GB861570A - Improvements in coin freed vending machines - Google Patents

Abstract

861,570. Coin-freed vending apparatus. FISHER & LUDLOW Ltd. July 16, 1959 [July 31, 1958], No. 24769/58. Class 27 A coin-freed vending machine, particularly for packaged meals, has a pair of endless conveyers 34 with their descending runs close together and each conveyer has platforms 45, 46 with spaced gaps 56 which clear fingers 55 on a stationary platform 53 and deposit the packages there for removal by a slide 28 having a handle 58 accessible from outside the machine. The conveyers are housed in a heated or refrigerated cabinet and a coin release unit 52 is provided on an extension 50 of the platform for freeing a bar 73 which has a pin 74 extending into a slot 72 formed in the base of the slide 28. When the slide is pulled out, a right-hand wing 62 on the slide displaces a lowermost package 76 from the fingers 55 and at the end of the outward movement the pin 74 is moved by the inclined portion 69 of the slot 72 to displace the bar 73 and pivot a lever 77. The top end of the lever moves into latching engagement with a notch on a catch 84 pivoted on a link 79 connecting two escapement levers 85, 86. During the last part of the return movement of the slide 28, the slot 72 moves the pin 74 and bar 73 in the opposite direction and the lever 77, now latched to the link 79, moves the levers 85, 86 so that dogs 91, 92 engaging escapement wheels 42 allow the conveyers to descend by a distance corresponding to the spacing between teeth on the ratchet wheels. At the end of this movement, the catch 84 is tripped by a fixed abutment and the levers 85, 86 are returned by a spring 93 to initial position against stops 95, 96, the conveyers lowering through another stage so that a package is deposited by the left-hand conveyer on the platform 53 ready for withdrawal by the lefthand wing 62 of the slide. Feeler arms may detect that only a few packages remain and they open a coin-return shoot to a slot 25 and illuminate a warning light to indicate that reloading is required. The machine is re-loaded from the back and the top platforms may be loaded with weights 89 instead of packages. Rails 29 for supporting trays 31 are provided on the front of the machine.