Krh Thermal Systems

James W Bradfield

Paul T Rudewicz

Thom Thomas

Gregory Elliott

Mark A Hopkins

Jack R Prescott

Michael E Rudder

Michael Kanyon

Edward Durbin

Donald Morrison

John D Smead

Stanley Arai

Dale Weber

Kenneth Sinera

Kenneth Sineri

A vending machine includes a refrigeration compartment, an oven compartment, structure for transferring a food product from the refrigeration compartment to the oven compartment, and structure for transferring the food product from the oven compartment to a user of the vending machine. The vending machine provides automated handling and cooking of packaged food products that enables a hot cooked food to be delivered to a customer in a cool package sleeve. The vending machine also includes a system for inventory control that enables vertical storage of packaged food products while minimizing crushing of packaged food products at the bottom of a stack. A magazine empty indicator automatically indicates when an inventory magazine is empty. An oven door latch mechanism eliminates the possibility that the oven can be operated while the oven door is open.

Vending machine including refrigeration and oven compartments

In accordance with the present invention, a vending machine has one or more programmable cook cycles for use with one or more heat sources in cooking a food package to be dispensed to the customer. In one embodiment of this invention, each cook cycle includes a start time and a duration. Each cook cycle is associated with a heat source and a product code indicating the type of food to be cooked. Initially, cook cycles are copied into a random access memory from default cook cycles hard coded in the software program code and stored in electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) of the vending machine controller. The cook cycles in RAM can be over written by an operator for the various type of foods to be cooked. The cook cycles in RAM are used by the vending machine to automatically cook a food product selected by a customer, without any further inputs.

Vending machine including multiple heat sources with programmable cook

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Mill Valley, CA, United States of America

James W Bradfield