Abstract:
A capacity-adjustable card dispenser is disclosed to include a housing having an accommodation chamber for holding a stack of cards for dispensing, a plurality of expansion modules attachable to one another in a stack and attachable to the housing to expand the accommodation chamber, and male and female coupling devices respectively provided at the housing and the expansion modules for enabling the expansion modules to be detachably secured to one another in a stack and detachably secured to the housing.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to automatic vending machines and more specifically, to a capacity-adjustable card dispenser for automatic vending machine that can selectively be attached with expansion modules to increase the card accommodation capacity. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    Following fast development of information technology, non-shop business has become popular. Nowadays, various automatic vending machines are used everywhere to sell different products without servicemen. These automatic vending machines bring convenience to consumers and create new marketing routes for the suppliers. 
         [0005]    Further, an automatic vending machine has an exchanger on the inside for providing different products to the user after having received a bill. Following fast development of high technology, various advanced automatic vending machines such as ticket venders, bill exchangers, coin exchangers, and etc., have bee continuously created and appeared in different public places or street corners. Different sizes of bill exchangers or card/ticket vending machines are respectively equipped with a different size of bill or card dispenser. Further, different specifications of bill or card dispensers may be prepared to fit different sizes of bills or cards. Preparing different specifications of bill or card dispensers in order to fit different sizes of bills or cards greatly increases the material and manufacturing cost as well the inventory cost. Further, conventional card dispensers are not adjustable to change the dispensing capacity. Therefore, different sizes of card dispensers may be used for different dispensing requirements. However, making card dispensers in different sizes relatively increases the manufacturing, inventory and packing cost. 
         [0006]    Therefore, it is desirable to provide a card dispenser that is expansible to increase the card accommodation capacity. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the main object of the present invention to provide a card dispenser, which is expansible to increase the card dispensing capacity. It is another object of the present invention to provide a capacity-adjustable card dispenser, which is modularized for easy fabrication. To achieve these and other objects of the present invention, the capacity-adjustable card dispenser comprises a housing, which has an accommodation chamber adapted to hold a stack of cards for dispensing, a plurality of expansion modules attachable to one another in a stack and attachable to the housing to expand the accommodation chamber, and coupling means for enabling the expansion modules to be coupled to one another and selectively coupled to the housing. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is an exploded view of the capacity-adjustable card dispenser according to the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 1A  is an enlarged view of a part of the expansion module, showing the structure of the female coupling means according to the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 1B  is an enlarged view of a part of the housing, showing the structure of the male coupling means according to the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 1C  is an enlarged view of a part of the expansion module, showing the arrangement of the positioning structure according to the present invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 1D  is an enlarged view of a part of the housing, showing the structure of the locating block according to the present invention. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a perspective assembly view of a part of the present invention, showing one expansion module fastened to the hosing according to the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2A  is an enlarged view of part A of  FIG. 2 . 
           [0015]      FIG. 2B  is an enlarged view of part B of  FIG. 2 . 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a perspective assembly view showing the installation of one expansion module in the housing according to the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  is an exploded view of two expansion modules according to the present invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 4A  is an enlarged view of a part of  FIG. 4 . 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  shows two expansion modules fastened together according to the present invention. 
           [0020]      FIG. 5A  is an enlarged view of a part of  FIG. 5 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0021]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a capacity-adjustable card dispenser in accordance with the present invention is shown comprising a housing  1  and a plurality of expansion modules  2 . 
         [0022]    The housing  1  has an accommodation chamber  10  adapted to accommodate cards (or tickets or notes)  5 , a conveying unit  11  provided at the bottom side of the accommodation chamber  10  and adapted to deliver the accommodated cards  5  to the outside of the housing  1  individually, a gap adjustment device  12  adapted to adjust a gap of a card output path through which every accommodated card  5  is delivered by the conveying unit  11  to the outside of the housing  1 , a counter  13  adapted to count the number of the cards  5  been dispensed and to indicate the number. 
         [0023]    The expansion modules  2  are hollow members, each having an accommodation open chamber  20  adapted to receive cards  5 . 
         [0024]    Referring to  FIGS. 1˜5 , female coupling means  31  is respectively provided at the housing  1  and the top side of each expansion module  2  and male coupling means  32  is respectively provided at the bottom side of each expansion module  2  such that one expansion module  2  or a number of expansion modules  2  can be coupled to the housing  1  in a stack by securing the respective female coupling means  31  and the respective male coupling means  32 , keeping the accommodation open chamber  20  of each expansion module  2  in vertical alignment with the accommodation chamber  10  of the housing  10  (see  FIGS. 2 ,  2 A,  3 ,  4  and  5 ) to accommodate a big number of cards  5 . According to this embodiment, the female coupling means  31  is comprised of a plurality of coupling grooves, and the male coupling means  32  is comprised of a plurality of coupling blocks for engaging the coupling grooves of the female coupling means  31  (see  FIGS. 1A and 1B ). The female coupling means  31  and the male coupling means  32  constitute a coupling structure  3 . 
         [0025]    Further, if a cover plate  4  is provided for covering the housing  1  or the attached expansion module or modules  2  to prevent falling of the accommodated cards  5  and to prohibit people from stealing the accommodated cards  5  (see  FIG. 1 ). 
         [0026]    As stated above, the conveying unit  11  is provided at the bottom side of the accommodation chamber  10  and adapted to deliver the accommodated cards  5  to the outside of the housing  1  individually; the gap adjustment device  12  is adapted to adjust the gap of the card output path subject to the thickness of the cards  5  so that the cards  5  can be delivered by the conveying unit  11  through the card output path individually to the outside of the housing  1 ; the counter  13  is adapted to count the number of cards  5  been dispensed and to indicate the counted number so that the worker immediately knows the number of rest cards  5  in the accommodation chamber  10  when removing the housing  1  from the auto vending machine for a replacement. Because the conveying unit  11 , the gap adjustment device  12  and the counter  13  are of the known art and not within the scope of the claims of the present invention, no further detailed description in this regard is necessary. 
         [0027]    In the aforesaid embodiment, the female coupling means  31  is respectively provided at the top side of the housing  1  and the top side of each expansion module  2  and the male coupling means  32  is respectively provided at the bottom side of each expansion module  2 . Alternatively, the male coupling means  32  can be respectively provided at the top side of the housing  1  and the top side of each expansion module  2  and the male coupling means  31  can be respectively provided at the bottom side of each expansion module  2 , achieving the same effect. 
         [0028]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  4  and  5 , when multiple, for example, two expansion modules  2  are attached to the housing  1  in a stack, the expansion modules  2  are locked by locking means. According to this embodiment, each expansion module  2  has a positioning structure  21  in the accommodation open chamber  20 . The positioning structure  21  comprises two locating blocks  211  vertically symmetrically disposed at two sides inside the accommodation open chamber  20 , two spring-supported movable locking bars  212  respectively suspending below the locating blocks  211 , and two handles  213  respectively connected to the locking bars  212 . The locking bars  212  each have a beveled guide face  2121 . Further, two locating blocks  14  are bilaterally provided inside the accommodation chamber  10  of the housing  1  corresponding to the locating blocks  211  of each expansion module  2 . 
         [0029]    Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  1 C,  1 D,  2  and  2 B, when attaching one expansion module  2  to the housing  1 , the male coupling means  32  of the expansion module  2  is coupled to the female coupling means  31  of the housing  1 . At this time, the beveled guide faces  2121  of the locking bars  212  of the expansion module  2  are respectively moved over the locating blocks  14  of the housing  1  into engagement with the locating blocks  14 , and therefore the expansion module  2  is locked to the housing  1 . When dismounting the expansion module  2 , pull the handles  213  to disengage the locking bars  212  from the locating blocks  14  and then remove the expansion module  2  from the housing  1 . 
         [0030]    Referring to  FIGS. 4 ,  4 A,  5  and  5 A, when attaching two expansion modules  2  in a stack, the male coupling means  32  of one expansion module  2  is coupled to the female coupling means  31  of the other expansion module  2 . At this time, the beveled guide faces  2121  of the locking bars  212  of one expansion module  2  are respectively moved over the locating blocks  211  of the other expansion module  2  into engagement with the locating blocks  211  of the other expansion module  2 , and therefore the two expansion modules  2  are locked. When dismounting the expansion modules  2 , pull the handles  213  of one expansion modules  2  to disengage the associating locking bars  212  from the locating blocks  211  of the other expansion module  2  and then detach the two expansion modules  2 . 
         [0031]    As indicated above, the housing  1  and the expansion modules  2  are modularized for easy fabrication. The user can attach one or a number of expansion modules  2  to the housing  1  subject to the amount of the cards  5  to be dispensed, i.e., the capacity of the card dispenser is conveniently adjustable. Further, the gap adjustment device  12  of the card dispenser allows the user to adjust the gap of the card output path subject to the thickness of the cards  5  so that the cards  5  can be delivered by the conveying unit  11  through the card output path individually to the outside of the housing  1  and the card dispenser can fit any of a variety of cards  5  such as play member cards, game cards, telephone cards, bus cards, valuable cards, non-valuable cards, etc. 
         [0032]    A prototype of capacity-adjustable card dispenser has been constructed with the features of  FIGS. 1˜5 . The capacity-adjustable card dispenser functions smoothly to provide all of the features disclosed earlier. 
         [0033]    Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.