Patent GB-663046-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in cup dispenser
IPC: B65G59/10
Filed: 1948-02-23
Abstract: 663,046. Dispensing containers; food service. POLSEN, S. D., NELSON, S. H., POLSEN, B. H., and NELSON, M. P. Feb. 23, 1948 [Dec. 27, 1945], No. 5322/48. Classes 27 and 116. Apparatus for dispensing cups, particularly paper or other disposable cups, includes a horizontal base 10 with cutout opening 68, 69; a pair of uprights at the opposite sides of each cutout; cup feeding and supporting means comprising a pair of complemental parts one associated with each upright and adapted to support between them a nested stack of cups by engaging lip portions of the cups at opposite sides. the lowest cups in the stack extending through the cutout; and means to advance the feeding and supporting means to feed cups one at a time from the bottom of the stack through the cutout. The base 10 is intended to be mounted on the inside of a refrigeration door D, Fig. 7. Two forms of cup feeding and supporting means are described, one using chains and the other feed screws. The feed chains A, B pass over sprockets 26, 27, Figs. 1 and 2, mounted on shafts 25 at the upper ends of uprights 11, 12 on opposite sides of the cutout 68. The feed chains are similarly mounted in uprights 13, 14 on opposite sides of the cutout 69. The uprights 11, 12 are generally U-shaped, their openings facing each other, and include spacing blocks 19, 20 tapering at their lower portions at 19a, 20a to guide the chains A, B so that when they pass round the lower ends of the blocks 19, 20 they bend sharply at F to ensure the release of a cup. The links 29 of the chain comprise fingers between which the lips or head portions of paper cups 66 are held, the cups being stacked between the inner vertical lengths of the chains A, B. The shafts 25 are turned step by step from a solenoid 53, to the armature of which a lever 58 is attached which moves a ratchet wheel 65 a certain amount every time the solenoid is operated. The ratchet wheel 65 is mounted on a shaft 49 which is geared to the shafts 25 by gearing 50, 51. The parts are set so that the feed of one pair of chains is half a step ahead of the feed of the other pair, and therefore, when the solenoid is operated, the chains of the uprights 13, 14 will be fed to dispense a cup 67 while the chains of the uprights 11, 12 will be advanced to position a cup 66 ready for dispensing. In the alternative construction, Fig. 10, a pair of feed screws 86, 87 are mounted in uprights 80, 81 and similar feed screws 88, 89 are mounted in similar uprights 82, 83. The feed screws 86, 87, 88 are driven from a shaft 95 through gearing 92, 96 and the shaft 95 is geared at 93, 97 to the shaft 91 on which the feed screw 89 is mounted. On the shaft 91 is a spur gear 94 which is engageable with a gear on a shaft which passes through the upper wall of the refrigerator and is driven by mechanism above that wall. The bottom thread of each feed screw has a sharply downwardly-cammed portion to ensure the release of a cup, and one pair of feed screws is half a step ahead of the other for the same purpose as in the feed chains. To facilitate the removal of part of a stack of cups from the apparatus levers 72, 73 are pivoted on brackets 70, 71 on the door D, each with a handle 74 and an arm 75 with a vertical blade 76, so that when the operator pushes back the handle the lever rocks and causes the blade to push. out the cups.