This invention relates to apparatus for storing and dispensing articles.

In food retailing, articles for sale generally are stored on shelves and customers select articles for purchase by removing them from the shelves and transporting them to a location where they are paid for. The storage arrangement is unsatisfactory in that the articles must be located within reach of the customers. Therefore, a large amount of shelf space is required and/or it is necessary to provide a workforce employed solely for the purpose of stacking the shelves with articles to replace those which have been sold.

It is desirable, therefore, to provide apparatus for storing and dispensing articles which provide for increased storage capacity without extending floor space in order to provide such increased capacity.

In GB-A-0 789 281 there is disclosed a bin dispenser in which canned goods and like cylindrical articles may be placed for storage and for continuous dispensing to a delivery region. The dispenser comprises a plurality of vertical members maintained in spaced parallel relationship

and track configurations extending into the space between adjacent members to provide an inclined zig-zag track to carry cylindrical articles from a loading region at the top of the bin to the delivery region at a lowermost front side of the bin. The track extends outwardly from the bin at the delivery region in the form of a chute and is provided with end stops at the delivery end portion to retain cylindrical articles within the bin while allowing them to be removed upwardly and outwardly from the delivery region one at a time.

A disadvantage of such a bin dispenser is that it is often difficult to remove an article from the delivery end portion because of the force applied to the article due to the pressure of succeeding articles located in the track behind the article to be removed.

The present invention is characterised in that the chute is upwardly inclined at a delivery end portion thereof such that articles being delivered down the chute are slowed to a standstill and are sequentially located at the said delivery end portion as each successive article is removed from the chute.

It will be appreciated, therefore, that when articles are successively located at the delivery end portion of the chute, there is substantially no pressure due to succeeding

articles located in the chute behind the leading article and the leading article may thus easily be removed.

Following is a description, by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings, of one method of carrying the invention into effect.

In the drawings:-

Figure 1 is a perspective view, shown from the front, of one embodiment of apparatus in accordance with the present invention, and

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic cross-section in a plane parallel to a side wall of the apparatus as indicated at II-II of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown apparatus 10 for storing and dispensing cylindrical articles 11. The apparatus 10 comprises a rectangular container 12 having spaced parallel side panels 13,14, a top panel 15 and a rear panel 16. The container 12 is divided into compartments 17 by means of spaced parallel wall panels 18 and the wall panels 18 and the side panels 13,14 are connected one to another by means of downwardly extending tracks 19 arranged such that articles 11 roll downwardly in a zig-zag path from an upper inlet 20 to a lower outlet 21.

Each of the compartments 17 is provided with a downwardly extending chute 22, an upper end portion of each chute 22 being in communication with a corresponding outlet 21 of the corresponding compartment 17. Each chute 22 is provided with a forward upwardly curved dispensing portion 23 and each chute 22 is provided with an upper panel 24, a forward end portion of which is spaced from a forward end portion of the chute 22 to provide a dispensing aperture 25.

The arrangement is such that the articles 11 roll down a chute 22 and the downward momentum of the articles 11 in the chute 22 is equalised by gravitational force as the articles roll up the upwardly curved dispensing portion 23 of the chute 22 resulting in each leading article being located at the dispensing aperture 25.

Each of the compartments 17 may be provided with a door 26 located at a front portion of the container 12 so that articles 11 may be loaded into the compartments 17. Each door 26 may be provided with a glazed panel so that articles 11 in the corresponding compartment 17 are visible. End portions of tracks 19 which are located adjacent corresponding doors 26 may each have secured thereto a depending tab 27 for retaining the articles 11 in the corresponding compartment 17 when the door 26 is open. The tabs 27 are of such vertical dimension that they restrain articles 11 from passing out of the container 12 through the opening caused by opening of a door 26 but permit loading of

articles 11 into the container at different levels below the upper inlet 20.

It will be appreciated that the door or doors 26 may be located at the rear of the container 12 instead of at the front.