GB2524468A

GB2524468A - Vend mechanism

Info

Publication number: GB2524468A
Application number: GB1402305.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Charalambos Palas
Original assignee: AEGUANA DIGITAL Ltd
Current assignee: AEGUANA DIGITAL Ltd
Priority date: 2014-02-11
Filing date: 2014-02-11
Publication date: 2015-09-30
Also published as: GB201402305D0

Abstract

An adjustable vend mechanism for retaining a stack of products in a vending machine and dispensing the products from the stack comprises a product enclosure (32) for retaining the stack of products, and a vending actuator 26 for dispensing the products. The product enclosure includes a rear retaining element, a front retaining element 15 and two side retaining elements 17 that retain the stack of products between them, and define a dispense opening through which a product can be ejected. The vend mechanism further includes at least one adjustment mechanism 21, 23, 25, operable to enable adjustment of a retaining element in order to adjust a width or depth dimension of the product enclosure or a height of the dispense opening. Preferably three adjustment mechanisms may be included to adjust a width, and a depth dimension of the product enclosure and a height of the dispense opening. The vend mechanism may be a caterpillar track actuation unit having an adjustment mechanism 27 to enable movement along a rail 13 extending in the width direction of the product enclosure. Multiple side retaining elements and vend actuators may be included in a vending machine to define multiple product enclosures.

Description

VEND MECHANISM

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a vend mechanism, more particularly to a vend mechanism that can be used to retain a stack of products and dispense the stacked products one at a time, typically from the base of the stack.

Backaround of the Invention

Vending machines are widely used for dispensing products on demand one at a time to a consumer, typically (but not always) in response to payment by the user. One common form of vending machine, often used for example to dispense personal products in a public toilets, includes a vend mechanism that holds one or more stacks of products and dispenses the products one at a time from the boftom of a selected stack. Each product stack is held in a product enclosure that retains the stack of products and has a dispense opening at the bottom through which a single product can be ejected by a vending actuator. Once a product is dispensed, the stack moves down (under the influence of gravity) within the product enclosure so that the next product in the stack is in position ready for dispense through the dispense opening. Figs. 1 and 2 show an example vend mechanism of this type.

One of the many available vending actuators used is based on a caterpillar track actuation mechanism (see Figure la & ib): The products rest on a flat surface (Fig. la -4), often with grooves, of the main body (Fig. ia-i). In the centre of the unit is a timing belt (Fig. la -2), which is actuated by 2 pulleys (Fig. lb -5 & Fig. lb -6). This belt has 1 or more profiles (Fig. la -3), which protrude past the flat surface onto which the products are resting. Wben the timing belt is driven, the profile moves linearly across the flat surface, and thus pushes the product across the unit.

This actuator can be used to vend products when they are contained in an enclosure (Fig. 2a -8) directly above it, such that the products are stacked vertically. This can be seen in Figures 2a, 2b and 2c, where a vend procedure is depicted. In this configuration, a product (Fig. 2a -9) is resting on the vend actuator (Fig. 2a -7) with further products stacked directly above it. The enclosure is such that all sides are closed around the products, with the exception of the front face (Fig. 2a -10). This face only exists at a level higher than the height of the first product, but lower than the height of the second product, such that the first product is free to move in the direction of the timing belt, but all the other products can only fall vertically down. Once a product is pushed out (Fig. 2b -11) by the profile on the timing belt (Fig. 2c -12) it falls into the delivery chute of the vending machine, and the remaining products drop onto the vend actuator by means of gravity.

In order to ensure that the products are reliably dispensed, it is important that the dimensions of the product enclosure closely match the dimensions of the product. If the vending machine is to be used to dispense a product of a different size, the product enclosure must be replaced with a correspondingly sized alternate product enclosure. Thus, re-configuring a vending machine to dispense products of a different size can be a difficult and time consuming task that will normally have to be carried out by a maintenance engineer.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention proposes a vend mechanism in which one or more of the dimensions, and preferably all three of the dimensions, of the product enclosure can easily be adjusted to accommodate product packages of different dimensions. In particular, it is proposed that at least one of the dimensions can be set at any chosen value in a continuous range between a minimum and a maximum dimension.

Accordingly, the invention provides a vend mechanism for retaining a stack of products in a vending machine and dispensing the products from the stack, the vend mechanism comprising: a product enclosure for retaining the stack of products, the product enclosure including a rear retaining element, a front retaining element and two side retaining elements that retain the stack of products between them and define a dispense opening through which a product can be ejected; a vending actuator for dispensing the products by ejecting a product from within the enclosure through the dispense opening; and at least one adjustment mechanism operable to enable adjustment of a retaining element along a path between two end positions and to secure the retaining element at any position along that path in order to adjust a width or a depth dimension of the product enclosure or a height of the dispense opening.

Preferably adjustment mechanisms are provided to enable adjustment of the retaining elements in a manner that enables each of the width dimension of the product enclosure, the depth dimension of the product enclosure and the height of the dispense opening to be set at any value between respective end points.

By enabling continuous adjustment in this way (i.e. adjustment to any position along the path) of one of the dimensions and, more preferably, width and depth dimensions of the enclosure and the height of the dispense opening, the vend mechanism can be re-configured to accommodate products of different sizes without having to replace the product enclosure.

The position of at least one of the side retaining elements may be adjustable by a respective one of the adjustment mechanisms to change the width dimension of the product enclosure.

The adjustment mechanism for at least one side retaining element may, for example, include one or more rails extending in a width direction of the product enclosure along which the side retaining element can slide. In some embodiments there is at least one rail at or towards the top of the product enclosure and another rail at or towards the bottom of the enclosure.

Preferably there are a pair of rails at the top and a pair of rails towards the bottom to give greater stability to the side retaining element.

The position of the front retaining element may be adjustable by an adjustment mechanism to be moved towards or away from the rear retaining element to change the depth dimension of the product enclosure. The front retaining element may, for example include a retaining bar mounted on one of the side retaining elements by one or more arms that offset the retaining bar from the side retaining element to extend generally vertically up the front of the product enclosure. The one or more arms can be mounted to pivot about a vertical axis offset from the retaining bar to enable movement of the retaining bar towards and away from the rear retaining element.

Preferably the position of the retaining bar is adjustable in a width direction relative to the side retaining element to which it is mounted. It may be desirable, for example, to position the retaining bar generally centrally with respect to the stack of products held in the product enclosure.

To provide this lateral adjustment across the width of the product enclosure, the one or more arms of the front retaining element may be attached to the side retaining element by a sliding adjustment mechanism that enables the one or more arms to be moved in the width direction to displace the retaining bar in the width direction.

Preferably a vertical dimension of the front retaining element is adjustable by an adjustment mechanism to change the height of the dispense opening. For example, the front retaining element may be telescopic in order to provide this adjustment of its vertical dimension. In the case where the front retaining element comprises a retaining bar mounted on one of the side retaining elements, as discussed above, the retaining bar may for example include a first section and a second section that is telescopically received within the first section.

Where the retaining bar is mounted to a side retaining element by at least two arms, one arm can be fixed to the first section of the retaining bar and the other arm fixed to the second section of the retaining bar, with at least one of the arms being mounted to the side retaining element by an adjustment mechanism that enables the vertical spacing of the two arms on the side retaining element to be changed. This will cause the second section of the retaining bar to telescope into or out of the first portion of the retaining bar to provide the desired adjustment of the height of the dispense opening.

In some embodiments having both an adjustable side retaining element and an adjustable front retaining element, the front retaining element may be mounted on the adjustable side retaining element.

The various adjustment mechanisms of embodiments of the invention preferably include a lock element having a locked condition for locking a position of a respective one of the retaining elements at any chosen position along its movement path and a released condition in which the retaining element is permitted to move along its movement path. The lock element is preferably finger operated to move from the locked condition to the released position and back. It may, for example, be a thumbscrew.

The vend mechanism may include a housing with a rear wall of the housing serving as the rear retaining element and/or a side wall of the housing serving as one of said side retaining elements.

The vend mechanism of some embodiments includes a vending actuator adjustment mechanism for adjusting the position of the vending actuator in the width direction of the product enclosure. This mechanism preferably enables movement of the vending actuator along a path extending in the width direction of the product enclosure and is adapted to secure the vending actuator at any position along that path. It may be secured with a finger operated lock, such as a thumbscrew.

In the case where the side retaining element is adjustable along rails, the vending actuator may also be mounted on the same rails for sliding movement therealong to enable the adjustment of the vending actuator relative to the width of the product enclosure.

By allowing for width adjustment of the vending actuator, more reliable ejection of products can be achieved by ensuring that the vending actuator is generally central with respect to the width of the product stack; this helps avoid off centre forces on a product that might cause it to twist and potentially jam in the dispense opening as it is ejected.

The vending actuator may be of a conventional type, for example a caterpillar track, save for any modification that is required in preferred embodiments to enable lateral adjustment of the position of the actuator, as discussed above.

Typically, the vending actuator will eject products from the bottom of the stack so that a next product to be dispensed can fall into place within the product enclosure by gravity.

Conveniently, the vend mechanism of some embodiments may be extended to include multiple stacks of products in adjacent product enclosures by adding further side and front retainer elements. A retainer element between two stacks forms a right wall of one product enclosure and a left wall of the adjacent product enclosure. By sharing side retainers in this way, wasted space is minimal and the number of components is also kept to a minimum.

Embodiments of the invention may offer different ranges of variation in the size of products they can dispense. Typical ranges include products with heights in the range 5mm to 100mm, widths in the range 20mm to 500mm and depths in the range 20mm to 200mm. The mechanism is well suited for dispensing packaged personal products that typically have heights in the range 5mm to 50mm, widths in the range 30mm to 300mm and depths in the range 30mm to 100mm.

The vend mechanism is typically housed in a cabinet that has overall dimensions of no more than about 1.5m high, 0.5m wide and 0.5m deep. The vend mechanism can be used for larger vending machines.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure la and lb shows a conventional caterpillar track vend actuator; Figures 2a, 2b and 2c illustrate the operation of an exemplary vend mechanism that uses the vending actuator of Fig. 1; Figure 3 shows a vend mechanism in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 shows an exploded view of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3; Figure 5 shows, on an enlarged scale, the caterpillar track vending actuator of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3 and the rails on which it is mounted; Figures 6a and 6b show, respectively, front and side views of the adjustable divider of the product enclosure of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3; Figures 7a and 7b show the vend mechanism of Fig. 3 loaded with a stack of products in the product enclosure; Figures 8a, Bb and Bc illustrate how the dimensions of the product enclosure of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3 can be selected to accommodate products of different heights and widths; Figures 9a and 9b show top views of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3 and illustrate how the dimensions of the product enclosure of the vend mechanism can be adjusted to accommodate products of different depths; and Figure 10 show an example of the vend mechanism of Fig. 3 configured with an additional adjustable divider to form a second product enclosure so that the vend mechanism can accommodate two product stacks.

Detailed Description of an Embodiment

Figures 3 to 9 show a vend mechanism that, in accordance with the invention, comprises a product enclosure having adjustable dimensions to accommodate and dispense products of different dimensions. In this example, the vend mechanism is adjustable to accommodate products with a height in the range 7mm to 42mm, a width of 52mm to 200mm and a depth of 50mm to 86mm. In other examples, different sized components and/or different configurations can be used to offer different ranges of adjustability.

As best seen in Fig. 4, the mechanism comprises four modules: a main enclosure (Fig. 4- 32); a set of rails (Fig. 4-29) including a pair of rails at the top of the main enclosure and a pair of rails towards the bottom of the main enclosure; an adjustable divider (Fig. 4-30) mounted on the upper and lower pairs of rails; and an adjustable caterpillar track actuation unit (Fig. 4-31), mounted on the lower pair of rails.

One of the limiting factors of the existing mechanisms (Fig. 2) is that they can only support a single product size. In contrast, the exemplary vend mechanism illustrated in Figs. 3 to 9 allows for adjustability in all three dimensions, and at continuous intervals. The basis of this design, is that the actuation mechanism is now altered such that it can move along rails (Fig. 3-13). Additionally, the enclosure that holds the products (Fig. 3-14), only has two fixed sides around the products. The other two sides are adjustable: one side (Fig. 3-17) is the surface of the adjustable divider, which is also mounted on the rail system and can move laterally, in the same direction as the caterpillar track vend actuator (Fig. 3-26), thus allowing for products of a larger or smaller width. The front side of the enclosure is formed by the extendable arm of the adjustable divider (Fig. 3-15 & 16). This can be swung by the arms that hold it (Fig. 3 -22) such that the depth of the product can vary.

Furthermore, to allow for a larger or smaller height of the products, the extendable arm can expand or contract axially. The lowest point of the arm (Fig. 3-16) defines the height of product that can be vended, as it will stop the second and remaining products from moving in any direction but vertically, while the first product is being vended.

All the moving parts of this mechanism are secured by thumbscrews (Fig. 3-19,20,21, 23, 24, 25 and 27) and can be secured without the use of tools. This is described in detail for each mechanism.

A configuration with a specific product can be seen in Figures 7a and 7b. Here the enclosure for the products can be seen more clearly: The front side is made of the extendable arm (Fig. 7a -52), the side faces are made of the adjustable divider (Fig. 7b -55) and the side of the main enclosure (Fig. 7b -56). The back face is also made of the main enclosure (Fig. 7b -56). The length of the extendable arm (Fig. 7a -52) is configured such that it is in between the height of the first (Fig. 7a -53) and the second (Fig. 7a -54) products.

The benefit of having the caterpillar track vend mechanism (Fig. 7a -50) on rails is evident in Figure 7a, as it can be configured such that it is centred in relation to the products. This allows for the actuation to happen along the axis of the products.

Following is a more detailed description of the modules.

Caterpillar Track Actuation Unit The actuation mechanism used in this invention can be seen in Figure 5. It operates in a very similar way to a standard caterpillar track vend actuator, with the exception that the body (Fig. 5-34) has been modified to allow it to slide over rails (Fig. 5-33). This allows for the adjustability of the horizontal position. In order to secure the mechanism to the rails, after a position has been chosen by the operator, use is made of a thumbscrew (Fig. 5-35).

When the thumbscrew is tightened, it pushes with a normal force against the rail (Fig. 5- 33), and pulls on the actuator body (Fig. 5 -34). The result of this, is that the vend actuation unit clamps onto the rails, and resists lateral motion, until the thumbscrew is loosened.

No tools are required to operate this mechanism.

Adiustable Divider

The adjustable divider used in this invention can be seen in Figures 6a and 6b.

Width Adjustment: In a very similar way to the caterpillar track vend actuator, it is able to move laterally across the rails (Fig. 6a -36), and is secured by means of thumbscrews -one at the top (Fig. 6a -37) and one at the bottom (Fig. 6a -38). By moving the adjustable divider across the rails, we are effectively altering the width of the enclosure, within which are the products.

Depth Adjustment: An extendable arm formed of an outer tube (Fig. 6a -47) and an inner rod (Fig. 6a -48) is used to hold the products against the direction in which they are vended.

This arm is connected on two holders (Fig. 6a -44) which allow it to swing about an axis. To prohibit the swinging motion of the arm, two thumbscrews can be used (Fig. 6a -43). This allows for the depth of the enclosure to be changed, within which the products are fitted. The axis about which the arm can swing is also adjustable. By loosening the bottom (Fig. Ba - 40) and top (Fig. 6a -45) thumbscrews, the axis can be shifted in the direction of the rails.

This allows for a further degree of freedom, which helps to centre the extendable arm in relation to the products, as can be seen in Figure 7a.

Height Adjustment: The lowest point of the extendable arm inner rod (Fig. 6a -48) defines the height of product that can be vended, as it allows one product to be pushed out at a time. In order to expand or contract the extendable arm, an L-shaped adjustment bracket (Fig. 6a -41) is able to move vertically on a fixed base of the divider (Fig. 6a -42). To enable/prohibit this motion, a thumbscrew (Fig. 6a -39) can be loosened/tightened. This does not affect the swing axis position of the extendable arm.

All adjustments in the divider are made by loosening/tightening thumbscrews, which clamp the relevant parts together. No tools are required for this modification.

ADD//cation Exa mD/es Figures 8a, Sb, Sc, 9a and 9b show examples of different products being accommodated by this vend mechanism.

In the first example (Fig. 8a), the adjustable divider and vend actuator are adjusted such that a product of certain dimensions (Fig. Ba -57) can be dispensed.

In the second example (Fig. 8b), a product of a larger height (Fig. 8b -58) can be seen. In this case, the mechanism is adjusted such that the extendable arm is positioned higher, still allowing only one product to be vended.

In the third example (Fig. 8c), a much wider product (Fig. Sc -59) is accommodated, by shifting the adjustable divider and vend actuator across the rails.

In the fourth example, two products are compared in Figures 9a and 9b -one (Fig. 9b -63) that has a smaller depth than the other (Fig. 9a -61). The extendable arm (Fig. 9b -62) is swung by the connecting arms (Fig. 9a -60), such that it pushes against the products depending on their depth.

In all cases, the adjustability is continuous, so the operator has the ability to fit the products with any tolerance that they want.

The mechanism is able to adjust for products of any combination of depth, width and height between the possible ranges.

Ease of Restocking In addition to the adjustability of depth, one further benefit of the extendable arm (Fig. 7a - 52), is that it can swing open enough to allow for product restocking. In order for an operator to fill an empty column, or to add more products, they simply have to loosen the extendable arm thumbscrews (Fig. 6a -43), swing the arm (Fig. 7a -52) open, insert the products (as one side of the enclosure is now missing), swing the arm closed (such that it is touching the products), and tighten the thumbscrews again.

Accommodation of Multiple Products One further benefit to the rail system which is used in this design, is that multiple vend columns can be added in series. In Figure 10, the rails (Fig. 10-68) have two sets of product columns, which are comprised of two vend actuators (Fig. 10 -64 & 65) and two adjustable dividers (Fig. 10-66 & 67). In the first column, the products (Fig. 10-69) are against the inner side of the main container (Fig. 10-71), and the inner side of the first adjustable divider (Fig. 10-66). In the second column, the products (Fig. 10-70) are against the outer side of the first adjustable divider (Fig. 10-66) and the inner side of the second adjustable divider (Fig. 10-67).

The only limit to the number of columns that can be supported in this configuration is set by the width of the main enclosure (Fig. 10-71).

It is a very efficient way of adding product columns, as the only space wasted between the columns, is the thickness of the sheet metal of the adjustable dividers.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiment described above, many equivalent modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art when given this disclosure. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiment of the invention set forth above is considered to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes to the described embodiment may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A vend mechanism for retaining a stack of products in a vending machine and dispensing the products from the stack, the vend mechanism comprising: a product enclosure for retaining the stack of products, the product enclosure including a rear retaining element, a front retaining element and two side retaining elements that retain the stack of products between them and define a dispense opening through which a product can be ejected; a vending actuator for dispensing the products by ejecting a product from within the enclosure through the dispense opening; and at least one adjustment mechanism operable to enable adjustment of a retaining element along a path between two end positions and to secure the retaining element at any position along that path in order to adjust a width or a depth dimension of the product enclosure or a height of the dispense opening.
2. A vend mechanism according to claim 1, comprising at least two adjustment mechanisms, each operable to enable adjustment of a retaining element along a path between two end positions and to secure the retaining element at any position along that path, each adjustment mechanism adjusting a respective dimension selected from a width dimension of the product enclosure, a depth dimension of the product enclosure and a height of the dispense opening.
3. A vend mechanism according to claim 1, comprising at least three adjustment mechanisms, each operable to enable movement of a retaining element along a path between two end positions and to secure the retaining element at any position along that path, a first one of the adjustment mechanisms adjusting the width dimension of the enclosure, a second one of the adjustment mechanisms adjusting the depth dimension of the product enclosure and a third one of the adjustment mechanisms adjusting the height of the dispense opening.
4. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the position of at least one of the side retaining elements is adjustable by a respective one of the adjustment mechanisms to change the width dimension of the product enclosure.
5. A vend mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the adjustment mechanism for the at least one side retaining element includes one or more rails extending in a width direction of the product enclosure, the at least one side retaining element being mounted on said one or more rails fol sliding movement therealong to enable the adjustment of the side retaining element to change the width dimension of the product enclosure.
6. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the position of the front retaining element is adjustable by a respective one of the adjustment mechanisms to be moved towards or away from the rear retaining element to change the depth dimension of the product enclosure.
7. A vend mechanism according to claim 6, wherein the front retaining element comprises a retaining bar mounted on one of the side retaining elements by one or more arms that offset the retaining bar from the side retaining element to extend generally vertically up the front of the product enclosure, the one or more arms being mounted to pivot about a vertical axis offset from the retaining bar to enable movement of the retaining bar towards and away from the rear retaining element.
8. A vend mechanism according to claim 7, wherein the position of the axis of rotation of the retaining bar is adjustable in a width direction relative to the side retaining element to which it is mounted.
9. A vend mechanism according to claim 8, wherein the one or more arms of the front retaining element are attached to the side retaining element by a sliding adjustment mechanism that enable the one or more arms to be moved in the width direction of the product enclosure in order to provide said adjustment of the position of the axis of rotation of the retaining bar in the width direction.
10. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a vertical dimension of the front retaining element is adjustable by a respective one of the adjustment mechanisms to change the height of the dispense opening.
11. A vend mechanism according to claim 10, wherein the front retaining element is telescopic in order to provide said adjustment of its vertical dimension.
12. A vend mechanism according to claim 11, wherein the front retaining element comprises a retaining bar mounted on one of the side retaining elements by one or more arms that offset the retaining bar from the side retaining element to extend generally vertically up the front of the product enclosure, the retaining bar including a first section and a second section that is telescopically received within the first section.
13. A vend mechanism according to claim 12, wherein the retaining bar is mounted to side retaining element by at least two arms, one arm being fixed to the first section of the retaining bar and the other arm being fixed to the second section of the retaining bar, at least one of said arms being mounted to the side retaining element by an adjustment mechanism that enable the vertical spacing of the two arms on the side retaining element to be changed to cause the second section of the retaining bar to telescope into or out of the first portion of the retaining bar to provide said adjustment of the height of the dispense opening.
14. A vend mechanism according to any one of claims 7 to 13, wherein at least one of the side retaining elements is adjustable to change the width of the product enclosure and the front retaining element is mounted on the at least one adjustable side retaining element.
15. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein one or more of said adjustment mechanisms include a lock element having a locked condition for locking a position of a respective one of the retaining elements at any chosen position along its movement path and a released condition in which the retaining element is permitted to move along its movement path.
16. A vend mechanism according to claim 15, wherein the lock element can be finger operated to move from the locked condition to the released position and back.
17. A vend mechanism according to claim 16, wherein the lock element is a thumbscrew.
18. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the rear retaining element is not adjustable.
19. A vend mechanism according to claim 18, comprising a housing within which the one or more adjustment mechanisms are mounted, wherein a rear wall of the housing serves as the rear retaining element.
20. A vend mechanism according to claim 19, wherein a side wall of the housing serves as one of said side retaining elements.
21. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising a vending actuator adjustment mechanism for adjusting the position of the vending actuator in the width direction of the product enclosure.
22. A vend mechanism according to claim 21, wherein the vending actuator adjustment mechanism enables movement of the vending actuator along a path extending in the width direction of the product enclosure and is adapted to secure the vending actuator at any position along that path.
23. A vend mechanism according to claim 22, comprising an adjustment mechanism for at least one side retaining element including one or more rails extending in a width direction of the product enclosure, the at least one side retaining element being mounted on said one or more rails for sliding movement therealong to enable the adjustment of the side retaining element to change the width dimension of the product enclosure, wherein the vending actuator is also mounted on the rails for sliding movement therealong to enable said adjustment of the vending actuator relative to the width of the product enclosure.
24. A vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising a third side retaining element and a second front retaining element to define a second product enclosure between the third side retaining element and one of the side retaining elements of the first product enclosure, to accommodate a second stack of products alongside the first stack of products, the vend mechanism further comprising a second vend actuator for dispensing products from the second product enclosure.
25. A vend mechanism according to claim 24, comprising one or more additional side retaining elements and associated front retaining elements to define one or more additional product enclosures, to accommodate one or more additional stacks of products, the vend mechanism further comprising an additional vend actuator for each additional product enclosure for dispensing products from the respective additional product enclosure.
26. A vend mechanism substantially as described herein with reference to Figs. 3 to 9 or Fig. 10 of the accompanying drawings.
27. A vending machine comprising a vend mechanism according to any one of the preceding claims.