Patent Application
20150191950
Product dispensers are widely used to dispense products to a customer. Typically, these dispensers have a container for a product (or a variety of products), a payment receptacle, and a door or cover used to cover the container and payment receptacle. Commonly, these dispensers are located in heavily trafficked areas, outdoors, or in other places where securing and monitoring a dispenser can be difficult or cost prohibitive.
Typically, product dispensers are made from a variety of materials that can be easily broken or otherwise punctured, such as glass, thin steel, or plastic. Products, coinage, paper money, and payment tokens can be easily stolen from these product dispensers, exposing the owner of a product dispenser to monetary losses for lost products, lost payments, and repairs to broken dispensers.
A product dispenser security door may be described. Exemplary embodiments of a product dispenser security door may have a frame, a cover coupled to the frame, a plurality of hinges, a plurality of padlock latches coupled to the frame and a product dispenser, and a padlock cover configured to cover the plurality of padlock latches. Exemplary embodiments may have solid or perforated covers coupled to the frame. Any number of sets of padlock latches, comprising at least one padlock latch coupled to the frame and at least one padlock latch coupled to a product dispenser and adjacent to the at least one padlock latch coupled to the frame, may be covered by a padlock cover configured to cover the shackle of an attached padlock such that cutting tools would not be able to be used to cut the shackle of an attached padlock.
Advantages of embodiments of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments thereof, which description should be considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which:
a shows an embodiment of a product dispenser door having a solid cover.
b shows an embodiment of a product dispenser door having an expanded or perforated cover.
Aspects of the invention are disclosed in the following description and related drawings directed to specific embodiments of the invention. Alternate embodiments may be devised without departing from the spirit or the scope of the invention. Additionally, well-known elements of exemplary embodiments of the invention will not be described in detail or will be omitted so as not to obscure the relevant details of the invention. Further, to facilitate an understanding of the description, discussion of several terms used herein follows.
The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Likewise, the term “embodiments of the invention” does not require that all embodiments of the invention include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.
Referring generally to
In some embodiments, dispenser security door 100 may be coupled to a product dispenser by coupling the first mounting plate 106 of each of the attached at least one hinge 104 to a first side of a product dispenser. The second mounting plate 108 of hinge 104 may be coupled to the first end of frame 102. Frame 102 may have at least one first padlock latch 112 coupled to a second side of a product dispenser, and at least one second padlock latch may be coupled to a second end of frame 102. One or more padlock covers 116 may be coupled to the second end of frame 102.
Referring generally to
Referring now to
In other embodiments of dispenser security door 100, a portion of an at least one hinge 104 may be disposed directly on frame 102 and a completing portion may be disposed on the at least one mounting plate 106. Mounting plate 106 may have one or more hinges or hinge portions disposed from or coupled to it, as may frame 102. In an exemplary embodiment, frame 102 may have two top portions of a rising butt hinge and mounting plate 106 may have two bottom portions of a rising butt hinge, allowing frame 102 to be hinged to mounting plate 106. In yet other embodiments, a portion of hinge 104 may be directly coupled to frame 102 and a counterpart portion of hinge 104 may be directly coupled to a product dispenser.
Referring now to
Alternatively, a second padlock latch is not required. Padlock cover 116 may have an aperture allowing a first padlock latch 112 to removably insert into cover 116 when security door 100 is in a closed position and consequently a second end of frame 102 is adjacent a second side of a product dispenser. When dispenser security door 100 is in a closed position and a padlock is inserted through an aperture in first padlock latch 112, it may prevent dispenser security door 100 from opening by preventing first padlock latch 112 from exiting the aperture in padlock cover 116.
Security door 100 may be configured to be generally resilient to impact and resistant to cutting. In some exemplary embodiments, the components of security door 100 may be made from a heavy gauge steel. In other embodiments, the components of security door 100 may be made from titanium or titanium alloys. In still further embodiments, the components of security door 100 may be made from aluminum alloys (for example, 6061 aluminum alloy, 7075 aluminum alloy, or aluminum-lithium alloys like Weldalite 049). It may be recognized, however, that the materials listed above are not limiting and may be substituted for by any appropriate material known in the art.
Cover 110, first padlock latches 112, second padlock latches, and padlock covers 116 may be configured to deter persons from breaking into a product dispenser protected by a security door 100. In some exemplary embodiments, cover 110 may have a thickness of between ¼ and ¾ inch; however, covers of any thickness are envisioned. First padlock latches 112 and second padlock latches may have a thickness of between ¼ and ⅜ inch; however, any thickness is envisioned, constrained by the length of the straight portion of the padlock shackle used to securably couple security door 100 to a product dispenser. Padlock cover 116 may have a thickness of between ¼ and ⅜ inch; however, padlock covers of any thickness are envisioned.
The foregoing description and accompanying drawings illustrate the principles, preferred embodiments and modes of operation of the invention. However, the invention should not be construed as being limited to the particular embodiments discussed above. Additional variations of the embodiments discussed above will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.
Therefore, the above-described embodiments should be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that variations to those embodiments can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
