Article dispensing apparatus

An article dispensing apparatus comprising:

• one article discharging apparatus arranged in one article storage passage configured to store therein charged articles in an up-and-down direction, the one article discharging apparatus being configured to prevent the articles stored in the one article storage passage from moving downward in a discharge standby state, and when being driven, discharge a lowermost article stored in the one article storage passage downward;
• another article discharging apparatus arranged in another article storage passage that is adjacent to the one article storage passage and-configured to store therein charged articles in the up-and-down direction, the another article discharging apparatus being combined back-to-back with the one article discharging apparatus and configured to prevent the articles stored in the another article storage passage from moving downward in a discharge standby state, and when being driven, discharge a lowermost article stored in the another article storage passage downward;
• one driving source for the one article discharging apparatus and the another article discharging apparatus;
• one output gear arranged rotatably forward and backward about a central axis of the one output gear, the one output gear being configured to rotate in one direction by a driving force from the one driving source from a preset standby position when a discharging instruction has been given to the one article discharging apparatus, and rotate in another direction from the standby position by the driving force from the one driving source when a discharging instruction has been given to the another article discharging apparatus;
• two link levers where each link lever is provided rotatably about an axis of each link lever corresponding to each article discharging apparatus, and is configured to put the corresponding article discharging apparatus into the discharge standby state, and drive the corresponding article discharging apparatus when a driving force is given to the link lever by a rotation of the one output gear and the link lever is rotated by the driving force;
• and
• a controller configured to, when the one output gear is rotated from the standby position by the discharging instruction, prohibit stopping of drive of the one driving source to allow the rotation of the one output gear until a preset prohibited time elapses from starting of the rotation of the one output gear even when a supply of electric power to the one driving source is interrupted,
• wherein when the one driving source is driven forward, the one output gear rotates in the one direction to rotate one of the two link levers causing the one article discharging apparatus to discharge the lowermost article stored in the one article storage passage, and
• when the one driving source is driven backward, the one output gear rotates in the another direction to rotate the other of the two link levers causing the another article discharging apparatus to discharge the lowermost article stored in the another article storage passage.