GB2295043A - Display for vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A vending machine (300) has a display area for advertising material or providing other information. The display area is provided by a rotary vane display unit (320) of the kind having a plurality of parallel, three-sided, display vanes (20) rotatable to provide three separate display surfaces. A compact form of rotary display unit (20) is described capable of fitting within the confines of a vending machine. The vanes, which may be driven by an electric motor are each mounted at one end in a bearing provided by an apertured spring finger (44, see Figures 3 and 4). <IMAGE>

Description

Title: DisPlav for vending machine This invention relates to a vending machine.

It is customary for vending machines (which term includes dispensing machines in general, whether coin-freed or otherwise operated) to have a display showing the products available from the machine as well as instructions for use of the machine and so forth. In the past the displays have been static comprising conventional postertype display material affixed to or in a machine. The display material may be protected by an outer window.

Vending machines are so widespread throughout public places that they can become such a familiar part of a locality as to be overlooked. In many circumstances, advantage would be gained by the machine operator and by the public if the presence of the vending machine were to be made more noticeable. It is considered that the provision of a moving or changing display would aid in gaining such an advantage.

It is now proposed to provide a vending machine having a display portion which comprises a rotary vane or louvre display providing a plurality of display surfaces. the conventional rotary vane display comprises a set of parallelly-mounted, vanes of equilateral-triangular crosssection providing three display facets, though other polygonal cross-sections are not excluded. Each vane is mounted to rotate about its longitudinal axis and a drive mechanism rotates each vane through 120 steps to successively bring the three facets into a display position. The vane facets together provide three overall display surfaces for receiving poster or other display material.The overall drive to the vanes is arranged to provide a repeated cycling through the three display surfaces overall which can be given any desired dwell time, that is period for which a display surface is stationary.

It is also known to arrange the drive mechanism so that when the display surface changes, all vanes rotate synchronously or alternatively their rotation is staggered to provide a wave or ripple motion. The vanes in the display may be horizontally or vertically mounted.

There are numerous rotary vane displays of the type discussed in the preceding paragraph. Reference may be made to U.S. patents 3,309,049 (Noreen) and 3,383,785 (Werner) and to British patent specification GB 2 134 301A (Prismavision).

The provision of a rotary vane display in a vending machine can be used to display advertising as to the product(s) being vended or information on machine use, or to display other advertising or information, or a combination of both. The availability of three display surfaces provides considerable flexibility in this regard and effectively increases the display area relative to the area occupied by the rotary vane display. The rotary vane display can, of course, be utilized in conjunction with other fixed display material on the vending machine.

The provision of rotary vane displays in a vending machine also provides an element of movement and change which catches the eye and draws the machine to the attention of the public.

The incorporation of a rotary vane display unit into a vending machine sets certain - - requirements. Vending machines, which are commonly mounted to a wall or on a pedestal, are generally required to be of small depth backto-front. they may also be of relatively narrow width.

Even in machines of greater width, there is a limited height and thus area available for display purposes. Thus constraints are set on the height and depth and, in many cases, on width also of vending machines. It is thus desirable that the incorporation of a rotary vane display in a vending machine should allow the dimensional constraints still to be met.

A further desideratum is that the rotary vane display be incorporatable into an existing vending machine design with a minimum change of the original design and particularly without affecting the existing vending or dispensing mechanism.

Thus in general a compact rotary vane display unit is required. More particularly for visual presentation of the display material in a restricted area, a rotary vane display having narrow vane facets is of advantage, that is facets of say about 10-25 mm. in width.

There will be described hereinafter a dispensing machine incorporating a rotary vane display which, in our opinion, meets the requirements set forth above. The display is of the kind disclosed in European Application 94304647.4 filed 27th June, 1994.

Aspects and features of the present invention for which protection is sought are set out in the claims of this specification.

In order that the invention and its practice may be better understood, an embodiment of it as already outlined above will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a plan view of a rotary display unit of a kind suitable for incorporating into the dispensing machine; in the figure the upper fascia surround is removed and only some of the vanes are shown.

Fig. 2 is an end view of one vane showing a bearing inserted therein; Fig. 3 is a section taken along the axis of one vane; Fig. 4 is a face view of a portion of a strip of resilient fingers that support and engage one end of each vane; Fig. 5 is a transverse section parallel to the vanes of a presently preferred modification of the unit of Figs.

1-4, using a modified arrangement of resilient fingers with additional provision to allow easy insertion of the vanes; Fig. 6 is a simplified partial view of a set of vanes assembled for insertion in the modified apparatus of Fig.

5; Figs. 7, 8 and 9 show top, side and perspective views respectively of a cam for driving one vane; and Figs. lOa to lOc are diagrammatic views illustrating the cam action on the associated vane; Fig. 11 shows a simplified front view of a dispensing machine incorporating a rotary vane display apparatus in accord with the invention; Fig. 12 is a simplified cross-section taken from one side showing the positioning of the rotary display apparatus within the vending machine; Fig. 13 is a plan view of the machine.

The implementation of the invention will be described by way of fitting a rotary display unit into an existing dispensing machine. The machine exemplified is a Model E supplied by Mates Vending and Washroom Services in the U.K.

The rotary display unit is of the kind described in the above-mentioned European patent application 94304647.4.

Figs. 11-13 of the drawings illustrate the dispensing machine with a rotary display unit fitted in it. Figs. 110 relate to the detailed construction of two embodiments of the preferred rotary display unit. The construction of the rotary display unit is one particularly designed to enable small displays to be realised.

The dispensing machine shown in Figs. 11-13 is only illustrated to the extent that it is necessary to understand the fitting into it of the rotary display unit.

The details of its vending/dispensing coin-freed mechanism and other external features relevant to its ordinary operation as a dispensing machine are not material to an understanding of the present invention.

Referring to Figs. 11-13, the dispensing machine 300 is floor-mounting and comprises a pedestal 302, and upright body 304 in which the machine mechanism is contained, and a front display portion 306 which is used for display purposes. In the machine as normally supplied this display portion 306 houses conventional static display material.

The display portion 306 comprises a rectangular front cover 308 in which is fitted a transparent window 310. The body 304 has a front housing wall 312 having a rectangular opening 314 into which the cover 308 seats. The cover is detachably seated so that it can be removed. It will be seen that the front cover and the window contained in it project outwardly from the front wall 312. Indicated diagrammatically is an internal housing wall 316 that separates the display portion from the interior of the body and which for normal static display use provides a rear support for a fluorescent lamp and for the display material that is supported in front of the lamp to be backlit thereby. Thus the display material and components are located in a window-containing compartment 318 separate from the remainder of the machine.

In the present embodiment the internal wall 316 is used to support the housing 10 of a rotary vane display unit 320 which will be described more fully below. The housing is mounted to provide a substantially vertical display surface 322 behind the window 310. Thus as seen in Fig. 11, the user of the machine sees the set of parallel vanes 20 which in this case are shown mounted horizontally.

Preferably the dimensions of the display surface 322 are chosen such that the area of window 310 just coincides with or slightly masks the usable display area of the vanes. As will become clear from the later description of the unit, not all the vane length is used to carry display material.

The display surface 322 is illuminated from the side by a pair of fluorescent lamps 324 mounted behind the front cover, one at each side of the display surface. It will be understood that particularly in the front view of Fig. 12, drawing conventions are somewhat ignored in showing what is hidden detail.

The display surface 322 provided by vanes 20 is illustrated to the extent of showing that relative to the display height a substantial number of vanes 20 is provided. This requires vanes the width of whose facets is relatively small, say 15 mm. Also the rotary display unit does not greatly extend laterally beyond the window 310.

It will also be seen in Fig. 12 that the unit is of a relatively small depth front-to-back to fit within the rather shallow display compartment 318 in all three dimensions. The achieved by a rotary display unit of compact construction in all three dimensions such as will be described with reference to Figs. 1-10.

It is to be understood that a rotary vane display unit for incorporating into a vending machine can be of various constructions. As already mentioned vending machines can themselves vary widely in size and the space for fitting a rotary vane display unit may also vary considerably.

However, one general feature is the desire to keep the front-to-back depth small.

In this connection the use of a rotary vane display unit having vanes of small facet width results in a small rearward projection of the vane apex from the display surface. The rearward projection of vanes of equilateral triangular cross-section is approximately 0.9 x the facet width.

Turning now to the preferred construction of a rotary display unit 320, reference will now be made to Figs. 1 to 10 of the drawings. The unit illustrated in Fig. 1 is not to the proportions of the window and vane size of Fig. 11.

However, the principles of construction are the same and the unit can, of course, be scaled to the requirements of a particular machine in which it is to be fitted.

The rotary vane display unit 320 illustrated in Fig.

1 has a housing in the form of a shallow rectangular tray 10. A set of vanes 20 is mounted at the open side of the housing 10, the vanes being rotatably mounted in parallel along the housing 10 between a strip 22 of material secured to one long wall of the tray and a strip 24 comprising a set of resilient fingers secured to the other long wall.

The vanes are identical of conventional triangular crosssection and are supported for rotation about their longitudinal axes A (Fig. 2) by equi-spaced bearing apertures (40 in Fig. 3) along the strip 22 and by respective apertured fingers of the strip 24 to be further described below. The fingers are likewise equi-spaced at the same pitch as the vanes. The vane facets seen in Fig.

1 lie in the plane of the paper and provide the display surface 322. It is assumed that in Fig. 1, the vanes are in the dwell position at one of the three display surfaces.

Referring to Fig. 2, each vane 20 is an extrusion, e.g. of aluminium, of hollow equilateral triangular cross section and has a respective bearing member 26 inserted in each end as is seen in Fig. 3. Each bearing member 26, of Acetal copolymer for example, has a body portion 28 which is a push fit into the respective end of the vane. The body 28 is cup-shaped as indicated by dotted line 30 to assist in making it a resilient fit. The member 26 is located by a flange 32 that seats against the end of the vane but preferably does not project beyond the outer surface of the vane. Each bearing member also has an outwardly directed spigot or pin 38 that seats in an aperture 40 in the strip 22 at one end of a vane and in an aperture 42 in a finger 44 of strip 24 at the other end of the vane, thereby providing simple plain bearings. The outer surface of each flange is urged by the resilient action of the fingers to bear against the strip 22 at one vane end or the finger at the other end.

The vanes are rotated by a cam drive assembly 50 as seen in dash outline in Fig. 1. The drive assembly extends adjacent strip 22 below the vanes as seen in Fig. 1 to directly engage the adjacent end portion 52 of each vane.

This portion is reserved for cam-driving and the display surfaces are provided by the remainder of the vane over the length D. The cams are not shown in Figs. 3 and 4 and are described below. The set of vanes 20 are shown in the display or dwell position in Figs. 1-3 with a display facet upwards. There is a cam for each vane which is described further below. The cams are supported on a shaft 54 rotatably mounted in bushes 56 mounted on the shorter end walls of the housing 10. In the illustrated embodiment a mains-driven, synchronous motor assembly 58 with appropriate gearing is mounted on the outside of the bottom wall of the housing 10 and has a shaft projecting into the housing and coupled to cam assembly shaft 54 by a mitre or bevel gear arrangement 60. The motor can be mounted elsewhere on or in the housing 10 with appropriate coupling to the cam drive shaft 54.

The strip 24 of resilient fingers 44 will be further described with reference to Figs. 3 and 4. The fingers 44 are spaced at the pitch of the vanes and each has a bearing aperture 42 sized to accommodate a respective bearing spigot 38 to provide a plain bearing therefor. The strip is configured to allow each finger to flex with respect to a continuous longitudinal portion 25 without affecting its neighbours. As seen in Fig. 3 each finger 44 bears on the flange 38 of the respective bearing member 26 to urge the flange 30 at the other end of the vane against strip 22.

A vane can readily be inserted or released by pressing it against its locating finger 44 and slid down to aperture 40 against the resilience of the finger; or released by applying pressure to the finger 44 enabling the pin 38 to be removed from the bearing aperture 40.

As will be seen from Fig. 3, the strip 24 is L-shaped having a fastening portion 61 extending from longitudinal portion 25, from which fingers 44 freely depend, that is secured to a rail or bar 62 secured to the adjacent long wall of housing 10. The strip may be formed of resilient metal, such as spring steel, or of a resilient plastics material.

Fig. 5 shows a modification of the unit described thus far. The modification is concerned with the strip 24 of resilient fingers. Other parts not shown in Fig. 5, such as the cam drive assembly at the right of the figure, remain as previously described. Parts similar in function to those already described carry the same reference numeral increased by 100.

In the modification of Fig. 5, a support tray 110 has the height of one long side reduced along a portion of its length as compared with tray 10 to leave an upstanding flange 200 for supporting a resilient finger strip 124.

The finger strip 124 is of essentially the same configuration as the strip 24 in Fig. 4 but is of planar form. There is no portion 61. In the modified arrangement of Fig. 5, the strip 124 has the fingers projecting upwardly, the continuous longitudinal portion 125 of the strip being clamped between flange 200 and a stiff bar 204.

These parts may be joined in any suitable fashion as by rivets 206.

Each finger 144 has a bearing aperture 142 aligned with a bearing aperture 140 in the opposite wall 208 of tray 110. If desired the bearing apertures 140 could be provided in a separate member as in Fig. 3. The top of each finger 144 is chamfered downwardly and inwardly at 210 to guide a respective vane 152 into position. Fig. 5 shows a vane being inserted. The spigot 38 at the end of the vane adjacent wall 208 is inserted in bearing 140. The spigot 138 at the other end is then pressed into position by movement of the vane end in the direction of arrow A.

The spigot engages chamfered edge 210 to flex the finger 144 outwardly and is slid down into alignment with bearing aperture 142 so as to enter the aperture where the vane is held for rotation under the resilience of the spring.

This insertion action has particular advantage in loading the unit with a set of display vanes to which display material is affixed. For this purpose, it is known to mount the set of vanes in a jig at a site remote from that at which the display unit is located. The jig holds the vanes in the same relative positions as they would have in the unit and the display material is applied. Fig. 6 shows by way of example three vanes of a set 220 mounted in a jig (not shown) so as to provide an upper display surface to which display material is secured, the display material being cut into parallel strips 222 secured to respective vane facets. It is important that the spacing pitch P of the vane axes in the jig be the same as that of the vanes in the display unit.

Having secured the display material strips 222 and assuming display surface to which the material is applied is the last of the three to be so treated, the whole surface carrying the display material is now overlaid by a releasable adhesive film 226. The vanes can now be released from the jig and taken to the appropriate display unit as an integral assembly. They can then be inserted in the display unit, each vane being in its correct position for the unit and each being pressed into place as described with reference to Fig. 5. Once the vanes are received in the display unit the releasable film 226 is peeled away.

The finger strip 124 may be of spring metal as previously described though a plastics material is preferred in order to provide the chamfered camming edge 210. A plastics strip would be expected to be of greater thickness than one of, say, spring steel and this greater thickness enables a better camming edge 210 to be formed.

The vanes are readily releasable from the display unit. The pin 38, 138 at the right-hand end of each vane (as seen in Fig. 5) is simply inserted into or extracted from the fixed bearing aperture 40, 140. The other pin is released from the aperture in its spring finger 24, 124 by pressing the finger outwardly. This is particularly easy with the embodiment of Fig. 5 in which the free end of the finger can be manipulated.

The cam drive assembly 50 will now be more fully described. It comprises a set of cams 70, one for each vane, mounted on the shaft 54 seen in Fig. 1. It is noted that the shaft 54 and the aperture 72 through each cam by which it is mounted on the shaft, are of matching non circular cross-section so that each cam is positively located on the drive shaft. A regular polygonal shape is preferred, such as square, hexagonal or octagonal. Such arrangements provide the possibility of mounting the cams at different angles about the shaft so that instead of all vanes turning at the same time, as is the case with the cams aligned, the changing of the display can, for example, be rippled along the display.

Referring to Figs. 7, 8 and 9 the cam 70 is provided with a square hole 72 extending axially through the cam.

The axis is marked B-B. Fig. 7 shows a side view. The cam has a circumferential, rounded V-shaped groove 74 in which the lower edge of vane end portion 52 (Figs. 1-3) seats during the dwell time of the display. The guide groove 74 is interrupted by a camming wall 76 extending obliquely to the groove 74 as is best seen in Fig. 7.

The wall 76 extends at about 30 to the line of groove 74 (60 to axis B-B as seen in Fig. 7). It is of a narrow trapezoidal cross-section being narrower at the top 78 than at its base 80. The top 80 of the wall is also slightly concave in shape as is seen in Fig. 8 with the lowest point 82 at the middle of the wall aligned with groove 74. The wall is contoured so that it does not engage the lower edge of a vane 20 in Figs. 2 and 3 riding in groove 74 until the middle portion 82 of the wall comes into contact with the edge of the vane.Thus taking the cam as seen in Fig. 7, if the cam is rotating about axis B-B with the upper part of the cam moving into the paper and the lower edge portion 84 of a vane riding in the upper portion of groove 74, the upper left part 86 of the camming wall reaches a position virtually flush with the vane surface before camming commences. At this moment the wall part 86 is virtually upright as seen from the left of Fig. 7. This position is diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 10a. As the middle portion 82 of the cam wall engages the vane surface, the latter is deflected to the right and the vane turns counter-clockwise. The camming continues as the rising lower right part 90 of the wall slides along the vane until the vane has been turned 60e as illustrated in Fig. 10b.

It will be understood that the wall is at an oblique angle to the plane of the paper. The continued rising of the wall part 90 acts on the face of the vane and causing further rotation for another 609 to a position where the wall part 90 is upright as seen from the right of Fig. 7.

At this point the surface of the wall lies substantially flush with and is moving away from the vane surface 88, thereby leaving the new lower edge of the vane to ride in the dwell position in groove 74. This position is illustrated in Fig. 10c.

The camming action is essentially effected from the middle of wall 68 to its trailing edge in the direction of rotation and occupies about 90 of the total cam rotation, leaving 270- of rotation as the dwell period. For unidirectional camming the upper part 78 of the wall could be omitted though some wall is necessary to provide a smooth lead in to the camming action. The symmetry of design illustrated in Figs. 7-9 enables the cam to be driven in the opposite direction to that described thereby reversing the rotation of the vane and the order of presentation of the display surfaces.

The construction of the rotary display unit described is economical in the number of components used. The vane extrusions are of straight forward triangular shape, the bearing parts are the same at both ends, and the camming is effected on the vane itself. The resilient fingers provide a means of readily inserting or removing vanes from the housing. A compact structure is achieved.

The vanes may be of materials other than metal or plastics. Other materials such as cardboard or compressed paper laminate might be used, particularly where the vanes were intended for displays that would be thrown away subsequently, e.g. for short-term promotions.

Claims (15)

Claims

1. A vending machine having a display portion thereof providing advertising material and/or other information characterised by a rotary vane display apparatus providing said display portion and comprising a plurality of vanes mounted in parallel for rotation about their longitudinal axes, each vane having a plurality of display facets, and means to rotate each of said vanes to provide a plurality of display surfaces.

2. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 1 in which each vane is mounted at one end for rotation in a bearing provided by a respective apertured spring finger.

3. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 2 wherein the apertured spring fingers are comprised in a strip extending along one side of the vanes.

4. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3 in which each vane comprises a member of equilateral polygonal cross-section, for example an equilateral triangle, and said drive means comprises a cam drive arrangement to intermittently rotate the vanes about their axes, the cam drive arrangement acting directly on an end portion of each vane member.

5. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 4 wherein said cam drive arrangement comprises a respective cam acting on each vane end portion which is of a configuration that allows the cam to rotate the associated vane in either direction.

6. A vending machine as claimed in any preceding claim in which each vane comprises a member of hollow, equilateral polygonal, cross-section, for example an equilateral triangle, and a respective bearing member is received in each end portion of each vane member, all bearing members being of the same construction.

7. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 6 in which each bearing member has a spigot or pin for seating in a bearing aperture to form a plain bearing therewith.

8. A vending machine as claimed in any preceding claim in which said rotary vane display apparatus includes a housing having a base and two side walls upstanding from the base, said vanes being rotatably mounted between said side walls.

9. A vending machine as claimed in Claims 8 and 3 wherein said strip of spring fingers is secured to one side wall.

10. A vending machine as claimed in Claims 9 and 7 in which plain bearing apertures are provided along the other side wall to receive the bearing members at the adjacent ends of the vanes.

11. A vending machine as claimed in Claim 10 in which said plain bearing apertures are formed in a strip of material secured along said other side wall.

12. A vending machine as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 11 when dependent on Claim 4 or 5 in which said cam drive arrangement extends adjacent one side wall and is located between the vanes and said housing base.

13. A vending machine as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 12 in which a drive motor, for example an electric drive motor, is supported on said housing and coupled to said drive means for rotating the vanes.

14. A vending machine as claimed in any preceding claim in which said rotary vane display apparatus is constructed as a self-contained unit fitted into a body portion of the vending machine.

15. A vending machine as claimed in any preceding claim comprising two lamps located on opposite sides of said rotary vane display apparatus to illuminate the display surface provided thereby.