GB1482031A - Vending machine for heat treatment and dispensing of food portions - Google Patents

Abstract

1482031 Vending machines H BERGSTEDT and G NORDH 9 July 1975 28849/75 Heading B8S A coin-operated food vending machine for the heat treatment and dispensing of food portions contained in packages comprises a casing 1 in which a container 2 is housed, a plurality of holders 5 for holding respective stacks 4 of packages being mounted in the container 2 for individual vertical movement to a lower position (which is shown in phantom for the left-hand stack 4 in Fig. 1) to permit the lowermost package in the thus lowered stack to be pushed from the stack by a pusher 8 which transfers that package to the tray 30 of a package lifting and lowering device 9 which temporarily deposits that package in a microwave oven 10 and then elevates the package so that an ejector can push the package through a dispensing opening. The stack holders 5 are each vertically slidable in a sleeve (23) at the top of the container 2, Fig. 2 (not shown), each holder 5 being provided at its top with a horizontal projection 15 and a wheel 19, Fig. 3, the projections 15 extending over a selector bar 7 which is movable stepwise horizontally by means of an electric motor 17 while the wheels 19 engage in a channel recess 20 of a stackholder lifting and lowering device 6. The selector bar 7 has recesses formed therein, and the device 6 is connected at each end to an eccentric 22, one of which is drivable from an electric motor 21. When a customer inserts the required coins in a slot (not shown) and then actuates a preselector switch to indicate the particular stack of packages 4 from which he requires a package, a pulse is transmitted to the motor 17 to cause the bar 7 to be moved to a position at which one of the recesses 16 therein is below the projection 15 of the holder 5 of the selected stack 4, the remaining projections 15 still extending over a non-recessed portion of the bar 7. The motor 21 is then actuated to rotate the eccentrics 22 to lower the device 6 so that the selected holder 5, owing to the engagement of its wheel 19 in the recess 20 of the device 6, is lowered, its projection 15 passing through the said recess 16. Each holder 5 is formed in its lower vertical portion as a two-part prong from which the horizontal stack support members project, and when a holder 5 is so lowered, the pusher 8, which is mounted on a conveyer belt 25 is actuated to move between the two prongs of the lowered holder and thus transfer the lowermost package to the tray 30 which is then located in the intermediate position thereof shown in Fig. 1. A power unit 27 is then actuated to lower the tray 30 into the microwave oven 10 for a predetermined period so that the food portion can be heated, after which period the unit 27 causes tray 30 to be raised to the uppermost position thereof shown in full lines in Fig. 1. An ejector (12), Fig. 4 (not shown), which comprises a linear motor 24 and an arm (33) connected therewith for to - and - fro motion is then actuated to cause the arm (33) to push the package through the dispensing opening (14), after which the tray 30 is returned to its intermediate position.