GB931239A - Vending apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

931,239. Coin-freed vending apparatus. VENDO CO. March 29, 1962 [April 7, 1961], No. 12029/62. Class 27. A machine for vending articles, such as cartons 232, Fig. 4, of soft drinks, from individual compartments 26, has coin-freed lock elements 86 which engage the compartment doors 74a at the edge remote from their hinges 72; the initial opening movement of a door swings the lock elements aside and they swing back into initial position to block full closing of the door in order to indicate to a customer that the compartment is empty. The lock elements 86, one at the top and one at the bottom of each door, are fixed on rotatable hinge pins 72, Figs. 3 and 4, on which the doors are rotatable and the pins also carry spreaders 96 which act on plates 94b. Opening of one door shifts all the plates 94b for one horizontal row of compartments and the end plate 94b, which abuts on a plate 120 secured to a common bar 116, moves the bar so that notches 108 in it are out of register with the noses 106 of the spreaders and the other doors in the row cannot be opened. Electrical interlock means between the horizontal rows of compartments ensure that only one plate 120 of a horizontal row is shiftable. An inserted coin closes a switch which supplies current to all the switches 188, Fig. 3, for the horizontal rows and when the plate 120 in the selected horizontal row is moved by opening a door, a tab 192 on it allows the switch 188 for that row to close and energize a solenoid 148, Figs. 4 and 6. As the solenoid armature 146 retracts, a pin 142 is raised and by engaging a projection raises a blocking plate 128 which opens a switch 182 and breaks the circuit to the solenoid. The ear 162 of a latch 158 has, however, moved behind a shoulder 164 on the plate and holds it in raised position. As the pin 142 falls again, it is clear of a projection 196 on the plate 120 and the latter can move to the right so that the door can be fully opened. The plate 120 contacts an ear 178 on the latch 158 and releases the ear 162 so that the plate 128 can fall again, a projection 194, Fig. 3, on the plate 128 riding on a member 124 on the plate 120. As the door is closed and the plate 120 returned to the left, the projection 194 again falls into the path of the member 124 and prevents a door which has been returned to the partly-closed position, resting on the lock element 86, from being re-opened. If a solenoid jams in the retracted position, the projection 196 on the plate 120 engages the raised pin 142 and is prevented from moving fully.