Transportation vending machine

• US 6,234,345 B1
• Filed: 03/03/1999
• Issued: 05/22/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sisyphean, LLC, Coca-Cola Company (The Coca-Cola Company)
• Original Assignee: The Coca-Cola Company
• Inventors: Minh, Tran Q., Osborne, Stephan A., Baker, Rex M. III, Carlson, Paul Albert, Reynal, Alejandro
• Primary Examiner(s): Bollinger, David H.
• Application Number:
  US09/261,263
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• Field of Search: 221/123, 221/124, 221/125, 221/131, 221/150.R, 221/185, 221/191, 221/194, 221/195, 221/256, 221/266, 221/312.R, 221/281, 312/36, 312/42, 312/45, 312/72, 312/73
• US Class Current: 221/124
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/34 in which the magazines are of zig-zag form

Abstract

A transportation vending machine, and more generally a vending machine and cooling dispenser especially suited to environments in which there is limited space available. A serpentine path in the dispenser is formed from two-pieces of rotary-molded plastic having complimentary, serpentine surfaces which form a serpentine path when positioned against one another. Vending, without the need for selection buttons, is achieved by way of the cradles and an interlock system. Efficient cooling is provided by a thermoelectric cooling system that also consumes very little space.

Claims

1. A vending machine for vending items, said vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said vended items, said dispenser including a plurality of motion-controllable cradles, each of said cradles being operable to convey one of said items to a customer;

a plurality of sensors to sense open or closed states of said cradles, respectively;

a controller to permit, upon the payment of a fee, any one said plurality of cradles to be opened, said controller being responsive to said sensors to determine when a first one of said cradles is partially opened, and said controller being operable to permit said first cradle to be fully opened while preventing the other ones of said plurality of cradles from being opened enough to withdraw an item so as to restrict items dispensed to one item per fee; and

a payment device to receive payment of a fee from a customer and a plurality of selectively extendable pins that selectively engage with said cradles to prevent said cradles from being rotated, respectively, enough to permit withdrawal of an item,

wherein said sensors are switches that have a first state when said cradle is in a closed position and a second state when said cradle is in a partially opened state; and

wherein, upon said payment of said fee, said controller is operable to

determine if one of said sensors has changed from said first state to said second state,

permit a cradle corresponding to said changed sensor to be opened for a predetermined duration, and

cause all of said cradles to lock after expiration of said predetermined duration.

2. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein vending is accomplished without the provision of selection buttons by which a customer could indicate a desired item.

3. The vending machine of claim 1, wherein said controller is operable to use said switches to indicate motion of said cradles, but also to indicate when corresponding serpentine columns are sold out of product.

4. A dispenser to store and dispense items, said dispenser comprising:

a surface facing a recipient of one of said items;

a plurality of openings in said surface, each of said openings being operable to convey one of said items; and

a door in said surface, said door being operable to permit at least one of a stock of said items to be replenished and accessed for services of said dispenser.

5. The dispenser of claim 4, wherein each of said openings is connected to said door via a path.

6. The dispenser of claim 5, wherein said path is a serpentine path.

7. The dispenser of claim 4, wherein each of said openings is occupied by a motion-controllable cradle.

8. A vehicle vending machine for storing, cooling and vending a plurality of items on a vehicle, said vehicle vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said plurality of items, said dispenser including at least one path over which said plurality of items moves through said dispenser;

a cooling device to maintain a refrigerated state of said plurality of items in said dispenser; and

a vend system to control the flow of said items through said path of said dispenser, said vend system including a power quality circuit to interrupt power to said cooling device if the power supplied from the vehicle is of unacceptable quality.

9. The vending machine as in claim 8, wherein a portion of said path is a thermally conductive portion having a rippled surface complimentarily-shaped to said items to promote conductive cooling.

10. The vehicle vending machine of claim 8, wherein vending is accomplished without the provision of selection buttons by which a customer could indicate a desired item.

11. The vehicle vending machine of claim 8, wherein said cooling device is a thermoelectric device.

12. A transportation cooler for storing, cooling and dispenser a plurality of items on a vehicle, said transportation dispenser comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said plurality of items, said dispenser including a path by which each one of said plurality of items moves through said dispenser;

a cooling system, powered by an electrical system of said vehicle, to maintain a refrigerated state of said plurality of items in said dispenser;

an undervoltage circuit to sense an undervoltage condition when voltage supplied by the vehicle electrical system drops below a reference voltage; and

a controller to remove said cooling system from said vehicle electrical system when said undervoltage condition is sensed.

13. The transportation cooler of claim 12, wherein said controller is operable to restore power to said cooling system a predetermined time after said power is removed such that power restoration exhibits hysterisis.

14. The transportation cooler of claim 12, wherein said reference voltage is a first reference voltage, said dispenser further comprising:

an overvoltage circuit to sense an overvoltage condition when voltage supplied by said vehicle electrical system rises above a second reference voltage;

wherein said controller is operable to disconnect said cooling system from said vehicle electrical system when said overvoltage condition is sensed.

15. The transportation cooler of claim 12, wherein said cooling device includes at least one of a thermoelectric device and a fan.

16. A transportation vending machine for vending items on a vehicle, said transportation vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to dispense said items, said dispenser including at least one path over which said plurality of items moves through said dispenser;

at least one sensor to sense whether one of said items is in a predetermined location on said at least one path, respectively;

a controller to receive a signal from said at least one sensor and to filter out noise in the at least one sampled signal in order to deal with spurious signals caused by vibration of said vehicle.

17. The transportation vending machine of claim 16, wherein said sensor is a switch.

18. The transportation vending machine of claim 16, wherein said controller is operable to sample said signal from said at least one sensor and to treat a continuous preset number of samples satisfying a predetermined condition as a true reading of said predetermined condition.

19. The transportation vending machine of claim 16, further comprising at least one rotatable cradle terminating said at least one path, respectively, said at least one sensor being positioned to sense rotation of said at least one cradle, respectively.

20. The transportation vending machine of claim 19, wherein said at least one sensor is located such that a signal therefrom can be used by said controller to determine rotation of said cradle and to determine whether said at least one path is sold out of items, respectively.

21. A vending machine for vending items, said vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said vended items, said dispenser including a plurality of motion-controllable cradles, each of said cradles being operable to convey one of said items to a customer;

a plurality of sensors to sense open or closed states of said cradles, respectively;

a controller to permit, upon the payment of a fee, any one said plurality of cradles to be opened, said controller being responsive to said sensors to determine when a first one of said cradles is partially opened, and said controller being operable to permit said first cradle to be fully opened while preventing the other ones of said plurality of cradles from being opened enough to withdraw an item so as to restrict items dispensed to one item per fee; and

a plurality of locking devices for said plurality of cradles, respectively, wherein upon loss of power, said plurality of locking devices default to a state in which said plurality of cradles are locked so as to prevent withdrawal of items.

22. The vending machine of claim 21, wherein said plurality of locking devices are solenoid-activated pins.

23. A vending machine for vending items, said vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said vended items, said dispenser including a plurality of motion-controllable cradles, each of said cradles being operable to convey one of said items to a customer;

a plurality of sensors to sense open or closed states of said cradles, respectively; and

a controller to permit, upon the payment of a fee, any one said plurality of cradles to be opened, said controller being responsive to said sensors to determine when a first one of said cradles is partially opened, and said controller being operable to permit said first cradle to be fully opened while preventing the other ones of said plurality of cradles from being opened enough to withdraw an item so as to restrict items dispensed to one item per fee, said controller including at least one of manually reconfigurable dual inline package (DIP) switches and post jumpers by which said controller is operable to determine pricing of the product that is to be vended.

24. A vending machine for vending items, said vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said vended items, said dispenser including a plurality of motion-controllable cradles, each of said cradles being operable to convey one of said items to a customer, said plurality of cradles being formed and mounted in said dispenser so as to rotate to a closed position due to gravity;

a plurality of sensors to sense open or closed states of said cradles, respectively; and

a controller to permit, upon the payment of a fee, any one said plurality of cradles to be opened, said controller being responsive to said sensors to determine when a first one of said cradles is partially opened, and said controller being operable to permit said first cradle to be fully opened while preventing the other ones of said plurality of cradles from being opened enough to withdraw an item so as to restrict items dispensed to one item per fee.

25. A vending machine for vending items, said vending machine comprising:

a dispenser to store and dispense said vended items, said dispenser including a plurality of motion-controllable cradles, each of said cradles being operable to convey one of said items to a customer;

a plurality of constant-force springs to bias said plurality of cradles to a closed position, respectively;

a plurality of sensors to sense open or closed states of said cradles, respectively; and

a controller to permit, upon the payment of a fee, any one said plurality of cradles to be opened, said controller being responsive to said sensors to determine when a first one of said cradles is partially opened, and said controller being operable to permit said first cradle to be fully opened while preventing the other ones of said plurality of cradles from being opened enough to withdraw an item so as to restrict items dispensed to one item per fee.