Flat Item Depositing and Outputting Apparatus

Abstract

The present invention provides a flat item depositing and outputting apparatus. The apparatus comprises a cabinet body. A depositing shelf and an item transferring mechanism for outputting the flat item are disposed within the cabinet body. An item outputting port is disposed on the cabinet body. The depositing shelf comprises vertical posts (2) and baffle plates (1) disposed on the vertical posts (2). Baffle plate layers are formed between baffle plates (1). The item transferring mechanism comprises a pushing rod (6) that can pass through the baffle plate layers and a movement element for driving the pushing rod (6) to move. The shape of the flat item does not limit the apparatus when the apparatus transfers the item. The apparatus does not damage the item when transferring the item.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a flat item depositing and outputting apparatus, and particularly to an apparatus for depositing and outputting flat items, such as periodicals, newspapers, magazines and books.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]As a sale mode convenient for shopping, an automatic vender has been accepted by more and more people. At present, the common automatic venders include a cold drink vender, a nosh vender, a condom vender, a paper towel vender, a smallware vender, a OTC drugs vender, a newspaper vender, an automatic hot drink vender and the like. However, with respect to items like journals and books, due to outline and side, thickness, weight, material of cover and package thereof are different from each other and they are not fully rigid, a depositing and outputting mechanism of the common automatic vender is hard to be applied in such items. Therefore, up to now, an automatic vender for selling books, journals and the like remains ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The problem to be solved in the present invention is to provide a flat item depositing and outputting apparatus, which transfers items without being limited by the shapes of flat items such as newspapers and magazines, accurately outputs the items, enables the items convenient to be deposited and outputted and capable of being positioned and selected to be outputted according to a command, and will not damage the items during the transferring thereof, with respect to the deficiencies existing in the prior art.

[0013]In order to prevent the receiver bin from being crushed due to excessive weight of the items and make the procedure of transferring the items more smooth, the preferred item receiving mechanism may further comprise a linear guide rail, which is provided in the vicinity of the item outputting port in such a manner to parallel to the first linear driver and on which a slide block capable of sliding up and down along the body of the linear guide rail is provided, and the other side edge of the receiver bin is fixed to the slide block.

[0014]The receiver bin reaches the selected baffle plate layer before the pushing rod moves to a position where it is required to take items out, therefore, the item receiving mechanism is an ideal mechanism for performing the take-out procedure quickly and being compact.

[0023]The item transferring mechanism in the present invention can position and output items only by use of two-dimensional movement of the vertical (Z) direction and the depth (Y) direction. The maintenance procedure of the item transferring mechanism is simpler and more convenient than the case of employing the manner of a three-dimensional system and a suction disk, and the manufacturing and maintenance costs are reduced.

Problems solved by technology

However, with respect to items like journals and books, due to outline and side, thickness, weight, material of cover and package thereof are different from each other and they are not fully rigid, a depositing and outputting mechanism of the common automatic vender is hard to be applied in such items.

Due to the fact that flat items the material and quality of surface, packaging form, degree of roughness and weight of journals and books are different from each other, it can not be ensured that attraction of various items by use of the suction disk succeeds each time.

Furthermore, the manners of using three-dimensional mechanical arm and the vacuum suction disk cause increase manufacturing and maintenance costs.

Due to an unstable track of the magazine's falling in this manner, a jam often occurs in an item transferring passage.

Furthermore, such a manner of dropping and outputting items causes books and magazines to be easily damaged and makes it inconvenient to put items on the shelves.

It is known from the above that the existing automatic vender is not suitable for selling flat items such as periodicals, newspapers, magazines and books, mainly because the depositing and outputting apparatus of the automatic vender can not meet the requirement of the particular performance of such items.

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