Abstract: The feeder for tablets, capsules or dragées has a stationary base unit and an exchangeable format unit with a sorting plate for evenly distributing the products and with a filling unit including a number of vertically extending filling tubes having a guiding channel for receiving the tablets, capsules or dragées from the sorting plate, and a blocking slide unit for temporarily blocking the guiding channels of the filling tubes. The base unit has a first hanger device for the sorting plate, a second hanger device for the filling unit, and at least one adjusting device for adjusting the first hanger device relative to the second hanger device.

Abstract: An input device delivers objects one at a time to a transfer station next to a conveyor extending in a transport direction. A cassette defines an upwardly open stack well shaped to receive the objects and has a floor. The cassette is held in an upstream stack-forming position underneath the input device while the input device drops the objects one at a time into the well, and the floor of the cassette is stepped downward each time an object is dropped into the well by a distance generally equal to a vertical height of the object. When a predetermined number of the objects has been dropped into the well, the cassette is displaced downstream out of the upstream stack-forming position synchronously with the conveyor at the transport speed while the stack of objects in the well is pushed transversely of the direction out of the well into the conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus for packaging small identical objects in respective blisters of a package strip has at least two separate but substantially identical plates each formed with an array of pockets. An upper conveyor shifts the plates one behind the other horizontally at an upper level from an upstream loading station where objects are fed to the pockets to a downstream transfer station where the objects are transferred to a package strip. A lower conveyor has a single drive motor for dropping the plates at the transfer station from the upper level to a lower return level, then shifting the lowered plates upstream at the lower level against the travel direction to the loading station, and then shifting the plates back up to the upper level.

Abstract: A transfer apparatus has a drive disk rotatable at a transfer station about a central axis and defining an eccentric axis offset from the central axis. An inner drive shaft centered on the eccentric axis is rotatably journaled in the drive disk at the eccentric axis. An inner arm is fixed to and extends angularly from the inner drive shaft. An outer arm is pivoted at the inner-arm outer end, and a grab is pivoted on the outer-arm outer end. A drive rotates the drive disk about the central axis and thereby orbits the inner arm, the outer arm, and the grab about the central axis. An inner controller changes an inner angle formed between the inner arm and the outer arm, and an outer controller changes an outer angle formed between the grab and the outer arm.

Abstract: A continuous and elongated blister-pack strip having transverse rows of blisters of which some are empty and most are full is transported through a stamping station. Upstream of the stamping station whether any blisters entering the stamping station are full or empty is sensed. In the stamping station only sections all of whose blisters are full are stamped out of the strip from between the edges thereof while leaving the edges flanking the stamped-out section intact so that sections of the strip having at least one empty blister leave the stamping station attached to the strip edges. The stamped-out sections are transported away from the path at the stamping station. Spaces in the strip between blisters still attached to the strip edges are then detected and the entire strip is transversely cut only between the respective blisters into pieces each including at least one row of intact blisters.

Abstract: A cover-foil strip is pressed by a sealing roller over blisters of a blister-foil strip passing over a pocket roller having an array of pockets corresponding generally to the blisters. A drive rotates the rollers to draw the strips in a transport direction. A sensor capable of detecting the blisters thereof is connected to a controller also connected to the drive for adjusting a rotation rate of the rollers in accordance with the detected positions of the blisters relative to the rollers. A pair of grippers upstream in the direction from the rollers are each engageable in a closed position with a respective edge of the blister-foil strip. A second drive connected with the grippers can shift the grippers between the closed positions and open positions and can reciprocate the grippers in the transport direction when in the closed positions for advancement of the blister-foil strip in the direction.

Abstract: An apparatus for packaging small identical objects in respective blisters of a package strip has at least two separate but substantially identical plates each formed with an array of pockets. An upper conveyor shifts the plates one behind the other horizontally at an upper level from an upstream loading station where objects are fed to the pockets to a downstream transfer station where the objects are transferred to a package strip. A lower conveyor has a single drive motor for dropping the plates at the transfer station from the upper level to a lower return level, then shifting the lowered plates upstream at the lower level against the travel direction to the loading station, and then shifting the plates back up to the upper level.

Abstract: A lower foil formed with upwardly open filled pockets passes horizontally at a constant transport speed through a work station of a machine frame. A support table holds an upper tool immediately above the foil in the station. A double parallelogrammatic linkage has two upper pivots on the support table, two lower pivots on the machine frame, and two upright links pivoted on the upper and lower pivot. A table drive mounted on the frame includes a crank connected to the link for oscillating the link about the lower pivot and thereby reciprocating the support table generally in the transport direction. A lower tool is carried by guides on the support table for only vertical movement relative to the support table. A tool drive mounted on the frame includes another crank connected to the lower tool for reciprocating the lower tool vertically relative to the support table.

Abstract: A transfer apparatus has a drive disk rotatable at a transfer station about a central axis and defining an eccentric axis offset from the central axis. An inner drive shaft centered on the eccentric axis is rotatably journaled in the drive disk at the eccentric axis. An inner arm is fixed to and extends angularly from the inner drive shaft. An outer arm is pivoted at the inner-arm outer end, and a grab is pivoted on the outer-arm outer end. A drive rotates the drive disk about the central axis and thereby orbits the inner arm, the outer arm, and the grab about the central axis. An inner controller changes an inner angle formed between the inner arm and the outer arm, and an outer controller changes an outer angle formed between the grab and the outer arm.

Abstract: An input device delivers objects one at a time to a transfer station next to a conveyor extending in a transport direction. A cassette defines an upwardly open stack well shaped to receive the objects and has a floor. The cassette is held in an upstream stack-forming position underneath the input device while the input device drops the objects one at a time into the well, and the floor of the cassette is stepped downward each time an object is dropped into the well by a distance generally equal to a vertical height of the object. When a predetermined number of the objects has been dropped into the well, the cassette is displaced downstream out of the upstream stack-forming position synchronously with the conveyor at the transport speed while the stack of objects in the well is pushed transversely of the direction out of the well into the conveyor.

Abstract: A continuous and elongated blister-pack strip having transverse rows of blisters of which some are empty and most are full is transported through a stamping station. An upstream sensor along the path upstream of the station determines whether the blisters entering the station are full. A device in the station can stamp out of the strip sections each including a plurality of blisters. The stamper is not actuated and thereby leaves unfilled blisters on the strip when any blisters in the station are not full. A downstream sensor along the path downstream of the station detects spaces in the strip between any blisters left on the strip, and a cutter along the path downstream of and connected to the downstream sensor severs the strip between the rows of blisters into pieces each including at least one row of intact blisters.

Abstract: A lower foil formed with upwardly open filled pockets passes horizontally at a constant transport speed through a work station of a machine frame. A support table holds an upper tool immediately above the foil in the station. A double parallelogrammatic linkage has two upper pivots on the support table, two lower pivots on the machine frame, and two upright links pivoted on the upper and lower pivot. A table drive mounted on the frame includes a crank connected to the link for oscillating the link about the lower pivot and thereby reciprocating the support table generally in the transport direction. A lower tool is carried by guides on the support table for only vertical movement relative to the support table. A tool drive mounted on the frame includes another crank connected to the lower tool for reciprocating the lower tool vertically relative to the support table.

Abstract: An object-sorting system has a conveyor having a horizontally extending stretch, a plurality of pushers fixed on and spaced along the conveyor and extending upward from the stretch thereof, and an upright chute adapted to hold a stack of objects and having a downwardly open outlet spaced above an upstream end of the conveyor stretch. An elongated support surface extends horizontally above the stretch and has an upstream end below the outlet port. A drive advances the stretch and thereby displaces the pushers downstream past the outlet so that the pushers engage at least a lowermost object of the stack in the chute and move the engaged object(s) downstream along the support surface. The support surface can pivot about an axis at the support-surface downstream end and thereby change a vertical spacing between the support surface upstream end and the outlet port.

Abstract: An unloading and erecting apparatus has a frame fixed to a magazine holding a stack of flattened cartons, an outer horizontal guide on the frame, an outer horizontal slide horizontally displaceable on the outer horizontal guide and carrying a nonstraight outer vertical guide. A drive motor connected to the outer horizontal slide horizontally displaces same. A vertical guide on the frame carries a vertical slide and another drive motor connected to the vertical slide vertically displaces same. A shaft pivotal about a generally horizontal axis transverse to the forward direction on the vertical slide is fixed horizontally relative to the outer horizontal slide.

Abstract: An object-sorting system has a conveyor having a horizontally extending stretch, a plurality of pushers fixed on and spaced along the conveyor and extending upward from the stretch thereof, and an upright chute adapted to hold a stack of objects and having a downwardly open outlet spaced above an upstream end of the conveyor stretch. An elongated support surface extends horizontally above the stretch and has an upstream end below the outlet port. A drive advances the stretch and thereby displaces the pushers downstream past the outlet so that the pushers engage at least a lowermost object of the stack in the chute and move the engaged object(s) downstream along the support surface. The support surface can pivot about an axis at the support-surface downstream end and thereby change a vertical spacing between the support surface upstream end and the outlet port.

Abstract: An unloading and erecting apparatus has a frame fixed to a magazine holding a stack of flattened cartons, an outer horizontal guide on the frame, an outer horizontal slide horizontally displaceable on the outer horizontal guide and carrying a nonstraight outer vertical guide. A drive motor connected to the outer horizontal slide horizontally displaces same. A vertical guide on the frame carries a vertical slide and another drive motor connected to the vertical slide vertically displaces same. A shaft pivotal about a generally horizontal axis transverse to the forward direction on the vertical slide is fixed horizontally relative to the outer horizontal slide.