Abstract: A vending machine has a carousel containing several rotatable trays stacked one above another. The trays carry and present for vending selected items, such as food and merchandise. The carousel is contained in a housing or canister and is part of an integrated assembly with a coin container. The carousel is filled at a central depot rather than at the site where the machine is installed for use by customers. The customer locations have the cabinet of the machine. Fixed in the cabinet is a drive mechanism for the carousel and locating and guide members which enable integrated assemblies to be removed from the cabinet and fresh assemblies, with the carousel trays loaded at the central depot, to be installed in place of the removed assemblies. The coin box when empty is equipped with a mechanism which is set to enable coins to drop into the container and is automatically reset so as to close the opening when the assembly is removed from the cabinet.

Abstract: A vending machine has a carousel containing several rotatable trays stacked one above another. The trays carry and present for vending selected items, such as food and merchandise. The carousel is contained in a housing or canister and is part of an integrated assembly with a coin container. The carousel is filled at a central depot rather than at the site where the machine is installed for use by customers. The customer locations have the cabinet of the machine. Fixed in the cabinet is a drive mechanism for the carousel and locating and guide members which enable integrated assemblies to be removed from the cabinet and fresh assemblies, with the carousel trays loaded at the central depot, to be installed in place of the removed assemblies. The coin box when empty is equipped with a mechanism which is set to enable coins to drop into the container and is automatically reset so as to close the opening when the assembly is removed from the cabinet.

Abstract: The invention comprises a method and an apparatus for the manufacture of cylindrical hollow bodies by the shape welding process. This apparatus comprises a connection between a rotatably mounted supporting body which can be driven and a base body onto which the weld material is deposited. This connection is effected by elastically deformable elements and is capable of changing in the radial direction. Metal profiles which can be deformed elastically are fastened, in a manner permitting detachment, to the periphery of the supporting body, spaced at regular intervals. The base body is composed of a metal sheet or strip which is wrapped around the profiles and attached to them in a manner permitting detachment. Preferably the profiles extend over the length of the supporting body. The deformable metal profiles may be designed as cylindrical tubes, without any discontinuities or as half-tubes, angle-profiles, Z-profiles, or corrugated-sheet profiles.

Abstract: A large cylindrical structural element is manufactured by welding together a pair of thick-walled cylindrical components at their ends by applying between the cylindrical components at least one buffer layer of weld material, the buffer layer being applied by a welding electrode held with its axis maintained at an angle to the plane of abutting surfaces of the components with the at least one buffer layer being applied in the form of weld beads which overlap and subsequently applying an assembly weld seam to join the components together.

Abstract: Very large diameter metal shafts for turbines and electric generators, and other large structural metal parts, can be made in one piece to a high quality without occlusions, cavities, segregations, and cracks by building the part up layer by layer, each layer being formed by deposition of molten metal by welding along neighbouring tracks which together cover the area over which the layer is to be deposited. The weld deposition of the metal may be effected by a welding head which is moved longitudinally along the part, and if the part is simultaneously rotated the metal is deposited along a helical path in forming a layer. A plurality of welding heads may be used so that metal is deposited simultaneously at different positions during the construction of each layer.