EP3114654A1 - Low cost delivery system for vending machines - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a delivery system for automatic dispensers with low cost and good performances. More particularly said delivery system allows to reduce considerably the number of mechanical and electronic components generally provided for delivering articles in automatic dispensers, thus achieving an economic saving in manufacture of said system, as well as improvements of quality and functions of said dispensers.

Description

LOW COST DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR VENDING MACHINES

The present invention relates to an ejection system for vending machines. It is well known that vending systems, such as automatic dispensers for delivering beverages or food articles, are widespread in public places in view of their practical use as well as versatile and prompt service. Indeed the possibility of purchasing these goods, and even drugs, at any day and night time, thus complying with the requirements of dealers being able to offer the products through these systems, and the needs of customers and final users who may have access to this service at any time, causes steadily increasing demand of these devices, which should meet the market requirements and the needs of the manufacturers in the most proper way and updated with the technological development.

Obviously said automatic dispensers should be user friendly but above all, in view of the great number of operative cycles to be carried out every day, these vending machines or automatic dispensers should be reliable, resistant to wear, not prone to stall, easy to be installed and actuated, and cheap to be manufactured and maintained, all these factors optimizing the cost/profit balance that said machines achieve for both the machine manufacturer and the dealer of the goods, as well as giving a reliable, economic and valid service as much as possible in order to satisfy the requirement of the dealer and the user.

Therefore more and more frequently, in the field of automatic dispensers or vending machines, economic savings on the machine components are required, in order to optimize costs of production, maintenance and sale, however without waiving the quality of the components, even focussing on a steady technological improvement and on the performances of the automatic dispensers. An automatic dispenser of this kind generally comprises a number of drawers, generally superposed each other in the typical configuration (a standard dispenser has eight drawers), each drawer has a number of spirals (e.g. 8 -10), each corresponding to a product on sale in the machine, which can rotate and deliver the product to the final user.

In the most common prior art automatic dispensers, each spiral is generally provided with a gearbox, in turn actuated by an electronic control unit (ECU). Each gearbox is connected with one ECU through a number of conductors, generally two. Said ECU actuates one gearbox at a time, and the gearbox actuates in turn the rotation of the relevant spiral, according to the article chosen by the final user.

In order to check when an article is actually delivered, the drive shaft of said gearbox is mechanically connected to a switch. Every time the spiral completes a full revolution, the switch interrupts the current fed to the gearbox for about 10ms. The ECU reads this current interruption as a signal that the article was correctly delivered, thus stopping the gearbox. Therefore each delivery spiral is provided with a gearbox, which is indeed a rather cheap component; however as there are as many gearboxes as many spirals, the cost should be multiplied accordingly. Therefore, with reference to a standard dispenser, a machine with 8 drawers each including 10 spirals, requires installation of 80 gearboxes inside the machine.

Moreover, among all components of an automatic dispenser, the gearbox is the component more prone to failure. Indeed it is known that the motor actuating microswitch generally used in this field, is prone to frequent failure and consequently causes malfunction of the relevant gearbox, thus failed delivery of the corresponding article and obviously dissatisfaction of the customer, who not only does not receive the desired article, but often even loses the money inserted to buy it. These events obviously cause distrust for automatic dispensers, with loss of customers and consequently of profits.

Moreover, when one of said gearboxes causes a malfunction, this generally has repercussions on a general malfunction of the dispenser, in view of the interaction of the various components mutually connected by the ECU. Consequently it is normally necessary to request the assistance of a specialized technician for any failure of a gearbox, with relevant maintenance costs.

It is also clear that these components must be replaced and disposed of, in case of either breaking or dismissing the dispenser, since it is known that components like the gearbox require considerable disposal procedures and costs.

For instance document US 2001/000610 A1 discloses an automatic dispensing system or vending machine comprising use of one or more gearboxes, moved along axes X and Y, driven by at least two external motors, said gearboxes including in turn an actuator for delivering the article. A person skilled in this art should realize that such a system clearly has a complex structure, in the implementation of the machine for both the delivery and the motion system. Some elements where said system results to be complex and expensive are for instance the threaded driving bars as well as said motors (that must have high performances to achieve said movements) have costs much higher than those of the average gearboxes. In addition these bars are pivoted on the machine frame through bearings, which are very expensive like the relevant gearboxes. Finally, such a system for the correct operation of each gearbox comprises a driving motor along axis H and Y, a spare motor to be operated only in case of failure and an actuator for the article delivery. It is at once clear that this makes said gearbox expensive and very complex. Moreover in the embodiment with only one gearbox, said system is scarcely reliable, since in case of malfunction the system would be easily blocked.

In addition US 2003/006241 A1 discloses a delivery system for vending machines similar to the above mentioned one, thus having the same drawbacks, and comprising pulleys for the vertical movement and racks for the horizontal motion, making the system still more complex and difficult for maintenance and the like.

At last US 4560088A discloses a delivery system like those discussed above, comprising motors for the motion of the gearbox along axis X and Y, as well as an actuator to drive the delivery spiral. Therefore this system has the same above discussed drawbacks and has also a clutch for operating the article delivery, being known that a clutch is a complex and expensive element.

An object of the present invention is the reduction of manufacture, sale and maintenance costs of the automatic delivery system.

Still an object of the present invention is the reduction of disposal costs of some essential components of said automatic delivery system.

A further object of the present invention is the reduction of environmental and polluting impact due to disposal of said dispensers.

Another object of the present invention is the improvement of reliability of the automatic dispensers, with consequent advantages that will be apparent in the light of the following description of the present invention.

These and other objects are achieved by the present invention, disclosing a delivery system for automatic dispensers, comprising a plurality of spirals to deliver the articles arranged in drawers of the dispensers, and at least a gearbox. This gearbox is adapted to slide on one or more guides, for instance racks, disposed along each drawer, said guides allowing the movement of said gearbox along a drawer, moving from one delivery spiral to another, according to the type of article to be delivered. Therefore in a particularly advantageous way, the delivery system according to the present invention, used in an automatic dispenser including for instance eight drawers, each drawer being provided with ten delivery spirals, preferably comprises eight gearboxes (one for each drawer), which can be moved by translating or sliding on said rack. The rack is disposed on the drawer inner side, corresponding to the position of the traditional delivery systems, and extends on the drawer in the longitudinal direction from the first spiral to the last spiral thereof, allowing the movement of said gearbox from one spiral to the other, which will be selected and actuated, or in this case rotated, according to the selected article.

Therefore it is clear that in a very advantageous way, said delivery system reduces the number of gearboxes in comparison with older system, that is only one for each drawer or delivery level (drawer means one level comprising several trays for lodging the articles, each tray being provided with delivery spirals).

It is further clear that in a very advantageous way, said delivery system allows savings in the manufacturing costs of said automatic dispensers as above described because only eight gearboxes are required for such a delivery system.

It is very clear that saving on the costs of gearboxes is a considerable and fundamental factor.

Moreover, in a further advantageous way, use of gearboxes like those described hereinafter, allows to employ models of gearboxes having better performances relative to the traditional ones, still keeping a considerable economic advantage (that will be hereinafter described in their preferred embodiments, such as Hall effect sensors, infrared sensors and so on), giving a greater reliability to the automatic dispenser, since said types of innovative gearboxes are less subject to failure and have better performances. Indeed, even using an infrared gearbox, or in the most preferred embodiment a Hall effect gearbox, both being more expensive than the traditional ones, the economic advantage is still considerable, because the required number of gearboxes is drastically reduced, so that the total saving is in any case considerable in spite of the additional cost for each individual gearbox, e.g. of the Hall effect kind. In addition it is also important to consider the further economic advantage in terms of savings, due to the greater duration and minor incidence of malfunctions of a Hall effect gearbox. The same can be said for infrared gearboxes, which were not used in this field up to now, just for economic reasons. Moreover, with reference to the prior art hereinbefore described, the gearbox disclosed by the present invention, is being moved only an X axis, so that the number of motors required for its movement is reduced to one only, thus simplifying the number of components and reducing the manufacturing costs. As further described by the present invention, said gearbox inside comprises one motor for its movement and another motor acting as actuator, and this allows to simplify and make more reliable the system, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Moreover it will become apparent that both the movement and the delivery systems are implemented with simple, cheap and performing elements.

In addition reliability of the system is increased by having only one gearbox of reduced cost for each drawer.

At last, the slide guides described hereinafter, are also simple and economic components with a reliable operation.

Alternatively it is also possible to improve reliability by keeping a traditional gearbox for said dispensers provided with the delivery system described in the present invention, however increasing the quality of the structural and/or mechanical components generally used for the manufacture of automatic dispensers, that to keep low the production costs, adopts components often of less than optimal quality, thus being often subject to wear and may contribute to rather frequent failure, but are anyway used to reduce costs and keep a competitive market price. For instance, use of better materials such as PPS for the housing, or POM, POM C or POM H for the moving parts such as gears, reduces friction and increases the active life of the product.

Another alternative would be to combine the advantages described by the system of the present invention, adopting for instance a Hall effect gearbox, with a qualitative improvement of the components.

These and other advantages achieved by the delivery system of the present invention, will be hereinafter described, making reference to the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a single drawer provided with the delivery system of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view of the gearbox of the present invention; and

Fig. 3 is another side view of the gearbox of the present invention. With reference now to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a drawer x provided with the delivery system of the present invention. As already mentioned, said system comprises a gearbox 1 connected with a sliding and positioning system having one or more guides 2-3, so that said gearbox 1 is constrained to said drawer x, in a preferred embodiment by two guides 2-3, where at least one is preferably toothed or a rack 2. Said guides 2,3 allow the sliding movement of said gearbox 1 along their direction of extension.

It is to be pointed out that one of said guides 2,3, or at least one guide 2, is preferably implemented as a rack, but in additional alternative embodiments, it may be also a guide with smooth edge or other type, or said one or both guides may also be racks.

Said guides 2,3 are integral with the drawer in this preferred embodiment, but they may also be bound thereto, for instance by fasteners such as screws, , welding and so on.

The gearbox 1 is attached to said guides 2,3 by mutual coupling between shaped supports 10,10' of the gearbox 1 and the guides 2,3, and this coupling allows at least a slide movement of said gearbox 1 on said guides 2,3.

As one can see in Fig. 1 , rack 2 extends on the rear side of drawer x. Selflubricating plastic materials are preferred for the construction of rack 2 and generally of guides 2,3.

The gearbox 1 is partially bound on said rack 2 and in this embodiment is only free to slide. Said gearbox 1 then may slide on the entire drawer x, selecting any desired spiral 4 e.g. of the eight spirals arranged in drawer x, that is selected according to the article chosen by user. Said gearbox 1 receives a signal actuating the rotation of a pinion 11 or other suitable means, coupled to said rack 2, to move said gearbox along said rack 2 until it reaches the position of the selected spiral 4.

It has to be noted that said gearbox 1 comprises, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, two motors 5,6 unlike a traditional gearbox that has only one motor. In the gearbox 1 of the present invention, the first motor 5 allows the translator/ motion along the rack 2, and the second motor 6 actuates the spiral selected for delivery of the chosen article. The translation motor 5 is therefore added to any prior art gearbox among those cited as examples, in order to allow translation of said gearbox 1 on said set of guides 2,3, where in a preferred embodiment at least one guide is a rack 2 acting as upper guide as shown in Figure 1 , and pinion 11 with notches to be engaged with said rack 2, when activated moves said gearbox 1 on said rack 2.

It is to be noted that various alternatives for a mutual coupling between shaped supports 11 and said guides different from the illustrated embodiment are possible, for instance sliding guides 2,3 with a pulley included in the system to move the gearbox 1.

When an article is selected by the final user for delivery, the gearbox 1 is positioned on the relevant spiral 4, receiving the position signal for instance from a sensor 7, that may be a magnetic or infrared, reed, capacitive or induction sensor, arranged on said rack 2 but also elsewhere. Therefore for each delivery spiral there is one sensor 7, as shown in figure 1. However said sensor 7 may also be placed on any part of drawer x, close to the delivery spiral 4, for instance on the lower guide 3.

With reference also to Figure 2, when gearbox 1 actuated by ECU reaches the requested position, pinion 8 of gearbox 1 is positioned at the pivot 4A of the selected spiral 4, said pivot 4A having a shape adapted to engage said pinion 8, as it will be described hereinafter. At this point the second motor 6 can actuate spiral 4 engaging pivot 4A through said pinion 8, which rotates said pivot 4A and consequently the spiral 4, thus delivering the article. A more detailed description will be given hereinafter.

Then motor 6 sends a feedback signal to ECU through its associated electronic card, and ECU receives the signal of completed delivery, returning a stop signal to gearbox 1 and consequently to pinion 8.

It is to be noted, as above mentioned, that in a particularly advantageous way for this innovative delivery system, either a gearbox with microswitch or a gearbox with Hall effect magnetic sensor may be used (like that disclosed by the present Applicant in the Italian utility model Application MI2013U000286) or a gearbox provided with other equivalent system performing a compatible function. Any of these types of gearbox may be used with the addition of said motor 5 sliding along guides 2,3.

In any case, although there is no change in the function of gearbox 1 to deliver articles, gearbox 1 of the present invention was totally redesigned to be adapted for being coupled with said rack 2 and/or guide 2,3 and provided with two motors for the above mentioned objects. In figure 2 a preferred embodiment of gearbox 1 is shown, provided with two motors 5,6 according to the present invention, wherein one can clearly see the side of gearbox 1 coupled to the rack 2, for instance being interlocked through suitably shaped supports 10,10' protruding from gearbox 1.

On the inner side facing the drawer x, said gearbox is provided with the above mentioned pinion 8 shaped for engaging the selected spiral 4, said pinion 8 being for instance provided with a notch to engage pivot 4A of spiral 4, to actuate delivery of the corresponding article, and with another pinion 11 e.g. having an indented profile for engaging rack 2 to move gearbox 1 along said rack 2, as previously described.

Said coupling systems appear to be particularly efficient, performing and easy to be implemented, as one can see in the presently illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention.

With reference now to Figures 2 and 3, where a side view of said gearbox 1 coupled with said rack 2 and pinions 8 and 11 can be seen, operation of this system will now be described in detail.

The gearbox 1 indeed may always be moved among the various spirals 4 in view of the combination of rack 2 and pinion 11 , where motor 5 for moving the gearbox by engaging the e.g. indented pinion 8 with said rack 2, causes the gearbox to move up to the desired position. Moreover, movement along guides 2,3 may also occur in view of the form of the shaped pinion 8 and of pivot 4A of spiral 4. Indeed pinion 8 and pivot 4A in the position of no actuation of the corresponding spiral, have the notch of pinion 8 and protrusion of pivot 4A mutually aligned, so that said pivot 4A may slide in the notch made in said pinion 8 without engaging it. The engaging system between pinion 8 and pivot 4A defines an upright coupling system for a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It is to be noted that it is also possible to use different coupling systems having the same purpose and function. In this case the particularly advantageous shape of said pinion 8, when the indicated spiral 4 is not actuated, causes the pinion 8 to remain always positioned parallel to the sliding axis of said gearbox 1 during movement from one spiral to another, thus causing said pivots 4A to slide through said notch 8A of pinion 8 without engagement therewith.

It is to be noted that pivot 4A of a spiral s is generally engaged in rotation by said shaped pinion 8, and with a rotary motion of 180 or 360 degrees, an equivalent rotation of said spiral 4 is obtained, said rotation corresponding to a single delivery. At the end of a delivery stage, involving said rotations, pinion 8 and pivot 4A are again perfectly positioned at the starting position. In other words, said longitudinal notch 8A is positioned parallel to the sliding direction of said gearbox 1 on said rack 2, and said pivot 4A can slide inside said notch without any rotation triggered by pinion 8.

When the gearbox 1 moves further, said previously actuated spiral 4 moves back to the locking position e.g. by elastic means like a spring. In this case pivot 4A blocks rotation of spiral 4 in the rest position, and is in its turn kept in the rest position by the spring. At passage of gearbox 1 , pivot 4A is actuated through said spring with a return function, releasing the corresponding spiral 4. (This system is not shown because not relevant for the purpose of this invention).

In order to allow loading of articles in the automatic dispenser and the normal maintenance of the machine, spirals 4 and related pinions 8 are kept in the rest position by said locking system, that in absence of coupling with gearbox 1 , does not allow the rotation, so that it is possible to reset the dispenser in a short time without requiring all the elements to be again positioned.

As already said, these is a considerable saving in the manufacture by using this kind of gearbox; indeed a traditional drawer comprising for instance ten gearboxes can be operated by a single gearbox of the kind here described. Such a gearbox may have a cost which is approximately the double of a traditional one, but in any case it is definitely far lower than the cost of one of the known prior art systems both for the quantity and complexity of the components constituting the devices disclosed in the three cited references. The gearbox according to the present invention, being provided with two motors 5,6 only, even on the basis of a rough calculation, appears definitely more economic when considering the overall production cost, which will be very reduced, in view of the lower number of gearboxes in comparison with the most popular automatic dispensers, the economic savings and greater reliability, achieved by the lower number of components, less quantity of raw materials required and increased reliability due to the innovative design, assembly and operation of the system

In addition, use of more innovative technologies, with regard to the traditional systems used in this field, such as Hall effect and infrared gearboxes, allow to optimize the ratio production costs/performance improvements, representing the object of a low cost system. Another not negligible advantage may account for an environmental saving. Indeed a gearbox comprises also an electronic board that should be disposed of at special facilities. Therefore a drastic reduction of the number of gearboxes used for each dispenser, jointly with the simplification of the system in respect of components and members (e.g. elimination of bearings, clutches and the like) may reduce considerably the quantity of materials and devices to be disposed of at the end of the useful life, with reduction of the corresponding costs and great benefit for the environment, thus complying with the increasingly stringent requirements of environmental protection.

Moreover there is a great saving even on the logistic costs because the overall weight of the automatic dispenser is also reduced in view of the lower number of components.

In any case, in a further embodiment not illustrated in this application, in order to accelerate the delivery time, a second gearbox could be provided for each drawer, sliding on the rack like the first gearbox, thus reducing the delivery time without losing the advantages of the inventive dispenser.

This second gearbox may be arranged on the opposite side of the drawer, and both gearboxes may slide inward, or both gearboxes may be arranged at the drawer center and each move to the corresponding serviced side. It was in any case checked that this embodiment would keep the above mentioned advantages.

These are only some of the preferred and possible embodiments of the delivery system of the present invention, but additional variations in which the elements of the system may be combined in different ways, such as position of the parts, their engagement or connection, or alternative shapes of pinions or other elements, however still suitable for the objects of the present invention, are also to be considered alternative embodiments, to the above described preferred embodiments, wherein modifications and changes concerning for instance geometries of the mobile and fixed parts, the materials adopted for each element, and also the specifications of the operative system, may be brought about, however without departing from the scope of protection of the present invention, as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A delivery system for vending machines, comprising at least one gearbox (1 ), a plurality of spirals (4) to eject a product to be dispensed, placed on drawers (x) of the vending machine suitable to contain said products, each drawer (x) being provided with one or more dispensing spirals (4), characterized in that a gearbox (1 ) is provided for each drawer (x), said gearbox (1 ) comprising a first and a second motor (5,6), wherein said first and second motors (5,6) are, respectively, a first motor (5) for activating the delivery of the product, and a second motor (6) for the sliding motion of said gearbox (1 ), on at least one guide (2,3) which develops along said drawers (x) to optimize the system performances with reduction of components and costs.

2. The delivery system according to claim 1 , wherein said gearbox (1 ), moving on said at least one guide (2,3), is positioned in correspondence of the selected spiral (4), engaging a pin (4a) of said spiral (4), to dispense the selected product.

3. The delivery system according to claim 1 , wherein said gearbox (1 ) is slidable on two guides (2,3) of which at least one is a rack (2), one guide being arranged above and the other under the gearbox for its sliding motion.

4. The delivery system according to claim 3, wherein said gearbox (1 ) is equipped with a pinion (11 ) for movement on said guide/s (2,3).

5. The delivery system according to claim 1 , wherein said gearbox (1 ) further comprises a pinion (8) shaped to engage said pin (4a) of said spiral (4).

6. The delivery system according to claim 4, wherein said pinion (8) engages said pin (4a) with a hot fit coupling system.

7. The delivery system according to claim 1 , wherein for each drawer (x) it is provided a second gearbox (1 ) to reduce the delivery time.

8. The delivery system according to the preceding claims, wherein said gearbox (1 ) is operated with Hall effect or infrared or reed.