Patent ID: 7735302

Claim:
A device for picking up articles from a supply station and inserting the articles into a container, wherein the device comprises; at least an operating head, provided with a group of depression-activated gripping units, each of which is shaped in a special format to pick up and retain a corresponding article; control means, which verify a presence of an article at each of the gripping units; movement organs which cause the operating head to perform outward and return runs, respectively from a picking up station of the articles to a release station of the articles, situated nearby the container, and vice versa; conveyor means, provided at the release station, above an opening of the container, and destined to be interposed between the opening and the operating head to guide insertion of the articles into the container; enabling organs, activated in a phase relation with the movement organs, for activating the gripping units at the supply station in order for a corresponding number of articles to be picked up by means of the gripping units, and for deactivating the gripping units at the release station, thus disengaging the articles from the gripping units and causing the articles to fall into the conveyor means located there below; wherein at least one tray is located at the picking up station, into which said at least one tray the articles are fed loose, forming a heap of the articles into which the depression-activated gripping units, borne by the operating head, are partially inserted in order to pick up and retain corresponding articles; and wherein the movement organs impress horizontal motions of predetermined amplitude and direction on the operating head, in a phase relation with the insertion of the gripping units into the heap of the articles, in order to facilitate spontaneous engaging of the articles by the gripping units.