • G07F11/00—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles
    • G07F11/46—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from movable storage containers or supports
    • G07F11/50—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from movable storage containers or supports the storage containers or supports being rotatably mounted
    • G07F11/54—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from movable storage containers or supports the storage containers or supports being rotatably mounted about vertical axes

Definitions

  • a typology of widespread automatic dispensers is made up, from a structural point of view, of a stack of magazines comprising rotating discs set in motion by an electric motor in turn controlled by an electronic intelligence.
  • each rotating disc should be divided into a plurality of compartments and should be vertically aligned relative to the adjacent compartments.
  • a series of access members is provided, typically doors such disposed that each of them enables access to one compartment of a respective disc.
  • the automatic dispenser is also typically provided with a reader of "scaling-down" prepaid magnetic keys or a device capable of receiving and counting money to enable picking up of one or more food products offered by the dispenser.
  • a door locking-releasing system allows said doors to be opened and therefore access by the operator to the product he/she is interested in. As soon as the door corresponding to the product of interest is opened, the dispenser picks up the money or takes an equivalent value off the key, finally locking all doors again.
  • the automatic dispensers available on the market can have different operating modalities depending on the possibility of movement of the series of multi-compartment discs by the user.
  • each disc forming the stack it is provided for the different compartments present on each disc forming the stack to be filled with one or more products. It is clear that the products in each compartment may also be different, but they must all have the same price on each respective disc.
  • the user has free access to each compartment and can examine and select the product he/she likes the most also among products of the same typology. Obviously periodically reloading of the dispenser is carried out in order to restore the products in the compartments where the same have been picked up.
  • the dispenser during its operating life may hold identical products loaded thereinto on very different days in one and the same disc.
  • each of the multi-compartment discs comprises a plurality of products of the same type and price and in which the customer is not able to make a selection among the products loaded on the disc.
  • the user can only pick up a product from a starting compartment following a sequential and predetermined order imposed by the machine.
  • the angularly adjacent compartment will be available to the consumer and so on until depletion of all the products in all compartments present on a multi-compartment disc.
  • the disc automatically rotates until the door is brought into alignment with the compartment immediately following that concerned with a previous picking-up.
  • the "random-access" apparatus was particularly successful exactly due to the possibility offered to a consumer of examining the different products present on the same disc and having the same price and freely making a choice without the machine imposing a selection sequence previously established in an absolute manner.
  • an automatic dispenser diagrammatically represented by a chain line and embodying a selecting device and a selection process in accordance with the present invention has been generally identified by reference numeral 100.
  • the automatic dispenser 100 is in particular intended for dispensing food products and it conventionally comprises a plurality of magazines 101 which are disc-like shaped for example and are disposed in vertical superposed relationship with each other so as to define a substantially cylindrical structure.
  • each disc-shaped magazine is provided with a plurality of compartments 102 each designed to house at least one respective food product; in the embodiment shown an automatic dispenser having eight disc-shaped and mutually superposed magazines is provided which magazines can be set in rotation by an electric motor 103 placed at a base region 104 of the automatic dispenser.
  • the dispenser may comprise a greater or smaller number of magazines without departing from the inventive idea of the present invention.
  • each magazine is provided with a plurality of compartments 102 which are mutually adjacent and, following the rotation imposed by the electric motor to the magazine stack, can be in turn angularly moved.
  • At least one access member 105 is provided which operates at each magazine 101 and is adapted to be moved between a closed condition where it inhibits picking up of the food product or products from the corresponding compartment, and at least one open condition, in which it enables access to the respective compartment 102 of the magazine. Since the user can accede to each compartment 102 of each magazine 101 only through the respective access member 105 (consisting of either a flap door or a sliding door for example), the electric motor defines movement means capable of carrying out a relative displacement between the magazine and the access member so that, due to alignment of the access member with the compartment in which the user is interested, picking up of the food product is made possible.
  • the dispenser is provided with locking means 106 preferably active on each access member and selectively movable between a lock condition, in which it keeps the access member to the closed condition, and a release condition, in which it enables passage of the access member from the closed condition to the open condition for picking up the product.
  • Both the electric motor 103 driving the different magazines in rotation and the locking means 106 (and therefore the access members 105) are advantageously coordinated by a selecting device 1 in accordance with the invention.
  • Device 1 is able to receive the user's commands, to control and coordinate the operating conditions of the different magazines 101, the access members 105, the locking means 106 associated therewith, and the movement means 103, so as to enable or not picking up of a food product from a compartment depending on occurrence of predetermined conditions.
  • the selecting device 1 comprises a control unit 2 to which a sensor unit 3 detecting the angular position of the different magazines 101 and an angular lock system 4 stopping rotation of the different magazines according to predetermined pitches are interlocked.
  • the electric motor used is of the continuously-operated type and an angular-lock system 4 of the electro-mechanical type is provided which is switched on by unit 2 and is able to intervene on pegs 5 integral with the magazine stack and disposed at predetermined pitches from each other.
  • said angular movement of the different magazines is for example upon command of an electro-mechanical hook of the lock system 4 by the control unit causing intervention of said lock system and clinging to said pegs rigidly carried by the rotating structure with which the different magazines are associated.
  • input members 6 typically comprising a drive means 7, consisting of push-buttons for example, to set the electric motor in motion and therefore operate movement of the different magazines, as well as a device for credit reception 8.
  • the credit-reception device can operate either on ready money (portion 8a) or on "scaling-down" pre-paid keys or cards (portion 8b) or following any other similar criterion.
  • Output members 9 such as optical displays and/or acoustic actuators can also be interlocked to the control unit 2.
  • the dispensing device typically comprises more than one magazine.
  • control unit 2 with reference to each magazine, is able to identify and allocate a primary-picking-up priority index I 1 to a first series of compartments of such a magazine and a secondary-picking-up priority index I 2 to a second series of compartments not yet emptied of the same magazine.
  • control unit 2 is able to know the number of compartments present, to detect by means of sensors or other modalities as better specified in the following, which compartments are empty and to allocate at least two differentiated picking-up priority indices (a primary index I 1 and a secondary index I 2 ) that the control unit will use to manage the picking-up priority of the different products from the individual compartments of the dispensing device.
  • control unit 2 is active on the locking means 106 to initially enable picking up through the respective access member 105 from anyone of the compartments of the first series of each magazine, thereby enabling picking up through the respective access member from a compartment belonging to the second series exclusively following previous depletion of all products in the compartments of the first series, obviously still with reference to one and the same magazine.
  • the central processing unit may be made up of an electronic circuitry suitably planned so as to manage the above described functional operations and those to be described in the following or, more advantageously, of a programmable unit or CPU with which a memory is associated, together with a memory-resident program capable of programming the CPU so as to cause the functional operation of same as herein described.
  • the selection device in accordance with the invention also comprises first sensor means capable of detecting passage from a closed condition to an open condition of each of the members for access to the respective compartments.
  • Such a passage is detected and signalled to the control unit that in this way can modify the priority indices I 1 and I 2 of the corresponding compartment.
  • control unit modifies the respective index associated with the concerned compartment from I 1 (if the compartment was of the first series) to I 0 (index for an empty compartment) or alternatively from I 2 (if the concerned compartment belonged to the second series) to I 0 (index for an empty compartment).
  • first sensor means can be mere switches associated with the doors and adapted to detect opening of same.
  • Second sensors may be also provided which are able to verify and signal to the control unit, a condition of occurred reloading of the empty compartments.
  • the control unit on receiving such a signal from the second sensors, is able to allocate a secondary priority index I 2 to all reloaded compartments and preferably, during this step, to allocate a primary priority index I 1 to the compartments not yet emptied that have not been reloaded.
  • control unit allocates a primary picking up priority to those compartments in which the products had not been used up, allocating a secondary picking up priority to those newly reloaded.
  • the above described selecting device enables a selection process to be carried out which can be implemented via software, in the case of use of a programmable CPU.
  • the process comprises the following steps:
  • definition of the first series typically takes place during an initialization or first reloading step in which all products present in the different magazines are allocated a primary picking-up index I 1 .
  • Allocation of one or more compartments to the second series takes place through the following further specific steps:
  • opening is enabled and detected (at 52, 53) and, as pointed out above, the concerned compartment is removed from the first series and allocated to the compartments with index I 0 (empty compartments; at 54).
  • the compartment the door of which the operator is trying to open does not belong to the first series, it is verified whether there are other compartments of the first series in the same magazine (at 55) and, if that is so, a displacement of the magazines is carried out so as to bring a compartment of the first series into alignment with the access doors (at 56).
  • Fig. 3 shows a further simplified alternative embodiment of the process and the device in accordance with the invention.
  • the control unit is still able to define, for each magazine, both a first series of compartments having a primary picking-up priority and a second series of compartments having a secondary picking-up priority; in detail, unit 2 enables picking up (by means of the locking means) through the access member from anyone of the compartments of the first series and enables picking up (still by means of the locking means) through the respective access member from one of the compartments of the second series only following previous depletion of all products from the compartments of the first series.
  • the device operate according to the process shown in Fig.
  • the selecting device capable of accomplishing the above described process comprises a control unit similar to that previously described for the process depicted in Fig. 2 and active on the locking means to enable access to anyone of the compartments of the first series and also active on such locking means to enable access to anyone of the compartments of the second series only when the products of the compartments of the first series are used up.
  • the first sensor means 105 is required for detecting passage from a closed condition to an open condition of each of the access members so that the control unit may allocate a secondary (second series) priority index to the compartments for which said open condition occurred.
  • control unit may once more be made up of a unit programmable to CPU and a software program to be stored in a memory 11 associated with the CPU.
  • the invention achieves important advantages.
  • the user in fact can select anyone of the products of the first series and access to products of the second series is inhibited only if products having a primary priority index are still available.
  • the invention can be embodied both in new automatic dispensers and in preexistent dispensers operating with modalities different from that being the object of the invention.

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Vending Machines For Individual Products (AREA)
EP01830421A 2001-06-21 2001-06-21 Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires Ceased EP1271432A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP01830421A EP1271432A1 (fr) 2001-06-21 2001-06-21 Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP01830421A EP1271432A1 (fr) 2001-06-21 2001-06-21 Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1271432A1 true EP1271432A1 (fr) 2003-01-02

Family

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Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP01830421A Ceased EP1271432A1 (fr) 2001-06-21 2001-06-21 Processus de sélection et appareil de sélection pour distributeurs automatiques, en particulier pour distributeurs automatiques de produits alimentaires

Country Status (1)

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EP (1) EP1271432A1 (fr)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2045784A3 (fr) * 2007-09-28 2009-08-05 Innovative Product Achievements, LLC Procédés et appareil pour augmenter la vitesse de distribution d'articles de distributeurs
WO2011119718A1 (fr) * 2010-03-25 2011-09-29 The Coca-Cola Company Systèmes et procédés de distribution

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4391388A (en) * 1981-04-30 1983-07-05 Merrill Krakauer Control system for increasing the versatility of an all purpose merchandiser
WO1989006844A1 (fr) * 1988-01-22 1989-07-27 Harber, Robyn, Lisa Ameliorations relatives a des distributeurs automatiques
WO1999038125A1 (fr) * 1998-01-22 1999-07-29 Walker Digital, Llc Procede et appareil pour la collecte et l'utilisation d'informations relatives a la demande associee a un distributeur automatique
US5975348A (en) * 1994-04-21 1999-11-02 Krh Thermal Systems Vending machine with mechanised freezer door and failure control devices
WO2001027739A1 (fr) * 1999-10-12 2001-04-19 Paulucci Jeno F Distributeur automatique

Patent Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4391388A (en) * 1981-04-30 1983-07-05 Merrill Krakauer Control system for increasing the versatility of an all purpose merchandiser
WO1989006844A1 (fr) * 1988-01-22 1989-07-27 Harber, Robyn, Lisa Ameliorations relatives a des distributeurs automatiques
US5975348A (en) * 1994-04-21 1999-11-02 Krh Thermal Systems Vending machine with mechanised freezer door and failure control devices
WO1999038125A1 (fr) * 1998-01-22 1999-07-29 Walker Digital, Llc Procede et appareil pour la collecte et l'utilisation d'informations relatives a la demande associee a un distributeur automatique
WO2001027739A1 (fr) * 1999-10-12 2001-04-19 Paulucci Jeno F Distributeur automatique

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2045784A3 (fr) * 2007-09-28 2009-08-05 Innovative Product Achievements, LLC Procédés et appareil pour augmenter la vitesse de distribution d'articles de distributeurs
US8123071B2 (en) 2007-09-28 2012-02-28 Innovative Product Acheivements, LLC Methods and apparatus for increasing the speed of dispensing articles from vending machines
WO2011119718A1 (fr) * 2010-03-25 2011-09-29 The Coca-Cola Company Systèmes et procédés de distribution

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