US3613946A

US3613946A - Slant shelf vending machine magazine

Info

Publication number: US3613946A
Application number: US32925A
Authority: US
Inventors: Franklin D Klem
Original assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp
Current assignee: CBS Corp
Priority date: 1970-04-29
Filing date: 1970-04-29
Publication date: 1971-10-19
Anticipated expiration: 1988-10-19
Also published as: JPS5129680B1; CA926351A

Abstract

A slant shelf vending machine magazine is comprised of a plurality of superposed inclined shelves having their lower ends discharging into a substantially vertical passageway with an article control member associated in the storage space of the lower end of each shelf and movable in response to the presence of an article in the associated shelf into the shelf next above in a manner to block movement of an article therefrom into the passageway thus assuring substantially first-in and first-out delivery of articles to be vended.

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventor Franklin D. Klem Pittsburgh, Pa.

[21] Appl. No. 32,925

[22] Filed Apr. 29, 1970 [45] Patented Oct. 19, 1971 [73] Assignee Westinghouse Electric Corporation Pittsburgh, Pa.

[54] SLANT SHELF VENDING MACHINE MAGAZINE 6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 221/109 G07f 11/28 FieldofSearch 221/107,

108, 109, 1 l l, 112; 214/6 M, 8.5 R, 8.5 A, 8.5 K

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,549,082 4/1951 Hall 221/109 2,889,074 6/1959 Reynolds 221/108 Primary Examiner-Robert B. Reeves Assistant Examiner-David A. Scherbel Attorneys-F. H. Henson and F. E. Blake ABSTRACT: A slant shelf vending machine magazine is comprised of a plurality of superposed inclined shelves having their lower ends discharging into a substantially vertical passageway with an article control member associated in the storage space of the lower end of each shelf and movable in response to the presence of an article in the associated shelf into the shelf next above in a manner to block movement of an article therefrom into the passageway thus assuring substantially first-in and first-out delivery of articles to be vended.

PATENTEDUCT 19 I971 SHEET 10F 3 FIG. 2

FIG.

FATENTEDUCT 19 \en SHEET 2 OF 3 VENTOR Klern 4&4 A TORNEY WITNESSES 9?? MA,

SLANT SHELF VENDING MACHINE MAGAZINE CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS So far as known, this invention is not related to any copending patent applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is well known that slant shelf vending machines afford a very large article capacity for a given storage space. It is also known that it is desirable to provide a first-in and first-out article delivery for vending machines with large capacities in order to assure so-called product rotation and thus prevent any given article from being stored in the machine for an excessive period of time. This invention provides a simple and reliable arrangement for obtaining the desired product rotation of substantially all articles stored in a slant shelf vending machine magazine.

PRIOR ART The following list of patents may be of interest but are not believed to disclose the arrangement of the invention:

3,416,706 Gross 12/7/68 2,408,380 Dennis 10/1/46 1,628,852 Lea SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the invention, a plurality of superposed inclined shelves are disposed with their lower article-discharging ends adjacent a substantially vertical passageway extending to the vending machine gate. Each inclined shelf is provided with an article control member associated with its lower end in a manner to be movable from a normal position within the associated shelf to an operated position extending into the shelf next above in a manner to block passage of articles from the shelf next above into the passageway. The presence of one or more articles in the lower end of each shelf will move the associated article control member to its operated position. In the preferred form of the invention, a flapper door is pivotally mounted at the lower end of each shelf to have a normal position closing the end of the shelf and in effect providing an extension of an interior vertical wall of the passageway. The passage of an article from the shelf into the vertical passageway will move the flapper door to an operated position into the passageway, and means associated with the flapper will engage the article control member of the shelf next below to prevent it from moving to an operated position while the articles on the shelf next above are moving through the associated door into the vertical passageway.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent with references to the following specification and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the vending machine magazine of the invention in a totally empty condition;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but showing the vending machine substantially empty except for articles on the lower shelf being delivered to the vending gate;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIGS. 1 and 2 but showing the vending machine in the condition of vending articles from an upper shelf with lower shelves empty;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing the vending machine in the condition of being loaded with articles on its lower shelves while still being in condition to vend the articles on the upper shelves;

H 5 is a detailed fragmentary side elevations! view partly in set-mm of the article control members and flapper doors as arranged at the lower ends of each of the superposed inclined shelves; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged perspective elevation of the lower end of three superposed inclined shelves to show details of the construction.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. 1-4 of the drawings, it will be seen that the vending machine of the invention is comprised of the plurality of superposed inclined shelves such as shown at 10-13 with their lower article discharging ends positioned adjacent a substantially vertical passageway 14 through which articles to be vended are moved to the lowermost inclined shelf 15 for vending by the article-vending gate generally shown at 16. It should be understood that this invention is not limited to any particular form of article-vending gate mechanism 16 and since the type of vending gate does not form a part of the invention, any well-known form of vending gate obvious to those skilled in the art may be used. Therefore, the details of the vending gate mechanism 16 are omitted herewith. The respective article control member 20-23 of the invention is associated within the lower end of each inclined shelf storage volume provided by the respective inclined shelves 10-13. For example, the article control member 20 is shown to be pivotally secured to the magazine structure to have a normal position depending within the storage volume for the inclined shelf 10. Similarly, the control members 21-23 are supported to have normal positions depending within the storage volume of the associated inclined shelves 11-13. As is shown more clearly by FIG. 2 of the drawings, the presence of articles to be vended, such as the

articles

30 and 31 on the lower inclined shelf 10, will move the article control member 20 as associated therewith to an operated position extending into the storage space for the next above inclined shelf 11 to prevent movement of any article on said shelf 11 into the vertical passageway 14 while article to be vended such as shown at 30 or 31 are present on the lower shelf 10. This is clearly shown by FIG. 3 of the drawings wherein the control member 22 extends into article-blocking position to block the delivery of article 60 on the inclined shelf 13 next above.

The pivotal flapper doors such as shown at 24 to 27 are each associated with the lower end of a respective inclined shelf 10-13 in a manner to have a normal position shown by FIG. 1 of the drawings whereby the door structures 24-27 provide extensions of the interior vertical wall for the passageway 14. As shown by FIG. 2 of the drawings, when articles to be vended are present on an inclined shelf such as the shelf 10, the articles will move into the vertical passageway 14 by pivoting the flapper door 24 to the position shown. Similarly, articles on the other inclined shelves when permitted to move into the vertical passageway by the mechanism of the invention will pivot the associated flapper door such as the flapper door 26 shown by FIG. 3 of the drawings to the operated position while the

flapper doors

24 and 25 remain in their normal positions to provide extensions of the vertical wall for the passageway M, and help to prevent articles being vended, such as the articles 34-36, from jamming against the discharge end of a lower one of an inclined shelf.

As most clearly shown by FIG. 4 of the drawings, each of the flapper doors 24-27 is provided with a side projection, such as shown at 26a for engaging the article control member 21 of the shelf 11 next below in the operated position of the flapper door 26 to maintain the control member 21 in its normal position not engaging any of the articles, such as

articles

50 and 51, on the shelf 12 next above. Thus, a partly empty machine with articles still to be vended from the

shelves

12 and 13, can have their empty shelves such as the

shelves

10 and 11 reloaded, but the lowermost new article, such as the article 40, on the inclined shelf 11 will not move the control member 21 into a position blocking the remainder of the vending of the articles. such as

articles

50 and 51, from the inclined shelf 11 next above. Therefore the first-in and first out cycle wlll continue wlth articles being vended from

shelves

12 and 13 before vending articles from shelf 10. ln the loading and unloading of the machine being described in connection with F IG. 4 of the drawings, the articles such as

articles

50 and 51, remaining on the inclined shelf 12 will continue to be vended including any additional articles that may have been reloaded on the shelf 12 following which the article control member 22 will return to its normal position allowing articles to be vended from the shelf next above; namely, shelf 13 into the vertical passageway 14 through the pivotal flapper door 27. After vending all of the articles from shelf 13 and the articles therefrom stored in the vertical passageway 14, the article at the end of the shelf 10 can move into the passageway 14 for vending.

It is believed that the arrangement of the invention to assure product rotation for substantially all of the articles loaded and reloaded into an inclined shelf vending machine will now be apparent by reference to the foregoing description in connection with FIGS. 1-4 of the drawings. For a more detailed description of one preferred structural arrangement of the invention, reference is now made to FIGS. and 6 of the drawings. The article control member 20, associated with the storage space of the lowermost inclined shelf 10, is pivotally supported at 70 and normally disposed to depend by gravity within the storage volume of the lowermost inclined shelf 10. Similarly, the article control member 21 is pivoted at 71 to be associated with the next above inclined shelf 11. Also, associated with the lower end of a respective one of each inclined shelf -13 is a flapper door 24-27 and it will be seen that each flapper door has a normal position with its end wall forming an extension of the inside vertical wall for the passageway 14. As is most clearly shown by FIG. 6 of the drawings, each of the article control members, such as the article control or 21, is provided with a side projection 20a or 21a. The side projection 20a for control member 20 is positioned to be engaged by the depending ear a of the flapper door 25 in an operated position to prevent the article control member 20 from being moved by reloaded articles on the associate shelf to an operated position that would block further movement of articles of the next above inclined shelf 11. In the simplest form of the invention being described, the depending side ear for each respective flapper door 24-27 alternately depends on opposite sides of the inclined shelf magazine such that ear 25a depends on the right side of the magazine as shown in FIG. 6 of the drawings to engage the projection 20a of the article control member 20 while the depending side ear 26a of the flapper door 26 next above depends on the left side of the magazine in a manner to engage the projection extension 21a of the control member 21. Obviously, various modified arrangements for interlocking the movement of the respective flapper door and a respective article control member of a shelf next below will occur to those skilled in the art.

Various modifications will occur to those skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A slant shelf vending machine magazine comprising a substantially vertical passageway for downward gravity movement of articles to a vending position, a plurality of superposed inclined shelves with their lower ends discharging into said passageway for gravity movement of articles thereon into said passageway, and an article control member movably positioned to have a normal position in the lower end of the storage space of an associated one of each shelf and movable to an operated position extending into the storage space of the shelf next above the associated shelf in a manner to block movement of an article on the next above shelf into said passageway, each of said control members being moved to the operated position by the presence of an article at the lower end of the associated shelf.

2. The invention of claim 1 in which each control member is moved to the operated position by the presence of at least two articles at the lower end of the associated shelf.

3. The invention of claim 2 in which a flapper is pivotally mounted at the end of an associated shelf to have a normal position covering the end of an associated shelf and defining a wall of the vertlcal passageway, each of said flappers being movable into the passageway by the passage of an article into the vertical passageway.

4. The invention of claim 3 in which said flapper is provided with means engaging the control member associated with the shelf next below when said flapper is in the operated position to thereby prevent the engaged control member from moving to its operated position.

5. The invention of claim I in which a flapper is pivotally mounted at the end of an associated shelf to have a normal position covering the end of an associated shelf and defining a wall of the vertical passageway, each of said flappers being movable into the passageway by the passage of an article into the passageway.

6. The invention of claim 5 in which said flapper is provided with means engaging the control member associated with the shelf next below when said flapper is in the operated position to thereby prevent the engaged control member from moving to its operated position.

Claims

3. The invention of claim 2 in which a flapper is pivotally mounted at the end of an associated shelf to have a normal position covering the end of an associated shelf and defining a wall of the vertical passageway, each of said flappers being movable into the passageway by the passage of an article into the vertical passageway.

5. The invention of claim 1 in which a flapper is pivotally mounted at the end of an associated shelf to have a normal position covering the end of an associated shelf and defining a wall of the vertical passageway, each of said flappers being movable into the passageway by the passage of an article into the passageway.