Patent ID: 7793769
Filing Date: 2010-09-14
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. An vending machine, comprising: n (n is an integer of 2 or more) article stockers that respectively store a plurality of articles; one article guide path; n article moving mechanisms provided respectively to the n article stockers, which move one of the plurality of articles stored in the n article stockers into the one article guide path; one manual operation means that is manually driven; and a drive force generation/transmission mechanism that generates a drive force by utilizing a force applied from the one manual operation means and transmits a drive force selectively to the n article moving mechanisms as an operation source therefor, the drive force generation/transmission mechanism including a generator that generates an electric power by utilizing a force applied from the one manual operation means, n motors correspondingly provided for the n article stockers and selectively driven by utilizing the electric power generated by the one generator provided for the n article stockers and a motor selection/drive device that drives only one of the motors selected when operating the manual operation means, and n coin collecting devices provided correspondingly at the n article stockers to collect a required number of coins for dispensing the article, wherein the n article moving mechanisms are constructed to operate by utilizing the output of the corresponding motors as the operation source; wherein the motor selection/drive device is constructed to select the motor corresponding to the coin collecting device to which the required number of coins have been inserted and to supply the electric power from the generator only to the selected motor; and wherein the coin collecting device is constructed to collect the inserted coins after the article has been moved into the article guide path by the operation of the article moving mechanism.