GB1044260A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1,044,260. Vending machines. HAYDAY Inc. May 29, 1964 [June 20, 1963 (2)], No. 22264/64. Headings G5R and G4V. A coin freed record making machine comprises a movable press platen 120, a second press platen 113, a source of blank record material 140, a group of record forming stampers, means for placing a selected stamper and a blank between the platens, means for operating the press, and means for removing the impressed record. In the embodiment of Fig. 4, the stampers are stored on frames 133, and the platen 120 is movable by a telescopic hydraulic ram 119 energized by pump 117 and electric motor 118. On correct prepayment and operation of a stamper selection switch, the frame 133 carrying the chosen stamper is swung to position 136, and the ram 119 extended up through the frame, so that the stamper rests on the platen. A transfer arm 138 has fingers 139, which pick up the top blank from the pile 140, and deposit it on the platen. The ram 119 is then fully extended, to impress one side of the blank. Arm 138 then removes the record and drops it on to a delivery shoot 142. A further prepayment and selection mechanism enables any stamper to be played as a record. For this purpose, platen 120 is constructed as a turntable co-operating with pickup arm 126. The playing head 149 is shown in Fig. 6, and has two legs 147, 148 which run in the constant depth grooves 145, 146 of the stamper, while a needle 127, connected to a piezo-electrio or variable reluctance transducer, has a grooved end running on the variable height track 144. A further track 143 forms the groove on the pressed record. Alternatively, the variation in height of track 144 may be sensed by a light emitter and receiver mounted on the head, Fig. 7 (not shown). The record blanks may be vinyl plastic or sintered plastic discs, or plastic pellets. The stampers may be of hard plastic or steel. In the latter case, the stampers may be attached to the platens by electromagnetic devices. In another embodiment (Figs. 1-3, not shown), the stampers are in two stacks, one face upwards and the other face downwards, and a selected upwardly facing stamper, a blank, and a selected downwardly facing stamper, are assembled on the movable platen by transfer arms, the record being completed in one press. The platens may be heated. The transfer arms have suction pick-up nozzles or electromagnets. A separate coin-freed record-playing machine is incorporated in the same casing, the coinfreed mechanism (not described) being such that if two record sides have just been played, and those two sides are selected for a record to be made, the price of playing the records is credited against the price of making the record.