Patent ID: 8739961

Claim:
A path changing rotational conveyor for lightweight articles, comprising: a rotor with a plurality of receiving configurations uniformly distributed along a rotor perimetric wall for receiving said lightweight articles; a perimetric wall provided in said rotor, said perimetric wall having a plurality of suction openings corresponding to the receiving configurations; an electric motor to make said rotor rotate; a stationary negative pressure chamber connected to a suction source providing a suction to each receiving configuration through said suction openings sufficient to hold by suction one of the lightweight articles against the receiving configuration along a predetermined circumferential arc by which said change of path is obtained; said stationary negative pressure chamber being partly delimited by said perimetric wall of the rotor along said predetermined circumferential arc wherein: the rotor comprises an upper plate and a lower plate between which said perimetric wall with the suction openings extends, wherein the receiving configurations are complemented by upper indentations in a perimetric edge of said upper plate and by lower indentations in a perimetric edge of said lower plate, said upper and lower indentations being mutually aligned; the perimetric wall is formed by a plurality of separated sections fixed at their ends to the upper and lower plates by fixing means, and the suction openings are formed by the separations between the sections of the perimetric wall, and the suction openings are sized so as to be not completely blocked by the lightweight articles when the lightweight articles are held by suction in the receiving configurations.