摘要 |
A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment has a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. The article storage compartment is subdivided into a plurality of article storage sub-compartments, each sub-compartment having an opening at a dispensing end thereof for passage therethrough during a dispensing operation of articles stored therein. At least one of a first-type thermal separator arrangement is positioned at the dispensing end of at least one sub-compartment of the cooled article storage compartment, for thermally separating the interior of the sub-compartment from the remainder of the interior of the internal cavity, the first-type thermal separator arrangement having structure that operates individually with respective ones of said sub-compartments, so as to allow articles stored in the sub-compartments to pass therethrough during the dispensing operation.
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