US3319822A - Vending machine discharge means - Google Patents

Description

y 1967 w. c. OVSIENKO 3,319,822

VENDING MACHINE DISCHARGE MEANS Filed March 10, 196

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTO 2.. Wncre'e C. Ovszev/xo ATTORN Y May 16, 1967 w. c. OVSIENKO VENDING MACHINE DISCHARGE MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 10, 1965 INVENTOIZ WnLv'E/e C. OVS/ENKU .in its location.

United States Patent i 3,319,822 VENDING MACHINE DISCHARGE MEANS Walter C. Ovsienko, 1530 N. Humboldt, Milwaukee, Wis. 53202 Filed Mar. 10, 1965, Ser. No. 438,623 Claims. (Cl. 221-129) This invention relates to improvements in means for ejecting a selected package of cigarettes from a coincontrolled machine for vending the cigarettes from stacks thereof in the machine.

The well-known electrically operated vending machine for packages of cigarettes and the like, provides a number of magazines each having a number of compartments for superposed stacks of cigarette packages which are to be dispensed as selected by a purchaser. The lowermost pack from a stack selected by the purchaser, is pushed out of the stack by electrically operated means as one step of a sequence of machine movements and falls onto a chute for delivery by gravity. The ejector or pusher means in common use involves a frame oscillated beneath the magazine by means of an electric motor and the frame has pivoted thereon a finger unit for each compartment, the fingers each having a bar to press against the rearward end of the lowermost package of a stack as the ejector bar slides over the bottom of the magazine'compartment. Each finger unit includes a solenoid with a plunger for lifting the finger, the plunger returning to the initial position where the solenoid is deenergized. The solenoid is mounted on the frame and is a part of the circuits energized sequentially by the purchasers closure of a switch dependent on his selection.

However, only alternating electric current is usually available for the operation of vending machines and the solenoids used in cigarette vending machines, are designed for only momentary energization and give only a relatively short impulse to the plunger of the solenoid so that means must be provided to catch the ejector finger in its raised position and latch it in raised position until the bar of the finger is drawn onto the bottom of the magazine compartment behind a package of cigarettes. Then the latch must release the ejector finger as power means are then operated to draw the pressure bar of the ejector finger forward over the bottom of the compartment to push the package into a delivery chute. Heretofore, the latch was a spring pressed back by the ejector bar as it was lifted by the solenoid and the spring returned under the ejector bar to support the bar in raised position. The clearances involved and the relative positions of such spring and of the ejector finger are such that the latch fails to operate if the vending machine cabinet does not stand level in bothsidewise and crosswise direction, if the cabinet as. a whole is subjected to mishandling oris even moved from one position .to another In fact, the spring latch mechanism is so sensitive as to be the major source of service calls to keep the machine in proper vending operation.

To secure unfailing operation of such latch, it is necessarythat the solenoid lift the ejector finger above the end of the spring and that the spring be pressed aside by the lifting of the finger and then return to a position where it will catch and hold the pressure bar of the finger upon termination of the solenoid impulse. Such construction does not compensate for any deficiencies in solenoid or spring action. The spring latch has been in use from at least the end of 1950, on all of the three major makes of cigarette vending machines, in spite of the difiiculties of adjusting such latch and the ejector finger.

However, the present invention places a magnet in a position where it can attract and hold the ejector bar over the compartment bottom until such time as the ejec- 3,3l9,822 Patented May 16, 1967 tor bar is to be pressed against a package of cigarettes. The field of the magnet need only be sufiicient so that the solenoid will always lift the ejector bar into the magnetic'field even though the solenoid impulse would not be sufiicient for use with a spring latch. Even though the ejector may not be swinging freely about its pivot, or the ejector bar may not be aligned with a pole of the mag net, an adequate magnetic field will invariably draw the eject-or bar to the magnet and hold it there. The bar is slid off the magnet surface when the balance of the ejecting mechanism begins to draw the ejector finger against the package and the initial magnetic field is again available for the next action.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one cigarette package magazine swung about a pivot at one vertical edge to expose the package ejecting assembly, with a portion broken away to show an ejection unit.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevation of a portion of the magizine and the frame bearing the package ejection units.

FIG. 3 is a perspective of the finger of an ejection unit beig held by a magnet.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of portion of an ejector unit finger made of non-magnetic metal and provided with a magnetic metal shoe for attraction by a magnet.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary elevation of a bar magnet which may be applied to a magazine in lieu of the individual magnets shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of a filled magazine with an ejection unit on a frame oscillated by an electric motor, and in the position assumed before the ejection finger is lifted.

FIG. 7 is a view somewhat similar to that of FIG. 6 but showing the ejection finger lifted and drawn to the magnet and in position to be brought against the lowermost cigarette package in a magazine compartment, and

FIG. 8 is a view somewhat similar to FIG. 6 but showing in full line, the ejector finger pushing a cigarette package toward a delivery chute, and in dotted line, showing the cigarette package about to fall away from the ejector finger in its extreme forward position.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 10 generally designates a magazine for a cigarette vending machine, which has plural compartments 11 of a size to receive a stack of superposed packages 12 of cigarettes, the cigarette packages being stacked from the upper end and the compartment having two sides open respectively toward the front and the rear of the machine, at the lower end, as shown at 13 in FIG. 6, for dispensing the lowermost package of cigarettes selected by a purchaser, as is usual. Each of the compartments has a bottom extending beyond the back and the front sides of the magazines and has a slot 14 therein, for movement therethrough of means for pressing forward a package of the cigarettes. The magazine is pivoted along one vertical edge for swinging away from means 15 for ejecting a package of cigarettes from any one of the stacks. Each compartment 11 has mounted thereon a magnet 20 extending across and downward over a portion of the opening 13 on the side of the compartment remote from the front of the machine. The magnets are shown as being permanent magnets of the known cermet type but the individual magnets per compartment may be replaced by a single bar magnet 21 of the same material as is shown in FIG. 5. However, any kind of magnet will accomplish the desired result provided the field by the magnet is strong enough to extend to the point to which the ejecting pusher is lifted.

The ejecting means comprises a frame 22 of channelshape with slots 23 in one side thereof and each slot 23 is substantially in alignment with one of the slots 14 in the magazine compartment bottoms, the frame extending the full width of the mazagine. The frame 22 carries plural ejection units each including a solenoid 27 with a plunger 28 to lift a finger 29 pivoted at 30 on the frame 22, the pivot ears of the finger being indicated by the numeral 31. The cross section of portion 34 of the finger is of a size to pass through the slots 14 in the bottom of the compartments and the slots 23 in the frame 22, and is of a length such that swinging of the finger on its pivot moves a bar or head 35 which is at the free end of the finger and may be elongated at right angles to the length of the finger, toward magnet 20 where it is attracted and held above the bottom of the compartment. In structure shown in FIG. 3, the whole of the finger 29 is made of magnetic metal so that the bar 35 serves in its entirety as an armature which will be attracted by the magnet 20 as it is lifted by the solenoid 27 and held in raised position after the solenoid is de-energized. In FIG. 4, the finger is assumed to be a non-magnetic material (eg a white-metal die casting) with pins 36 extendig from the bar ends so that a magnetic metal armature shoe 37 can be attached for coaction with the magnet 20. Obviously a magnetic metal may be inserted in the ejector bar 35 or otherwise attached by any well known means.

The frame 22 and the plurality of solenoid operated ejector fingers carried thereby, are mounted on arms 41 pivoted at 42 to a crank plate 43 formed with a slot 44 receiving a pin 45 on a disk 46 rotated by an electric motor 47 mounted on the :base 48 of the vending machine cabinet, and forming power driven crank means. As the pin moves, the crank plate is raised and lowered to rock the arms 41 on the pivot 42 whereby the frame 22 swings from the position shown in FIG. 7 to that shown in full line in FIG. 8 and to its final position shown in dotted line in FIG. 8. The means for swinging the ejector frame is now in common use in cigarette vending machines and usually includes a number of frames each associated with one of a number of magazines and the frames are so linked that they oscillate on an arc of large radius.

In use of the present construction, deposit of coins is required and thereafter the customer presses on the button of a switch associated with a stack containing the goods he desires, to energize the solenoid 27 to draw up its plunger 28 and lift the ejector finger from the position shown in FIG. 6 to a position at which the bar 35 can be attracted and held by the magnet as shown in FIG. 7. In the raised position, the bar 35 is above the magazine compartment bottom and drops onto such bottom as the frame 29 is swung forward by the motor 47 to pull the ejector bar 35 free from the magnet 20. As frame 22 continues its swing to full extent of movement of the crank 43, 45, the ejector bar 35 slides over the bottom of the compartment and pushes the lowest cigarette package forward until the package slides to a point for gravity delivery on the delivery chute 51 and the ejector finger drops below the magazine floor for return of the entire ejector to its initial position.

It will be seen from the above description that a relatively sensitive latch has been eliminated and that holding of the ejector finger is now performed by a part which can compensate for deficiencies in the degree of lifting of the end of the finger or resistance to such lifting. As soon as the magnetic finger bar, or a magnetic shoe on a non-magnetic bar, is raised into the effective field of the magnet there need be no further lifting of the finger by means other than the magnet. As the field of the magnet is broad, it is virtually impossible for a finger to be so affected by change in machine levels or the like as to fail to be held until drawn off the magnet. In experimental use over a substantial time, it has been impossible to cause malfunction of the ejection finger under any conditions encountered by applicant in his extended use of cigarette vending machines.

I claim:

1. In a machine for delivering single articles from a stack for which said machine provides a dispensing compartment having a slotted bottom, said machine further comprising an ejection arm pivoted below said bottom and movable in an article ejecting direction from a normally retracted position, and a finger pivoted to said arm and having an article ejecting head normally at a level below said bottom and gravity biased toward said level and movable about the pivotal connection of the finger with the arm toward a level above said bottom and in an upper position in which it is in registry with the lowermost article of said stack, the slot in the bottom being adapted to receive said finger for movement of said head as it impels said article from said stack, means for oscillating the arm, and means for momentarily pivoting said finger upwardly with respect to said arm and toward said position;

the improvement which consists in a magnet mounted on said compartment and for which said head provides an armature, the magnet being at a level to attract said head toward said upper position of registry with the article and to hold it in said position following the momentary pivoting of the finger toward said upper position, whereby to assist in completing the pivoting of said finger toward said upper position, the movement of said arm in an article ejecting direction thereupon causing the finger to move through the slot to engage and eject said article from said stack and to pull the armature from said magnet.

2. The combination of claim 1 in which the said head comprises a T-bar at the free end of said finger.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which said head is of magnetic material.

4. The combination of claim 1 in which said head is of non-magnetic material and has a magnetic keeper connected therewith to be attracted by said magnet.

.5. A machine according to claim 1 in further combination with like machines in side by side relationship, a single magnet extending continuously across a plurality of such machines and constituting for each of said machines the magnet for which the several heads provide armatures.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,213,651 9/1940 Hall 1949 2,442,174 5/1948 May 1949 2,581,502 1/1952 Wallin 194-10 2,585,718 2/1952 Adams et al l9410 2,800,212 7/1957 Nicolaus 194-9 3,000,539 9/1961 Danziger et al 221129 3,172,519 3/1965 Albright et al. 221-270 X ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner.

KENNETH N. LEIMER, Examiner,

Claims (1)

1. IN A MACHINE FOR DELIVERING SINGLE ARTICLES FROM A STACK FOR WHICH SAID MACHINE PROVIDES A DISPENSING COMPARTMENT HAVING A SLOTTED BOTTOM, SAID MACHINE FURTHER COMPRISING AN EJECTION ARM PIVOTED BELOW SAID BOTTOM AND MOVABLE IN AN ARTICLE EJECTING DIRECTION FROM A NORMALLY RETRACTED POSITION, AND A FINGER PIVOTED TO SAID ARM AND HAVING AN ARTICLE EJECTING HEAD NORMALLY AT A LEVEL BELOW SAID BOTTOM AND GRAVITY BIASED TOWARD SAID LEVEL AND MOVABLE ABOUT THE PIVOTAL CONNECTION OF THE FINGER WITH THE ARM TOWARD A LEVEL ABOVE SAID BOTTOM AND IN AN UPPER POSITION IN WHICH IT IS IN REGISTRY WITH THE LOWERMOST ARTICLE OF SAID STACK, THE SLOT IN THE BOTTOM BEING ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SAID FINGER FOR MOVEMENT OF SAID HEAD AS IT IMPELS SAID ARTICLE FROM SAID STACK, MEANS FOR OSCILLATING THE ARM, AND MEANS FOR MOMENTARILY PIVOTING SAID FINGER UPWARDLY WITH RESPECT TO SAID ARM AND TOWARD SAID POSITION;

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