Dropper machine

A dropper machine for dropping a metered amount of a substance in a plurality of receptacles, comprising:

• a support structure,
• a reservoir containing the substance to be dropped, supported by said structure,
• a plurality of cylinder and piston metering devices with an inlet positioned below the level of the substance to be poured into the reservoir and an outlet communicating with a respective dropper nozzle,
• at least one drive unit arranged to simultaneously drive a piston of each respective metering device according to a forward and backward motion between a start position and an end position where displacement of the pistons from the end position to the start position causes suction of the substance to be dropped from the reservoir to the cylinder of the metering devices and displacement of the pistons from the start position to the end position is adapted to cause delivery of the substance to be dropped through the respective nozzles, wherein to each of said metering devices is associated a respective actuator device cooperating with the piston of said metering device, said actuator device being operable individually to inhibit delivery of the substance to be dropped through said nozzle when the drive unit is actuated to cause displacement of the pistons of the metering devices associated therewith between the start position and the end position,
• at least one read device adapted to generate a signal which allows:
• i) the identification of any defective receptacles or receptacles not conforming to the production specifications,
• ii) the determination of the location of the aforementioned defective receptacles, in the support plate wherein they are housed, and/or
• iii) the determination of the parameters relating to the receptacles wherein the substance is to be dropped and/or to their arrangement in the support plate, on which the spatial configuration of the dropper nozzles depends in relation to the product that a user wishes to obtain, and
• a control unit arranged to generate an activation signal of a cam actuator device associated with a cam device to vary an interaxial distance between the nozzles and consequently the delivery configuration when said read device detects the feeding to the dropper machine of receptacles that require a different dropping configuration.