TODAY’S PATENT – VENDING MACHINE

Today’s patent was invented by Paul Stephenson on 5^th June, 2001, bearing patent No.  US6241119B.

The prior art vending machines are technologically sophisticated, unreliable, and have relatively high manufacturing costs. Additionally, the machines are tough to move and instal because they are big and frequently difficult to fit through a standard entryway. The aim of the present invention to provide a vending machine which displays vendable items such that a majority of the items are simultaneously viewable by the consumer.

A vending machine comprising a base (10) and a transparent lid (20) housing one or more wheel assemblies (30 a-g). The lid (20) is provided with an access door (21) at a convenient height for a user and the wheels (30 a-g) are independently rotatable in a user selection process to view products such as food displayed thereon. The access door (21) is releasable in response to a payment mechanism (13). Conveniently, many food products can be viewed independently, and multiple users can each independently control one of the plurality of display wheels (30 a-g) giving improved user satisfaction and throughput.