Patent GB-491310-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in refrigerated package dispensing apparatus
IPC: G07F9/10
Filed: 1936-11-30
Abstract: 491,310. Coin-freed article-delivery apparatus. TENNANT, W. J. (Ice Cream Dispensing Corporation) Nov. 30, 1936, No. 32791. [Class 27] Articles stored in piles.-In a vending machine for articles such as cartons of icecream which must be maintained at a low temperature, a cold air chamber is interposed between the lower end of a pile of the articles and a delivery outlet in order to minimize the effects of atmospheric air entering through the outlet, and article releasing means at the lower end of the pile and within the cold air chamber, and the delivery outlet are relatively so disposed that substantially no moisture from the atmospheric air which enters is deposited on the article releasing means. As shown, piles of ice-cream cartons are stored in tubular magazines 4 arranged in groups of four within a brine tank 3. For each group of magazines there is a separate releasing mechanism and coin insertion slot, and the cartons are released successively from the four magazines of a group in turn, released cartons falling through a cold air chamber 6 having an outlet closed by a flexible flap 79, and a pivoted door 7 operated in timed relation with the releasing mechanism. Thermally insulating gaskets 78 are interposed between separate terminal portions 41 of the magazines 4 and the bottom of the brine tank so that frost is deposited on the latter and not on the releasing means which are carried by the portions 4<1>. The releasing mechanism for each group of magazines 4 comprises a pair of loose discs 23 on a common operating shaft 20, each disc having a roller 29, Fig. 7, the two rollers being angularly displaced by 90‹ and engaging apertures 30 in respective pivoted arms 31 connected by thermally insulating links 33 with a pair of slides 32, each operating through the terminal portions 4<1> of a pair of magazines. Each slide comprises upper and lower plates 34 and 35, apertured in the manner shown in Fig. 18. A coin inserted in the slot of the selected magazine group couples the corresponding pair of discs 23 to a driving member 24 on the operating shaft 20 and completes the circuit between the discs and driving member of an electric motor 8 which, through reduction gearing 16, drives a crank arm 14 through one revolution. The crank arm 14 oscillates a frame 9 pivoted at 10 by engagement with a cam thereon, and a projecting part 17 of the frame engages an arm 19 on the operating shaft 20 to turn it through 90‹ after which it is returned by a spring. The coin couples the discs 23 to the shaft 20 during its forward rotation only at the end of which it is discharged and the discs held by engagement of spring-loaded arms 28 in apertures 27 in their peripheries. This rotation of the discs 23 through 90‹ causes one of the rollers 29 to displace one of the arms 31, and one of the slides 32 either to the right or left, depending on the initial position. The lowermost carton in one of the two magazines 4 over the slide which is operated, being supported at its rim by the narrow portion of the corresponding aperture in the lower plate 35 of the slide, is released and falls into the cold air chamber 6 ; the lowermost carton in the other magazine 4 being supported at its rim by the narrow portion of the upper plate 34 of the slide is simultaneously released to be supported by the lower plate of the slide ready for release at the next and opposite movement of the slide. Each of the two arms 31 and slides 32 are displaced in turn, so that cartons are released successively from each of the four magazines of the group. The closure 7 for the delivery exit of the space 6 is carried by the pivoted frame 9, and is consequently opened during the delivery operation. The magazines 4 of a group may have a common cover 5a, and also individual plug-like covers, or separate radially-slit flexible closures through which cartons can be thrust when refilling. Spoons are delivered from successive piles thereof by toothed quadrants on discs 62 connected with the operating shaft 20 by ratchet-and-pawl mechanism. Coin action, mechanical and electrical connection; coin-discharging mechanism exhibiting coins.-For each group of magazines there is a coin insertion slide 40 and a shoot 41 which conducts the coin to a corresponding pair of the loose driven discs 23, the coin entering the uppermost of four radial grooves disposed around the inner faces of the discs. The coin completes the circuit to the motor 8 through the discs 23 which are insulated and the driving member 24, and forms a mechanical connection between the discs and the driving member which is fast on the shaft 20. During the return movement of the shaft 20, after the discs 23 have been turned through 90‹ and held, a cam arm 55 on the shaft 20 thrusts the coin out of the grooves 26, Fig. 28, and discharges it on to a pan 56 which exhibits it below a window 57 until the next operation when it is discharged into a receptacle 54. Returning coins.-Under each magazine 4 is an abutment 46 on a spring-actuated shaft 45, the carton next to be released from a group holding down its abutment. When a group of magazines is empty, one of its shafts 45 rotates and raises a slotted rod 48 which lowers an abutment arm 49 to hold a counterweighted coin weighing trap 42 in the coin shoot 41 in a position to return the coin by way of a receptacle 44. A modified form of coin return mechanism is also described with reference to Figs. 22-24 (not shown).