The present invention refers to a withdrawing device for vending machines for delivering products .

Numerous arrangements of vending machines are known in the art, for delivering packaged products such as, for example, snacks, water and beverage bottles, cans, etc.: such machines, in general, provide an operating cycle during which a product is made fall through a suitable fall room of the selected product on a bearing plane and from which this latter one can be withdrawn by a user through a suitable withdrawal room.

Such machines however suffer some inconveniences deriving from the change of being relatively easily subjected to tampering or vandalic acts, which can reduce, if not even prevent, their correct operation, as well as allow the undue withdrawal of products contained therein: in fact, sizes and position of the above openings often allow inserting therein a hand and a non- authorised access to some internal components of the machine, as well as to the products contained therein.

In order to solve such inconveniences, some machines are equipped with a withdrawing device in which the bearing plane of the product to be withdrawn is rotating and equipped with a vertical wall, usually shaped as a cylinder sector, adapted to selectively and alternatively close either the withdrawal room, keeping the fall room open, when the product must be arranged onto the bearing plane, or the fall room of the product, keeping the withdrawal room open, when the product must be withdrawn from the bearing plane: once having withdrawn the product, suitable control and actuating means make the withdrawing device perform a reverse cycle, taking back the wall to close the withdrawal room and open the fall room, preparing the machine for a new vending cycle. This selective and alternate opening and closing of the openings obviously allows always keeping closed, upon every vending cycle of the machine, one of the possible spaces for a non-authorised access inside the machine from outside. An example of such type of withdrawing devices is disclosed in US 7,802,700. US 6,112,941 discloses a withdrawing device according to the preamble of Claim 1, which is used for delivering elongated documents with a delivering tray which opens towards the outside and for which no arrangement is necessary for preventing undesired intrusions, since the system interior is impossible to reach.

Object of the present invention is solving the above prior art problems, by providing a withdrawing device, in particular for vending machines for delivering products, alternative with respect to prior art devices.

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained with a withdrawing device, in particular for vending machines for delivering products, as claimed in claim 1. Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.

It is intended that all enclosed claims are an integral part of the present description.

It will be immediately obvious that numerous variations and modifications (for example related to shape, sizes, arrangements and parts with equivalent functionality) could be made to what is described, without departing from the scope of the invention as appears from the enclosed claims.

The present invention will be better described by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which:

Figures la and lb respectively show a right and a left perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a first operating position thereof;

Figure 2 shows a front view of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a first operating situation;

Figure 3 shows a side sectional view of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a second operating situation;

Figures 4a and 4b respectively show a right and a left perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a second operating position thereof;

Figures 5a and 5b respectively show a right and a left perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a third operating position thereof;

Figure 6 shows a side view of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a third operating situation; and

Figures 7a to 7d show detailed perspective views of some components of the withdrawing device according to the present invention in a sequence of various following operating positions.

Merely as a non-limiting example, herein below the withdrawing device according to the present invention will be described as applied to a vending machine for delivering products, but it is wholly clear that the same inventive device could find application in any other technical field which requires the operating features of the invention which will be described below.

Therefore, with reference to the Figures, it is possible to note that the withdrawing device 1 according to the present invention for a vending machine (not shown) for delivering products, comprises at least one supporting structure 3 equipped with at least one fall room 5 of a product in a withdrawal area 6 and at least one withdrawal 5 being equipped with at least one first moving bulkhead 13 and such withdrawal room 7 being equipped with at least one second moving bulkhead 15, such first bulkhead 13 being moving between a closing position (like the one, for example, shown in Figures 5a, 5b, 6, 7c and 7d) and an opening position (like the one, for example, shown in Figures la and 7a) of such fall room 5 and vice versa, and such second bulkhead 15 being moving between a closing position (like the one, for example, shown in Figures la, lb, 2 and 7a) and an opening position (like the one, for example, shown in Figures 5a, 5b, 6 and 7d) of such withdrawal room 7 and vice versa. Advantageously, such bulkheads 13, 15 are mutually and operatively cooperating so that, when such second bulkhead 15 is in its closing position of the withdrawal room 7, the first bulkhead 13 is in its opening position of the fall room 5: under such configuration, the product selected to be purchased (for example a bottle 8, as shown for example in Figures 2 and 3) can fall inside the withdrawal area 6 without any change of access from outside through the withdrawal room 7 closed by the second bulkhead 15. In addition, the device 1 according to the present invention can further comprise at least one blocking system 27 adapted to prevent the passage of such second bulkhead 15 from its closing position to its opening position of the withdrawal room 7 till the product 8 has reached the withdrawal area 6. In a preferred embodiment thereof, like the one for example shown in the Figures, such blocking system 27 comprises at least one cursor 29 equipped with an upper engagement surface 31 of such second bulkhead 15, such cursor 29 being sliding along a substantially vertical direction between an upper position (like the one, for example, shown in Figure 3) in which such upper portion 31 engages such second bulkhead 15 and prevents its opening, and a lower position (like the one, for example, shown in Figure 6) in which such upper portion 31 disengages such second bulkhead 15 and allows its passage from its closing position to its opening position of the withdrawal room 7, and vice versa: once such second bulkhead 15 is not in its closing position any more, the cursor 29 spontaneously returns, for example through the action of elastic means, to its upper position and engages the bulkhead 15 as soon as it goes back to its closing position.

Therefore, once the product 8 has reached the withdrawal area 6, and possibly the cursor 29 has reached its lower position, such second bulkhead 15 is manually or automatically taken to its opening position of the withdrawal room 7, while the first bulkhead 13 is taken to its closing position of the fall room 5, as shown, for example, in Figures 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b: in such configuration, the user can withdraw the product 8 from the withdrawal area 6 (as shown, for example, in Figure 6) through the withdrawal room 7, but cannot access with his hand inside the machine through the fall room 5, since it is kept closed by the first bulkhead 13.

Preferably, such fall room 5 and such withdrawal room 7 are arranged on two different walls, respectively 9, 11, of such supporting structure 3, such walls 9, 11 being mutually orthogonal. Still more preferably, such first bulkhead 13 is hinged with its vertical rotation axis 14 along a vertical side edge of such fall room 5, such vertical edge being on the side corresponding to the position of the wall 11 of the withdrawal room 7, while such second bulkhead 15 is hinged with its horizontal rotation axis 16 along a horizontal upper edge of such withdrawal room 7. Still more preferably, such first bulkhead 13 is arranged in a vertically higher position with respect to such second bulkhead 15.

Advantageously, as it is possible to note in particular from Figures 7a to 7d, such first bulkhead 13 and such second bulkhead 15 mutually cooperate by interference with relative sliding so that, when such second bulkhead 15 is taken from its closing position to its opening position, during such movement, it interferes by relative sliding with such first bulkhead 13 which is taken, at the same time and consequently, from its opening position to its closing position. Vice versa, when the second bulkhead 15 is taken from its opening position to its closing position (such movement can occur automatically or spontaneously by gravity) when the interference with the first bulkhead 13 ceases, this latter one goes back spontaneously from its closing position to its opening position: in order to make such movement easier, at least the first bulkhead 13 can be equipped with suitable elastic means, such as for example one or more torsion springs 17 cooperating with such hinge 14, adapted to push the first bulkhead 13 towards its opening position of the fall room 5.

In order to reduce the friction deriving from the relative sliding between the first bulkhead 13 and the second bulkhead 15, the device 1 according to the present invention can further comprise at least one friction-reducing means interposed between such first bulkhead 13 and such second bulkhead 15: preferably, such friction-reducing means comprise at least one sliding roller 19 adapted to transform the sliding friction deriving from the relative sliding between such bulkheads 13, 15 into rolling friction.

As stated, the second bulkhead 15 can be manually taken from its closing position to its opening position of the withdrawal room 7 to have access to the withdrawal area of the product 8, for example by pushing the second bulkhead 15 with a hand from outside towards inside the device 1, consequently generating a movement of the first bulkhead 13 from its opening position to its closing position of the fall room 5. Alternatively, the device 1 according to the present invention can be equipped with at least one suitable actuating means 21 adapted to automatically take such second bulkhead 15 from its closing position to its opening position of the withdrawal room 7 and vice versa. In particular, the actuating means 21 comprise at least one motor-reducer 23, possibly equipped with clutch for safety reasons, connected at least to the second bulkhead 15 by interposing at least one articulated quadrilateral kinematism 25.