Vending machine
A vending machine has a cabinet internally defining a dispensing compartment that is closed by a front door and houses a plurality of dispensing trays, each of which supports a plurality of products and is slidably engaged in a guide device defined by a pair of elongated guides, each of which is coupled to the cabinet through a front tooth and a rear tooth and is provided with a retractable spring-loaded locking pin movable between a coupling position and a release position with respect to the cabinet.
1. A vending machine, comprising:
a cabinet internally defining a dispensing compartment closed by a front door;
a plurality of dispensing trays, which are arranged in the dispensing compartment, are arranged one over the other and are each designed to support a respective plurality of products; and
for each dispensing tray, a respective guide device, which is slidably engaged by a respective dispensing tray of the plurality of dispensing trays and includes a pair of guides coupled to the cabinet on opposite sides of the dispensing tray;
wherein each guide has an elongated shape and includes a front end provided with at least a first coupling tooth for engagement with the cabinet and a rear end provided with at least a second coupling tooth for engagement with the cabinet;
wherein each guide is further provided with a retractable spring-loaded locking pin, which is movable between a normal extracted coupling position, in which the retractable spring-loaded locking pin locks the relative guide onto the cabinet, and a retracted release position, which allows the respective guide to be mounted to, and removed from, the cabinet.
2. The vending machine of claim 1 , wherein the retractable spring-loaded locking pin is configured to allow, when the retractable spring-loaded locking pin is in the retracted release position, the first coupling tooth to engage the respective first slot and the second coupling tooth to engage a respective second slot, and to automatically engage a respective first slot when returning from the retracted release position to the normal extracted coupling position.
3. The vending machine of claim 1 , wherein the cabinet includes two pluralities of first slots designed to receive and hold said first coupling tooth.
4. The vending machine of claim 3 , wherein the first slots in each of the two pluralities of first slots are aligned in a direction with a first constant pitch.
5. The vending machine of claim 3 , wherein each first slot is configured to receive and hold the retractable spring-loaded locking pin.
6. The vending machine of claim 3 , wherein the dispensing compartment is bounded by two side walls, the first slots in each plurality of first slots being formed in a respective side wall of the dispensing compartment.
7. The vending machine of claim 4 , wherein the retractable spring-loaded locking pin is aligned with the first coupling tooth of the respective guide in said direction, and is spaced apart from the first coupling tooth of a distance equal to said first pitch or to a multiple of said first pitch.
8. The vending machine of claim 1 , wherein the cabinet includes two pluralities of second slots designed to receive and hold the second coupling teeth.
9. The vending machine of claim 8 , wherein the second slots of each of the two pluralities of second slots are aligned in a direction with a second constant pitch.
10. The vending machine of claim 8 , wherein the second slots are formed in a rear wall of the cabinet.