Patent ID: 6536625
Filing Date: 2003-03-25
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
A machine for vending products, comprising:(a) a freestanding housing having a product discharge station; (b) a product storage and dispensing magazine disposed on said housing spaced above said product discharge station and having a body defining a circular row of vertical channels having lower open ends such that products can be stored in circularly-arranged vertical columns thereof within said vertical channels with the vertical columns of products tending to move and feed downward through said open lower ends of said vertical channels due to the influence of the force of gravity, said magazine being rotatable incrementally between a series of dispensing positions along about a circular path, said body of said magazine including a plurality of segments being removably stacked one on top of another so as to form said body, each of said segments defining portions of said vertical channels which store the products in the vertical columns thereof; (c) means disposed in said housing below said magazine for receiving and dispensing in succession one at a time from said magazine lowermost ones of the products in the vertical columns thereof in response to said magazine being rotated incrementally between said dispensing positions about said circular path; and (d) means disposed in said housing below said receiving and dispensing means for receiving and transferring one at a time the successively dispensed products to said product discharge station of said housing.