Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to improvements in bottle deposit
refund machines.
Various bottle deposit refund machines are already known,
i.e., machines which automatically deliver in the form of to~ens,
a ticket or the like, a receipt corresponding to the deposit value
of the bottles introduced into the machine and with which the
refund of the deposit is effected. Some of these known machines
only accept bottles of a given type whereas others are provided
with means for the identification by shape recognition of the
different empty bottles which they receive in order to provide
receipts which correspond both to the number of bottles introduced
and the deposit value of each bottle.
In this latter type of machine, the non-deposit bottles
which are not taken into account in the establishment of the
refund receipt are, however, as in the case of the deposit bottles,
evacuated by the machine into a basket or onto a storage table
which is inaccessible to the public, so that it is not possible
to retrieve non-deposit bottles introduced by error or
inadvertently into the machine and which might either give rise
to a deposit refund at a selling point other than that in which
the machine is installed or, most simply, be kept by their owner.
An object of the invention is to provide improvements in
machines of the above-defined type and which palliate the
drawback mentioned.
Another object of the invention is, in this respect, to
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provide a bottle deposit refund machine which, as opposed to
known machines, allows the recovery by their owner of non-deposit
bottles wrongly introduced into the machine.
An improved machine according to the invention comprising
S an identification system by shape recognition for the different
bottles which it receives, a conveyor of said bottles between
an entrance station in the machine and an exit station which
is not accessible to the public, after passage in front of said
identification system, as well as a mechanism for the distribution
of a receipt corresponding to the number and type of the different
deposit bottles introduced into the machine, is characterized
in that to the identification system is associated a means which
induces the transfer of non-deposit bottles from said conveyor
; onto an auxiliary conveyor, a part of which is apparent on a
face of the machine accessible to the public.
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According to another characteristic of the invention, the -~
auxiliary conveyor passes through the face of the machine
~ccessible to the public through two windows of which the inlet
window in the machine is set up so as to prevent the evacuation
of the non-deposit bottles as long as the number of bottles
appearing on the face of the machine accessible to the public
between the two windows is lower than a predetermined value.
When this value has been reached, the auxiliary conveyor
draws the non-deposit bottles and those bottles not recovered
by their owner one by one into the machine, thus freeing the
auxiliary conveyor and allowing another use of the machine.
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If, in a complementary manner, the auxiliary conveyor is
provided in order to evacuate non-deposit bottles and those
bottles not recovered by their owner towards a storage area
distinct from that of the deposit bottles, then the improved
machine according to the invention separates, directly in the
empty bottle storage zone, deposit and non-deposit bottles, thus
correspondingly simplifying the work involved in the handling
of bottles received by the personnel of the store in which the
machine is installed.
The invention will be well understood in the light of the
following description given by way of example and with reference
to the appended drawing in which : :
- figure 1 is a perspective view of an improved machine
according to the invention;
. - figure 2 is a highly schematic plan view;
- figure 3 is a view similar to that of figure 2 but for
another embodiment;
- figure 4 is a front view of the embodiment shown in
figure 3.
A machine designed for the automatic refund of bottle
deposits comprises a chest 10, partly closed up by a front wall
11 and which, on its place of use, such as in a grocery store,
a department store or supermarket,etc., is housed behind a
partition 12 which extends from wall 11, figure 2.
In a way know~ per se, wall 11 has a window l3, partially
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protected by a hood 14 through which is located a conveyor 15
driven by a motor, not shown. When a bottle B is placed on the
end part of conveyor 15 surrounded by hood 14, said bottle is
driven inside chest 10 in which is housed a bottle identification
. system by shape recognition, advantageously an electronic system
which is connected by logical means to a printer 17 which delivers
a receipt or ticket representing the deposit value of the bottles
introduced into the machine.
In the latter, the identification system of the bottles
received by the machine, -bottles which differ from one another
by their shape-, and the logical means are set, on the one hand,
so as to take into account only those bottles actually on
deposit,.and, on the other hand, to deliver a receipt or ticket
the value of which corresponds to the deposit value of each
type of bottle and to the number of deposit bottles introduced
into the machine. Any bottle presented at the entrance of
conveyor 15, whether it is on deposit or not, is evacuated by
said conveyor towards a receptacle _, or similar device, placed
in premises designed for the recovery of empty bottles, which
are inaccessible to the public and where the personnel of the
grocery store or shop sorts out the deposit and non-deposit
bottles.
In order to obviate this drawback constituted by such
sorting work, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, avoid
any wrongful operations with respect to the owner of the bottles
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by causing the disappearance of those introduced into the
machine and which are not on deposit, the invention proposes
that the latter be made to reappear on the front face of wall
11 which is accessible to the public so that their owner may
retrieve them if he so wishes, whereas they are sent to the
premises designed for the recovery of empty bottles if they
are abandoned by their owner, but then into another receptacle
or similar container, separate from that of the deposit bottles.
An improved machine according to the invention thus
comprises, in a first embodiment, figures 1 and 2, an auxiliary
conveyor 20, adjacent, at one of its ends, to the conveyor 15
the other end of which crosses wall 11 through two windows 21
and 22 partly protected by a casing 23. On its side located
between window 21 and conveyor 15, conveyor 20 is edged by a
plate 24, on the one hand, and by a shorter plate 25, on the
other hand, the latter carrying photoelectric cells or similar
devices on an angle bar which are part of the identification
system by shape recognition for the bottles passing in front
of said cells during their run on conveyor 15. Adjacent to
the latter, opposite the interval defined between plates 24 ;
and 25, is located an ejector 30 comprising, most simply,
an arm 31 mounted pivoting around a vertical axis 32 and on
which acts a link 32a connected to an electromagnet 33
controlled from the bottle identification system. The side of
conveyor 20 originating from window 22 is also edged by plates
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34 and 35 which, while first in a parallel direction to said
side, subsequently diverge from it to form a channel 36 leading
to a receptacle b' which is also located in the premises
designed to recover empty bottles but is distinct from the
previously mentioned receptacle b.
Whereas window 21 is permanently open, the invention ,
provides to bar window 22 using an elastic member which may
become eclipsed when it is subjected to a pressure of pre-
determined force.
In the embodiment illustrated very schematically in
figures 3 and 4, the machine comprises, at the lower end part
of conveyor 15, two rollers 40 and 41 rotating in opposite ~ .
directions and which, with a coating of foam material on their
periphery, facilitate the conveyance of the deposit bottles B
towards the receptacle _. In this embodiment, conveyor 20
associated with carrier 15 consists of two circular plates 42
and 43 which are tangent at 44 and which, rotating in opposite
directions around vertical axes 45 and 46, cause the progression
in a guiding channel 47 of the non-deposit bottles introduced
into said channel by a plunyer 48, figure 4. The latter is
pivotally mounted around a horizontal axis 49 and is actuated
by an electromagnet 50 controlled by a signal originating from
the bottle identification system, not shown. Channel 47, which
crosses front wall 11 of the machine through a window 51, which
is constantly open, comprises an elbow part 52 registering
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with plate 42 and two parallel sides 53 and 54 connected
through an incurved loop 55 eccentric with respect to axis
46 of plate 43, a crescent shaped supporting strip 56 being
adjacent to the periphery o plate 43 plumb with loop 55
of channel 47. The latter also crosses wall 11 through a .
window 57 similar to window 22 of the previously described
embodiment.
In both embodiments of the improved machine according
to the invention, the passage of the non-deposit bottles in
front of the identification system by shape recognition gives
rise to an electric signal which, on the one hand, controls
the electromagnet 33 or 50 and, after a delay corresponding
to the arrival of said bottle at right angles to ejector 30
or 48, transfers said non-deposit bottles onto the conveyor
20 and, on the other hand, controls the lighting up of a
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time delay light signal 58, on the front wall 11 of the machine,
said signal bearing an inscription indicating that the bottle ~-
has been rejected and that it should be recovered.Notwithstanding ¦
the continuous motion of conveyor 20, the bottles which appear
across windows 21 or 51 are stopped either by the elastic
member barring window 22 or by friction in loop 55 at the
entrance to window 57 so that these bottles can be recovered
by their owner. The restraining force of the elastic member
which may be eclipsed as well as the shape of loop 55 are
chosen so that the bottles which appear on the part of conveyor
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20 which is external to the machine remain immobilized
as long as their number is lower than a predetermined number .'whereas the arrival of an additional bottle, for example,
the fifth one, causes the penetration, one by one, inside
the machine, of the non-deposit bottles not retrieved by
their owner, said bottles being then sent on, through channel
36 or side 54 of channel 47, towards receptacle b'.
A strip 60, fastened to the front wall 11 of the machine
between the entrance station and the exit window of the
auxiliary conveyor 20, facilitates the handling of the bottles.
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