Abstract:
A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. An air barrier arrangement having a plurality of moveable barriers separates the article storage compartment from an article extracting device.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/505,830 filed Aug. 26, 2004, which is a US national phase of PCT/US03/06051 filed Feb. 26, 2003, which application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/360,128 filed Feb. 26, 2002, each of these applications being entitled “Thermal Barrier For A Refrigerated Compartment In A Vending Machine”. The entire disclosure of each this prior patent application is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for providing an air barrier for an article storage area. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0003]     The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments and details of the invention, and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the invention.  
         [0004]      FIG. 1  is a side section view which illustrates a prior art vending machine useful for illustrating an environment for the present invention. The vending machine includes a refrigerated article storage compartment, and has a displaceable thermal separating door for separating the open end of a refrigerated compartment from the remainder of the interior of the vending machine.  
         [0005]      FIG. 2  illustrates a perspective view a thermal barrier arrangement near the top of an article storage compartment of the type shown in  FIG. 1 , the barrier arrangement being constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention.  
         [0006]      FIG. 3  illustrates a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of a thermal barrier arrangement near the top of a storage compartment, constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.  
         [0007]      FIG. 4  illustrates an alternative embodiment of the  FIG. 3  arrangement.  
         [0008]      FIGS. 5A, 5B  and  5 C illustrate an alternative embodiment useful for attaching the thermal separating flaps of the present invention to the top of an article storage compartment.  
         [0009]      FIGS. 6A and 6B  illustrate a further alternative embodiment of the invention.  
         [0010]      FIG. 7  illustrates an even further alternative embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates a prior art vending machine  10 , such as known by prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139 (incorporated herein by reference), useful for illustrating one environment useful for the present invention. Machine  10  has an outer housing  11  and hinged front door  9  for forming a cabinet for the vending machine. Housing  11  includes therein a refrigerated insulated compartment  12  for storing articles to be vended. In one embodiment, refrigerated compartment  12  has associated therewith a refrigeration unit  16  and a displaceable thermal separating door  14  positioned over an opening  15  in one side, in this case the topside, of compartment  12 . Door  14  provides a thermal separation at the opening  15  between the remainder of the interior of the vending machine and the interior of compartment  12 . The above-noted U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139 shows and describes several different embodiments for door  14 , including a single-piece hinged door which makes a vertical arcuate motion during opening/closing, as well as several “sliding” door designs. It is also noted that an “air curtain” can also form a thermal barrier that functions as a door, as well as merely having an air gap over compartment  12 , which in some situations may be sufficient for effective operation of the vending machine, since cold air sinks, and therefore tends to stay within compartment  12  when left undisturbed. Compartment  12  includes therein open-topped subdivided sections  72  adapted for storing articles  74 , such as ice cream or other frozen or refrigerated foods in a cooled environment until they are selected to be dispensed by a user of vending machine  10 . A plurality of divider walls  76  are positioned inside compartment  12  so as to form the subdivided sections  72 .  
         [0012]     It is noted that compartment  12  may be of the “static” type, which has the evaporator coils distributed along and in thermal contact with the inside walls which form the main interior volume of compartment  12 , and the condenser coils thermally insulated from the evaporator coils and distributed along and in thermal contact with the walls which form the outside perimeter of storage compartment  12 . With this type of freezer, no fans are required for the refrigeration system since the cooling effect of the evaporator coils is directly radiated to the interior of compartment  12 , and the heat generated by the refrigeration system is directly radiated by the outside walls of compartment  12  to the external environment. Such chest freezers are commonly available from many sources. Other techniques for developing a cooled environment in compartment  12  could just as easily be used with the present invention, such as what is conventionally known as a forced air system, having a separate refrigeration unit for developing cooled air, which cooled air is then directed to the interior of compartment  12 .  
         [0013]     In operation, after a user of the vending machine has inserted the proper payment and made a valid selection of an item stored in the vending machine, a control mechanism  40  of machine  10 , of conventional design, causes an article pickup carriage  20  having a suction hose  22  and pickup head  52  hanging therefrom, to be laterally positioned over the section  72  which stores at least one of the selected articles. In the illustrated embodiment, movement of carriage  20  causes door  14  to become displaced, via cable  68  and rollers  70 , so as to provide entry and egress of article pickup head  52 . The control mechanism  40  then causes a motor in carriage  20  to operate so that the article pickup head  52  controllably enters the selected compartment  72 , suction generated by a blower motor  7  is conducted thereto via hose  22  (the full length of hose for connection to blower motor  7  is not shown in this Figure, but as one of ordinary skill in this art would realize, is required), and an article  74  thereby becomes secured to the article pickup head  52 . The motor in carriage  20  is operated again, this time in a reverse direction, so as to extract article pickup head  52 , and the selected article, from compartment  72 , and then deposit the selected article  74  in a customer retrieval area  16  by removing the suction force from pickup head  52  when the pickup head  52  is in positioned over the open top of customer retrieval area  16 . A customer access door  18  allows the user access to retrieve the dispensed article.  
         [0014]     In view of the public availability of my above-noted patent, and the widely known construction and operation of vending machines of this type, no further description of how to make and use a vending machine of the type described so far, is considered necessary.  
         [0015]     With such a device, during normal machine operation, the thermal barriers between the cooled areas and ambient areas located inside of housing  11 , in this case doors  14  and  18 , are opened and closed many times, thereby repeatedly exposing warm air from housing  11  to the cooled air in compartment  12 . Since cold air is heavier than warm air, when the door  14  is opened, the colder air tends to stay in the storage compartments  72 , however, typically there is some unwanted mixing of the ambient air with the refrigerated air at the top of the storage compartments  72 , at least partially due to air currents caused movements of the picker head, the opening and closing of door  14  and other parts of machine  10 , thereby introducing unwanted heat into the freezer. At least some of this unwanted hot air was generated by the compressor and condenser as described above.  
         [0016]     It is one object of the present invention reduce this unwanted mixing of hot air in compartment  12 .  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, where a displaceable thermal barrier is provided at the dispensing end, i.e., open top, of one or more of the refrigerated article storage compartments  72 . It is noted that these individualized displaceable thermal barriers could be useful in addition to the thermal barrier function provided by a displaceable thermal barrier which is common to the compartments  72 , such as the door  14 .  
         [0018]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the displaceable barrier comprises a pair of opposed flaps  4  and  6 . Each flap has one long edge which is attached to an opposite long side of a storage compartment  72  via folded tab portions  8 , and a free end which abuts the free end of an opposed flap in an aligned manner, as shown. The cross-sectional area of the folded flaps  4  and  6  are adjusted to be slightly less than the cross-sectional area of the opening at the top of storage compartment  72 , so that flaps  4  and  6  are able to be freely displaced in a direction into and out of compartment  72 . The folded tab portions  8  can be attached to the outside walls of the top opposed ends of compartment  72  using conventional adhesive techniques, or other techniques well known to those of ordinary skill in this technology, such as sonic welding in the event that the components are thermo-plastic, etc. It is also noted that these tabs can be formed integrally with the walls of the compartments  72 .  
         [0019]     In a modification of this embodiment of the invention, a single flap  4 ′, enlarged as compared to the flap  4  shown in  FIG. 2  so as to have approximately the same cross-sectional area as the combined flaps  4  and  6 , and thereby substantially provide by itself a thermal barrier over the open end of a storage compartment  72 , could be used in place of the pair of flaps  4  and  6 . In this embodiment, the material used to form flap  4 ′ may be different from that used for flaps  4  or  6 , since flap  4 ′ may need to have need to have a bit more rigidity so as to effectively span the end opening of compartment  72 .  
         [0020]     In operation, when a thermal separating door, such as door  14  shown in  FIG. 1  is displaced, thereby exposing the open ends of the article storage compartments to the ambient environment, the opposed flaps  4  and  6  effectively “seal off” the open ends of the storage compartments from the ambient environment, thereby substantially preventing air currents, which are typically warmer than the air inside the compartments  72 , from exposing the products near the top of the article storage compartment to the ambient environment. Furthermore, an article pickup head, such as pickup head  52  shown in  FIG. 1  can still have access to the interior of storage compartment  72  since the flaps  4  and  6  can be easily deflected into the storage compartment as the pickup head is lowered, and can be easily deflected outwardly from the compartment  72  as the pickup head with the selected article secured thereto is raised from inside the compartment.  
         [0021]     It is noted that flaps  4  and  6  could be constructed of a thin and flexible material in order that the above-noted functions can be easily provided. Such materials may comprise a plastic, silicon or even an insulating foam sheet material having a thickness, in a typical application, of approximately 0.5 to 0.001 inches, depending upon the flexibility of the material used to make the flaps. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the flaps can be manufactured of a material that is so flexible that they offer substantially no resistance to the passage of the article pickup head  52  therethrough, (especially if serrations are provided therein, as to be described more fully in conjunction with  FIGS. 3 and 4 ) on its way into a compartment  72  to get a selected article  74 , nor have any tendency to dislodge a selected article  74  as the article pickup head  52  is removed from the compartment  72 . Yet, the flaps are substantial enough so that when they are not physically disturbed, they remain in place over the open end of the cooled article storage compartments  72  and substantially prevent the mixing/introduction of ambient air into the compartments. It is noted that ideally, the center of the flap openings are located over the center of the articles that are stored in compartments  72 .  
         [0022]     Thus, one aspect of the invention is to provide at least one displaceable thermal separator which is individual to an open end of a plurality of the refrigerated storage compartments in an article storage area, which individual displaceable thermal separator may be in addition to a thermal separator function which is in common with the plurality of refrigerated storage compartments, such as provided by door  14 . This will allow access to selected articles in given sub-portions of the article storage compartments when the common thermal separator, if one is used, is displaced, without exposing the remainder of the refrigerated storage compartments in the article storage area to the ambient environment. Additionally, such an arrangement minimizes egress of warm air into the selected sub portion of the article storage area before and after the article pickup head  52  passes therethrough.  
         [0023]     It is noted that the thermal separator which is common to the plurality of article storage compartments, can be provided by the displaceable door shown by  14  in  FIG. 1 , but in alternative embodiments, the common thermal separator can be provided by other types/shapes of doors, such as those shown in my forenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139, such as a horizontal lid hinged at the rear of compartment  12 . In an even further alternative embodiment, the common thermal separator can comprise a laminar flow of air, commonly called an air curtain. Using an air curtain as the common thermal separator, allows quick and easy displacement of the common thermal separator by the pickup head  52 , i.e., by merely piercing, and thus displacing, the laminar flow. Cooled air is preferably used to form the curtain in order to minimize warming of the contents of compartment  12  by displaced air from the laminar flow.  
         [0024]     It is noted that the bins  72  could be individually removable from compartment  12 , and in fact compartment  12  could be wholly or partially removable from inside of housing  11  in order to facilitate reloading of the compartments  72  will articles to be vended.  
         [0025]     Many variations of this invention are possible, both in the manner of forming/attaching the individual displaceable thermal separators over the openings of the article storage compartments  72 , as well as the dimensioning, structure, shape and choice of materials for the thermal separators.  
         [0026]     For example,  FIG. 3  illustrates an embodiment where the flaps are formed integrally with the sidewalls. For example, the side walls may be comprised of a corrugated sheet of plastic or paperboard, and the flap sections can be comprised of a compressed portion of the same material. Additionally, in this illustrated example the flap portions  10  and  12  are dimensioned so as to overlap each other, and to overlap the outer cross-sectional area of the opening at the top of storage compartment  72 .  
         [0027]     Alternatively, the opposed ends of flaps  10  and  12  shown in  FIG. 3  may not overlap each other, and instead abut each other, as shown in  FIG. 2 , if the hinge portion of the flaps (like portions  8  of  FIG. 2 ), are substantial enough to nominally hold the flaps in the horizontal position.  
         [0028]     Irrespective of weather flaps  10  and  12  overlap each other or not, flaps  10  and  12  will rest upon the top-facing outer edges  13  that define the open top end of compartment  72  and therefore not be displaceable towards the interior of the storage compartment, yet be freely displaceable in a direction extending outwardly from the storage compartment. This type of construction allows flaps  10  and  12  to be made of a more substantial material, which may provide a benefit in certain environments and/or applications. In order to allow pickup head  52  free access into and out of the storage compartments  72  to retrieve articles from therein, flaps  10  and  12  can include serrations so as to form sub-flaps  14 ,  16 ,  18  and  20  which are susceptible to bi-directional displacement due to hinging action provided by the material which forms the rear of each flap.  
         [0029]     In an alternative embodiment, such as shown in  FIG. 4 , additional serrations could be included and the shape of the serrations narrowed, so that the bidirectional flaps formed by the serrations extend across substantially the entire portion of flaps  10  and  12 , as shown by the dashed lines. This embodiment allows a greater tolerance for the positioning of pickup head  52  over the opening in each compartment  72 , as well as an improved flexibility for the bi-directional displacement of the serrated flaps.  
         [0030]     In operation, certain ones of the bi-directional flaps shown in  FIG. 3  or  FIG. 4  would deflect upon impact of an article pickup head  52  which is opposed thereto, so as to allow the article pickup head  52  to enter the storage compartment, while the remainder of the flaps are not deflected. Once inside the compartment  72 , article pickup head  52  will become secured to a selected one of articles  74  due to the suction force provided thereto, and article pickup head  52  will then move in a direction so as to extract the article  74  from the storage compartment  72 . As the article pickup head  52  is extracted, the flaps  10  and  12  will freely deflect/become displaced in a direction outwardly from the storage compartment, and thereby provide no impediment to an easy extraction of the pickup head  52  with article  74  attached thereto. After the pickup head  52  and secured article have been fully extracted, the flaps  10  and  12  are pre-biased so as to return to their normally closed position over the open top of the storage compartment  72 , thereby quickly and effectively preventing unwanted air currents from entering that storage compartment  72 . Additionally, the flaps  10  and  12  positioned over the open tops of the other ones of compartments  72  in storage area  12  are not displaced, and these flaps also are useful for preventing the introduction of ambient air into these other compartments  72 . Thereafter, a common door  14 , if one is used, would be positioned over the top of compartment  12 , for providing even further thermal isolation for the refrigerated articles stored therein.  
         [0031]     In a further alternative embodiment of the invention, the thermal separating flaps of the invention can be provided redundantly, so as to possibly further improve the thermal separation of the stored articles from the ambient environment. Use of redundant flaps is illustrated in  FIG. 2 , via dashed lines, which show a second set of flaps  4 ′ and  6 ′ which are similar in structure and function to flaps  4  and  6 , and which also have tab portions  8  useful for attaching the set of redundant flaps  4 ′ and  6 ′ to the inside walls of compartment  72 . The gap between the upper and lower set of flaps defines an air space which improves the thermal separation function provided to the articles stored inside the compartment, as compared to the thermal separation function provided by only one set of flaps. The vertical spacing between each set of flaps could be such that the inward deflection of the upper set will not contact the upper side of the lower set (i.e., each set will operate independently and the upper set can substantially closed before the lower set is opened. Alternatively, the sets can be positioned relatively close to one another so that they operate in unison, yet still advantageously define a thermally separating air gap therebetween. It is noted that in an even further alternative embodiment, a single large redundant flap, such as one large flap redundant to flap  4  of  FIG. 2 , can be used. In this regard, the function of redundant flaps which define an air gap therebetween can also be provided by using a single set of flaps  4  and  6  wherein each of the flaps is comprised of a multi-layered material so as to form an air gap therebetween, such as a “bubble-wrap” type of material.  
         [0032]      FIGS. 5A, 5B , and  5 C illustrate one of many alternative techniques for positioning thermal separating flaps over the open end of the storage compartments, and basically comprises providing at the hinge/attaching edge of the flaps a series of teeth dimensioned for insertion into the interstitial spaces formed by the longitudinal corrugations in the side wall material which comprises the storage compartment  72 . This alternative embodiment for attaching the flaps is shown in detail in  FIGS. 5B and 5C .  
         [0033]     While the present invention has been disclosed with reference to certain embodiments, numerous modifications, alterations and changes to the described embodiments are possible without departing from the sphere and scope of the present invention, as defined above, and claims which follow at the end of this description.  
         [0034]     For example, it is noted that the invention described herein is not limited to any specific type of article retrieving device (such as the illustrated pickup head  52 ). For example, it may be desirable for the robotic positioning mechanism to include a rotary device (R, θ) of the type including an I beam of fixed length (or telescopic sections), for establishing an “R” movement for pickup head  52 , and where pivoting of the I beam establishes a “θ” movement. Alternatively, in other environments for the invention, the pickup head positioning mechanism may include an articulated arm or scissor system, or use a totally different dispensing technique, such a the more conventional spiral wire dispenser mechanism. Other types of suitable pickup devices include a mechanical claw or scoop, a magnetic attracting device, a portable suction generator, etc.  
         [0035]     Furthermore, other types of storage compartments are usable in the environment of the present invention, such as article storage compartments including horizontally oriented stacks of stored articles, wherein the storage area has one or more vertically oriented openings at the dispensing end thereof. All that is required of the storage/dispensing arrangement is that the selected article requires passage through the dispensing end of the article storage compartment.  
         [0036]     Even furthermore, it is noted that compartment  12  can be mechanically mounted and electrically connected within housing  11  so as to be at least partially removable therefrom, such as by the use of sliding tracks mounted between a bottom portion of compartment  12  and a floor portion of housing  11 , so as to assist repositioning of compartment  12  to be at least partially outside of housing  11 , thereby facilitating access to the interior of compartment  12  during re-loading of compartment  12  with fresh articles to be vended. If necessary, any electrical connection to compartment  12  required for operating the cooling equipment associated therewith, could be selectively disconnectable, so as to facilitate the repositioning of compartment  12 .  
         [0037]     In a still further alternative embodiment of the invention shown by the top and side views of  FIGS. 6A and 6B , the individual article storage compartments  72  can be constructed as shown by PCT patent application publication WO 02/01525 (which designates the US, and has its entire text incorporated herein by reference), so as to include article supporting tabs  9 . The sidewalls of compartment  72  has pairs of opposed slot openings therein, and the flexible tabs  9  are attached to the outer wall of compartment  72  so that a portion of each tab  9  intrudes into the interior space of the compartment by passing through the slot. Tabs  9  are biased upward so as to form flexible load-bearing supports for articles stored in the compartment so that the full weight of those articles in the upper portion of the compartment does not rest on the lower articles, yet, when the pickup head  52  is removing a selected article towards the end opening in the compartment, the tabs simply and easily fold up and away from the articles, and thereby provide negligible resistance to article extraction.  
         [0038]     With this arrangement, the thermal separating flaps of the present invention can be attached, for example by using an adhesive, to a set of tabs  9 , or to compartment walls positioned near the top of the compartment, such as shown by flaps  4  and  6  in the top view of  FIG. 6   a.    
         [0039]      FIG. 7  shows a top cross-sectional view of the storage area of a vending machine constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention, for illustrating an even further alternative embodiment of the invention, wherein a single sheet member  70  as shown by dashed lines, covers the open dispensing-ends of a plurality of the storage compartments  72 . The outer edges of sheet  70  can be attached to the outside perimeter walls of the group of compartments  72 , or to the top opening rim of freezer compartment  12 , while the interior of sheet  70  can have a plurality of “H” shaped cuts or slits  78  formed therein which are aligned with the open dispensing-end of each compartment  72 . Each of the “H” shaped cuts or slits  78  effectively forms a pair of flaps over the open end of each compartment  72 , which function and provide the advantages substantially as described above for the flaps shown in  FIGS. 2-4 . Alternately, flaps with shapes other than H could be used in sheet  70 , such as the designs noted the prior FIGS. Furthermore, in the event that there is a gap between the compartments  72  and the inside of compartment  12 , it is noted that sheet  70  can act to prevent air and humidity from entering into the gap. This can help reduce air exchange and frost build up on the walls of freezer compartment  12 .  
         [0040]     As noted above, while the present invention has been disclosed with reference to certain embodiments, numerous modifications, alterations and changes to the described embodiments are possible without departing from the sphere and scope of the present invention. For example, although a sliding door  14  is shown for covering opening  15 , a different type of door, or even no door at all, may be required to achieve the advantageous of the invention. Furthermore, the flaps can be formed integrally with a cap arrangement which can be placed over individual or groups of the compartments  72 . Alternately, the flaps can be made of a more rigid material and utilize a more traditional mechanical mechanism, such as a hinge. Accordingly, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the described embodiments, but that it has the full scope defined by the above language and the claims which follow, as well as equivalents thereof.