Abstract:
This patent application teaches a vending mechanism that can extract items of varying shapes and sizes, and yet can be built at a reasonable cost. A lifting-arm is located in the frontal area of the display shelf. It lifts up the front-most item over a barrier or display-stop so as to cause the item to topple over the shelf-stop and drop. This mechanism is especially useful and economical when one lifting-arm is moveable across the shelf, serving many vending columns of products on the shelf.

Description:
NOTE  
       [0001]     This invention disclosure is a divisional-in-part patent application of the prior application Ser. No. 10/364,185, titled, “Vending machine with a ‘Walking Item-Selector’, and methods of using it”. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     This invention relates to self-service merchandise vending machines.  
       BACKGROUND ART  
       [0003]     As described in the patent application Ser. No. 10/364,185, titled, “Vending machine with a ‘Walking Item-Selector’, and methods of using it”, it is desirable to establish a stand-alone self-service retail store in a form of a large-capacity vending machine.  
         [0004]     One difficulty with the conventional vending machine is the limitation in the shapes and sizes of items that one machine can handle. A rotating spiral that is limited to the vending of candies or the likes, and flip-flop gate that is limited to the vending of soda bottles. Some mechanism is more universal but is impractically expensive and enormously complex.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     Accordingly, it is the objective of this patent application to devise a vending mechanism that can extract items of varying shapes and sizes, from a bar of candy to a jog of one-gallon milk and a bag of charcoal, and that is still reasonable in manufacturing cost.  
         [0006]     This objective is achieved by providing a lifting-arm in the front area of the display shelf. The lifting arm lifts up an item-to-be-extracted, causing it to topple over a barrier or shelf-stop.  
         [0007]     This lifting arm would be especially useful and would reduce the manufacturing cost when it is incorporated into the embodiment taught in the patent application Ser. No. 10/364,185, titled, “Vending machine with a ‘Walking Item-Selector’, and methods of using it”.  
         [0008]     Various means and methods will be described. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  depicts the basic vending mechanism of the present invention.  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  shows one example of the embodiments that employs the vending mechanism as shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0011]      FIG. 3  shows the same as shown in  FIG. 2 , except that one travelling-arm, instead of many static ones, is serving a plurality of the vending columns.  
         [0012]      FIG. 4  shows that the reach of the arm is too long for thin items.  
         [0013]      FIG. 5  shows a remedial feature to correct the problem depicted in  FIG. 4 .  
         [0014]      FIG. 6  shows the embodiments of  FIG. 5  in a prospective view.  
         [0015]      FIG. 7  shows the plan view of the embodiments of  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 .  
         [0016]      FIG. 8  shows oversized items being stabilized by a sliding rail.  
         [0017]      FIG. 9  shows another example where such a sliding support can be helpful.  
         [0018]      FIG. 10  shows a packaged item with a sliding rod attached across the body.  
         [0019]      FIG. 11  shows the item of  FIG. 10  being stabilized by a supporting rail.  
         [0020]      FIG. 12  shows a pushing-weight with a wedged front surface for stabilizing oversized items.  
         [0021]      FIG. 13  shows an economic way to fabricate the desired embodiment. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0022]      FIG. 1  depicts the basic vending extraction mechanism of the present invention.  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  shows a schematic view of a vending shelf that employs the extracting mechanism depicted in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0024]     The item-extraction mechanism comprises a lifting-arm  1  and a shelf-stop  2  at the end.  
         [0025]     The front-most item  3   a  (See  FIG. 1 (A)) is lifted up and is toppledd over the shelf-stop  2  (See  FIG. 1 (C)).  
         [0026]     The lifting-arm would be activated by a machine such as a motor or the likes when a vending command reaches the machine.  
         [0027]     It will be helpful if the lifted item  3   a  is under a forwardly force (represented by an arrow above the items in  FIG. 1 ) so that the lifted item  3   a  is pushed over the shelf-stop  2  more easily. If this force is substantial, the item  3   a  would be toppled over the shelf-stop  2  even before the item  3   a  is cleared the top of the shelf-stop  2 .  
         [0028]     The forwardly force also helps preventing the front-most item from being toppled over the shelf-stop  2  and drop by itself In this case the height of the shelf-front  2  may be relatively low as compared to the height of the item  3   a  to be extracted. This reduces the length of the lifting-arm, thus saving the overall space needed for the swing motion.  
         [0029]     The forwardly force may be created by a tilt of the shelf  4  as indicated, or by a spring force or the likes.  
         [0030]     (Below will be introduced in  FIG. 4 a  pushing-weight  7   a  and  7   b  that increases the forwardly force substantially.)  
         [0031]     The shelf  5  may have column dividers  5 ,  5   a ,  5   b , . . . ,  5   g . The column dividers would make the extraction process more efficiently by preventing the item  3   a  from being strayed into the side instead of being toppled over forwardly.  
         [0032]      FIG. 2  shows a plurality of lifting-arms  1 ,  1   a ,  1   b , . . . ,  1   f , that is, one lifting-arm for each of the vending column (A, B, . . . ).  
         [0033]      FIG. 3  shows the same as shown in  FIG. 2 , except that one arm  1  is supposed to serve a plurality of the vending columns, traveling to the left or to the right along the direction indicated by the double-headed arrow L-R.  
         [0034]     This moveable feature makes the present patent application a divisional patent-in-part of the prior patent application Ser. No. 10/364,185, titled, “Vending machine with a ‘Walking Item-Selector’, and methods of using it”.  
         [0035]     When there are many vending columns (A, B, . . . ), such as 20 or more, the cost saving would be substantial.  
         [0036]     Also, it makes the vending machine look less cluttered, as all, or most, of those lifting-arms  1   a ,  1   b , . . . ,  1   f , are not present along the shelf front.  
         [0037]     In  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 , the shelves may be open-ended so as to avoid blocking the paths of the lifting-arms  1 ,  1   a , . . . ,  1   f , during their swing-up motion. As depicted in  FIG. 1 , the lifting-arm  1  could swing through the shelf frame ( FIG. 1 (C)).  
         [0038]     In this case, it may be preferable to let the lifting-arm swing around to a full circle.  
         [0039]     However, the lifting-arm may be of a linear actuator type that travels back and forth, instead of swinging.  
         [0040]     The shape of the lifting-arm may be of any shape, linear as shown in  FIG. 1 , or angled shape, etc., so long as it performs the lifting up function as desired.  
         [0041]      FIG. 3  also shows items of different thickness ( 3   a ,  3   b , . . . versus  6   a ,  6   b , . . . ). As depicted in  FIG. 4 , there is a problem if the length of the lifting-arm  1  is the same. The lifting-arm  1  would lift up more than one item, if the item is thin, in its retrieval action.  
         [0042]     If there are many lifting-arms  1 ,  1   a , . . . ,  1   f , as in  FIG. 2 , the length can be made to fit to the thickness of the item in each vending column, A, B, C, . . . .  
         [0043]     However, if one moveable lifting-arm  1  is to serve many vending columns as depicted in  FIG. 3 , the potential problem of lifting more than one item becomes real.  
         [0044]      FIG. 5  shows a solution to the problem. As shown, the shelf-stop  2   b  of the column B is moved back with respect to the shelf-stop  2   a  of the column A, so that the traveling lifting-arm  1  reaches only first item  6   a.    
         [0045]      FIG. 6  shows the embodiments of  FIG. 5  in a prospective view.  
         [0046]      FIG. 7  shows the plan view of the embodiments of  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 .  
         [0047]     In  FIG. 4  are shown ‘pushing-weights’  7   a  and  7   b , which increases the forwardly force. This pushing-weight  7   a  is needed especially when only one item is left on the shelf, since in this case there would be no force applied by the next item. For this reason, this pushing-weight is quite desirable.  
         [0048]      FIG. 8  shows oversized items  8   a ,  8   b , and  8   c . These items would take a substantial space in the vertical position if they stand upright. By tilting as shown in  FIG. 8 , the gap between the neighboring shelves can be reduced, saving the space.  
         [0049]     Also, the oversized items require substantial height of the shelf-stop  2 , since, otherwise, the items would topple over by themselves easily.  
         [0050]     These problems are improved by providing a sliding support  9  that enhance the stability of the oversized items  8   a ,  8   b ,  8   c , and allows them to take a slanted position as depicted in  FIG. 8 .  
         [0051]     The items  8   a ,  8   b , and  8   c , may be connected to or be leaning on the supporting bar  9  through a loop or the likes  10   a ,  10   b , and  10   c.    
         [0052]     The sliding support  9  may extend beyond the shelf front, as depicted in  FIG. 8 , so that an exiting item would ride on it and exit.  
         [0053]     Such oversized items include a bag of charcoal, a jog of milk, 2-litre soda bottle, etc.  
         [0054]      FIG. 9  shows another example where such a sliding support  9  can be helpful. This arrangement is useful for products that are small or thin. Examples include an ear-rings, a long-distance telephone card or gift card. This sort of items  12   a  is packaged in a substantially larger enclosure  11   a.    
         [0055]     A spacer  13   a  is added to the package in order to make sure that only one item is lifted up during the item-extracting process.  FIG. 9  depicts the moment when the front-most item  11   a  is exiting.  
         [0056]      FIG. 10  shows an oversized item  14   a  with a sliding rod  15   a  attached on the body.  
         [0057]      FIG. 11  shows the side view of the oversized items  14   a  of  FIG. 10  packed along the support rail  9 .  
         [0058]      FIG. 12  shows a weight  17  with a wedged front  18 . Oversized items  16   a ,  16   b ,  16   c  may take a stable leaning position by the virtue of the wedged front  18 . Because the items are tilted backwardly, they take less space in the vertical direction.  
         [0059]     One economic way to fabricate the embodiments of the present invention is to modify a conventional shelf. As shown in  FIG. 13 (A), the end is preferably made open, and then, as shown in  FIG. 13 (B), some or all of the ends of the wire members are bent up to create the shelf-stop members such as  2   m  and  2   n . When the item-to-be-extracted is long, such as in the case of candies or a bottle laid in a side way, it is helpful to have the shelf-stops positioned sparingly, as depicted in  FIG. 13 . Instead of bending up all the wires, only two wires are bent up to constitute the shelf-stop, as depicted as  2   m  and  2   n  in  FIG. 13 (B). When the elongated item  19   a  is lifted up by a lifting-arm  1  (not shown here to show other parts more clearly) over one or the other shelf-stop member, that is,  2   m  or  2   n , the elongated item  19   a  loses its balance and slips down.  
         [0060]     Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.