US3357133A - Automatic controlled door for a vending machine - Google Patents

Description

12, 1967 K. J. HELSING 7 3,357,133

AUTOMATIC CONTROLLED DOOR FOR A VENDING MACHINE Filed Oct. 13, 1965 FIG. 5.

INVENTOR Knud J. Helsingv BY ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,357,133 AUTOMATIC CONTROLLED DOOR FOR A VENDING MACHINE Knud J. Helsing, Longmeadow, Mass., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Oct. 13, 1965, Ser. No. 495,478 3 Claims. (CI. 49-25) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A vending machine is provided with a normally closed movable door across the vending outlet and a cable and lever servo linkage is provided to be automatically controlled to open the door when an object is deposited in the vending outlet and close the door when the object is removed, the cable linkage being arranged so that the door may be manually opened at any time without interfering with automatic operation.

Vending machines such as the so-called cup drink dispensers are usually provided with a recess in the front wall thereof to which the cup is moved to be filled and to be thereafter removed by the customer. It may be desirable for esthetic reasons to provide an access door for normally closing the recess and such door is usually transparent so that the customer may observe the vending operation. In a preferred arrangement the door is slidable upward from the closed to the open position and must be held in the upper position by the customer with one hand while he removes the cup with the other hand. Needless to say such an arrangement is at times awkward and inconvenient for the customer.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a vending machine cabinet having a vending recess and 'a movable door for normally closing the recess toether with automatic means for opening the door upon movement into the recess of an article to be vended and for closing the door upon removal of the article from the recess.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a simple and reliable automatic door opener mechanism for a vending machine that is arranged to open the door when an article is available for vending and to close the door when the article is removed, the arrangement being such that the door may be manually moved from the closed to the open position without interfering with the normal operation of the automatic door opener mechanism.

'In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the access door is slidably positioned in front of the recess to be movable upward from the closed to the open position. The automatic door opener may include a flexible cable which is connected to be moved in one direction to raise the door to the open position and to be movable in the opposite direction to permit the door to drop by gravity back to the normal closed position. A lever is connected to the cable to move the cable in the one direction when the lever is moved in one direction and to move the cable in the opposite direction when the lever is moved in the opposite direction. A crank arrangement is connected between the aforementioned lever and a rotatable shaft such that a first portion of one revolution of the shaft will cause the lever to move in one direction while the remainder portion of one revolution of the shaft will cause the lever to move in the opposite direction. Electric motor means is connected to the shaft to rotate the shaft and switch means responsive to the amount of shaft rotation is effec- 3,357,133 Patented Dec. 12, 1&6?

tive to deenergize the motor and stop rotation of the shaft after a portion of one revolution of rotation of the shaft. Article sensing means in the aforementioned recess is connected in circuit with a first means including certain contacts of the previously mentioned shaft which to cause the motor to be energized to move the shaft over the first portion of one revolution thereof to thereby move the lever and cable in a direction to raise the door when the article to be vended has been positioned in the recess. The article sensing means is also connected in circuit with second means including other contacts of the shaft switch to cause the motor to be energized to move the shaft over the remainder portion of one revolution thereof to thereby move the lever and cable in the opposite direction to allow the door to close after the article is removed from the vending recess by the customer. Although in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the article sensing means may be a conventional photocell detector, other types of article sensing circuit and switch arrangements may be used.

Thus, with the flexible cable automatic door opener arrangement of the invention as described above, the desirable feature is obtained of enabling the door to be manually raised and lowered when the door opener mechanism including the lever and crank is not operating, and is in the normal closed position. Also, because of the flexible cable arrangement of the invention, when the door opener mechanism is operating to permit the door to be lowered from the open to the closed position, the customer may still be able to leave his hand in the path of movement of the door without injury, since the prevention of the door from lowering to the closed position under such conditions would only create slack in the cable and only the weight of the door would rest upon the customers wrist.

Further objects, features and the attendant advantages of the invention will be apparent with reference to the following specification and drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective elevational view of a vending machine to which the automatic door opening mechanism of the invention may be applied;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view partly in elevation of the vending recess with a cup drink in position to be removed by the customer.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the automatic door opening cable arrangement of the invention with the door shown in the closed position and the dotted line position showing how the door may be manually raised without consequent movement of the operating lever together with the crank and shaft;

FIG. 4 is a View similar to FIG. 3, but showing the v mechanism in the door-open position;

FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG. 3, and

FIG. 6 is a schematic wiring diagram of a circuit switch arrangement suitable for use with the invention. 7 Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawing, a cup drinkvending machine cabinet 10 is shown to have a front wall 11 with avending recess 12 enclosed by the slidabletransparent door 13. Thedoor 13 is provided with ahandle 14 by means of which it may be manually raised to obtain access to the interior of thevending recess 12. The automatic door opening mechanism to be described in connection with FIGS. 2-6 of the drawing is arranged to raise theslidable door 13 to the open position automatically when a cup is moved into thedispensing recess 12. and to lower thedoor 13 to the closed position when the cup is removed by the customer.

Referring to FIG. 2 of the drawing, thevending recess 13 is shown to include thecup chute 15, the liquid dispensing spout orspouts 16 and thecup guide 17 in which a cup such as thecup 18 is positioned for filling with liquid from thespout 16. Aphotocell 20 and alight source 21 are arranged such as to detect the presence of thecup 18 by interception of the light beam from thelight source 21. It will be noted thatapertures 22 and 23 in the wall of thevending recess 13 are provided to enable the light beam from thelight source 21 to pass to thephotocell detector 20 when thecup 18 is not present. As will be better understood after describing the operation of the invention, in connection with FIG. 6 of the drawing, any type of article sensing switch may be used in place of the photocell 2t} andlight source 21 and the invention is not to be limited to the use of such photocell arrangement.

Referring now to FIGS. 3-5 of the drawing, it will be seen that theslidable door 13 is connected to acable 30 passing over thepulleys 31, 32 which are secured to the cabinet structure in any suitable fashion and thepulley 33 which is mounted upon aweighted operating lever 34. The other end of thecable 30 is secured to a stationary portion of the vending cabinet at any convenient place diagrammatically shown at 35. Theoperating lever 34 as previously mentioned is weighted so as to take up any slack in thecable 30 at all times although thelever 34 is not heavier than thedoor 13 so as to cause the door to be raised solely by the weight of thelever 34. Adrive lever 40 is connected at one end to thecrank member 41 and is connected at its other end to apin 42 received in aslot 43 of theoperating lever 34. Thus, when thelever 40 is moved downward in a first direction upon a certain portion of one revolution of thecrank 41 andshaft 44, thedoor 13 will be raised to the position shown by FIG. 4 of the drawing. Continued rotation of theshaft 44 andcam 41 through a remainder portion of one revolution will cause thedrive lever 40 to move in the opposite direction also allowing theoperating lever 34 to move in the opposite direction and causing the door to drop under the influence of gravity back to the closed position shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing. It should now be apparent that the provision of theslot 43 enables thedoor 13 to be manually raised from the closed position shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing under which conditions theweighted operating lever 34 simply drops downward to take up the slack in thecable 30 without a corresponding downward movement of thedrive lever 40 or rotation of thecrank member 41.

As previously mentioned, the arrangement ofcrank 41 anddrive lever 40 is such that a first half revolution of thecrank 41 andshaft 44 will cause movement of thedrive lever 40 in one direction while a second half revolution of shaft movement will cause movement of thedrive lever 40 in the opposite direction. In other words, a first half revolution of theshaft 44 can be arranged to be eifective to raise thedoor 13 while the remainder half portion of a revolution of theshaft 44 can be effective to lower thedoor 13. In order to control the rotation of theshaft 44 to be in increments of a revolution such as a first half revolution for opening the door and a second half revolution for closing the door in a cyclical operation, acam switch 50 is provided and thecrank 41 is provided with suitable peripheral cam contours 41a and 411). When thedrive lever 40 is at its fullest upward extended position and thedoor 13 is then closed, thecam switch lever 51 is first positioned on the cam contour 41a thereby causing theswitch 50 to assume the position shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing. On the other hand, when theshaft 44 is rotated to the position shown by FIG. 4 of the drawings with thedoor 13 open, thecam switch lever 51 is first positioned on the cam contour 4112 causing theswitch 50 to assume the position shown by FIG. 4. Thus, when thedoor 13 is raised and first reaches the upper position shown by FIG. 4 of the drawing, thecam switch 50 assumes the position shown, but when theshaft 44 and thedoor 13 first reaches the closed position shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing, thecam switch 50 assumes the position shown by that figure of the drawing.

Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawing, the cam switch S0 is shown to be a single pole, double throw switch having its switch arm connected to oneterminal 60 of a source of electric power. Theelectric motor 61 for rotating theshaft 44 is connected to theother terminal 62 of the source of electric power and to the switch arm of a single pole, doublethrow relay switch 63. Therelay coil 64 for theswitch arm 63 is connected to thephotocell amplifier 65. Thecam switch arm 50 and therelay switch arm 63 are shown in the positions they should be with the door closed and an article to be vended 'not yet present in the recess. As soon as the cup is deposited in the vending recess, thephotocell detector 20 will respond in a manner to energize therelay coil 64 and move therelay switch arm 63 into engagement withcontact 63a. Since thecam switch 50 is in the position shown engaging its contact 50a, a circuit will thereby be completed for energizing thedrive motor 61 to rotate theshaft 44 andcrank 41 in a manner to move thedrive arm 40 downward and thereby raise thedoor 13. As soon as thedoor 13 reaches the upper open position, thecam switch arm 51 will engage contour 41b and assume the position shown by FIG. 4 of the drawing moving theswitch arm 50 into engagement withcontact 50b and thereby opening the circuit to themotor 61 thus stopping the motor and the rotation of theshaft 44 with thedoor 13 in the open position. With theswitch arm 50 now in the dotted line position and the door opening mechanism in the corresponding position shown by FIG. 4 of the drawings, a circuit is now prepared to energize themotor 61 when therelay coil 64 is deenergized. Therelay coil 64 will be deenergized upon re moval of thecup 18 by the customer which causes thephotocell 20 to react in a manner to cause therelay coil 64 to be deenergized. Therelay switch arm 63 thereby returns to the solid line position in engagement withcontacts 63b completing the circuit throughcontacts 50b ofcam switch 50 for energizing the motor to cause theshaft 44 andcrank 41 to rotate for the remainder half revolution portion of rotation as required to cause thedoor 13 to be moved downward to the closed position. At the end of the remainder half revolution of theshaft 44, the camswitch operating arm 51 again engages the cam contour portion 41a to assume the position shown by FIG. 3 of the drawing with theswitch arm 50 engaging contact 50a and the circuit to themotor 61 opened, thus stopping rotation of theshaft 44 with the door closed.

Obviously, the circuit arrangements may be such that therelay coil 64 will be energized when the cup is present or alternatively will be energized when the cup is removed. In either case, a mere reversal of the arrangement of the switch contacts for therelay switch 63 and theswitch 50 would provide exactly the same operations as previously described. Also, it may be desirable to connect therelay switch coil 64 in series with a manual control switch (not shown) to lock out the operation of the opener mechanism. Also therelay switch coil 64 may be connected in series with conventional coin switch contacts (not shown) in order to control the automatic operation of the door opener mechanism only when the vending machine has been unlocked for vending an article upon deposit of the requisite coinage.

Various modifications may be made within the spirit of the invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. A vending machine comprising a cabinet, a recess in a wall of said cabinet to which an article to be vended is moved during vending, a movable access door mounted on said wall to have a normal position closing said recess, door moving means including first means responsive to the positioning of an article being vended in said recess for moving said door to an open position, second.

means responsive to removal of an article being vended from said recess for moving said door to the normal closed position, said door moving means comprising a cable secured to said door, a lever attached to said cable and movable in one direction to move said cable in a direction to open said door and movable in the opposite direction to move said cable in the opposite direction to close said door, rotatable means connected to said lever to move said lever in said one direction during a portion of one revolution thereof and to move said lever in said opposite direction during the remainder portion of one revolution thereof, said first means being responsive to rotate said shaft for the first portion of one revolution thereof to thereby move said door to the open position, and said second means being responsive to rotate said shaft for the remainder portion of one revolution thereof to thereby move said door to the normal closed position.

2. The invention of claim 1 in which said door is movable upward from the normal closed position to the open position, and in which said second means responsive to 6 the removal of an article being vended is responsive to allow said door to drop by gravity back to its normal closed position.

3. The invention of claim 2 in which said door moving cable is flexible and arranged such that said door may be manually raised and lowered without interfering with the normal operation of said door moving means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,247,931 7/1941 Vincent et al. 49-25 X 2,949,993 8/1960 Adler 221-12 X 2,994,572 8/ 1961 Morrison 49-25 X DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. J. KARL BELL, Assisllant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A VENDING MACHINE COMPRISING A CABINET, A RECESS IN A WALL OF SAID CABINET TO WHICH AN ARTICLE TO BE VENDED IS MOVED DURING VENDING, A MOVABLE ACCESS DOOR MOUNTED ON SAID WALL TO HAVE A NORMAL POSITION CLOSING SAID RECESS, DOOR MOVING MEANS INCLUDING FIRST MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE POSITIONING OF AN ARTICLE BEING VENDED IN SAID RECESS FOR MOVING SAID DOOR TO AN OPEN POSITION, SECOND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO REMOVAL OF AN ARTICLE BEING VENDED FROM SAID RECESS FOR MOVING SAID DOOR TO THE NORMAL CLOSED POSITION, SAID DOOR MOVING MEANS COMPRISING A CABLE SECURED TO SAID DOOR, A LEVER ATTACHED TO SAID CABLE AND MOVABLE IN ONE DIRECTION TO MOVE SAID CABLE IN A DIRECTION TO OPEN SAID DOOR AND MOVABLE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO MOVE SAID CABLE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION TO CLOSE SAID DOOR, ROTATABLE MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID LEVER TO MOVE SAID LEVER IN SAID ONE DIRECTION DURING A PORTION OF ONE REVOLUTION THEREOF AND TO MOVE SAID LEVER IN SAID OPPOSITE DIRECTION DURING THE REMAINDER PORTION OF ONE REVOLUTION THEREOF, SAID FIRST MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE TO ROTATE SAID SHAFT FOR THE FIRST PORTION OF ONE REVOLUTION THEREOF TO THEREBY MOVE SAID DOOR TO THE OPEN POSITION, AND SAID SECOND MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE TO ROTATE SAID SHAFT FOR THE REMAINDER PORTION OF ONE REVOLUTION THEREOF TO THEREBY MOVE SAID DOOR TO THE NORMAL CLOSED POSITION.

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