Article dispensing apparatus

An article dispensing apparatus comprising:

• one article discharging apparatus that is used for 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 discharge the lowermost article stored in the one article storage passage downward when being driven;
• and
• another article discharging apparatus that is used for another article storage passage that is adjacent to the one article storage passage, the other article discharging apparatus being configured to store therein charged articles in the up-and-down direction, the other article discharging apparatus being configured to prevent the articles stored in the other article storage passage from moving downward in a discharge standby state, and discharge the lowermost article stored in the other article storage passage downward when being driven,
• the one article discharging apparatus and the other article discharging apparatus being capable of being combined in a back-to-back manner,
• the one article discharging apparatus comprising:
• a driving source for the one article dispensing apparatus and the other article dispensing apparatus;
• an output gear arranged rotatably forward and backward about a central axis of the output gear, the output gear being configured to rotate in one direction by a driving force from the 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 a driving force from the driving source when a discharging instruction has been given to the other article discharging apparatus;
• link levers where each link lever is provided rotatably about an axis of the link lever corresponding to each article discharging apparatus, and is configured to put the corresponding article discharging apparatus into a discharge standby state in a normal state, and drive the corresponding article discharging apparatus when a driving force is given to the link lever by a rotation of the output gear and the link lever is rotated by the driving force;
• and
• a controller configured to perform return processing including rotating the output gear in the other direction or the one direction to return the output gear to the standby position when the output gear that has been rotated in the one direction or the other direction from the standby position by the discharge instruction does not return to the standby position within a preset time.