GB534099A - Automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

534,099. Article-delivery apparatus. PARNALL & SONS, Ltd. Dec. 9, 1939, No. 31886. Convention date, Dec. 13, 1938. [Class 27] In coin-freed vending machines in which a plurality of receptacles, such as sliding drawers, from which the goods are taken, dispense the goods at various prices, a single change-delivering device is provided for any number of coins without its being necessary, in the case of goods below the highest price, to add, in advance, the change to the packages to be dispensed. The drawers 1 are each held against opening by a tooth 3a on a pivoted lever 3 pressed upward by a spring 4. A series of bars 27, one for each drawer, abut against one another and can be moved axially so as to leave a gap between any two of the bars. The bars normally hold up the levers 3 but when a lever is pressed down by the edge of the drawer slot bearing against the inclined rear face of the tooth 3a when the drawer is pulled out, it forces the two abutting bars 27 beneath that drawer apart, and so closes the remaining bars together to prevent another gap being formed and another drawer contemporaneously opened. Below the drawers extend two shafts 8, 9, on the front one of which are mounted arms 25 with which contact pins 5, 6, of different lengths, depending from the levers 3, engage. For the insertion of coins of one kind a receiving receptacle 12a and shoot 12 is provided. Into the front side of the shoot project three holding faces 13b, 14b, 15b mounted on three bell cranks 13, 14, 15 swinging on a shaft 16 and drawn by springs 17 to press the faces 13b, 14b, 15b inward. Co-operating with these faces are three projections 19b on a coin-releasing lever 19 also swinging on the shaft 16 under the influence of a spring, and three inserted coins form abutting connections between these parts and rest, before release, on the turned-in lower edge of the face 15b. On the shaft 16 is also pivoted a cranked lever 18 having at its top a turned-over edge 18a which, when the lever is rocked by a releasing lever 10 on the shaft 8 striking against a pin 18c, contacts successively with the inclined tops 13a, 14a, 15a of the cranks 13, 14, 15, thus swinging them outward without the insertion of a coin. A similar releasing lever 11 on the shaft 9, with one bell-crank 21, is provided for the shoot 20 which is intended to receive one coin of a higher denomination. The pins 5, 6 determine the amount of movement or stroke of the releasing means, and may be adjustable or interchangeable. In a modification the bell-cranks 13,14,15 are thrown out of action simultaneously by the releasing lever. Three shafts are then provided instead of one shaft 9, each of them carrying a releasing lever which lies in the path of a pin, all of the pins being of equal length.