Patent GB-743479-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in coin freed vending machines
IPC: G07F17/42
Filed: 1951-11-27
Abstract: 743,479. Coin freed machines for delivering articles at differing prices. BELL PUNCH CO., Ltd. Nov. 27, 1951 [May 4, 1951], No. 27838/51. Class 27. Comparing coin insertion with price. Manually operated selectors for determining the article to be delivered by a coinfreed machine can be operated only when a control device has been positioned by the insertion of coins equal to or exceeding the prices of the articles they select. In the ticket-vending machine illustrated the control device comprises a comparator drum 182, Figs. 8 and 10, which is turned in one direction to an extent determined by the total value of coins (half-dollars, quarters, dimes and nickels) inserted and is then returned to a position determined by the price of the ticket selected by depressing a corresponding button 315, Fig 19: during this partial return movement the drum is clutched to a cam shaft which subsequently controls the delivery of change in nickels and quarters. The drum 182 carries a disc 205 corresponding to each button and formed with a cut-out 206 so positioned that the disc engages a projection 270 on its corresponding key stem 300 to prevent the key being depressed until the drum has been set forward by insertion of a sufficient sum. The drum is set forward by a pulley 225, Fig. 10, fast on a shaft 222 and rotated by the insertion of coins (see Coin action); the pulley carries a pin 217 which abuts on an arm 216 on the drum and also fits in a hole in an arm 218 fast on a shaft 183 on which the drum is freely mounted. During the subsequent operation of the machine the shaft 222, the pulley 225, and the shaft 183 are driven back to their initial positions where they are held by pawls in the coin counting mechanism; a torsion spring 195, Fig. 10, causes the drum to follow the shaft until the projection 270, Fig. 19, on the depressed key stem engages the edge 207 of the cut-out 206 in the corresponding disc to stop the drum at a position corresponding to the price of the ticket selected. The shaft 222 is restored by a pair of arms 1372, 1373, Fig. 8, fast on the shaft and carrying a pin 1374 engaged, after a period of lost motion dependent on the setting of the shafts 222 and 183, by an arm 1368 on an oscillated gear 1361 loose on the shaft and meshing with a gear 1365 oscillated once at each operation of the machine. The gear 1365 is fast on a shaft 547, Fig. 57, directly coupled to a shaft 776, Fig. 49, oscillated through gears 779, 780 and a link 769 from a crank disc 764 which is driven through a worm gear from an electric motor to make one complete revolution at each operation. The crank disc 764, during the first 20 degrees of its revolution, engages a roller 869 on a lever 867 to draw down a link 478 and thus, through a linkage 477, Fig. 30, 476, 479, 482, 488, engage a clutch 472, 468. This clutch engagement is so timed that the partial return movement of the drum 182, Fig. 10, is conveyed through a gear 210, an idler 526, Fig. 49, a gear 469 and the clutch 472, 468, Fig. 30, to the cam shaft 464 which controls the delivery of quarters and nickels (see Controlling delivery of change: (1) in more than one denomination). After the clutch 472, 468 is disengaged a spring 1089 restores the cam shaft 464 under the control of a ratchet wheel 635, Fig. 33, and escapement pawls 626, 627 operated during the delivery of change. The return movement of the comparator drum is subsequently completed when the depressed key is released (see Locking and restoring article selectors). It is damped by an air vane 498, Fig. 30, and by a roller (not shown) adjusted to bear against a rubber bush fast with the gear 526, Fig. 49.  Controlling delivery of change: (1) in more than one denomination (quarters and nickels). The cam shaft 464, Fig. 30, set (see Comparing coin insertion with price) according to the amount of change in quarters and nickels to be delivered, carries cams controlling the delivery of both these denominations and is restored by a spring 1089 in steps corresponding to the delivery of each nickel; followed, if a quarter is to be delivered, by a single large step. The small steps of thecam shaft are metered by a ratchet wheel 635, Fig. 33, controlled by escapement pawls 626; 627 when lugs 628, 630, Fig. 31, on the pawls are successively engaged and released by timing cams 623 on a gear 562 which is'rotated (see Delivery of coins as change; (1) by movement of coin tubes) during the period when change may be delivered If the change due is less than 25 cents this return motion continues until a lug 667, Fig. 37, on a cam 665 on the shaft 464 engages a stop 668, and during it a cam 656, Fig. 36, engages a roller 6.60 to maintain a sliding picker 661 in a raised position to deliver the proper number of nickels (see Delivery of coins as change: (1) by movement of coin tubes). A setting of the cam shaft 464 corresponding to a sum of 25 cents or more turns the cam 665 clockwise in Fig. 37 far enough to permit a roller 671 on an arm 670 to leave the surface 666 of the cam 665 and thus to interfere with the return of the came 665 and cam shaft 464 when a sum of 25 cents remains to be delivered: in this position of the cam shaft the roller 660, Fig. 36, rests in a notch 657 in the cam 656. At the end of the change-delivery period a lug 618, Fig. 31, on a cam 615 (see also Delivery of coins as change : (1) by movement of coin tubes) strikes a pin 619 on a sliding link 677 and thus, through a crank 675, turns the shaft 622 carrying the arm 670, Fig. 37, sufficiently to raise the roller 671 from the cam 665. A lug 641, Fig. 33, on an arm 640 fast on the shaft 622 then disengages the pawls 626, 627 from the-ratchet 635 to allow the cam shaft to complete its return' movement. If the movement of the cam 665, Fig. 37, was sufficient to allow the arms 670 to fall the return movement of the shaft 622 causes a swinging arm 690, Fig. 75, on the shaft to deliver a quarter (see Delivery of coins as change: (2) by swinging pusher). Controlling delivery of change: : (2) single denomination (cents). Since the machine does not accept cents a shaft 395, Fig. 19, determining the change in cents is positioned solely according to which button is depressed. The shaft carries tabs 407 corresponding each to one of the buttons and is rotated until a projection 303 on the stem of the depressed key is engaged by the corresponding tab to index the shaft 395 in a position determining the number of cents to be delivered as change. The shaft 395 is coupled directly to a shaft 404, Fig. 57, driven from the oscillated gear 1361, Fig. 8, through gears 405, Fig. 57, 1391, Fig. 8, and 1388 and through a torque limiting clutch between the gears 1361 and 1388. The torque limiting clutch comprises. Fig. 16, a plate 1382 sliding on pins 1381 on the gear 1361 and biased by springs 1384 so that a roller 1386 on the plate engages a depression in a' cam 1390 fast with the gear 1388 to drive the latter until the shaft 395 is stopped. During the return motion of the oscillated gear 1361 the shafts 395 and 404 are driven until a pin on the gear 1388 engages a fixed stop A cam 400. Fig. 43, on'the shaft 404 thus acts through a roller 715 and a bellcrank 712 to raise a picker 595 for the time necessary to deliver the proper number of cents in change (see Delivery of coins as change: (1) by movement of coin tubes. Delivery of coins as change: (1) by movement of coin tubes (nickels and cents). Up to 4 cents are delivered as change from an assembly of five tubes 581, Fig. 43, supported by upper and lower apertured discs 575, 578, Fig. 30, in a ring around a shaft 571, when the shaft and tubes are rotated through the spacing of four tubes past a vertically sliding abutment member 595 which is raised (see Controlling delivery of change: (2) single denomination) for a period determined by the number of cents to be delivered. The provision of five tubes ensures that no one tube is repeatedly the leading tube and thus renders the feed from the tubes more uniform. Five shaped lugs 587, Figs. 40 and 42, secured to the lower apertured disc confine the bottom two coins of the tubes between the teeth of a spur wheel 585 with the lowest coin of each tube resting on a disc 584 and on a lug 590, Fig. 40. As the sliding abutment 595, Fig. 42, arrests a bottom coin 593 to remove it from its tube, the coin 593a above is retained in the tube by a spring 599 carried by a bracket on the tube and projecting through a slot in the disc 578. A similar assembly of tubes carried on a shaft 571a. Fig. 30, delivers nickels as change. The coin tube assemblies and their shafts 571, 571a, Fig. 30, rest through pin and slot connection 567, 566 on shafts 559, 560 coupled by gears 561, 562 to a gear 550 rotated, when the oscillated shaft 547 (see Comparing coin insertion with price) is making its return movement, through a one-way coupling 552, a shaft 542 and bevel gears 545, 546. Reverse movement of the coin tube assemblies is prevented by a ratchet wheel 600, Figs. 30 and 32, fast on the shaft 560 and engaged by a pawl 608: when the machine is not in use a roller 612, Fig. 32, on the pawl is engaged by a lug 618 on a cam 615 on the shaft 542 to prevent the pawl releasing the coin tube assemblies. Delivery of coins as change: (2) by swinging pusher (quarters). The swinging pusher 690, Fig. 30, ejects the lowest quarter from a tube 680 when (see Controlling delivery of change: (1) in more than one denomination) is is drawn from beneath the coin tube to a position defined by a resilient stop 698, Fig. 75, and subsequently returned. The lowest coin is ejected by a tooth 700 on a bar 693 sliding relatively to the lower part 691 of the pusher and biased upwardly by a spring 822 so that a pin 687 engages the base 684, Fig. 30, of the coin tube to constrain the tooth to move horizontally. Coin action, weight; coin operates escapement. Totalling coins inserted. A nickel passi