Patent ID: 8662088

Claim:
Apparatus for filling under gravity from a hopper, a storage device for articles that has the form of a columnar cavity between opposed side walls, with a mass flow of mutually parallel rod-shaped articles descending from the hopper, and characterized in that: a cavity-filling device ( 12 ) for filing the cavity ( 2 , 14 , 15 , 16 ) that alternates in use between a closed configuration that blocks a downward flow of the said articles through the device ( 12 ) and an open configuration that allows flow of the articles through the device ( 12 ), the device ( 12 ) being movable in translation, in alternate upward and downward strokes within the cavity ( 2 , 14 , 15 , 16 ), being in the closed configuration on the downward stroke and in the open configuration on the upward stroke.