Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus for dispensing articles such as tickets and cards includes a cabinet. A plurality of article dispensing assemblies are disposed inside the cabinet. Each article dispensing assembly includes a base and a frame for enclosing the articles to be dispensed in a stack. The bases are mounted on a pair of vertical support plates. A gate is disposed behind each frame for receiving articles from its associated frame and allowing only one article at a time to pass through. A toothed blade is disposed underneath each frame and a motor driven rack and pinion is coupled to the toothed blade for bringing the toothed blade into engagement with the lowermost article in the stack, moving said toothed blade so that the lowermost article is transported from the stack into the gate, bringing the toothed blade out of engagement with the article and then moving the toothed blade back to engage the next article in the stack. The apparatus also includes an angled tray and a reject box, the reject box being underneath the angled tray. In the operation of the apparatus, articles dispensed by the article dispensing assemblies drop down into the top portion of the angled tray and then slide down to the bottom of the angled tray where they can be removed by a person. The intermediate portion of the angled tray includes a trap door. When an article to be dispensed is defective, the trap door opens causing the article to drop down into the reject box instead of sliding down to the bottom of the tray.

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First Claim