Patent ID: 7897120

Claim:
A charging device for tube bundle reactors, comprising a metering chamber unit having a plurality of metering chambers which can be filled with filling materials comprising catalytically coated carrier material, a drop tube or some other feeding device connected to each metering chamber, whereby at least one tube of the tube bundle reactor can be filled using each drop tube, and antechambers for filling the metering chambers, which antechambers are combined into a replaceable antechamber unit, wherein the metering chamber unit further comprises a selector device, and whereby the antechamber unit, which is to be fitted onto the metering chamber unit, can be selected by the selector device, and wherein an encoding device is provided between the antechamber unit and the metering chamber unit which permits the antechamber unit to be emptied as a function of the position of the selector device only if there is correspondence between the position of the selector device and the selected antechamber unit.