Patent GB-894349-A (GB)
Title: Vending machine with removable registering unit
Inventor: GAUMONT ROLAND
IPC: G07F9/00
Filed: 1960-03-25
Abstract: 894,349. Checking receipts; counting-apparatus; transfer mechanisms; zeroizing-mechanisms. GAUMONT, R. March 25, 1960 [March 27, 1959], No. 10724/60. Class 106 (1). [Also in Group XVIII] An automatic vending machine arranged to expose articles to be sold in succession has a recess into which extend members differentially settable in accordance with the price of the articles and is associated with a purchaser's unit which may be fitted into the recess and which, when so fitted, causes actuation of a totalizer contained therein in accordance with the amount set on the differential members and also operation of the vending machine. Shop counter registers may also be provided; these may be set by sales assistants in accordance with the prices of miscellaneous articles purchased from them and again have recesses to receive the purchaser's units so that the amounts set may be entered into the totalizers of these units. After collecting all of the goods required, a purchaser then takes his purchaser's unit to a central desk, where it is inserted into a central cash register to which the total is transferred and where payment is made. Automatic vending machines.-Each machine comprises plates 18, Fig. 2, removably secured on a threaded shaft 4 and having adjustable partitions so as each to hold, say, four articles to be dispensed by presentation at an opening 2. On the insertion of a purchaser's unit B into the recess of a seller's unit A mounted within the machine, a circuit is completed, through contacts on the purchaser's unit, to a motor 5 driving the shaft 4. If the plate 18 aligned with the opening 2 still has an article upon it, a cam 10 geared to the shaft 4 holds a switch 13 closed so as to cause a magnet 14 to withdraw a latch 27 so that the whole assembly of plates 18 rotates. The motor circuit is held by a switch 16 closed by a cam 11 fast with the cam 10 until the next article is positioned in front of the opening 2 when the cam 11 allows the switch 16 to open. If a purchaser's unit is inserted when the plate 18 aligned with the opening 2 is empty, the cam 11 holds the switch 16 closed for almost a complete revolution and the cam 10 allows the switch 13 to open so that the latch 27 blocks rotation of the plates 18. Thus the whole assembly moves down the shaft 4 so as to align the next plate 18 with the opening 2. Seller's units.-The unit A mounted within the vending machine has a set of bars 42, Fig. 5, which are settable by finger-pieces 43 and lockable by a bar 52 and which carry sprung racks 46 projecting differentially into the recess into which a purchaser's unit may be inserted. The seller's unit or register, Figs. 12 and 14, for use by an assistant at a counter is similar but has totalizer wheels 67 with actuating pins which are engaged during setting by racks 98 formed in the setting bars. To permit such engagement, the bars are slidably carried by guides 99 rockable about a shaft 90 against the action of springs 103. As the bars are released they are locked in their differentially set positions by a comb. When a new amount is to be set, this comb is moved by a knob 113 to free the bars for return to zero positions under the action of springs 110. Purchaser's unit.-The unit for insertion into, and actuation by, the seller's units has a handle 58, Figs. 6 and 9, and totalizer wheels 67 with actuating pins which, when the unit is inserted into a seller's unit as shown in Fig. 9, are engaged by the differentially set racks 46 of the latter to effect the addition into the totalizer of the amount set. Due to ratchet pawls 80 and the spring mounting of the racks 46, the wheels 67 are held against rotation as the unit is withdrawn. Transfer mechanism.-At transfer in the purchaser's unit, Figs. 9 and 10, a pin 73 on the lower wheel rocks a lever 74 from the Fig. 9 position to the Fig. 10 position and a lever 78 is rocked by the lever 74. A pawl 78c on the lever 78 escapes past one of the actuating pins 72. When the unit is withdrawn, the lower end of the lever 78 is engaged by the edge of a slot 40 in the frame of the seller's unit and the lever 78 is restored to the Fig. 9 position, the pawl 78c engaging a pin 72 of the next higher order wheel 67 so as to advance it by one step. The slits 40 are staggered to effect transfers in sequence. In the shop counter seller's unit, a transfer pin 73, Fig. 23, in each totalizer wheel drives a wheel 107 at the transfer point and the wheel 107 advances the next higher order wheel 67 by one step. Zeroizing.-When a purchaser's unit is taken to the central desk, it is placed in a central cash register (not described) and a magnet 123, Fig. 24, is energized to withdraw a plate 83 normally locking the totalizer shaft 68. The latter is then rotated in a reverse direction by a handle 125 inserted into the squared end of the plate 83. Cams 71, Fig. 9, then disengage the ratchet pawls 80 and frictionally drive the wheels 67 back to their zero positions, where they are arrested by the abutment of their transfer pins 73, Fig. 10, against the ends of the transfer levers 74. During this movement, the actuating pins 72 operate contacts 122 to transfer the total to the central cash register. The wheels of the seller's unit totalizer, Fig. 14, may be set to zero by operation of the finger-pieces 43 whilst observing the total through the window 90b. Counters.-Each vending machine, Fig. 2, has a counter 30 actuated each time a purchaser's unit B is inserted into the machine and each shop counter seller's unit, Fig. 12, has a counter 92 again operated on insertion of a purchaser's unit.