MEI Conlux (formerly known as Mars Electronics International) is a manufacturer of
electronic banknote validators, coin acceptors and changers. MEI was spun off to private investment interests in July 2006. In December 2012, it was sold to
Crane Co.
Crane Holdings, Co. is an American industrial products company based in Stamford, Connecticut. Founded by Richard Teller Crane in 1855, it became one of the leading manufacturers of bathroom fixtures in the United States, until 1990, when tha ...
, which also manufactures vending machines. A new division was created inside the company by merging former CPS (Crane Payment Solutions) and MEI into CPI (Crane Payment Innovations).
The firm began operations in Great Britain in 1965 and expanded to the United States in 1967. The firm invented the electronic
vending machine
A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fir ...
and is one of the largest manufacturers of vending machines in the world. As of 2011, the company operated in over one hundred countries and processed over two billion transactions per week.
It has had a co-educational relationship with the Mechanical Engineering department of the
Imperial College
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
, London.
In 1996, the firm signed a deal with
DigiCash
DigiCash Inc. was an electronic money corporation founded by David Chaum in 1989. DigiCash transactions were unique in that they were anonymous due to a number of cryptographic protocols developed by its founder. DigiCash declared bankruptcy in ...
, one of the first digital currencies. This led to the widespread integration of
smart card
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...
technology in vending machines.
Since 2000, the company has been the sole manufacturer of bill handling units (a form of
automated cash handling
Automated cash handling is the process of dispensing, counting and tracking cash in a bank, retail, check cashing, payday loan / advance, casino or other business environment through specially designed hardware and software for the purposes of lo ...
for the
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...
.
References
External links
CPI Website
Vending machine manufacturers
{{Crane Co.