GB761481A - Improvements in vending machines - Google Patents

Abstract

761,481. Vending apparatus. BRECKNELL, DOLMAN & ROGERS, Ltd., [formerly BRECKNELL MUNRO & ROGERS, Ltd.]., and DOLMAN, H. J. Dec. 20, 1954 [Dec. 21, 1953 ; Sept. 28, 1954], Nos. 35475/53 and 27953/54. Class 27. An article-dispensing machine, which may be coin-freed, comprises a shaft 10 carrying a series of compartmented tables 13 adapted for independent rotation but normally movable together, a transparent or partly-transparent cabinet 11 provided with a series of doors 25, one for each table, means for rotating the shaft and tables as a whole and means permitting any one door to be opened and arresting the associated table so that access can be gained to a compartment of the table. The tables 13 are supported on collars on a shaft 10, with either one or two interposed selflubricating washers that provide enough friction for rotation of the tables but do not prevent the rotation of a particular table from being arrested. The shaft may be rotated either slowly and continuously, or only when coins are inserted, by a motor 21 or may be rotated manually step by step or, alternatively, the tables may rotate on a fixed shaft, the lowest table being driven by a slipping clutch and the others driven frictionally from the lowest table. On the back of each sliding door 25 corresponding to each table, a pawl 26 is pivoted and, as the door is moved to the right, when the selected compartment is visible through a transparent panel 22, a roller 27A engaging the cammed undersurface of the pawl swings it inwards to engage a pin 28 corresponding to each compartment. Continued movement of the door causes the pawl to pull the compartment into alignment with the door opening, at which point a pin 28 immediately ahead of the selected compartment is trapped by a check pawl 29 and a spring-loaded blocking pawl 30 engaging the upper surface of the pawl 26. To prevent operation of a door from arresting an empty compartment behind it, a stop 45 on each compartment is pulled out when the machine is loaded by an attendant and this stop releases a door latch 46, Fig. 2, but the subsequent closing of the door, through the latch itself, pushes the stop inwards so that it is subsequently ineffective to free the door. To ensure closing of a door that has been left open, pawls 49, Fig. 11, on a common shaft 50 may co-operate with a rack 48 on each door, the shaft 50 being rotated step by step by means of a spring-loaded rod 53 and a lever 54 bearing on a disc 55 which is rotated by the shaft 10 and has a notch 56. Alternatively, an air cylinder and piston may be connected to the coin control bar (see below) or to a second control bar linked to the doors, in order to close an open door and set the coin mechanism to zero. Coin action.-An inserted coin 34, Fig. 6, acts as an abutment to move a catch 39 from a stop 40 on a spring-loaded bar 35 and the bar is then free to be moved axially by a pivoted crank 37 rocked by an extension 36 of the door 25. When all the articles on the tables have the same value, the bar 35 is common to all the doors. A full-stroke pawl and ratchet 42 is provided and also bevel-ended slide bars 43 which are spread by ribs 44 to prevent the opening of more than one door at a time.