Article storage unit devices for use in vending machines
This is a continuing application of copending application, Ser. No. 715,825, filed Aug. 19, 1976, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,218. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to vending machines and, in particular, to article storage unit devices used in the vending machines. 
     A vending machine has an article storage device, article discharge means for discharging one article at a time from the storage device, and article transporting means for transporting the discharged article to an access station, in a machine cabinet. 
     It is required in vending machines that a number of articles can be stored in the article storage device to decrease the number of times of article feeding, or loading, operation. However, the machines are desired to be small in the valume. 
     Moreover it is necessarily required that articles stored in the article storage device are securely discharged without failure. 
     Furthermore, it is required that fresh articles can be readily fed or loaded into the article storage device. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of this invention to provide an article storage unit device with article discharging means which is removably mounted in the vending machine and in which a number of articles can be stored. The unit device is provided with an arrangement for discharging article without failure. 
     It is another object of this invention to provide an article storage unit device having an arrangement for readily feeding fresh articles into the unit device. 
     It is yet another object of this invention to provide an article storage unit device with a simple construction. 
     According to this invention, an article storage unit device which is suitable for use in vending machines comprises a housing which has a front plate, a side plate, a rear plate and a bottom opening. The interior of the housing is partitioned by partition walls into a plurality of vertical extending spaces which are arranged along a horizontal direction from the front plate to the rear plate. In the vertically extending spaces articles are stored and stacked. The housing is provided with first plate means which is disposed along each of the vertically extending spaces at a position adjacent to the bottom opening on an opposite side of the side plate. The first plate means is rotatably supported at an upper end, and the lower end of the plate means is freely movable into and out of the corresponding vertically extending space. The first plate means is controlled by first control means to be pushed into the corresponding vertically extending space to hold the lowermost article of the stacked articles. 
     Thus, a number of articles are stored in the unit device as a plurality of article stacks. The articles are discharged by releasing the first plate means by the first control means. 
     The housing is also provided with second plate means which is disposed above the first plate means to hold an article adjacent to and above the lowermost article. The second plate means is also rotatably supported at an upper end, and a lower end of the second plate means is freely movable into and out of the corresponding vertically extending space. The second plate means is controlled by second control means to be pushed into the corresponding vertically extending space to hold the article adjacent to and above the lowermost article at a time when the first plate means is released. 
     The second control means releases the second plate means at a time when the first plate means is pushed into the corresponding vertically extending space. Thus, articles are discharged one at a time. 
     The side plate of the housing is provided with depressions in an inner surface thereof at positions against upper edges of lowermost articles stored in the vertically extending spaces. Thus, the lowermost article is discharged without failure upon the first plate means being released, because the lowermost article is not held, of clasped, by the inner surface of the side wall and the article adjacent to and above the lowermost article. 
     Each of the first and second control means may be cam means. The cam means may be provided with a stepped portion on a cam contour of the cam means to rapidly move corresponding one of the first and second plate means during releasing the corresponding one plate means. Thus mechanical shock is developed so that the lowermost article is securely discharged. 
     The housing has an open side end opposite to the side plate. On the open side end vertically extending bars are disposed along the vertically extending spaces, and are so supported that the upper ends of the bars are deflectable. Thus, fresh articles are readily fed into the vertically extending spaces without disassembling. The stored articles are prevented from falling off through the open side end. 
     Each of the vertically extending spaces may be formed rhombic in cross section by disposing each partition wall in inclined orientation to the side plate of the housing. So that articles having rhombic cross section may be stored in the unit device. 
     Further objects, features and aspects of this invention will be understood from following description of embodiments of this invention referring to annexed drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a vending machine to which this invention is employed, 
     FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a machine in FIG. 1, in which a front door is disassembled, 
     FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of the vending machine in FIGS. 1 and 2, schematically showing the discharge of articles, 
     FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of this invention, 
     FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of the embodiment in FIG. 4, 
     FIG. 6 shows a similar view of a modification as FIG. 5, 
     FIG. 7 shows a cross sectional view of the embodiment in FIG. 4, 
     FIG. 8 shows a sectional view on line A--A in FIG. 7, 
     FIG. 9 shows a sectional view on line B--B in FIG. 8, 
     FIG. 10 shows another embodiment and is a similar view as FIG. 5, 
     FIG. 11 shows a perspective view of a further embodiment, partially illustrating an article stacking space, 
     FIG. 12 partially shows a sectional view of the embodiment in FIG. 11 with articles being stored. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     The article storage unit device of this invention is employed in a vending machine as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. 
     Referring to FIG. 1, which shows a perspective view of a vending machine employing article storage unit devices of this invention, the shown vending machine comprises a machine cabinet 10 with a front door 11 which is hinged to the cabinet and selectively openable. The front door 11 is provided with a coin depositing opening 111, a manually operated lever 112 for returning deposited coin or coins, a coin returning opening 113 through which returned coins are obtained, article selecting buttons 114 (five buttons are shown) by which a desired kind of article is selected, and an access or delivery opening 115 through which a discharged article is obtained. 
     Referring to FIG. 2 which shows a perspective view of the machine cabinet 10 with the front door 11 being disassembled, in the cabinet 10, article storage unit devices 12 (five devices are shown) of this invention are mounted side by side. Under the unit devices 12, a downwardly sloping chute 13 is mounted, with a lower open end 131 thereof being matched to the access opening 115 of the front door. 
     The vending machine is preferred with coin mechanism, coin stoker and control circuits, but they are omitted for the simplification because this invention is not directed to them. 
     Each unit device 12 is slidably mounted in the cabinet 10 to be smoothly and easily drawn out. 
     Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, when a purchaser inserts coins through the coin depositing opening 111 and push an article selecting button 114, a corresponding unit device 12 discharges an article, as shown in FIG. 3, by the operation of control circuits (not shown) and the article discharge means. The discharged article is transported to the access station by common chute 13. Accordingly, the purchaser can obtain the desired article through the access opening 115. 
     Referring to FIG. 4, which shows a perspective view of an embodiment of this invention, or the article storage unit device 12 in FIG. 2, the unit device comprises a housing 121 and a handle 122 fixed to a front plate of the housing. The housing 121 defines vertically extending spaces 123 partitioned by vertically extending partition walls 124. The vertical spaces (five spaces are shown) are arranged along a direction from the front end to the rear end of the unit device, and terminate at the lower end in a bottom opening (FIG. 5) which is provided to the bottom of the housing 121. 
     Stoppers 14 are provided to the housing 12 at lower portions of respective vertical spaces and adjacent to the bottom opening, each of which is for holding an article within the space at the position of the stopper. So that, a predetermined number of articles are stored in each vertical space with a vertical stack form. 
     The stopper 14 is arranged releasable for permitting the lowermost article in the stack to fall through the bottom opening in order to discharge articles from the unit device. 
     The housing 121 is also provided with additional stoppers 15, each of which is for holding an article adjacent to, and above, the lowermost article in each space 123. 
     Each additional or upper stopper 15 is operatively so connected with each corresponding lower stopper 14 that the holding operation of the former is effected only a time period when the latter is released. 
     As a result, from each article storing space 123, one article or the lowermost article is discharged at a time, and after discharge of the lowermost article, the remaining articles are lowered by an article hight so that a fresh article is held by the lower stopper 14. 
     Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, in the shown embodiment, each of the lower stopper 14 comprises, in combination, a cam disk 141 and a stopper plate 142. 
     The cam disk 141 is mounted on a cam shaft 143 in such fashion that a circumference cam contour of the cam disk 141, faces the corresponding article storing space. The stopper plate 142 is pivotally mounted to frames 144 by a pin 145 and is freely pendent between the corresponding article storing space 123 and the cam disk 141 to engage with the cam disk. Therefore the stopper plate 142 serves as a cam follower of the cam disk 141. 
     The cam contour of the cam disk 141 is generally formed with a circular plane but is partially formed with a flat plane as shown in FIG. 5. Therefore, when the stopper plate 142 follows the circular portion of the cam contour, the stopper plate 142 protrudes into the article storing space 123 so that an article is held within the space at the position. On the other hand, when the stopper plate 142 follows the flat portion of the cam contour, the protrusion of the stopper plate 142 is reduced sufficiently to release the holding operation so that the article is permitted to fall through the bottom opening. 
     The upper stopper 15 similarly comprises, in combination, a cam disk 151 and a stopper plate 152, which are arranged similarly as the cam disk 141 and the stopper plate 142. 
     However, it should be noted that the upper cam disk 151 and the lower cam disk 141 are arranged different in the angular position of the rotation so that the upper stopper plate 152 protrudes into the article storing space 123 upon the lower stopper 14 being released, while the upper stopper plate 152 being restored from the protrusion after the lower stopper 14 again effecting the holding operation. 
     The cam shaft 143 of the lower cam disk 141 is rotated together with the rotation of a cam shaft 153 in a direction by a common driver or an electric motor 16. In the case, the flat portion of the cam contour of the lower cam disk 141 is arranged to be angularly prior to the flat portion of the cam contour of the upper cam disk 151. 
     Referring to FIG. 5, all of the lower stoppers 14 and all of the upper stoppers 15 are arranged similarly as above described arrangement. But it should be noted that all of the lower cam disks 141 are mounted on the common cam shaft 143 which is drived by the driver 16 and that all of the upper cam disks are mounted on the common cam shaft 153 which is also driven by the common driver 16. 
     Moreover, it should be noted that the flat portion of the cam contour of each one of lower cam disk 141 is arranged angularly different around the common cam shaft 143 from the other ones. Accordingly, similar angular differences are provided between each one of upper cam disks 151 and the other ones. 
     In the shown arrangement having five article storing spaces 123, the angular differences between the adjacent two cam disks is given by 360°/5=72°. Thus, if cam shafts are rotated by the angular distance of 72° by one operation of the common driver 16, one article is discharged from a first article storing space by a first operation of the driver 16, and an article is discharged from a second article storing space by a sequential second operation of the driver. When cam shafts are rotated over a complete revolution by five times operations of the driver 16, five articles have been discharged from the unit device 12. 
     This article storage unit device according to this invention is characterized in that the side plate 125 of the housing is provided with depressions 126 in an inner surface thereof at positions against upper edges of lowermost articles G1 in vertical extending spaces 123, as shown in FIG. 5. 
     Generally speaking, some articles sold by vending machines are usually wrapped by thin films, such as vinyl. A seam or seams of the wrapping thin film project on the top of the wrapped article. Such a projection is shown by 17. 
     If the inner surface of the side plate is flat, the lowermost article G1 may be held or clasped by the inner surface and the article G2 adjacent to and above the lowermost article, due to the engagement of the projection 17 with the lower edge of the upper article G2. So that the lowermost article G1 is not discharged even if the lower stopper plate 142 is released. This is undesirable for the vending machine. It will be noted that such an undesirable condition is caused by the existence of any other similar projections. 
     But in this embodiment, the lowermost article G1 is not clasped because of the provision of the depression 126. Even if the lowermost article G1 is subjected to a pressure to the side plate 125 due to the engagement of the projection 17 with the upper article G2, the lowermost article G1 is so inclined that the upper edge portion of the article comes into the depression 126, so that the lowermost article G1 is not clasped. 
     Thus, the lowermost article is discharged without failure when the lower stopper plate 142 is released. 
     FIG. 6 shows a modification of the embodiment in FIGS. 4 and 5. The modification is characterized by the use of solenoid plungers 18 and 19 in place of cam disks 141 and 151 in FIGS. 4 and 5. It will be easily understood that stopper plates 142 and 152 are similarly controlled by controlling electric current fed to the solenoid plungers 18 and 19. 
     Referring to FIG. 4, the article storage unit device 12 is open on a side end opposite to the side plate 125. On the open side, vertically extending bars 20 are disposed along vertically extending spaces 123 to prevent articles in the spaces from falling off through the open side end. 
     On the open side end, lower and upper support members 127 and 128 are disposed horizontally extending between the front plate 121 and the rear plate. 
     The lower support member 127 is for supporting lower ends of the bars 20. Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the lower support member 127 is provided with perforates 21 in which lower ends of bars 20 are inserted. The lower ends are prevented from falling out of the perforates 21 by means of bush nuts 22 or split pins. 
     The upper support member 128 supports upper ends of bars 20. Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the upper support member 128 is provided with a plurality of horizontally extending angular slots 23. The upper ends of bars 20 are inserted into the slots 23 and are slidably supported. Therefore, bars 20 are deflectable within a limited extent. 
     The upper support member 128 is provided with retainers 24 for retaining upper ends of bars 20. The retainer is a resilient member, one end of which is fixed to the support member 128. The other free end portion is curved to partially project over the slot 23. The projecting portion engages with, and retains, the upper end of the bar 20. As clearly understood, the retainer 24 is releasable. 
     When the bar 20 is urged to be deflected, the upper end of the bar 20 is released from the retainer 24 and deflected along the slot 23. Thus fresh articles can be fed into the space 123. 
     After feeding articles, the upper end of the bar 20 is retained by urging the upper end to the retainer 24. 
     Referring to FIG. 10, in which another embodiment of this invention is shown, the shown embodiment is similar as the above embodiment shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, except that the lower and upper stopper plates 142 and 152 are provided with cam follower projections 25 and 26 which project on the surfaces of the plates 142 and 152, lower and upper cam disks 141 and 151 being provided with stepped cam contour portions 27 and 28 and no depressions being formed in the inner surface of the side plate 125. 
     The stepped cam contour portion 27 is formed on the lower cam disk 141 at an angular position immediately before the lower stopper plate 142 is completely released to rapidly move the lower stopper plate 142 to a completely released condition at the end of the release operation carried out by the lower cam disk 141. Therefore the lowermost article G1 is subjected to a mechanical shock and is securely discharged even if the lowermost article is in condition that it partially engages with certain circumferencial members. 
     The stepped cam contour portion 28 on the upper cam disk 151 is formed at an angular position to hold the article G2 adjacent to and above the lowermost article G1 when the lower stopper plate 142 is released. Therefore, when the lower stopper plate 142 is released, the upper stopper plate 152 is also slightly moved towards its released position because the cam follower projection 26 follows the stepped cam contour portion 28. Thus, the article G2 is slightly but rapidly lowered. As a result, the article G2 pushes the lowermost article G1 downwardly to discharge the lowermost article G1 even if the lowermost article G1 is not still discharged. 
     Accordingly, in this embodiment the lowermost article G1 is discharged without failure. 
     In this embodiment depressions may be formed in the inner surface of the side plate 125, similarly as the embodiment shown in FIG. 5. 
     Furthermore, either one of lower and upper cam disks 141 and 142 is similarly formed as the embodiment in FIG. 5 or a cam disk without stepped cam contour portion. In such case, the corresponding stopper plate is not required to be provided with the cam follower projection. 
     In above embodiments, the shape of the cross-section of each vertically extending space 123 is generally rectangular. But, if each partition wall is disposed to be inclined to the side plate 125, the space is rohmbic in the cross section as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. In this embodiment, a spoon S is stored in the space 123 together with the articles, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. According to this embodiment, foods contained in cups can be sold together with spoons, folks or other means for eating the foods. 
     In the drawings, corner members 31, 32 are for guiding opposite ends of the elongated spoons S or other means and for reinforcing the partition walls. 
     This invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments, it will be understood to those skilled in the art that various modifications and other designations are easily made within the scope of this invention. What is claimed is: