ES1222654U - Vending machine for automatic sale (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

A vending machine for sale items characterized in that it comprises at least one collective package containing a reload of sales items; and a base of the machine configured to receive and dispense said reload of sales items contained in the collective container. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

Vending machine for automatic sale

Technician field of the invention

The present invention is part of the technical field of automatic vending machines or vending (neologism of English origin that means automatic sale), also called vending machines and the methods of automatic sale. In particular, especially applicable to the known machines of micro-vending also known as automatic vending machines without connection to the electric network.

Background of the invention

Of all it is known the existence of automatic vending machines, normally located in public spaces, for example, in establishments such as pharmacies, entertainment venues, airports, theaters, train stations, etc., but which can also be located in public spaces. private character, such as waiting rooms or relaxation rooms in companies, administrative buildings, that is, any establishment whose access by the public is controlled, limited or prohibited.

At the time when one or several types of products are sold on these machines, they must be replaced by new ones by a person, usually an employee of a company that owns and manages one, or more commonly, several and / or numerous automatic vending machines distributed in a city, municipality or region.

The commercial margins of the products sold in vending or automatic vending machines are moderate or scarce, and it is therefore necessary that a large number of items be sold to obtain profitable profitability from vending or automatic sale activities. This can be achieved by installing a wide network of vending machines or automatic vending machines and employing people who perform the maintenance and replacement of the machines.

The task of repositioning the product in vending machines or automatic vending is usually that a person opens the vending machine and replenishes one by one the new sales items in the corresponding vacant places within the machine. When a person has to replace a whole network of vending machines or automatic sale, this task that is feasible for a single machine, becomes a tedious and repetitive task and also that it consumes too much time, with which the reposition of an elevated number of vending machines or vending (automatic sale) becomes too expensive and becomes a laborious and tedious task for the replenishment and unproductive and burdensome for the management company of the network of machines.

This is done with an estimated periodicity to get the machine to be the minimum time without products to sell, but it is also not possible to make a replacement very often, because this would increase the personnel and travel expenses to make the replacements. It is important that the replenishments are made less frequently necessary so that the machines always have products available for sale.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A first aspect of the present invention provides a vending machine for sale items that comprises at least one collective package containing a reload of sale items; and a base of the machine configured to receive and dispense said recharge of sales items contained in the collective container.

A collective container refers to a container suitable for storing and transporting a multitude of sales items, corresponding with a full recharge of a certain type of products of a vending machine and in turn; to recharge a type of product to the vending machine in a single operation, instead of recharging each item individually, that is, one by one; to keep the sale items organized within the machine and to facilitate the dispensing thereof.

A vending machine as described above has the advantage that the recharge of product or different lines of product is carried out with greater ease and speed than when recharging a machine in which the sales items have to be recharged individually, that is to say, one by one. While this advantage implies saving only a few minutes in the recharge of a single machine, when it is necessary to recharge a whole network of vending machines, this new type of machines allows to reduce the recharge time of the entire network in several hours , with the consequent savings in costs and effort.

Preferably the dispensing machine comprises a lock with key. By understanding a lock with a key, it prevents the public from easily accessing the product contained inside the collective container.

In some embodiments, the dispensing machine comprises a protective casing that surrounds the collective container and the base of the machine and the key lock is produced between the protective casing and the base of the machine.

In other embodiments, the protective casing is omitted and the key lock is produced between the collective container and the base of the machine.

Preferably, the base of the machine comprises a mechanical coupling and uncoupling system of the collective container. With a system of mechanical coupling and decoupling it is ensured that the collective container maintains its position with respect to the base of the machine during use, and to prevent it from being dislodged in the event that The machine receives blows or suffers sudden movements, which guarantees the correct operation of the machine, after said blows or sudden movements.

Preferably, the mechanical coupling and uncoupling system is sliding. With this mechanical coupling system, the empty container is removed and the new product-filled container is easily recharged, simply by sliding the empty collective container out and the new one to its corresponding place where it is mechanically coupled to the base of the container. machine.

Preferably, the sliding mechanical coupling and uncoupling system comprises flanges, slides or other type of sliding anchoring.

Alternatively or additionally, the coupling and uncoupling system of the collective container is pressure adjustable. With this type of mechanical coupling, a product replacement is also made quickly and a stronger coupling is obtained than with just the sliding. Examples of this type of coupling can be of the groove and flange type, of the ball type and semi-spherical cassette, etc. With these types of coupling you can also get a verification that the container is in the correct position.

Alternatively or additionally, the system of mechanical coupling and decoupling is of imprisonment. This type of mechanical coupling is also simple, durable and easy to couple and uncouple and a stronger coupling is achieved than with pressure adjustment systems. Examples of this type of mechanical coupling system can be elastic bands with hooks, buckles, clips, clips, hooks, etc.

Preferably, the base of the vending machine comprises a system for detecting the state of charge of the product or the state of the spent product and a telecommunication system of said state. With these systems of detection and telecommunication, the company or person in charge of managing the recharge of a machine or a network of vending machines can program the recharging activities of one or more machines in a way that maximizes the effectiveness of the time of travel and of recharge of the machines. For example, the visit to some machines of the network can be ignored if it is verified that the state of charge of the machine is complete or almost complete. In other cases, these systems also make it possible to organize an ex-profeso visit , outside of routine visits, to a machine that from one day to the next changes from an almost complete state to a state of exhausted product.

Preferably, the system for detecting the state of product loading or the state of spent product comprises a counter of the times that a given product is dispensed. With an accountant can easily determine how many items or products are inside the machine to sell by difference in the number of products of a recharge and the number of products dispensed. This system allows to establish not only the state of exhausted product, but also if the machine is fully charged, almost completely charged, half loaded, almost empty or completely empty.

Alternatively or additionally, the system for detecting the state of product loading or the status of the product sold comprises a distance sensor.

Alternatively or additionally, the system for detecting the state of product loading or the status of the product sold comprises a weight or balance sensor.

Preferably, the telecommunication system of the exhausted product or product load state comprises a wireless communication system, such as, for example, a Wi-Fi connection system that allows the machine to connect to the internet and send information about the state load of product or product sold by SMS, e-mail, WhatsApp, or any other form of telecommunication that currently exists or may exist in the future. Other appropriate telecommunication systems are those known under the acronym M2M (machine to machine, or in Spanish "machine to machine"). In this way, it is not necessary to be in the vicinity of the machine to know its state of charge.

In particular, M2M refers to the new technologies of industrial connectivity that allows to locate in real time the telecommunication system or device and verify that it can perform or have the machine perform all the tasks for which it is programmed. Nowadays, the M2M devices have a low cost and a very reduced electrical consumption, being able to operate autonomously with a battery for two years. These M2M devices use a telephone data card, such as mobile phones.

Preferably, the telecommunication system of the M2M type is of low frequency operation. With M2M devices operating at low frequency, effective remote communication can be established even when mobile telephony coverage is not optimal.

Alternatively or additionally, the telecommunication system of the state of charge of product or of exhausted product comprises a communication system by cable. A cable telecommunication system can be useful in case telecommunication by wireless technology is not available or suffer periods when it is inaccessible. It can, therefore, be useful for situations in which communications over Wi-Fi or M2M are temporarily suspended or in places where this form of telecommunication is simply not available.

Preferably, the base of the vending machine comprises a removable closed receptacle whose interior is accessible only by key, password or any other security device and which is configured to receive payments from the sale of articles. In this way, the collection workers do not have direct access to the collection of the vending machines and frauds are avoided by them. The collection is made therefore, removing a receptacle with collection and replacing it with another similar receptacle that is empty and delivering the receptacle with collection to the person in charge of the management of the vending machines.

Preferably the base of the vending machine comprises a system of detection and warning by the telecommunications system of when the closed receptacle is full of collection and needs to be replaced by another vacuum.

Preferably the base of the vending machine comprises a product dispensing system operated exclusively manually. With a product dispensing system operated exclusively manually, the electrical energy requirements for the operation of the machine are minimal, only those necessary to power the electronic systems of product detection, collection and telecommunication.

Preferably the base of the vending machine comprises an electric battery. By having an electric battery, the vending machine can be installed without connection to the electric network, which allows it to be installed in a greater number of points of sale where there is no possibility of connection to the electric network. Also, when having an electric battery, it is possible that the machine works when the electrical supply through the electrical network is interrupted.

Preferably, the collective container is reusable. When using reusable collective containers, this system of repositioning of vending machine items does not imply a fixed cost in collective containers, since with a constant quantity of collective containers a whole network of vending machines can be replenished without having to acquire a new collective container for each recharge. Reusable collective containers also contribute to the generation of no waste during refills or product replacements.

Preferably, the collective container is made of a recyclable material. A collective container of recyclable material can be recycled if it suffers damages that impede its use and it must be discarded. When the collective container is recyclable, when it is to be discarded it does not contribute to the volume of waste that ends up in the landfill, since it would be deposited along with the recyclable waste. This feature makes collective recyclable containers more respectful with the environment.

Preferably, the collective package has a sufficient mechanical strength to withstand bumps during transport and handling while being made of a lightweight material that involves the minimum possible load when handled by the replenishing personnel.

Preferably, the collective container is made of cardboard. A collective carton of stone board offers sufficient mechanical resistance to withstand blows during transport and handling while being made of a lightweight material that implies a reduced load when handled by the replenishing personnel. At the same time, a collective cardboard carton allows the incorporation of advertising elements in the same container with ease, for example, by printing the stone carton prior to the shaping of the container.

Preferably, the collective container is located in such a position that the articles of sale move to a pre-dispensing position by gravity. In this way the energy requirements of the vending machine are minimized, by not having to push the sales items by an external force.

Alternatively or additionally, the collective package comprises an ejector element, such as for example a compression spring or a compressible elastic sponge, which maintains an expulsion force on the sales items disposed inside the collective container. An ejector element allows a force to be applied to the sale articles to facilitate their dispensing and transit inside the machine and to prevent the sale articles from being clogged during the dispensing.

Obviously, the vending machine can comprise other elements and systems typical of the vending machines known in the state of the art, such as payment system, dispensing mechanism and electronic and electrical components. These payment systems can be of various types, payment with coins, with tickets, with credit card, with mobile, etc. similarly, the dispensing mechanism can be of various types, but always compatible with the fact that the sale items are contained in a collective container coupled to the base of the machine.

In a preferred embodiment, the vending machine is modular and consists of a module that is the base of the machine configured to receive and dispense a reload of sales items contained in a collective container and in at least one other module that is a container collective that contains a recharge of sale items. A machine that dispenses a single type of product, for example coffee, can be converted into a machine that dispenses another type of product, for example tea or chocolate or snacks, just by changing the type of product contained in the container and making the adjustments necessary price and graphic representation in the collective packaging.

When the vending machine is modular, it is possible to establish a micro-vending business model with lower maintenance and product replacement costs, since the maintenance of the machines is not necessary insitu, that is, at the point of sale , because the light weight of the machines allows to remove them when they do not work correctly and replace them with another identical machine. Likewise, the repositioning of the product is carried out simply by replacing an empty or almost empty collective container, with another full of product, which is delivered, optionally, sealed and with an expiration date of the product. This confers greater confidence to the consumer and the owner of the machine that the product dispensed is always within its date of consumption. When replacing the product with a collective container, the product replacement is very quickly at a much lower cost than in current vending systems. Optionally, the collective container can be discarded and recycled or reused. This also confers flexibility, since when reused or reused, the replacement cost decreases, but if a collective container breaks down, it can be discarded to be recycled, so that this vending system is also respectful with the environment by generating very little waste.

Also, the collection is done in a more secure, because the collection staff just have to remove the module from the base and replace it with another identical module. The module of the base full of collection is delivered to the management staff of the vending or automatic sale business that is responsible for handling the collection. This avoids the frauds on the part of the personnel of collection, since in no time they can manipulate the collection directly, since this one is in a box with closing of security in the module of the base of the machine.

Finally and optionally, to improve the planning of the collection, the repositioning of the product and the maintenance of a network of vending machines or automatic vending machines such as those in Figure 5, these can incorporate a telecommunication system such as those described above, which are responsible for sending information to a management unit about the state of loading of the machine, the amount of collection, the number of products dispensed, the operating status of the machine, the battery charge, etc. All this information is used by the management staff of a network of vending machines or automatic sale to develop plans or periodic routes for maintenance, collection and reposition of the network of vending machines or automatic sale.

This type of machines, when they comprise a single collective container with only one type of product and a battery, so that they can operate autonomously (without connection to the electric network) for years, they are called a micro vending machine, due to its reduced size, low electrical consumption and reduced maintenance needs, because it can be managed thanks to the telecommunication system.

By having a small size, the micro-vending machines are delivered to customers sealed with the product, to offer a guarantee of not having been manipulated by people outside the production company. Likewise, the collective containers of spare or recharge are also delivered sealed.

By way of complementary elements to the invention, there is also provided a vending machine base for sale items configured to receive and dispense at least one recharge of sales items contained in a collective package according to the first aspect of the invention; and a collective container configured to contain a reload of sale items and be installed in a vending machine base during a period of sale and supply the items of sale to the vending machine for dispensing according to the first aspect of the invention.

Brief description of the Figures

Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 represents a rear perspective view of the vending machine of Figure 1.

Figures 3A and 3B represent front and rear perspective views, respectively, of the interior of the vending machine of Figure 1.

Figures 4A and 4B depict front and rear perspective views, respectively, of the base of the vending machine of Figure 1.

Figure 5 represents a perspective view of a vending machine according to another embodiment of the invention.

Figures 6A and 6B depict the collective container of the vending machine of Figure 5 and the base of the vending machine of Figure 5, respectively.

Detailed description of the invention

In the following, an embodiment of the present invention is described, by way of example only, to illustrate the most important features of the invention. The following description is not intended in any way to be a limitation of the scope of protection of the invention since the person skilled in the art can make numerous modifications of the described machine without extending outside the scope of protection claimed.

Figure 1 shows a perspective front view of a vending machine, indicated by reference numeral 1, according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this representation it can be seen that the machine comprises a base 2 and a protective casing 3. The base 2 comprises a rotating lever 4 for manually operating the product dispensing mechanism and defines a front opening 5 for removing the purchased article dispensed by the machine.

Figure 2 shows a rear perspective view of the vending machine 1 of Figure 1. In this view it is noted that the vending machine 1 comprises a collective pack 6 of stone board located above the base of the machine 2. It is also observed that the machine comprises a removable closed receptacle 7 whose interior is accessible only by key, password or any other security device and that is configured to receive payments from the sale of items. This removable receptacle 7 is commonly known as the collection box and its content is only accessible by deactivating the security element by authorized personnel.

Figures 3A and 3B represent front and rear perspective views, respectively, of the interior of the vending machine 1 of Figure 1, after having removed the protective casing 3. In these views it is observed that the collective package 6 defines holes 8 of visual verification of the state of loading of the product. Mechanical coupling elements 9 of the base 2 of the machine with the protective casing 3 are also observed in the form of sliding tabs.

Figures 4A and 4B represent front and rear perspective views, respectively, of the base of the vending machine of Figure 1. The manually operated rotary lever 4 located on the front of the base 2 of the vending machine rotates in solidarity with a gear 10 located inside the base 2 of the vending machine. The gear 10 engages with a crown plate 11 located horizontally and that lies below the collective container 6, when this is mounted on the base 2 of the vending machine. The crown plate 11 defines four holes 12 symmetrically distributed in the area of the crown plate 11 that when the machine is in use, serve to locate three sales items that were contained in the collective container 6 and that pass to three of the holes 12 of the plate- 11 crown by gravity. The crown plate 11 is located in turn on a plate 13 defining a dispensing orifice 14. When a user inserts the amount of the sale in the coin slot (or visible) and rotates the rotating lever 4, this causes turn the sprocket 10, which in turn causes the crown plate 11 to rotate a quarter of a turn, so that one of the holes 12 that contained a sale article, happens to be located just above the dispensing orifice 14 of the plate 13 and the article of sale falls by gravity to the front opening 5 of the base, where the user can remove the purchased item. At the same time, the hole 12 that previously occupied the place on the dispensing orifice 14, goes to occupy a different position in which it receives an article of sale of the collective container 6 by gravity. In this way, the mechanism for dispensing and recharging articles to the crown plate 11 works thanks to the manual action of the users and it is not necessary to supply an electric current for its operation.

Figure 5 represents a perspective view of a vending machine 20 according to another embodiment of the invention. The vending machine 20 of Figure 5 consists of a collective container 21, of carton stone in this case and of a base 22 of the vending machine. The vending machine 20 is modular, so that the same base 22 can be attached to different collective containers with different advertising labeling and printing and containing different products, that is, the same base serves to dispense coffee capsules, chocolates, sachets chocolate, which are contained in similar containers but with different product labeling. The vending machine 20 comprises a lockable key 23 between the collective container 21 and the base 22 of the machine that prevents access to the interior of the machine.

Figure 6A represents the module of the collective container 21 of the vending machine of Figure 5. The collective package 21 comprises a label 24 that describes the product for sale and an opening 25 into which the module of the base 22 of the container is inserted. machine with some slides (not visible).

Figure 6B depicts the module of the base 22 of the vending machine 20 of Figure 5. The base 22 comprises the dispensing mechanism (not visible), the payment device (not visible), the key lock 23, the lever manually operated 26 of the dispensing mechanism, the dispensing opening 27, the collection box (not visible), a system for counting the number of products dispensed (not visible) and a telecommunication device (not visible) for the exchange of information with the entity that owns or manages the machine. The base 22 is made of metal mainly, with some pieces in plastic, mainly to reduce the weight of it.

The machine represented in Figure 5 gives rise to establish a micro-vending business model with lower maintenance and product replacement costs, since the maintenance of the machines is not necessary in situ, that is, in the Point of sale, because the light weight of the machines allows them to be removed when they do not work correctly and replaced by another identical machine. Likewise, the repositioning of the product is carried out simply by replacing an empty or almost empty collective container, with another full of product, which is delivered, optionally, sealed and with an expiration date of the product. This confers greater confidence to the consumer and the owner of the machine that the product dispensed is always within its date of consumption. When replacing the product with a collective container, the product replacement is done very quickly at a much lower cost than in the current vending or vending systems. Optionally, the collective container can be discarded and recycled or reused. This also confers flexibility, since when reused or reused, the replacement cost decreases, but if a collective container breaks down, it can be discarded to be recycled, so that this vending or automatic sale system is also respectful of the environment by generating very little waste.

Also, the collection is done in a more secure, because the collection staff just have to remove the module from the base and replace it with another identical module. The module of the base full of collection is delivered to the management staff of the vending or automatic sale business that is responsible for handling the collection. This avoids the frauds on the part of the personnel of collection, since in no time they can manipulate the collection directly, since this one is in a box with closing of security in the module of the base of the machine.

Finally and optionally, to improve the planning of the collection, the repositioning of the product and the maintenance of a network of vending machines or automatic vending machines such as those in Figure 5, these can incorporate a telecommunication system such as those described above, which are responsible for sending information to a management unit about the state of loading of the machine, the amount of collection, the number of products dispensed, the operating status of the machine, the battery charge, etc. All this information is used by the management staff of a network of vending machines or automatic sale to develop plans or periodic routes for maintenance, collection and reposition of the network of vending machines or automatic sale.

Claims (26)

A vending machine for sale items characterized in that it comprises at least one collective package containing a reload of sale items; and a base of the machine configured to receive and dispense said recharge of sales items contained in the collective container. 2. A dispensing machine according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a key lock. 3. A dispensing machine according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises a protective casing that surrounds the collective container and the base of the machine and the lock with key is produced between the protective casing and the base of the machine. 4. A dispensing machine according to claim 2, characterized in that the lock is produced between the collective container and the base of the machine. 5. A dispensing machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the base of the machine comprises a mechanical coupling and uncoupling system of the collective container. 6. A dispensing machine according to claim 5, characterized in that the mechanical coupling and uncoupling system is sliding. 7. A dispensing machine according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the mechanical coupling and uncoupling system of the collective container is pressure adjusted. 8. A dispensing machine according to claims 5, 6 or 7, characterized in that the system of mechanical coupling and uncoupling of the collective container is trapping. 9. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the base of the vending machine comprises a system for detecting the state of product loading or the status of the product sold. 10. A vending machine according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises at least one telecommunication system of the state of product loading or of the state of product sold out. 11. A vending machine according to claims 9 or 10, characterized in that the system for detecting the state of product loading or the state of spent product comprises a counter of the times when a given product is dispensed. 12. A vending machine according to any of claims 9 to 11, characterized in that the system for detecting the state of product loading or the state of product sold comprises a distance sensor. 13. A vending machine according to any of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that the system for detecting the state of product loading or the status of the product sold comprises a weight or balance sensor. 14. A vending machine according to any of claims 10 to 13 characterized in that the telecommunication system of the state of charge of product or product sold comprises a wireless communication system. 15. A vending machine according to claim 14, characterized in that the wireless telecommunication system of the state of charge of the product or of the spent product is of the M2M type (machine to machine) at a low frequency. 16. A vending machine according to any of claims 10 to 15 characterized in that it comprises a cable telecommunication system of the state of charge of product or product sold out. 17. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the base of the vending machine comprises a removable closed receptacle whose interior is accessible only by key, password or other security device and that is configured to receive payments from the sale of articles . 18. A vending machine according to claim 17 when dependent on any claim 10 to 16 characterized in that the base of the vending machine comprises a system of detection and warning by the telecommunications system of when the closed receptacle is full of collection. 19. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the base of the vending machine comprises a product dispensing system operated exclusively manually. 20. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the base of the vending machine comprises an electric battery. 21. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the collective package is reusable. 22. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the collective package is made of a recyclable material. 23. A vending machine according to any previous claim characterized in that the collective container is made of cardboard. 24. A vending machine according to any previous claim characterized in that the collective package is located in a position such that the items of sale pass to a position of pre-dispensation by gravity. 25. A vending machine according to any preceding claim characterized in that the collective package comprises an ejector element. 26. A vending machine according to any previous claim characterized in that it is modular and consists of a module that is the base of the machine and another module that is the collective container.