Patent ID: 8418881

Claim:
A dispensing apparatus for dispensing individual tissue cassettes from a stack of such cassettes, the apparatus including: a hopper for receiving a stack of tissue cassettes, the hopper having an aperture through which a lowermost one of the cassettes is dispensable; an ejection device to eject the lowermost cassette through the aperture; a retention device to retain all but the lowermost one of the cassettes in the stack as the lowermost cassette is ejected, the retention device including a support member that acts to support at least part of the weight of the stack as the lowermost cassette is ejected, the retention device thereby reducing the force exerted on the lowermost cassette by the weight of the stack as the lowermost cassette is ejected; the hopper including a gate to close the aperture; the retention device being arranged in conjunction with the gate such that when the gate is fully open the retention device is in operation to retain the remainder of the cassettes in the stack; the ejection device including a tray in which the lowermost cassette may be held; the tray being sloped and the gate being arranged so that in use, the gate prevents the lowermost cassette from sliding out of the tray under the action of gravity until the gate is fully open; the tray including a separation device to improve the separation of the lowermost cassette held within the tray from an adjacent cassette as the tray is moved; and wherein a portion of an inner face of a rear wall of the tray is inclined relative to a base of the tray at an acute angle, so that when the lowermost cassette is in position in the tray an upper part of the portion of the inner face of the rear wall of the tray is nearer to the lowermost cassette than a lower part of the portion of the inner face of the rear wall of the tray.