Abstract: According to an embodiment of the invention, products and processes are disclosed for receiving, via a point-of-sale terminal that is not a vending machine, an indication of a set of products which a customer desires to purchase. At least one product is offered to the customer via the point-of-sale terminal, and an acceptance of the offer is received. Thereafter a request to receive the product is received. A unit of the product is dispensed via the vending machine.

Abstract: A towelette dispenser is provided with an integrally molded lid. The lid has a central aperture for allowing access to a roll of towelettes maintained within a tub receiving the lid therein. The separation bar bridges the aperture, and provides a rip fence in the form of a fingered thimble that is angled with respect to the lid as a whole. The thimble is offset near one edge of the annular opening so that a user may access the back side thereof to thread an edge of the leading towelette through the thimble without having to remove the lid from the tub. A well is provided in the smaller portion of the aperture and a cap for the lid is provided with a stuffer tab to urge the leading edge of the next towelette into the well when the cap is closed. Barrier caps are also provided to seal the interior of the tub during shipment and storage before the first use of the towelette dispenser.

Abstract: A device for applying labels to a label carrier including a movable rack, which defines a plurality of magazine sites, each of the magazine sites being configured for accommodating a label magazine that is suitable for accommodating a large number of labels. The magazine rack further includes docking means with the aid of which the rack can be docked to a labeling unit prepared for applying the individual labels from a selected label magazine to the label carrier. The device further includes a supply unit through which a selected label magazine can be transferred from the magazine site within the rack to an operating position at which the labels are taken hold of by the labeling unit and applied individually to one of the label carriers.

Abstract: Provided are a medicine storage module and method. The medicine storage module includes medicine storage boxes, each of which stores medicine in a unit of a dosage, a medicine storage box cartridge storing the medicine storage boxes in a stacked fashion, and a discharge module discharging a lowermost one of the medicine storage boxes of the medicine storage box cartridge to an outside according to a medicine discharge instruction of a user. Thus, it is possible to store a large quantity of prescription medicine in a unit of a dosage regardless of its shape, and to provide the medicine to a user in the dosage unit at a time when the user takes the medicine.

Abstract: A product delivery system for a vending machine includes first and second guide rails and a carriage rail. The guide rails are fixedly mounted in the vending machine spaced from and parallel to each other and extend along respective first and second axes. The carriage rail extends along a third axis and includes first and second ends that are slidably connected to the respective ones of the first and second guide rails. A carrier member is slidably mounted to the carriage rail for movement along the third axis. A first drive belt is coupled to the carriage rail and a first drive motor to selectively shift the carrier member along the third axis. A second drive belt, extending in multiple axes, is connected to each of the first and second ends of the carriage rail and a second drive motor. The second drive motor selectively shifts the carriage rail along the first and second axes upon driving the second drive belt.

Abstract: A towelette dispenser is provided with an integrally molded lid. The lid has a central aperture for allowing access to a roll of towelettes maintained within a tub receiving the lid therein. The separation bar bridges the aperture, and provides a rip fence in the form of a fingered thimble that is angled with respect to the lid as a whole. The thimble is offset near one edge of the annular opening so that a user may access the back side thereof to thread an edge of the leading towelette through the thimble without having to remove the lid from the tub. A well is provided in the smaller portion of the aperture and a cap for the lid is provided with a stuffer tab to urge the leading edge of the next towelette into the well when the cap is closed. Barrier caps are also provided to seal the interior of the tub during shipment and storage before the first use of the towelette dispenser.

Abstract: A word game includes displaying a first and a second letter from which players form an answer word. A winner is determined when an answer word conforming to an established rule set is submitted. A game-piece dispenser includes a base having two depressions in a top face located closer to a front edge than to a rear edge of the base. The depressions have a depth dimensioned to hold a unitary game piece having an indicium thereon. A game-piece holder having two receptacles with bottom openings is affixed in sliding relation atop the base and is movable between a rear position wherein the receptacle openings are in spaced relation from the depressions and a forward position wherein the receptacle openings are in covering relation to at least a portion of the depressions for depositing a game piece into each depression.

Abstract: A vitamin and pill dispensing device including a housing having an upper portion, a lower portion, and an intermediate portion therebetween. The upper portion has an open upper end, a closed lower end, a front face, a rear face, and a pair of opposed side walls. The upper portion has a plurality of divider panels extending between the closed lower end and the open upper end in a spaced relationship thereby separating the upper portion into a plurality of compartments. The closed lower end has a plurality of apertures therethrough whereby each aperture is disposed within one of each of the compartments. The intermediate portion has an inverted frustoconical configuration defined by an open upper end and an open lower end. The open upper end of the intermediate portion is integral with the closed lower end of the upper portion. The lower portion has an open upper end and an open lower end. The open upper end of the lower portion is integral with the open lower end of the intermediate portion.

Abstract: Plastic binding strips used with this invention comprise a female strip consisting of a narrow, thin plastic strip formed with spaced apertures and grooves communicating with the apertures and a male strip comprising a narrow plastic strip having bendable studs projecting at fight angles therefrom spaced to fit through holes in the pages to be bound and the apertures in the female strip. Such strips are packaged in cassettes. The hopper for the female strips receives a stack of cassettes. Strips are fed from the lowermost cassette by a horizontally reciprocating finger onto a transverse ways and then feed along the ways to an assembly station. When the lowermost cassette is empty, its support is removed and the next cassette is moved into place. The male hopper is similar to the female except that the studs require greater spacing between cassettes and provision is made in the feed structures for the upward projection of the studs.

Abstract: A dual bin paper feed tray is removably insertable into the standard height tray-receiving housing opening of an image reproduction machine such as a printer or copier. The tray has adjacent front and rear paper holding bin areas each configured to hold a stack of approximately 250 cut paper sheets, the overall tray thus being adapted to hold the entire contents of a standard one ream package of cut paper sheets. In operation, the loaded tray is inserted, front end first, into the housing opening and the machine's paper feed system operates to sequentially feed paper sheets from the front tray bin into the machine. When the machine's paper sensing system detects that the front bin has been emptied, a drive motor on the rear end of the tray is energized to activate a shift structure which operates to move the rear paper stack into the front tray bin for infeed to the machine.

Abstract: A dispensing mechanism for an automatic vending machine includes a conveying mechanism to move merchandise toward a discharge passage, and a discharge control mechanism. The discharge control mechanism holds the merchandise and prevents the merchandise from falling into the discharge passage when the dispensing mechanism is off. The discharge control mechanism includes a control plate which is biased to contact and hold the merchandise, and a locking element which prevents the rotation of the control plate when the dispensing mechanism is off. The engagement between control plate and locking element is controlled by a solenoid which permits the rotation of the control plate during the dispensing operation.

Abstract: Material handling apparatus and methods, especially for use with loose stacks of paper and the like in pallets. The invention includes depalletizing apparatus, distributing apparatus, and hopper loading apparatus; and material handling apparatus for transporting material between the depalletizing apparatus, the distributing apparatus, and the hopper loading apparatus. The depalletizing operation includes lateral sliding of layers of a pallet load onto a removal conveyor and then away from the pallet. Significant advantages are achieved by using a special spacing sheet in the pallet load instead of slip sheets and tie sheets. Fingers on the pusher extend below individual layers of the load and into the channels in a spacing sheet, effecting the removal of even the bottom layer of papers in a stack. Similar use of fingers and channels applies to operation of the hopper loader and its control of the bottom papers in the stack.

Abstract: A component insertion machine having apparatus for mounting component magazines and arranged for loading components therefrom into the component insertion machine. Shuttle apparatus transversely positioned on th e mounting apparatus is arranged to receive ones of the component magazines and is slidably operable for laterally displacing one received component magazine with other received component magazines to maintain a continuous supply of components to the component insertion machine.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a feeder cassette for feeding electronic components into a component processing unit. The cassette includes an assembly body having a plurality of slots formed on opposing interior sides thereof to form channels within the assembly body. The channels are designed to receive a plurality of components therein, preferably in pre-packed flat tubes. A leaf spring having a button projecting from the distal end of each of the fingers of the leaf spring permits only the components from a desired "activated" channel to be released. The cassette is indexed forwardly until all of the components have been released from each of the channels sequentially. The buttons of the spring fingers also serve to hold the components within the cassette if the cassette is withdrawn from the feeder unit at any time prior to fully emptying the tubes.

Abstract: An apparatus for dispensing frusto-conical pots, such as nursery or plant pots, including a pair of pivotally connected arm members arranged for movement toward and away from each other on opposite sides of a stack of pots to be dispensed. Each arm member, or each set of arm members, supports a plurality of feed cylinders, each having a spiral groove in its cylindrical surface, adapted to engage opposite sides of the stack of pots and adapted to be rotated in a direction to cause the lowermost pot or pots to separate and drop from the upper pots in the stack. An adjustment mechanism is included for moving the arm members toward and away from each other in order to accommodate stacked pots of different diameters. An overhead conveyor may be provided for feeding stacks of pots to the dispensing position between the arm members.

Abstract: Electrical connectors are slidably received in side-by-side serial array in elongated, hollow tubular cassettes. The cassettes are shaped to receive the connectors only in a single orientation, and protect terminals which partly extend from the connector housings in an intermediate assembly stage. Cassettes are vertically stacked in a feed system, and when the bottom cassette is emptied of connectors, it is released from the stack and replaced with a full cassette.

Abstract: A drinking cup storage and feeding device for an automatic vending machine comprises a rotary type cup storage drum having a plurality of cup storage chambers around its periphery for receiving different kinds of drinking cups stacked in columns. A cup take-out stage has at least two cup take-out mechanisms spaced apart from each other and positioned adjacent to, but outside the rotational movement of the cup storage drum, for supplying specific cups one by one to a vending stage according to a selection signal. A switch detects when a cup take-out stage becomes empty of cups and then rotates the cup storage drum. A cup selecting mechanism detects when a full cup storage chamber storing a certain cup type reaches a position adjacent to the empty cup take-out stage for the same type of cup, during rotation of the cup storage drum, and stops rotation of the drum when the position is reached.

Abstract: Automated apparatus for applying integrated circuits to a circuit board in which the integrated circuits are fed to the apparatus through the open end of a tubular magazine which holds them in a linear array, and which is positioned in registry with a feeding aperture of the apparatus. By this invention, a casing is provided for holding a plurality of the magazines in side-by-side relation, with the first of the magazines of the plurality occupying the position of registry with the feeding aperture. A spring loaded platen member is provided for biasing the magazines toward the position of the first magazine, so that when the first magazine is emptied of its integrated circuits it may be removed from the casing, and another of the tubular magazines moved by the resilient means into the position of registry.

Abstract: In the labeling of articles such as bottles by feeding the articles to a labelling machine having label pickup means, picking up labels from a label box, successively applying such labels to the articles, and periodically replacing the label box when empty with a full label box, the improvement which comprises replacing the empty label box during the time interval between successive label pickups without stopping the machine. An apparatus therefor includes two label boxes disposed alongside one another, guide means for the boxes so as to permit them to move together transversely to the direction in which labels are stacked in the boxes, and means permitting retracting and advancing in label stacking direction of that label box which is in active position.

Abstract: An insertion machine for integrated circuits includes a number of upwardly extending bars arranged in side-by-side relation on a carrier plate with a driving mechanism moving the carrier plate relative to an output device. Each bar has a displaceable lock at the bottom end for holding the bottom integrated circuit within the bar until it is to be moved into the output device. The carrier plate can be a hollow cylinder or a flat plate. The bars are removably mounted on the carrier plate by locking elements engageable with complementary locking elements in the carrier plate.

Abstract: Generally circular articles within a row of similar articles are conveyed and dispensed from the end of the row. When the row of articles is substantially depleted a magazine containing another row of the articles is advanced to bring the additional row of articles in contact with the conveying shaft. A method and apparatus are provided for automatically actuating and advancing the magazine and for returning it to its original position when all articles contained therein have been delivered to the conveyor.