Patent Application
20130056488
The present application relates generally to drive systems for a cup turret in beverage vending machines and, more specifically, to accurate and scalable cup turret drive systems.
Cup beverage vending machines, such as vending machines that dispense cups of hot beverages, often at least optionally provide a cup to the purchaser. Cups are stored in a rotatable cup turret, which holds multiple stacks of cups of the same or different sizes, and dropped from the turret to a delivery station, where a beverage is dispensed into the cup. Cup turret assemblies including multiple turrets are rotated to align an individual turret with the funnel throat through which a cup dispensed from the respective turret passes.
Historically cup turret assemblies with multiple turrets have used a drive mechanism that operates on (provides driving force to) a central axis or pin in order to effect rotation. However, such drive mechanisms suffer from problems relating to (a) the accuracy of the angular position (the amount of rotation relative to a reference orientation) required to align a turret with the funnel throat, and (b) in cups turrets that dispense cups of different diameters or between two cup turrets that dispense cups of different diameters, accommodating differences in the distance between the central axis and the funnel throat. Various mechanisms proposed or implemented to address those issues have significantly increased the cost of the drive assembly and/or cu turret assembly.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for an improved cup turret drive assembly in a cup beverage vending machine.
A cup turret carousel includes a gear drive track around a periphery thereof, to be driven by a planetary gear rather than being driven from the central axis and thereby reduce cost and achieve greater accuracy in aligning a cup turret with the cup funnel throat for cup delivery. The drive gear is maintained in a in a fixed position relative to a cup funnel throat through which cups pass when dropped, so that the same drive assembly may be employed with cup turret carousels of different diameters.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:
A cup turret carousel is driven by a planetary (peripheral) gear, so that a small gear (e.g., 20 teeth) drives a much larger gear track (e.g., 220 teeth) around a periphery of the cup turret carousel. This allows each cup turret to be aligned with the funnel throat much more accurately. No issue with speed of rotation is created; existing designs using a central drive typically need to be heavily geared down to drive slowly (e.g., 1-2 revolutions per minute).
The cup turrets 107 are secured to and supported by the cup turret carousel 105. In the example depicted, a central separator 108 and a peripheral housing 109 form four cup turrets 107, each of which can hold one stack of cups. The cup turrets 107 may be configured to hold cups of the same size or of different sizes, or some permutation thereof (e.g., one turret for a first size, while the remaining three all hold cups of a second size different than the first).
In the design of the present disclosure, cup turret carousels of different sizes are driven using the same drive assembly 100. An adjustable pin 119 that may be moved closer to or further away from the center of funnel throat 103 allows the different size cup turret carousels to be mounted on the drive assembly, while keeping the position of the drive gear 102 fixed relative to the funnel throat 103.
Although the present disclosure has been described with exemplary embodiments, various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art. It is intended that the present disclosure encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/527,811 entitled “PLANETARY GEAR DRIVE CUP TURRET FOR CUP DROP UNIT IN BEVERAGE VENDING MACHINE” and filed on Aug. 26, 2011 (Attorney Docket CRAN01-00538). The content of the above-identified patent document is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61527811 | Aug 2011 | US |
