GB740098A - Improvements in bottle vending machines - Google Patents

Abstract

740,098. Vending apparatus. JOHNSON, F. F. Feb. 9, 1954, No. 3840/54. Classes 27 and 116 In a bottle-vending machine in which bottles stored in a vertical refrigerated magazine 10 are fed singly by gravity past a star-wheel gate 16 to a discharge shoot 12, the number of teeth on the ratchet wheel 19 of the escapement mechanism or the star-wheel is a multiple of the number of teeth on the star-wheel and the escapement pawl 20 is actuated a number of times corresponding to this multiple to permit the starwheel to rotate sufficiently to release a bottle. The end 20c of the centrally-pivoted pawl 20 is shaped so that. if the ratchet wheel 19 fails to rotate owing to jamming or other reason, the end 20c will engage the upper end of the adjacent ratchet tooth and prevent full rocking movement of the pawl. A spring-loaded pawl 32 prevents forced reverse rotation of the star-wheel. In order to rock the pawl 20, a coin-released operating handle is adjustably connected to a shaft 24 and a cam plate 22 on the shaft has a sinuous groove 23 engaging a roller 20a on the pawl. The groove has three undulations so that, when the shaft 24 is rotated in one direction and then allowed to return under the action of spring 30, the pawl is actuated six times, allowing a 90 degree rotation of the four-toothed star-wheel. A reversible pawl 28 prevents reverse movement of the cam plate when it is moving in either direction. Alternatively, the pawl may be solenoid controlled. The rack 1 in the magazine feeds directly into the shoot 11 leading to the discharge shoot and the bottles in the other racks 2-5 are supported by spring-loaded gates 42-45 which initially are all in the raised position .shown for the gates 42 and 45 in Fig. 4. As the bottles in rack 1 are delivered and the last bottle clears a finger 64 on a shaft 60, the finger moves into the rack and allows a latch 56 to disengage, thus releasing a spring-loaded lever 52 on the shaft 46 for the gate 42 so that the gate can fall under the weight of the bottles. The release from rack 2 continues until a finger 65 is released to move into rack 1 and a latch member 57 is disengaged from a lever 53 to release the gate 43 of rack 3. The release from racks 4 and 5 continues similarly after freeing of fingers 66 and 67. Freely-pivoted gates 72-75 facilitate the movement of the bottles.