The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 01, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 27, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:
Anthony M. Gates, Clive, IA (US);
Gary L. Walke, Bondurant, IA (US);
Assignee:
Inland Finance Company, Des Moines, IA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G07F 1/100 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G07F 1/100 ;
Abstract
An apparatus and method for article dispensing includes an article bay for holding a plurality of articles, and a conveying mechanism below the article bay operable to move an article. The conveying mechanism can repeat such movement for succeeding articles to a dispensing location. Succeeding articles can optionally be placed on top of the articles directly on the conveying mechanism. The succeeding articles are retained until they move by gravity to the conveying mechanism.