An apparatus and a method for transferring articles from a pick-up area to a delivery area, wherein there is provided a guide element having a guide surface which moves along a closed path at a base speed, and wherein there are provided a plurality of transfer elements, each of which is provided with a gripping surface for holding an article and is movable with respect to the guide surface with a relative speed, so that, with respect to a stationary reference system, each of the transfer elements moves along the closed path with a compound speed given by an algebraic sum of the base speed and the respective relative speed.

A method for format adaptation of carriages for the transportation of bottles on a linear motor system and a corresponding linear motor system are described. According thereto, container guides provided on the carriages are adapted to the body cross-section of the bottles by adjusting a guide width in an automated manner between guide jaws of the container guides which in relation to the direction of travel are the leading and trailing ones. There is then no need to replace component parts at the container guides, and the production in filling systems is optimised in terms of staff requirements, resultant production stoppages, and error sources.

A conveying method includes first and second pads conveying workpieces with speeds of the first and second pads being varied; circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are accelerated by variable speed mechanisms; the first and second pads move and separate in a state in which a distance between the first pad and the second pad, whose speeds were increased, is increased; the circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are decelerated by the variable speed mechanisms; and a first slider and a second slider, which were subjected to deceleration, overlap each other in a part in a circumferential direction, which causes the first pad and the second pad to approach each other, and the first pad and the second pad move and approach each other in this state in which the first pad and the second pad have approached each other.

A handling device for handling containers in a capping and/or inspection station of a capping installation is provided. The device includes a centering member, having a side opening arranged to receive a neck region of a container, and a clamp gripping assembly for holding the container during the capping operations. The clamp gripping assembly is mounted so as to be vertically slidable between a first position, in which it is disengaged from the container and enables removing a capped container and receiving a container to be capped, and a second position, which is taken by the gripping assembly during capping and/or inspection and in which it engages the container. The clamp gripping assembly is associated with means controlling vertical sliding thereof, including first elastic means configured so as to keep the clamp gripping assembly in the second position and to apply, in the position, an axial load to the container.

A filling plant for handling bottles as required, has at least one bottle handling device, a first supply line which supplies a first bottle type and at least one further supply line which provides a first further bottle type, the first further bottle type differing in shape and/or size from the first bottle type. In order to increase the flexibility, to reduce the inventory and nevertheless to meet the requirements for mass production, the filling plant also has a sorter which is configured to remove bottles selectively and arbitrarily from each of the supply lines, to line up the bottles in a predetermined order on a forward section and to deliver them to the bottle handling device in the predetermined order. The predetermined order can be chosen freely.

The invention relates to a spacing star wheel for transporting and transferring containers, comprising a plurality of gripping elements for gripping one container each and a curve guide, where the spacing star wheel is configured such that, during operation, the gripping elements, guided by the curve guide, revolve around the axis of rotation of the spacing star wheel along a curved path. By activating at least one curve guide segment, the shape of the curve guide can be adjusted such that the spacing distance between two adjacent gripping elements in the region of the curve guide segment changes.

A carrier unit for a transfer system having a transfer path includes a first carrier and a second carrier, the first and the second carriers being engageable to the transfer path and configured for negotiating the transfer path, wherein the first carrier is coupled to a first gripper configured for cooperating with a second gripper coupled to the second carrier to define a socket for holding one or more products, the socket having a socket geometry determined by a relative position of the first gripper with respect to the second gripper. Each carrier unit includes an angle control device configured to maintain the socket geometry upon negotiation of the transfer path by the carrier unit.

The technology described herein generally relates to particular form of folded package and the method of forming that folded package. The package packages loose particles into a conical container and secures the filling with a folded distal end. More specifically, loose plant matter, such as crumbled dried leaves, are supplied as filling and the package may further be provided with a fluid core.

A rotative lumber piece charger for transferring lumber pieces. The rotative lumber piece charger comprises: a driving shaft rotating about a longitudinal axis and a transfer wheel comprising a main body mounted to the driving shaft and rotating therewith. The rotative lumber piece charger also comprises a lumber piece grasping assembly rotatably connected to the main body and rotatable with respect to the main body about a lumber rotation axis. The lumber piece grasping assembly is operative to grasp a section of a corresponding one of the lumber pieces, temporarily retain the section of the lumber piece and release the lumber piece. The rotative lumber piece charger further comprises an angular orientation control system connected to the lumber piece grasping assembly. The angular orientation control system rotates the lumber piece grasping assembly about the lumber rotation axis.

An article transfer device (R) comprising a rotating structure bearing cantilevered gripping tongs, each comprising two jaws (11, 12) each on one side of a longitudinal axis (A2) of the tongs and movable relative to each other to maintain a central axis (A1) of the cylindrical portion of the articles intersecting with the longitudinale axis of the tongs regardless of the transverse dimension. The jaws have ends (111, 121) in the same plane (P1), provided with bearing surfaces (1111, 1211) facing one another to form together a centring V of the cylindrical portion and a length such that they extend back from a transverse axis (A3) of the cylindrical portion perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (A2) of the tongs and to a central axis (A1) of the cylindrical portion. The end of one of the jaws is extended by a first finger (16), which extends offset from the plane and is angled to be supported on the cylindrical portion beyond the transverse axis. A system comprising such devices.