Patent attributes
A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment may have a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. The article storage compartment is subdivided into a plurality of article storage sub-compartments, each sub-compartment having an opening at a dispensing end thereof for passage therethrough during a dispensing operation of articles stored therein. An air barrier arrangement is positioned so as to be in common with the dispensing end of a plurality of said sub-compartments, for separating the interior of the sub-compartments from the remainder of the interior of the internal cavity, the air barrier arrangement having flaps that operate individually with respective ones of said sub-compartments, so as to allow articles stored in the sub-compartments to pass therethrough during the dispensing operation.
