Apparatus and method for article dispensing
DCFirst Claim
Patent Images
1. An article dispenser comprising:
- (a) an article bay having opposite sides retainers defining a space for holding a plurality of articles;
(b) a conveying mechanism in the space of the article bay, and having a longitudinal axis, a first end positioned generally at a dispensing location, and operable to move articles along said longitudinal axis to the dispensing location wherein said space is adapted to hold a first layer of articles along said conveying mechanism.
1 Assignment
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for article dispensing includes an article bay for holding a plurality of articles, and a conveying mechanism below the article bay operable to move an article. The conveying mechanism can repeat such movement for succeeding articles to a dispensing location. Succeeding articles can optionally be placed on top of the articles directly on the conveying mechanism. The succeeding articles are retained until they move by gravity to the conveying mechanism.
30 Citations
56 Claims
-
1. An article dispenser comprising:
-
(a) an article bay having opposite sides retainers defining a space for holding a plurality of articles;
(b) a conveying mechanism in the space of the article bay, and having a longitudinal axis, a first end positioned generally at a dispensing location, and operable to move articles along said longitudinal axis to the dispensing location wherein said space is adapted to hold a first layer of articles along said conveying mechanism. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. A dispenser assembly for holding a plurality of a product and dispensing said product one by one comprising:
-
(a) a housing having a bottom, back, and opposites sides;
(b) a generally unobstructed open space inside the housing adapted to hold said plurality of products;
(c) a conveying mechanism positioned at or near the bottom of the housing and positioned in the bottom of said space between the back and front of the housing.
-
-
33. A dispenser assembly for articles comprising:
-
(a) a helical member having a back and front ends along a longitudinal axis and comprising flights having article holding spaces therebetween, the helical member adapted to hold a row of articles to be dispensed transversely in said holding spaces and advance the articles to the front end of the helical member;
(b) a frame in which the helical member is positioned;
(c) a motor mounted to the frame and including a rotatable axle;
(d) a connection between the axle and the helical member adapted to cause rotation of the helical member around its longitudinal axis upon rotation of the axle of the motor;
(e) retaining walls positioned along the helical member on opposite sides of the longitudinal member, and extending upwardly to define a space adapted to hold, transversely of the longitudinal axis of the helical member, a plurality of articles to be dispensed in a stacked relationship of at least a lowermost layer and a succeeding layer above the lower-most layer;
(f) a retaining member positioned at or near the front of said space;
(g) an outlet from the frame at or near the front end of the helical member through which can pass an article in the front most position in the helical member. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
-
-
38. A method of dispensing articles comprising:
-
(a) supporting a lower layer of articles;
(b) vertically stacking a one or more succeeding articles upon the lower layer;
(c) moving the lower layer towards an outlet;
(d) allowing an article in the lower layer closest the outlet to pass out of the outlet for dispension, reducing the number of articles in the lower layer by one, while the succeeding articles ride over one or more articles in the lower layer or, by gravity, assume a position in the lower layer. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
-
-
54. A method of dispensing articles comprising:
-
(a) supporting a plurality of cylindrical articles successively abutting and on top of one another from a row of articles in a bottom-most layer upwardly, the bottom-most layer having a front end and back end along a longitudinal axis;
(b) moving articles in the bottom-most layer along its longitudinal axis;
(c) dispensing an article from the bottom-most layer and creating a space in the bottom-most layer from the loss of said dispensed article. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56)
-
Specification