GB745683A - Improvements in or relating to coin-actuated article-delivery apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

745,683. Vending apparatus. CHADBURNS (LIVERPOOL), Ltd. July 20, 1954 [July 21, 1953], No. 20281/53. Class 27 In a coin-freed apparatus for dispensing beverages into cups. the cups C are stacked in guides 13 carried by a rotatable spindle 14 and the lowermost cup in each guide is separated from the stack at a point 24 immediately preceeding a piped delivery station and falls on to a partcircular platform 16a without disengaging fully from the stack so that it is carried round again to a gap 29 in the platform, where it is supported temporarily by a pivoted solenoid-controlled plate 30 before delivery to a platform 35. The stacks are supported by the rims of the third cups from the bottom engaging flanges 17, 18 on annular members 15, 16 and the lowermost cup and the one next above it are supported on similar lower flanges 19, 20. When a stack reaches gaps 21, 22 provided in these flanges, the lowermost cup falls on to a support 24 at the beginning of the platform 16a and the stack lowers sufficiently for the rims of the first and third cups above to line up cor rectly with the flanges 17-20. To ensure separation of the cups, the flanges may be of wedge, curved, inclined or other shape at 25 and 26 and wedges or spring fingers 27 may be provided on the underside of bne or both rails 19, 20; wedge or spring fingers may also act on the cup immediately above the detached cup. When the plate 30 is withdrawn from below the gap 29 in the annular member 16 and platform 16a the cup falls down a shoot 34 to the platform 35 which is accessible after opening a sliding door 37 and is preferably slightly tilted backwards. A coin inserted in the machine falls down shoots until it is trapped in a steeplyinclined shoot by a spring-loaded pusher that holds the coin against a switch for starting a motor 47 and the motor, through means such as a Geneva mechanism, indexes the spindle 14 through one step. Cams driven by the motor then operate switches to provide a holding circuit for the motor, to energize a solenoid to withdraw the pusher and thus allow the coin to drop to operate a solenoid 32 and release a cup by withdrawing the plate 30, and to operate a magnetic valve 42 and a solenoid-operated float valve or magnetic valve 43 to deliver water from a cooled reservoir 40 and essence from a measuring chamber 44 below a reservoir 39, the mixed liquids being led to a spout 46. Warning lights indicating that the supply of essence or of cups is exhausted may be operated by a float 48 in the essence reservoir and by a spring-loaded feeler that can extend into the guides 13 through slots 47. The stacks of cups are visible through vertical slots 49