BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to automatic vending machines, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for vending food products including popcorn and ice in a hangable paper or plastic bags that can be sealed to provide quality of the products.

2. Description of the Prior Art

For many years, paper and plastic bags have been widely used in supermarkets and stores for a number of purposes due to their low cost, lightweight, and relatively strength. However, present bags, of all sizes and configurations are provided only for hand operation purposes and can't be used in automatic vending machines. Some attempts to use present bags in automatic vending machines haven't a practical application. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,539 discloses a device for making, bagging, and delivering a sealed bag of ice to a consumer. The machine has a replaceable roll of plastic material which is conveyed through it and also, cutting and heat-sealing means for producing completely sealed bags of ice. As described in this patent the upper edge of the bag, while the bag is filling with ice, is being held by negative pressure of a vacuum tube means. It's simple but not simple enough for stability of the machine running and is unreliable. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,137,098 and 6,204,491 are describe a microwave popcorn bag technology adapted to contain a plurality of popcorn kernels with a predetermined amount of oil and spice to be heated and popped within the interior of the bag (by microwave energy). These technologies for automatically producing sealed bags with popcorn have some disadvantages:

a) The machine can produce only small packs of popcorn;

b) The process of cooking is complicated: at first time the corn seeds must be sealed in packs and only then these packs can be cooked.

To the description of the Prior Art related also U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,940 that describes a novel construction whereby pail boxes can be automatically made inside of a vending machine for packing with goods. However, this patent, for whatever reasons, has not found practical use.

Consequently, these deficiencies in sum create need for a novel construction of bags that can be used in automatic vending machines for packing and sealing widely assorted products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Generally stated, the object of the invention is to provide an automatic vending technology for vending products, particularly popcorn and ice, whereby consumer can purchase product in sealed paper or plastic bags of multiple sizes by depositing a special amount of money into the slot of the machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved hangable paper and plastic bags capable for use in automatic vending machines for vending products in sealing packages.

In accordance with the present invention the automatic vending machine comprises: a housing for holding the components of the machine, an industrial apparatus with dispenser adapted to produce and dispense product of definite quality to the predetermined place, a rack means for hanging and delivering next bag to the loading area of said dispenser, a vacuum means for opening the top edge of the bag and also for withdrawing the completely sealed bag with product from said rack, a retaining means for retaining the rear wall of the bag while the vacuum means will gripped the front wall to provide an opening of the bag, and hangable paper or plastic bags suited for use with this automatic vending technology. In order that the invention and objects thereof may be readily understood and put into practice, reference will now be made to the various figures of the following drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1

is a perspective view of this present automatic vending machine without outer casing, showing one production line for dispensing products in gussets paper bags;

FIG. 2

is a perspective view showing a hangable bag with gussets sides and attached reinforcing strips where the top edges of the bag and strips are matched;

FIG. 3

is a front view of the bag of

FIG. 2

where instead the hanging holes are shown slots;

FIG. 4

is a cross-sectional view taken along line

4

—

4

of

FIG. 3

;

FIG. 5

is a perspective view of a hangable bag like in

FIG. 2

except that the top edge of the bag is lower than the apertures of the reinforcing strips;

FIG. 6

is a front view of the bag of

FIG. 5

;

FIG. 7

is a cross-sectional view taken along line

7

—

7

of

FIG. 6

;

FIG. 8

is a perspective view of a hangable bag like in

FIG. 5

except that the reinforces strips has same width but different length;

FIG. 9

is a front view of the bag of

FIG. 8

;

FIG. 10

is a cross-sectional view taken along line

10

—

10

of

FIG. 9

;

FIG. 11

is a perspective view of a bag without reinforcing strips made from heavy-duty material with two holes for hanging on one hanger;

FIG. 12

is a side view of a rack with bags and pusher.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail a preferred embodiment for vending popcorn and ice. It should be understood that the automatic vending machine is equipped with housing for holding the components of the machine, and having an industrial food producing device (for vending popcorn it will be popcorn popper, for vending ice it will be ice-making machine, etc.), with dispenser for delivering a definite quantity of product to the predetermined place of the machine, some electro-motors, chutes and so on. All of this equipment are well known in the art and therefore not described in detail in this specification. Referring now to

FIGS. 1-12

and initially to

FIG. 1

there is shown a preferred embodiment of an automatic vending machine without concretization of the vendible product. As can be seen the machine comprises a source

4

with dispenser

6

for producing and dispensing the vendible product, a rack means

8

for hanging empty bags and delivering next one to the loading area, a vacuum means

12

for opening the top edge of the bag to be filled with product and also for withdrawing the completely sealed bag with product from said rack, a retaining means

14

for retaining the rear wall of said bag while said vacuum means opens the top edge of said bag and also for gripping said bag and drawing it to provide a space

15

between filled up bag and empty bags, a straightening means

16

for straightening said bag by inflating air, a sealing means

18

and

19

for sealing filled up bag with product, and a bag means

10

to facilitate packing the vended product.

The drawing

FIG. 1

illustrates the apparatus with two outlets A and B, for two independent lines for filling up bags of two different sizes. This arrangement is illustrated by mere way of example, since the apparatus could be provided with a single line, as well as with more than two independent lines and with bags made from paper or plastic. The following description will thus refer to an apparatus comprising a single line (hereinafter simply called line). As shown in

FIG. 12

the rack means

8

, that is to be mounted to the housing of the machine, comprises a pusher

24

, a transverse plate

26

and a number of hangers

28

(generally two for each line). Each hanger is represent as a bended in vertical plane bar the long part of which

30

is secured to the transverse plate

26

horizontally or inclining down whereas the short part

32

is directed upwardly. On the long parts

30

are hanged a number of bags

10

for packing the vended product. The incline of the short part

32

upwardly prevent the bags to sliding spontaneously.

FIGS. 2-4

illustrated a preferred embodiment of a paper or plastic bag having front wall

36

, rear wall

38

, two gusseted sides

42

, sealed bottom

44

at one end and an open top

40

opposite thereto. To the front and rear walls at its top edges are adhesively secured reinforcing strips

46

and

48

, having punched holes

50

or slots

51

for hanging on the rack

8

. The strip

46

is wider than the strip

48

to provide places

52

for retaining the rear wall

38

during opening the bag and filling it with product. Strips of adhesive

54

and

56

such as heat actuated adhesive are applied on inside surfaces of the front

36

and rear

38

walls of the paper bags for heat sealing the filled up bags. There is provided also an aperture

58

for handling the completely sealed bag. In

FIGS. 5-11

are shown some different bags than in

FIGS. 2-4

. Thus in

FIGS. 5-7

the apertures of the strips

46

and

48

are above the top edge of the bag, in

FIGS. 8-10

the strips have same width but different length, and in

FIG. 11

the bag is made from a heavy-duty material without gusseted sides and for hanging on a rack with one hanger

28

. All bags illustrated in

FIGS. 2-11

are provided with punched holes

50

or slots

51

and retaining places

52

. As mentioned above the automatic vending machine can be configured to have multiple lines, say three, to provide vending product in completely sealed bags of different weights. The automatic machine is intended to be driven in timed or synchronized relationship which may be achieved by means of any conventional and synchronizing mechanisms well known in the art. For example, the drive mechanism can be operated by a program control unit, which has a number of adjustable discs. These cam discs are mounted on a shaft one rotation of which corresponds to one cycle of the machine to produce and deliver one filled up bag with product to the consumer access area. To do so, the user merely deposits a specific amount of money into the coin depositing slot to start rotation the shaft with cam discs which operate successive actuators to provide the following operation:

Gripping the front wall

36

of the bag

10

by vacuum lifter means

12

to provide the opening of the top edge

40

of the bag;

Straitening bag

10

by inflation air provided by device

16

;

Filling up the bag with product by energizing dispenser

6

;

Drawing filled up bag with product to provide space

15

for placing removable heating element

19

of the sealing means

18

;

Heat sealing filled up bag by sealing means

18

;

Withdrawing the completely sealed bag with product from the rack

8

by vacuum lifter means

12

and retaining means

14

to allow it dropping by gravity along the chute (not shown) to the customer access area.

Maintenance of the automatic vending machine is provided by an authorized person who once in a while will charge the machine with hanging bags strung on the hangers

28

.

Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications that fall within the scope of the present invention.