EP2127565A1 - Dispensing device - Google Patents

Abstract

The device has a dispensing chamber (7) accessible from outside and attached to an outward completely closed storage chamber (5) in a longitudinal direction (2). The chamber (7) comprises a dispensing wall (38) with a dispensing opening. A collecting container e.g. box, is arranged under a guide plate (40) and connected upstream to the opening. Goods e.g. fruit, are movable from a manipulator (11) in a transverse direction (4) through the opening to the container, and are dispensed after complete dispensing of the goods into the container. The opening is closed by a pivotable lock plate (32).

Description

The present invention relates to a device for piecewise removal of goods which are stored in a container.

For example, in self-service food retailing, there is the problem that fresh produce such as fruit, vegetables, baked goods or confectionery are offered to customers fresh and unpackaged in self-service shelves or self-service displays. In order to prevent the goods from being contaminated by the breath or precipitated droplets of the customers, it is known to protect the fresh products with the aid of a glass cover or to store them in container boxes, which are opened only for removal. Although it may be that in this way contamination by breath or droplet transfer is prevented. However, it can not be ruled out that a customer touches a fresh product or takes the goods display and puts it back later. For reasons of hygiene, however, it is undesirable that a subsequent customer buys a product that has already touched another customer.

To solve this problem, it is known to prefabricate the fresh produce in small containers and packaged to sell these small containers. However, the product then no longer has the typical fresh goods character, but acts on the customer as packaged preserved non-fresh goods. In addition, the customer is determined on the container size.

According to the present invention, the devices mentioned above are designed so that the individual goods can be removed in pieces, without any contact takes place before removal and at the same time a return of a once removed goods is excluded.

From the US-A-5,105,991 is a removal device for confectionery known with a completely sealed from the outside storage area and the storage area in the longitudinal direction upstream removal area. A disadvantage of this known removal device is the almost flowing transition from the removal area to the removal opening. Due to gravity, the material to be taken almost inevitably gets into the removal opening, which may result in more than the required quantity of goods to be removed actually being removed.

From the DE-A-42 16 830 is a removal device with a transversely displaceable manipulator known. With the help of the manipulator, the material to be removed can be removed from a storage area through a removal opening. In this known device, in turn, the material to be removed is, as it were, automatically conveyed in the direction of the removal opening due to its longitudinal force from the storage area, so that there is also the problem here of removing an undesired amount of the material.

The present invention has for its object to make the removal device so that the individual goods can be removed piecewise, without the risk that several items go unintentionally into the removal area of the device.

This object is achieved by the feature combination of claim 1 in an inventive manner. The other claims related back to claim 1 relate to some advantageous and partially seen for themselves inventive developments and sub-combinations of the invention defined in claim 1.

The device according to the invention has an outwardly completely closed storage area. In this context, completely closed means not completely hermetically sealed. Rather, the storage area is usually designed so that one or more access openings provided are to be able to refill it with fresh produce and to be able to introduce, for example, the manipulator belonging to the invention from the outside into the storage area and to serve him. Also ventilation openings may be provided for the exchange of air. The aim of the complete isolation of the storage area within the meaning of the invention is to prevent the contact of the stored goods from the outside and the return of once removed goods from the storage area.

For removal, namely according to the invention, a further provided, externally accessible removal area is used. This removal area is connected to the storage area in such a way that individual goods are then removed individually from the removal opening at the removal area with the aid of the manipulator.

In order to ensure that actually only the exact desired amount of goods is always removed, the material to be removed is moved according to the invention in the removal area in the transverse direction through the removal opening to the outside. Compared to the prior art thus takes place a single change in direction of the Guts to be taken during removal from the longitudinal direction in the transverse direction, so that accidental gravity-induced movement of the Guts to be taken is effectively prevented. In addition, it is ensured according to the invention that the material to be removed can be removed from the device only after its complete removal into the removal area. The avoidable unwanted removal of goods is thus effectively prevented.

In a preferred embodiment, the removal area is left open following the removal opening. Due to this "bottomless" design of the removal area, the item must be spent only to the removal opening, and then fall out of the removal area. To remove a variety of individual goods then a catch tray or a container must be placed or held only under the removal area. In this container can then relatively quickly with the manipulator a large number of individual goods are transported from the storage area over the removal area.

It is expedient in this context, at the removal area fastening elements for a collecting container, for example in the form of clamps, pliers or the like. provided. It can then be a suitable receptacle, such as a box or a bag, fixed to the removal area, then to have the hands free to fill the receptacle.

Especially for filling bags or other non-dimensionally stable collecting containers, it is advantageous to design the guide plate at the removal area in the manner of a trunk or an ejection tube. This has the advantage that the key-shaped design of the removal area at the same time causes a guide of the goods to be removed.

It is also advantageous to provide an effective as a penetration lock blocking plate in the bottom region of the removal area. This locking plate acts like a check valve. The lock plate opens when a good to be taken falls through to immediately close the removal area after the removal process again. This measure in turn serves to effectively prevent manipulation, in particular in the form of a return of the goods after removal.

In order to effectively prevent the goods from being returned, it is proposed in a further embodiment of the invention to automate, as it were, the pivoting back of the blocking plate. For this purpose, both flaps are structurally simple against the spring pressure of a spring element, such as a leg spring, when you open, so when removing swung to hereafter back to its original position, the respective closed position of the spring element back process.

To be able to offer several types of goods in a sales display, it is provided in a development of the invention to arrange not just one, but several storage areas next to each other.

Advantageously and structurally simple is a paddle-like configuration of the manipulator. For this purpose, the manipulator has a handle projecting out of the device. With the paddle bar, the manipulator penetrates the front of the device in a specially adapted opening. To manipulate the goods to be removed is used in the storage room arranged, the handle eyelet on the paddle bar opposite arranged paddle. With the help of the paddle sheet, the goods stored in the storage area can be simply moved into the removal area. The paddle-like manipulator thus shifts the individual goods as the rake of a croupier in the casino is used to move the chips on the game table.

To store the manipulator in a transverse slot in the front side of the device transversely displaceable is particularly advantageous. The transverse slot in this case has the double function of a passage for the paddle rod on the one hand and a guideway in the transverse direction for the paddle rod on the other.

In order to effect an automatic feeding of the goods in the storage area in the direction of the removal area, the bottom surface of the storage area is advantageously sloping sloping towards the front.

To fill the storage area with fresh produce, the storage area may have either a hinged side or rear wall. Should the rear wall or the side wall not be accessible, it is advantageous to design the bottom of the storage area or floor and front area of the storage area in the manner of a drawer. This drawer-like configuration must then be brought up for filling with fresh goods just from the front of the device to release the storage room for filling. It goes without saying that safety devices may be provided which effectively prevent an opening of the storage area by unauthorized persons, in particular customers.

Fig. 1

Eine dreidimensionale Ansicht einer Ausführungsform der Erfindung mit nach vorne und nach unten geöffnetem Entnahmebereich.

Fig. 2

eine Seitenansicht eines anderen Ausführungsbeispiels der Erfindung mit einer auf den Entnahmebereich aufgeschobenen Auffangtüte vor dem Befüllen mit Ware,

Fig. 3

die Darstellung gemäß Fig. 2 mit eingefüllter Ware,

Fig. 4

eine Aufsicht auf die Auffangtüte.

On the basis of a removal device for bread or rolls, the invention is further explained. Show it:

Fig. 1

A three-dimensional view of an embodiment of the invention with the extraction area opened to the front and to the bottom.

Fig. 2

a side view of another embodiment of the invention with a pushed onto the removal area collection bag before filling with goods,

Fig. 3

the representation according to Fig. 2 with filled goods,

Fig. 4

a view of the collection bag.

The inventive removal device has a front side facing the customer 1. Facing away from the front side 1 in the longitudinal direction 2 is the rear side 3. In the transverse direction 4, which extends at right angles to the longitudinal direction 2, four storage areas 5 designed as storage compartments are arranged next to one another. The storage areas 5 are separated from each other by the storage partitions 6 in the transverse direction 4. Furthermore, 1 transverse slots 10 are formed in the front. In each of the transverse slots 10 is a designed in the manner of a paddle manipulator 11 a. Each of these manipulators 11 is movable in the transverse slots 10 in the transverse direction 4.

Each manipulator 11 has a gripping eye 12 located outside the device and a paddle blade 13 located in the respective storage area 5. The paddle blade 13 and the grommet 12 are each attached end to a paddle rod 14 connecting them. Thus, each manipulator 11 passes through the front side 1 of the device with the paddle rod 14 through the respectively assigned transverse slot 10. The manipulators 11 are along the transverse slots 10 in the transverse direction 4 traversable. The longitudinal movability of the manipulators in the longitudinal direction 2 is in each case by a stop rubber 15, which on both sides of the paddle rod 14 of the transverse slot 10 is fixed, limited. This limitation of the longitudinal displaceability of the manipulators 11 should on the one hand prevent the manipulators 11 from penetrating too deeply into the respective storage area 5 in the longitudinal direction 2 and, on the other hand, that the manipulator 11 is pulled too far out of the device. This too far pulling out would have the consequence that the respective manipulator 11 protrudes into the rack aisles in front of the devices. This intrusion in turn carries the risk that passing customers will bump against the manipulator 11 and bend it. In addition, an unwanted removal of goods from the device could take place by an unwanted impact on a manipulator 11.

The storage areas 5 of in Fig. 1 The wear strips 35 each extend in the longitudinal direction 2. Since the bottom surfaces 18 extend obliquely sloping from the rear 3 in the longitudinal direction 2 in the direction of the front side 1, the act Sliding strips 35 as the runners of a carriage for the Good 19. The Good 19 slides in this way easily and accurately in the removal area. 7

According to the embodiment Fig. 1 jumps the removal area 7 from the front side 1 seen from above in the manner of a right triangle. The front end line 36 running in the transverse direction 4 parallel to the rear wall of a storage area 5 forms the hypotenuse of the right-angled triangle seen from above. The actual front page 1 is divided into two parts into a viewing wall 37 which forms a long catheter of the right-angled triangle and a removal wall 38 forming a short catheter of the right-angled triangle. The transversal slit 10 for the manipulator 11 is introduced into the transparent viewing wall 37. The manipulator 11 has a handle eye 12 and a paddle blade 13. Advantageously, the handle 12 is formed as an ergonomically shaped handle so that the handle rests well and positively in the hand of the operator.

Due to the above-described design of the viewing wall 37 and the removal wall 38 of the storage area 5 beyond the front line 36 in the longitudinal direction 2 upstream region of the device is triangular shaped analogous to the front end line 36 as a hypotenuse and the viewing wall 37 and the withdrawal wall 38 formed as a right angle triangle , The removal wall 38 has a blocking plate 32 closing a removal opening. The locking plate 32 is pivotally mounted on the removal wall 38. In the exemplary embodiment, the blocking plate 32 is designed as a Plexiglas disk, which is suspended on two annular suspensions 39. The suspensions 39 may be formed by simple key rings, for example. To improve the blocking effect by the blocking plates 32, it is also conceivable to arrange a plurality of blocking plates, as it were, connected in series one behind the other. Since the customer has only two hands available, the customer can indeed open a respective blocking plate with one hand. But he lacks then another hand to return a taken Guts 19th

Upstream of the blocking plate 32 in the exemplary embodiment is a guide plate 40. Via this guide plate 40, the material 19 conveyed by the manipulator 11 through the blocking plate 32 slides out of the device into a container arranged below the guide plate 40. This can be a collection basket or a drip tray. Furthermore, it is conceivable to postpone a self-expanding bag on the stem 41 designed as a picking funnel of the removal device. The stem 41 is designed for this purpose that it is analogous to the removal of 26 in the embodiment according to Fig. 2 to Fig.4 covers all sides of the removal opening, so that the material to be removed 19 can fall out only in the region of the guide plate 40 down.

The removal areas 7 jump - as in Fig. 2 Recognizable - in the longitudinal direction 2 on the front side 1 to the front and down to the formation downwardly open and standing removal nozzle 26. Each removal button 26 carries on its side facing the operator a retaining clip 27. On the bracket 27 is a in the embodiment configured as a removal bag designed collecting container 28. When bag-like receptacle 28 according to the embodiment of the headband 27 passes through a punched-retaining slot 29 in the bag-shaped designed collection container 28 ( Fig. 4 ). The bag-like configured collecting container 28 according to FIG. 18 has two edge-side paper regions 30 and a central region configured as a film 31.

For removal of the goods 19 each a good 19 is moved by means of the manipulator 11 in the removal area 7 of the device. Since the removal key 26 is left open at the bottom, the good 19 falls due to its own weight in the on the headband 27 adapting collecting container 28. In Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 is finally recognizable effective as a penetration lock pivotable locking plate 32. The locking plate 32 is preferably pivotable against a spring element and thus closes after falling out of the Guts 19 in the collecting container 28 automatically.

In a further embodiment, it is conceivable that lying in alignment with the locking plate 32 front wall of the stem 41 is omitted. In this embodiment, only the top and the two side walls of the discharge opening covered by the lock plate 32 are concealed. On the other hand, the front side and the underside are left open in order to be able to process the material 19 to be removed into a bag which has been put on the stem 41. Finally, it should be mentioned that the stem 41 in the embodiment according to Fig. 1 cone-shaped is configured such that it widens in the direction of the removal wall 38 for spreading the bag opening of a put over the stem 41 bag for removing the respective Guts 19th

The advantage of the embodiment according to Fig. 1 consists in that the material to be removed 19 is first brought into the triangular removal region 7, to selectively pass from there the blocking plate 32, to be finally removed from the device. This embodiment is particularly suitable for elongated piece goods, for example loaves of bread.

For better shielding of the stored in the storage area 5 goods 19, it is possible to arrange in the storage area itself several running in the transverse direction 4 cutting wheels. Particularly advantageous is the arrangement of a running in the transverse direction 4 cutting wheel in the region of the front end line 36. This blade has only so large recesses that always only one provided for removal Good 19 can be spent in the removal area 7.

Finally, reference should be made to a particular embodiment of the removal of goods to be used 19 sampling bags. Here it is conceivable to design a bag in such a way that two tabs protrude from the edge of the bag. These tabs are arranged opposite each other so that by holding one tab each, the bag can be opened. It is therefore very easy to punch out the opposite tabs from the blank of the bag, because the tabs are superimposed during punching. To keep the bags ready for the customer, they are each fixed with a tab in a delivery device. The other tab serves as a pull tab. By pulling on the pull tab, the respective bag can be removed from the supply device. The bag is then opened by pulling the two tabs and slipped over the removal key 26 and the stem 41.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

front

2

longitudinal direction

3

back

4

transversely

5

storage area

6

bearing partition

7

removal area

10

transverse slot

11

manipulator

12

ring handle

13

paddle blade

14

paddle rod

15

rubber stop

18

floor area

19

Well

26

taking trunk

27

headband

28

receptacle

29

retaining slot

30

paper Space

31

foil

32

locking plate

35

Slide Strip

36

front line

37

view wall

38

removal wall

39

suspension

40

guide plate

41

porch

Claims (10)

Device for piecewise removal of goods stored in a container (19), • with a storage area (5) completely closed to the outside, • with a to the storage area (5) in the longitudinal direction (2) adjoining, externally accessible removal area (7) and • with a manipulator (11) characterized, That the removal area (7) has a removal wall (38) with a removal opening, That the removal opening is preceded by a guide plate (40) with a collecting container arranged underneath, and • that the individual good (19) from the manipulator (11) in the transverse direction (4) through the discharge opening into the collecting container is slidable and can be removed only after complete removal into the collecting container. Device according to claim 1,
characterized,
that the removal opening is closed by a pivotable lock plate (32). Device according to claim 2,
characterized,
that the locking plate (32) is pivotally supported on a perforated of the discharge opening removal wall (38). Device according to claim 2 or 3,
characterized,
in that the blocking plate (38) is a plexiglass plate which is preferably suspended on two annular suspensions (39). Device according to one of claims 1 to 4,
characterized,
that the removal area (7) as seen from above in the manner of a right triangle from the front side (1) protrudes in such a way that the long cathetus form a display panel (37) and the short cathetus the removal wall (38). Device according to claim 5,
characterized,
in that the viewing wall (37) is transparent and in that a transverse slot (10) receiving the manipulator (11) is introduced into the viewing wall (37). Apparatus according to claim 5 or 6,
characterized, • that the hypotenuse of the right triangle forming, parallel to the rear wall of the storage area (5) extending front end line (36) forms the boundary line between the storage area (5) and removal area (7) and • that the bottom surface (18) of the storage area (5) from the rear wall obliquely towards the front end line (36) drops. Device according to claim 7,
marked by
a plurality of parallel running, in the longitudinal direction (2) extending Gleitleisten (35) on the inside of the bottom surface (18). Device according to one of claims 1 to 8,
marked by
a guide plate (40) designed as a removal key (26) as ejection for the removed goods (19). Device according to claim 9,
characterized,
that the guide plate (40) as a cone-shaped stem (41) is formed.

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