US 4,228,903 AGranted

Gravity feed can dispenser for beverage coolers

AssigneeThomas A. Schutz Co., Inc.

InventorRonald P. Eckert

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A gravity feed can dispenser for use in a commercial cooler is provided with integral means permitting two or more dispensers to be stacked in interlocked relationship, and further integral means permitting two dispensers to be connected side by side. The racks in most coolers are formed of parallel wires extending from front to rear; and in order that a dispenser may be stably supported on such a rack there must be transversely extending feet that rest upon several rack wires. In the present structure there is a fixed foot at the front which is vertically small enough that on an upper dispenser of a stack it does not interfere with removal of a can from the dispenser beneath it; and there is a hinged panel toward the rear which selectively occupies a non-interference position if the dispenser is an upper one, or a supporting position if the dispenser rests directly upon the rack.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A stackable gravity feed can dispenser for a cooler which has racks formed of parallel wires extending from front to rear of the cooler, said dispenser comprising, in combination:

a downwardly and forwardly inclined guideway to support a series of cans for seriatim rolling movement from a filling end of the guideway at the rear of the cooler to a delivery end at the front of the cooler;
side walls defining the sides of the guideway, said side walls having integral upright supporting webs near the rear and the front which are thinner than the space between wires of a cooler rack, said webs having upper ends above the plane of the guideway which have upper interengaging means and lower ends below the plane of the guideway which have lower inter-engaging means complementary to said upper inter-engaging means, whereby two of said dispensers may be stacked with the webs of the upper of said two dispensers seated on the webs of the lower of said two dispensers and with said upper and lower means inter-engaged, and said webs leaving an unobstructed space for cans in the lower dispenser;
a depending, transversely elongated rack-engaging foot adjacent the front of the guideway, said foot being adapted to rest upon several of the rack wires to support the front of a lowermost dispenser stably on the rack and being vertically short enough to avoid interference with removal of cans when a dispenser is the upper of two dispensers;
and hinged panel means near the rear of the guideway, said panel means having a non-interference position entirely outside said unobstructed space and having a supporting position with a surface effectively coplanar with the lower ends of the supporting webs, said panel means having a transverse dimension greater than the span across several rack wires, whereby said panel means of a lowermost dispenser may occupy a supporting position resting stably upon a rack and the panel means of an upper dispenser may occupy the non-interference position.

1 more element

A stackable gravity feed can dispenser for a cooler which has racks formed of parallel wires extending from front to rear of the cooler, said dispenser comprising, in combination:

a downwardly and forwardly inclined guideway to support a series of cans for seriatim rolling movement from a filling end of the guideway at the rear of the cooler to a delivery end at the front of the cooler;
side walls defining the sides of the guideway, said side walls having integral upright supporting webs near the rear and the front, said webs having upper ends above the plane of the guideway which have upper inter-engaging means and lower ends below the plane of the guideway which have lower inter-engaging means complementary to said upper inter-engaging means, whereby two of said dispensers may be stacked with the webs of the upper of said two dispensers seated on the webs of the lower of said two dispensers and with said upper and lower means inter-engaged, and said webs leaving both vertical and lateral clearance for cans in the lower dispenser;
and integral external eyes on one side wall and integral external hooks on the other side wall, said hooks on one dispenser being engageable with said eyes on a laterally adjacent dispenser to stably interconnect said dispensers side by side with their side walls abutting.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.