DESCRIPTION The invention relates to a rotating star device with variable geometry, for the phased guidance and transfer of bottles or other containers of any section and of variable format. There are known machines for filling bottles or other containers, which use one or more rotating star devices for the phased guidance and transfer of the said containers with correct spacing from each other, both at the entry and at the exit of the said machines, and in some cases also during intermediate travel. These star devices initially consisted of a disc rotating about its vertical shaft and having an outer profile formed by a sequence of recesses or pockets, usually of semicircular plan, spaced at equal angular intervals, and open towards the outside, which are entered by parts of the containers, which thus advance with correct equal spacing between them, which are supported below and externally by suitable means, and which can thus be transferred in a phased manner to the filling and closing means which rotate in a correct phase relationship with the said star devices.

In order to avoid the need to replace these star devices from time to time when there is a change in the format of the bottles to be filled, star devices with perimetric recesses with variable geometry were devised some time ago for adapting to the different diameters of the containers, while keeping the axes of the containers in an orbit of constant radius with respect to the axis of rotation of the said star devices.

Variable geometry star devices are described, for example, in European patents EP 629,569, EP 355,971 and EP 412,059. The devices according to the known solutions are complex in their construction, especially in the case of the more advanced versions, and are intended to modify not only the amplitude of the peripheral recesses of the star but also the depth of the said recesses, in order to keep the axes of bottles of different formats in an orbit of constant radius with respect to the axis of rotation of the star.

The invention proposes a star device which has the same more advanced purpose as the aforesaid known devices, but which by comparison with these has the advantage of being simplified in its construction and therefore also having greater technological reliability. The device essentially consists of a base plate for support and rotation about its vertical shaft, on the periphery of which are mounted pairs of flat lobes, in sequence and rotatable on common vertical pivots, and lying in two superimposed planes, these lobes having, in plan view from above, for example, one part in the form of a sector of a circle, facing the centre of the base plate, and having a tooth which is angularly equidistant from the ends of the said sector part and whose sides are curved and outwardly concave and are mirror images of each other. Each lobe of the lower plane has its part in the form of a sector of a circle designed so as to engage with an operating disc mounted rotatably on the shaft of the base plate, while each lobe of the upper plane has its part in the form of a sector of a circle designed so as to engage with a corresponding operating disc which rests on the underlying lower operating disc and which is also rotatable on the shaft of the base plate. Suitable means are provided to interconnect the said two operating discs mechanically and to transmit a rotation of equal amplitude and opposite direction to them when required. When the star device in question has to handle bottles of larger diameter, the teeth of the two lobe planes are superimposed on each other and are radially positioned with respect to the base plate in such a way that the bottle housing pockets are formed by the opposite sides of the said teeth of the pairs of lobes and by the consecutive ends of the corresponding parts in the form of sectors of circles of the consecutive lobes. When the star device has to handle bottles of smaller diameter, one operating disc is made to rotate in one direction to the maximum permitted extent, while the other operating disc rotates to an equal extent in the opposite direction, so that the bottle housing pockets are formed, in their outer parts, partially by the teeth of the lobes of the upper plane and partially by the teeth of the lobes of the lower plane, while in their inner parts they are formed by the consecutive ends of the portions in the form of sectors of circles of the consecutive lobes, the

whole operation being carried out in such a way that the axis of the bottle of smaller diameter is located in the same rotational orbit as the preceding bottles of larger diameter. The solution in question is simple in construction, since all the lobes are identical, and because the two operating discs are also identical to each other.

Further characteristics of the invention and the advantages derived therefrom will be made clearer by the following description of a possible embodiment, illustrated purely by way of example, without restrictive intent, in the figures of the attached sheets of drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of the device according to the invention, in which the lobes are shown in solid lines in the position for controlling the bottles of larger diameter and in dashed and chained lines in the position for controlling the bottles of smaller diameter; - Figs. 2 and 3 show in an exploded perspective view the two lobe planes with the corresponding operating discs, in the condition of controlling the bottles of larger diameter and in that of controlling the bottles of smaller diameter respectively;

Fig. 4 shows further details of the device in a section taken along the line IV-IV of Figure 1 ; - Fig. 5 shows schematically and in a plan view a different solution for the engagement of the lobes with the corresponding operating discs and a different solution for the actuation of these discs.

With reference to Figures 1 , 2 and 4, it can be seen that the device comprises a horizontal base plate 1 fixed axially to a vertical shaft 2 which is made to rotate on command at the correct speed and in the correct direction, as shown for example by the arrow F in Figure 1 , and, for the reasons described above, this plate 1 is preferably provided on its perimeter with a plurality of identical recesses or pockets 3 in the form of sectors of circles, which are spaced apart at equal angular intervals, and in each of which a significant part of the circumference of one of the containers

C1 of larger diameter transportable by the device can be housed. As shown in the example of Figure 4, the containers rest on a fixed or moving support surface 4 and are usually guided externally by an adjustable guide 5. The pockets 3 are separated from each other by teeth 103 of the plate 1 , these teeth being identical and suitably rounded at their ends. Flat identical lobes 6, whose midpoints are mounted rotatably on pivots 7 fixed at their lower ends to the base plate 1 , rest on these teeth 103, and in a preferred embodiment (see below) each of these lobes comprises a part 106 in the form of a sector of a circle, with its centre of curvature on the axis of the said pivots 7, and comprises a radial tooth 206 which is angularly equidistant from the ends 306, 306' of the said sector part 106, and which is inscribed in the circle describing the curvature of the said sector 106. When the device is in the condition of controlling the containers of larger diameter C1 , the teeth 106 of the lobes 6 are superimposed on the teeth 103 of the base plate 1 and duplicate their shape, while the ends 306, 306' of the sector portions of the said lobes 6 are located near one another in the midpoints of the peripheral pockets 3 of the said base plate 1 , as shown in solid lines in Figure 1. The ends 206, 306, 306' of the lobes 6 are suitably rounded.

The portion 106 in the form of a sector of a circle of the lobes 6 is designed in any suitable way to engage with the circumference of an operating disc 8 which has the same thickness as the said lobes, which rests on the base plate 1 and which is mounted rotatably and coaxially on an extension of the shaft 2. For this purpose, as shown in the example of Figures 1 and 2, the operating disc 8 can be provided on its circumference with a plurality of omega-shaped appendages 108, spaced apart at equal angular intervals and present in the same quantity as the lobes, the rounded head of each appendage interacting with a corresponding recess 9 in the sector 106 of lobe 6. When the device is in the condition of controlling the containers C1 , the appendages 108 and the recesses 9 lie on straight lines R1 which pass through the axes of the pivots 7 and which are angularly spaced by a correct amount from the radial lines R intersecting the said pivots 7 and the axis of the shaft 2.

On the lobes 6 there rest other lobes 10 identical to the lobes 6, and also mounted rotatably on extensions of the pivots 7, with their recesses 1 1 engaging with the appendages 1 12 of the corresponding operating disc 12 which is positioned on the disc 8, is identical to this disc, and is also rotatable on the shaft 2. The lobes 10 are inverted with respect to the underlying lobes 6, in such a way that, when their teeth 210 are in the position of alignment with the teeth 103 of the base disc 1 , for controlling the containers of larger diameter C1 , each of their recesses 1 1 is located on a line R2 symmetrically opposite the line R1. Clearly, in a different embodiment, the teeth 108 and 1 12 can be formed integrally with the lobes 6 and 10, while the corresponding engaging recesses 9 and 11 can be formed on the operating discs 8 and 12.

To prepare the device for controlling containers having a diameter smaller than that of the aforesaid containers C1 , for example containers C2 of smaller diameter as shown in Figure 1 , it is necessary to impart a synchronous and opposite rotation to the operating discs 8 and 12, such that each straight line R1 of the engagements between the lower lobes 6 and the corresponding disc 8 moves to the position of the straight line R2, and, conversely, each straight line R2 of the engagements between the upper lobes 10 and the corresponding operating disc 12 moves to the position of the said straight line R1. As a result of this rotation, as shown in Figure 3 and as shown in chained and dashed lines in Figure 1 , all the teeth 206 of the lower lobes 6 swing in an anti-clockwise direction, while all the teeth 210 of the upper lobes 10 swing in a clockwise direction, being positioned with an equal angular spacing from the teeth 103 of the base plate 1 , so that the amplitude of each pocket 3 for containing the containers C2 is now limited and partially defined by a tooth 206 of the lower lobe 6 and on the opposite side partially by a tooth 210 of the upper lobe 10. Simultaneously, the depths of the said pockets 3 for containing the containers C2 are limited and defined to an equal extent by the ends 306 of the sectors of the lower lobes 6 and by the ends 310 of the sectors of the upper lobes 10, so that the axes of

the containers C2 remain in the same orbit Z which originally contained the axes of the containers C1 of greater diameter, with all the advantages derived from this condition.

Figure 1 shows how the presence of the teeth 103 of the base disc 1 makes it possible to fill the space lying between the teeth 206 and 210 of the lobes 6 and 10 in the position of maximum angular distance from each other, in such a way as to avoid damaging interference of these teeth with the containers during transfer to or from the device in question. Clearly, if the amplitude of the teeth 206 and 210 of the lobes is greater than that shown in the drawings and such that no substantial voids are created in the phase in which the said lobes move angularly away from each other, the teeth 103 of the base disc 1 can be omitted, and this disc can therefore be structured with a perimetric shape suitable solely for supporting the pivots 7 for the rotation of the lobes and other parts described above. The pivots 7 are preferably also supported above by a plate 101 fixed to the shaft 2, as shown in Figure 4, and this plate can have no perimetric teeth 103 or can be identical in all respects to the lower plate 1.

The operating discs 8 and 12 can be synchronized with each other and can be made to rotate on command in opposite directions, by any suitable means, for example by using cams (not shown) or by using geared drives as will now be described with reference to Figures 1 and 4. The operating discs 8 and 12 are provided on their peripheries with apertures 13 in the form of sectors with their centres of curvature on the axis of the operating shaft 2, and these apertures are provided with identical sets of teeth 14 and 1 14 on their inner sides which are nearer the lobes. The upper plate

101 is also provided with an identical aperture 15 which is covered by a support 16 fixed to the said plate 101 after the introduction into the apertures 13 and 15 of a pinion 17 which has its shaft 1 17 supported rotatably by the lower operating disc 8 and by the support 16, and which has a height substantially equal to the sum of the heights of the aperture 13 of the upper disc 12 and the aperture 15 of the plate 101.

This pinion engages with the set of teeth 14 of the aperture 13 of the upper operating disc 12 and partially rotates without interference in the aperture 15, where it engages with a pinion of equal diameter 18 keyed on a shaft 19 which is supported rotatably by the base plate 1 and by the support 16, and on which is keyed a second pinion 1 18 identical to the pinion 18, which does not interfere with the pinion 17 and which engages only with the set of teeth 1 14 of the aperture 13 of the lower operating disc 8. Figures 1 and 4 show how a rotation imparted in one direction to the shaft 19 causes a rotation of equal amplitude and opposite direction of the shaft 1 17 with the pinion 17, resulting in a rotation of equal amplitude and opposite direction of the operating discs 8 and 12. As shown in dashed lines in Figure 4, the shaft 19 can be rotated, for example, manually by means of a lever 20 keyed to the projecting upper end of the shaft 19 and having its flexible part interacting frictionally or by a snap fit with suitably designed parts of the upper surface of the support 16. Otherwise, as shown in the same Figure 4, the adjusting shaft 19 can be rotated remotely by an automatic control system, for example by making the said shaft 19 project below the base plate 1 and having its lower end connected by means of a positive transmission 21 to a hollow shaft or sleeve 22 which is fitted rotatably on the drive shaft 2, which normally rotates together with this shaft, and which, when necessary, can be made to rotate on the shaft 2, by means which are not shown but which can easily be provided by persons skilled in the art, to bring about the desired rotation of the adjusting shaft 19.

In the variant construction shown in Figure 5, the operating discs 8 and 12 can each be provided with a corresponding external peripheral set of teeth 23, which may be present on only one sector of their circumference, and which engages with a corresponding and complementary set of teeth 24 of the circular sector of the lobes 6 and 10. These sets of teeth 23 of the operating discs can be used to synchronize and rotate the said operating discs, by means of small pinions of equal diameter 25, 125, carried rotatably by the plates 1 , 101 , each pinion engaging with the set of teeth 23 of each of the said discs 8 and 12 and also engaging directly or indirectly with a pair of

pinions of equal diameter 26 which engage with each other, one of which can be made to rotate manually or automatically in the same way as described above for the adjusting shaft 19 of the solution of Figure 4.

Clearly, the description relates to a preferred embodiment of the invention, to which numerous changes and constructional modifications can be made, relating for example to a different shape of the lobes 6 and 10 which can be made less solid and lighter than the illustrated shape, especially in respect of the part in the form of a sector of a circle 106, 1 10 which can be provided with only one working end 306 and 310, since the ends 306' and 310' are substantially inactive for the purposes of the formation of the pockets 3.