Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F11/00—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles
  • G07F11/02—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from non-movable magazines
  • G07F11/04—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from non-movable magazines in which magazines the articles are stored one vertically above the other
  • G07F11/16—Delivery means
  • G07F11/165—Delivery means using xyz-picker or multi-dimensional article picking arrangements
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F11/00—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles
  • G07F11/02—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from non-movable magazines
  • G07F11/04—Coin-freed apparatus for dispensing, or the like, discrete articles from non-movable magazines in which magazines the articles are stored one vertically above the other
  • G07F11/16—Delivery means
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F9/00—Details other than those peculiar to special kinds or types of apparatus
  • G07F9/009—User recognition or proximity detection

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an automatic vending machine that presents an elevator for the transport of the products from the area of the trays to the collection box, which due to its special configuration increases the capacity of the products that can be dispensed, in addition to that the capacity of the machine is increased because it can store a greater number of products for later dispensing.
• the object of the invention consists of a vending machine that has an elevator blocking system thereof, eliminating the possibility of accessing the area of the trays by moving the elevator vertically, which prevents theft of the products contained in the trays. through the door of collection of the products dispensed.
• the lift includes the product collection box by the user, which avoids the inclusion of additional elements that must carry out the transfer of the products from the elevator to the collection box, which increases the useful space of the machine available to store products.
• a wide variety of automatic vending machines that work by introducing coins, bills or cards are known in the state of the art. These machines have a glazed front part where the various products are shown, generally food products that are located in a series of compartments of a plurality of storage trays, being oriented, the product location compartments, towards the front of the machine, allowing the user to see the diversity of products to be sent by selecting the desired one from the existing ones.
• vending machines of this type where the selected product falls by gravity from the corresponding location compartment to a collection box located at the bottom of the machine.
• vending machines such as that described in the invention patent P200502097 relating to an "advertising device for vending machines"; of the same holder as the present file, which is based on a vending machine provided with a glazed front part- and equipped with a plurality of product storage trays in a series of compartments and a tray receiving the issued product formed in a ascending-descending body, as an elevator, in relation to the inner face of the glazed front.
• the ascending-descending body will be positioned in relation to the corresponding tray to receive the respective product and be taken to the collection box.
• the product collection door would be located at the height of said box or space that the elevator has frontally in its front part to extract the products, so the height of the products to be extracted would be proportional to the height of the collection door.
• the vending machine of the present invention solves all the above drawbacks since it has a configuration where an increase in the height of the products to be dispensed does not imply a decrease in the height of the machine intended to house product trays.
• the present invention relates to an automatic vending machine, among which may be refrigerated or not, which may include payment methods or be commanded by another machine and which comprises an elevator that due to its special configuration increases the capacity of the products which can be dispensed, in addition to increasing the capacity between rows of trays.
• the front part of the machine comprises a window through which the products to be selected by the user are observed, in addition to the folding product collection door.
• the elevator has drive means that allow its vertical displacement of the machine, both upwards to carry out the collection of a certain product arranged in a certain machine tray, and downwards to transfer the product to a collection box where the user can extract it from The 5 machine.
• the machine has one or more extractors linked to drive means that drag the product from a channel of a certain product from those arranged in each or tray to the elevator, which has previously been positioned in front to the tray that includes the channel from which the product is to be extracted.
• the vending machine comprises a first elevator positioning device with respect to the machine chassis, which determines at all times how high the elevator is in relation to the chassis and a second elevator positioning device with respect to the trays in this case , which determines at all times the relative position between the elevator and the trays.
• the elevator comprises a product collection box by a user presenting a detection device that allows determining whether a product has fallen into the collection box or not.
• the drive means linked to the extractor stop the movement thereof, moving the elevator to a first position which will be described below.
• the positioning device of the elevator with respect to the chassis of the machine establishes two positions, a first position in which the 0 pick-up box of the elevator is placed in front of the product collection door and the opening of the machine can be carried out.
• Product collection door from outside the machine by a user, and a second position where the opening of the product collection door is not allowed due to the presence of means for blocking the opening of said door, so that the elevator cannot be accessed from outside the machine.
• the step to this second position is carried out when the detection device detects that the user has introduced the hand to pick up the product.
• the machine drives a sweeping device that determines if there is an obstacle that has been introduced from the outside that would prevent the normal operation of the elevator during its movement towards the product trays, being ready for a new extraction.
• the machine has means of blocking the elevator that prevent the vertical displacement of the elevator through the collection door when said elevator is in the first position or position of collection of the product, so that it is not possible to manually move the elevator to through the collection door to access the products of the trays.
• the front part of the machine has a microcontroller that determines whether said front part is in the use position or is displaced from the machine in situations such as maintenance or refilling of the products of the trays.
• the elevator comprises an upper cover that prevents access to the tray area from the product collection door in the first or collection position.
• This top cover is foldable, which allows the axis of rotation of the product collection door to be arranged at a higher height than the top cover, so that the product collection box included in the elevator allows to accommodate products of high height, when the height of said box is increased by the rotation of the upper cover of the elevator.
• the collapsible lid, and consequently the increase in height of the product collection box allows to configure a vending machine where the distance between the highest tray and the lowest tray is greater than if the lid were fixed, and all this without varying the height of the machine nor the height of the same destined to the trays, being possible to include a greater number of trays in the machine and consequently a greater capacity of dispensing of products.
• Figure 1 Shows a perspective view of the vending machine of the present invention.
• Figure 2. Shows a perspective view of the vending machine of Figure 1 when the front part thereof is open.
• Figure 3. Shows a side sectional view of the vending machine of Figure 1 in the first position where the elevator collection box is facing the product collection door and the opening of the door can be carried out. of collecting the product from outside the machine by a user, said door being closed. The top cover of the elevator has been removed for clarity.
• Figure 4. Shows a side sectional view of the vending machine of the
• Figure 1 in the first position shown in Figure 3, the product collection door being open.
• Figure 5. Shows a side sectional view of the vending machine of Figure 1 in the second position where the opening of the product collection door is not allowed due to the presence of means for blocking the opening of said door. , also observing the scanning device that acts in this position.
• Figure 6. Shows a side sectional view of the vending machine of Figure 1 where the elevator has been represented both in the first position and in a product collection position.
• Figure 7.- Shows a perspective view of the elevator of the vending machine of the present invention.
• an automatic vending machine having a front part (1) comprising a glazed window (2) through which the user observes the products (40) to be selected is described below. , in addition to a collection door (3) of the product.
• the machine comprises an elevator (4) that moves in the vertical direction of the machine, upwards to carry out the collection of a certain product (40) arranged in a certain tray (5) of the machine, and in the direction descending to move the product (40) arranged in a collection box (6) present in the elevator (4) to a position where it is faced with the collection door (3) of the product arranged in the front part (1) of the machine.
• the vertical displacement of the elevator (4) is carried out by means of drive means, which in this preferred embodiment comprise a motor (7) which, by means of an axis (8), transmits the rotation to two sprockets teeth (9) arranged on the side sides of the elevator (4), gear teeth (9) that engage with a gear (10) present in each rack (1 1) arranged on each side of the chassis (12) of the machine.
• the zippers have a sliding surface (13) opposite the teeth (10), so that at the same time as the toothed gears (9) engage with the teeth (10), a skate (14) arranged on the side sides of the elevator slide along the sliding surface (13).
• the rotation of the motor (7) in a first direction results in the upward movement of the elevator (4), while the rotation of the motor (7) in a second direction opposite to the first results in the downward movement of the elevator (4).
• the elevator (4) also comprises two counterweights (not shown) attached thereto by means of connection that slide along pulleys, such that the elevator is located on one side of the pulleys, and on the other side of the pulleys They find the counterweights, the elevator (4) being balanced at all times, and the counterweights being guided by guides that facilitate their movement.
• the vending machine comprises a first positioning device of the elevator (4) with respect to the chassis (12) of the machine, which in this preferred embodiment comprises a transmitter photocell (15) arranged in the elevator and oriented towards the chassis (12 ) of the machine where two receiving photocells (16) and a second elevator positioning device (4) are arranged with respect to the trays in this case, comprising a transmitter photocell (15) arranged in the elevator (4) and oriented towards the trays (5) of products (40), each of which (5) has a receiving photocell (16).
• the machine has one or several extractors (not shown) that drag the product (40) from a channel of a certain product (40) from those arranged in each tray (5) to the elevator (4), which has previously been positioned in front of the tray ( 5) from which the product (40) is to be extracted.
• the collection box (6) of the products (40) comprises a detection device that allows to determine if any product (40) has fallen into the collection box (6) or not and that in this preferred embodiment is a band of photocells (35) arranged on one of the side faces of the collection box (6) facing another band of photocells (35) arranged on the other side face of the box (6) which determine when a product (40) has fallen into the collection box (6), at which time the extractor is stopped
• the positioning device of the elevator (4) with respect to the chassis (12) of the machine that is, the emitting photocell (15) arranged in the elevator and oriented towards the two photocells (16) receiving the chassis (12) of the machine, set two positions.
• the means for blocking the opening of the collection door (3) comprise triggers (17) arranged inside the front part (1) of the machine that retain the collection door (3), in particular some lugs ( 18) protruding laterally from the bottom of the collection door (3), by the action of an elastic element (19) attached to the triggers (17).
• the collection door (3) has an upper pivot axis (20) that allows it to be collapsed when the elevator (4) is in the first position.
• the elevator comprises projections (21) antagonists of wheels (22) attached to the triggers (17), so that when the elevator (4) passes from the second position to the first position, the projections (21) push on the wheels (22) attached to the triggers (17) and carry out the rotation of said triggers (17) around their axis of rotation (23) that joins them inside the front part (1) of the machine when the resistance of an elastic element (19) attached to both the triggers (17) and its axis of rotation (23), releasing the lugs (18) from the collection door (3) and thus allowing the free movement of the same ( 3).
• the machine has a microcontroller (not shown) arranged between the chassis (12) of the machine and the front part (1) of it that detects the position of the front part (1) with respect to the chassis (12), that is, it detects whether the front part (1) is collapsed or not with respect to the chassis (12), or in other words, if the machine is open or closed.
• a microcontroller not shown
• the front part (1) is collapsed with respect to the chassis (12) the projections (21) of the elevator are not in contact with the triggers (17) and these (17) rotate around their axis of rotation (23) by the recovery force of the elastic element (19) blocking the opening of the collection door (3).
• the elevator moves from the second position to the first position so that the first tray (5) can be loaded without it (5) being blocked by the own elevator (4).
• the elevator (4) moves from the first position to the second position, where the projections (21) integral with the elevator (4) come into contact with the triggers (17) in the inverse relative position to the position adopted by both elements, triggers (17) and projections (21) when the release of the collection door (3) was carried out in the passage from the second position to the first position.
• the projections (21) In order not to block the elevator (4) with the triggers (17), the projections (21) have an elastic element (19) that allows its rotation when they find an obstacle in the movement from the first position to the second position .
• the means for blocking the elevator comprise roller-shaped stops (25) that protrude from the collection door (3) on both sides of the same and turn in solidarity with said door (3), so that when the opening occurs of the collection door (3) to access the product (40) deposited in the collection box (6), the sheaves (25) are arranged on supports (26) fixed to the elevator (4) that have an upper section (27) describing the path followed by the sheaves (25) during the opening of the collection door (3), thus preventing the elevator (4) from being manipulated from outside the machine through the collection door (3) since the rollers (25) prevent the movement of the elevator, and consequently the transition from the first position to the second position, to access the products (40) arranged in the trays (5).
• This sweeping device comprises a motor (not shown) that rotates in a first direction and that transmits the movement through an axis (28) attached to the center of a circular plate (29) on whose periphery a pivot (30) is arranged. in which a connecting rod (31) is attached which transmits the movement to a shovel (32) that describes a turn that guarantees that there is no obstacle above the detection means, that is, the bands of photocells that allow determining whether a product has fallen or not in the collection box (6).
• the elevator (4) further comprises an upper cover (33) that prevents access to the tray area from the product collection door (3) (40) in the first or pickup position.
• This upper cover (33) is hinged, which allows the rotation axis (20) of the product collection door to be arranged at a higher height than the upper cover (33), said upper cover (33) being operable by means of the collection door (3) during its movement, due to the contact of the collection door (3) with said upper cover (33).
• the axis of rotation (34) of the upper cover (33) is below said upper cover (33) in the opening position of the collection door (3), which decreases the resistance offered by the upper cover (33) to the rotation when activated by the collection door (3).

Landscapes

• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Control Of Vending Devices And Auxiliary Devices For Vending Devices (AREA)
• Vending Machines For Individual Products (AREA)

Priority Applications (2)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=46210288

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (4)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (6)

Family Cites Families (4)

• 2011
  • 2011-04-26 ES ES201130654A patent/ES2400570B1/es active Active
• 2012
  • 2012-04-25 EP EP12726139.4A patent/EP2704111B1/en active Active
  • 2012-04-25 RU RU2013147029/08A patent/RU2571408C2/ru active
  • 2012-04-25 WO PCT/ES2012/070278 patent/WO2012146816A1/es active Application Filing

Patent Citations (6)

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events