Patent ID: 7448181

Claim:
A packing wheel for packing products ( 3 ) in sheets of packing material ( 4 ), comprising: a supporting body ( 5 ) mounted to rotate about a central first axis of rotation ( 7 ); a number of peripheral packing pockets ( 16 ) arranged, on the supporting body ( 5 ), in a number of peripheral groups ( 28 ), each having at least two packing pockets ( 16 ), each packing pocket ( 16 ) receives and houses a respective product ( 3 ) and a respective sheet of packing material ( 4 ), each packing pocket ( 16 ) being fitted to the supporting body ( 5 ) in a respective peripheral position to rotate, with respect to the supporting body ( 5 ), about a respective peripheral second axis of rotation ( 10 ) parallel to the first axis of rotation ( 7 ), and each packing pocket ( 16 ) being mounted to rotate about a respective third axis of rotation ( 21 ) parallel to the relative second axis of rotation ( 10 ), located a given distance from the relative second axis of rotation ( 10 ), and rotating about the relative second axis of rotation ( 10 ); a first actuating device ( 13 ) for rotating the packing pockets ( 16 ) about the respective second axes of rotation ( 10 ); and a second actuating device ( 24 ) for rotating the packing pockets ( 16 ) about the respective third axes of rotation ( 21 ), so as to selectively set the packing pockets ( 16 ) in each peripheral group ( 28 ) of packing pockets ( 16 ) into a first position, in which the packing pockets ( 16 ) are arranged side by side and coplanar with one another, and into a second position, in which the packing pockets ( 16 ) are aligned with one another along a circle ( 33 ) coaxial with the first axis of rotation ( 7 ).