GB1283353A - Article vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1283353 Article dispensing apparatus HGF JENNINGS 14 Aug 1969 [14 May 1968] 22833/68 Heading A4T [Also in Division G4] A coin-freed vending machine for confectionary delivers one article 13 at each operation, and randomly delivers one or more additional articles depending on the positions of rotatable wheels 30. After coin insertion at 47, a handle 44 is rotated to move a plunger 45 to the right, an attached pin 54 serving to rotate a first arm 53 and its supporting shaft 52 clockwise. A roller 56 rigidly attached by a second arm 55 to the shaft 52, pushes to the right an arm 26 depending from an article delivery slide 21. An aperture 71 in the depending arm 26 passes over a roller 66 on a rocker arm 65, which then rotates so that roller 66 holds the slide 21 in its right most position, where it receives an article 13, from a hopper 12, see Fig. 4 (not reproduced). Simultaneously, shaft 52 rotates a third arm 57 to raise a piston 58 in a cylinder 59. Additionally, a rack 48 supported by the plunger 45 rotates clockwise a ratchet 38, while a pawl 36 rides freely. When the handle 44 is released, the plunger 45 returns to the left under spring action, and the attached rack 48 rotates the ratchet 38 anticlockwise, the pawl 36 serving to rotate simultaneously a cam disc 32 and attached wheel 30. The wheel 30 and cam disc 32 continue to rotate by inertia after the plunger 45 has reached the limit of its travel. Meanwhile, the piston 58 descends slowly, simultaneously rotating the shaft 52 and the attached three arms 57, 53, 55, until the second arm 55 rotates the rocker arm 65 so that the roller 66 again passes through the aperture 71, to free the depending arm 26 and slide 21 for spring-urged movement to the left. Eventually, a roller 29 mounted on the slide 21 enters between two pins 42 abutting from the wheel 30, to stop the rotation of the wheel 30 and cam disc 32. If the roller 29 co-operates with a notch 43 in the cam disc 32, the slide 21 moves to the left a distance to drop the entrained article 13 into a delivery channel 16. If the co-operation does not occur, see Fig.1, the slide 21 is stopped short by the cam disc 32, and the entrained article 13 is retained by a block 20. Shaft 31 supports a plurality of axially spaced wheels 30 each co-operating with a delivery slide 21, a plunger 65 and a second arm 55. At least one of the wheels 30 does not support a cam disc 32, so that the associated delivery slide 21 delivers an article 13 at each machine operation. The slides 21 for delivery additional articles may be replaced by a simple slide carrying a plurality of rollers 29, extra articles being delivered only when all rollers 29 co-operate with respective cam disc notches 43. Hopper 12 may be divided into separate hoppers for each slide 21. The wheels 30 carry numerals, see Fig. 2 (not reproduced), visible to a machine operator.