| 摘要 |
<p>An adjustable vend mechanism for retaining a stack of products in a vending machine and dispensing the products from the stack comprises a product enclosure (32) for retaining the stack of products, and a vending actuator 26 for dispensing the products. The product enclosure includes a rear retaining element, a front retaining element 15 and two side retaining elements 17 that retain the stack of products between them, and define a dispense opening through which a product can be ejected. The vend mechanism further includes at least one adjustment mechanism 21, 23, 25, operable to enable adjustment of a retaining element in order to adjust a width or depth dimension of the product enclosure or a height of the dispense opening. Preferably three adjustment mechanisms may be included to adjust a width, and a depth dimension of the product enclosure and a height of the dispense opening. The vend mechanism may be a caterpillar track actuation unit having an adjustment mechanism 27 to enable movement along a rail 13 extending in the width direction of the product enclosure. Multiple side retaining elements and vend actuators may be included in a vending machine to define multiple product enclosures.</p> |
