Abstract: A lever connected to the working-station drive shaft of a packaging machine is accelerated by an energy source, for example, a piston-and-cylinder arrangement to rotate this shaft in the same sense as a continuously driven main drive shaft and enable a single-tooth jaw clutch to couple the two shafts without shock or impact.

Abstract: Cell plates of a machine for packaging into containers receivable in such cell plates, can be replaced utilizing a manipulator adapted to grip the cell plates and having pressing elements which operate upon axial couplings engageable with bolts of the conveyor in a screw-free manner.

Abstract: Gripper devices transfer covers from a magazine onto filled packing containers guided along a substantially horizontal transport trajectory. The gripper devices are on a supporting shaft which is driven via a rod system 18 by a grooved cam plate and a roller lever interacting therewith. By shortening the effective lever arm of the roller lever with the use of an adjusting unit coming into operation when the cover mounting device is blocked, the articulation point of the rod system in an elongated slot of the roller lever is altered in such a way that the stroke movement of the rod system and thus of the supporting shaft and of the suction elements or gripping devices becomes shorter, i.e. a short stroke occurs, thus ensuring that no further covers are extracted from the magazine and placed on the packing container.