GB861691A - Vending devices - Google Patents

Abstract

861,691. Sales and sale service; coin-freed apparatus. AUTOMATIC CANTEEN CO. OF AMERICA. Sept. 22, 1959 [Sept. 26, 1958], No. 32194/59. Classes 27 and 116 A coin-controlled or other vending machine comprises a housing 2, Fig. 1, having a storage area 3, display area 4 and discharge outlet 7 in a discharge area 5, and shelves 6 which are mounted on rotatable means for movement from the storage area through the display area to the discharge area and then back to the storage area and are adapted to be disposed at an upwardlyinclined acute angle when in the storage area and downwardly-inclined acute angle when in the display area. The articles are carried on the shelves 6 which are pivoted at their inner ends on one or a pair of endless chains 22, 23 movable over sprockets 16, 20 in the housing. The shelves pass downwardly in the storage area 3 (behind a front plate 91) while supported in the slightly-tilted position shown by shoulders 27, 28 on their outer ends engaging inturned flanges 11, 12 on the housing. When the chains are advanced, the lowermost shelf in the storage area swings downwardly in the display area because of the absence of the flanges 11, 12 in this area, and is supported in the downwardly-inclined position shown by its engagement with the shank 77 of a pivoted T-lever 75 for view through a curved window 93, Fig. 4. When the shelf in this area is advanced, after suitable movement of the T-lever 75, the displayed article is discharged into an inclined shoot 7, having an upstanding toe 7b, in the discharge area 5. The apparatus is operated to discharge an article by pulling upon a plunger 53, Fig. 4, to actuate a slide 54 which, in its outward movement, causes an advance of the chains 22, 23 and shelves 6 through a wheel 34 having a pin- and-slot connection 58, 59 with the slide and operable to drive a wheel 49 on the shaft carrying the sprockets 20. The wheel 34 carries two spring-pressed pawls 36, 37, each projecting beyond the wheel periphery between two recesses 51a, 51b, for driving co-operation, with spaced pins 50 on the wheel 49. Depending upon the spacing of the shelves on the chains, either the pawl 36 alone, or the two pawls 36, 37 acting successively, are caused by suitable rotation of the wheel 34 to rotate the wheel 49, the pin-andslot connection 58, 59 being set accordingly. In addition to advancing the shelves, the slide in its outward movement acts through a pin 73 engaging a T-slot in a pivoted lever 68 to swing the T-lever 75 clockwise from the position shown in Fig. 4, where its shank 77 supports the displayed shelf and its head 76 prevents access from the discharge shoot 7 to the articles in the apparatus, to one in which the displayed shelf is released for movement with the chains. At the same time, a pivotally-mounted S-shaped auxiliary shoot 78 is swung by the engagement of a pin 86 in an arcuate cam slot 88 in the wheel 34 from the position shown in Fig. 4 to one in which its lower end underlies the plate 75 to prevent the article on the displayed shelf from falling into the discharge shoot 7, and, at the end of the forward stroke of the slide, the head 76 of the T-lever 75 is positioned to support the next shelf which by then has been swung into the display area. On the return of the slide 54 (which, because of a pawl-and-ratchet device 60, 61, 64, must be moved to full-forward position before it can be returned), the wheel 34 is returned to its initial position, without operating the shelves, the auxiliary shoot 78 is swung to permit the displayed article to slide downwardly into the discharge outlet 7, the shelf recently in display position engages the upper edge of the auxiliary shoot to prevent access to the articles from the rear, and the T-lever 75 is swung counterclockwise to its original position in which its shank 77 supports the shelf then in the display area.