Patent GB-490626-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to delivery machines
IPC: G07F11/54
Filed: 1937-07-30
Abstract: 490,626. Coin-freed article-delivery apparatus. HARRIS, S. July 30, 1937, No. 21097. [Class 27] In a machine in which a series of stacks of articles are brought in succession by a rotor into alignment with a delivery aperture for the top article to be delivered, the endwise movement of each stack as it is brought into alignment is limited by a gauge plate 51, Fig. 3, and the stacks rest on resilient supports, comprising blocks 46 pressed up by springs 48, to provide for inequalities in the thicknesses of the articles or packages so that the top article becomes correctly positioned in front of an ejector. The stacks of articles 44 rest on the supports 46 which are mounted on a plate 40 which is moved up step-by-step during the rotation of the rotor or cylindrical drum by screws 39 as described in Specification 432,549. After insertion of two coins, a hand-wheel is rotated and this through chain and sprocket gearing and a friction clutch, which prevents damage if the mechanism jams rotates a horizontal shaft having a toothed pinion engaging teeth 70 on a quadrant 69, Fig. 7, which is rotated in the direction of the arrow shown. At the end of its movement, the teeth 70 come beneath a cut-away portion of the pinion and the quadrant is returned to its initial position by a spring 71, the shock being cushioned by buffers 78, 79. Reverse rotation of the hand-wheel is prevented by a pawl and ratchet 47, 75. The quadrant 69 is fixed to a shaft 81 which at its lower end carries a circular plate 86, Fig. 6, having arcuate guiding slots 89, working over fixed pins 90. A radial arm 85 fixed to this plate has a pawl 90a which engages upstanding projections on the article-carrying rotor to move the rotor through the distance between two stacks. A cam strip 95 attached to the arm 85 actuates a pawl 97 to prevent the rotor from being moved too far and a pawl 101 prevents reverse rotation of the rotor. The arm 85 through a link 120 rocks a lever 116 pivoted at 117 to a fixed partition plate, this lever 116 actuating a combined door operating bar 109 and ejector 111. These are hinged together at 110 and kept in alignment by a coiled spring 115, the ejector having a roller 112 at its forward end for engaging an article and pushing it off the stack. The bars 109, 111 slide along a guide bar 103, the bar 109 having a pin 108 engaging a slot 107 in the guide bar 103 which is bolted to the plate 86 to rotate with the latter. The front end 105 of the guide bar is guided by engaging an arcuate slot 106. The front end of the bar 109 pushes open a rubber-faced door 123, Fig. 3, hinged at the top and the roller 112 on the ejector 111 pushes out the top article. The door 123 engages a curved portion 125 of a second door 126 hinged at 127 in the delivering shoot 49, and rocks this door into the dotted line position to prevent access to the articles. The article pushed out falls between the doors 123, 126 and when the door 123 is closed falls down for removal through an opening 128. Casings.-The rotor is mounted in an heat insulated outer casing, the articles to be sold being ice-cream cartons. The casing is covered by a hinged insulated lid. The rotor has a central hollow portion 36 which receives a solid refrigerant such as carbon di-oxide. Coin action, mechanical-connection and multiple-coin.-Two coins are inserted in a pocket 132, Fig. 7, on an extension 129 of the quadrant 69. The pocket is wedge-shaped so that one coin projects above the other and raises a detent lever out of the path of the extension 129 when the quadrant is moved. On the return of the quadrant, a pawl 135, yieldable in the forward direction, ejects the coins to a money box through the front open end of the pocket. Testing coins.-Coins of too small a diameter run backward out of the pocket through an opening in its rear end into a return shoot. Too thin coins do not project sufficiently from the wedge-shaped pockets and are ejected through the front end thereof to the return shoot by a pawl 139 similar to the pawl 135.