An apparatus for realizing a cardboard strip for packaging by consecutively joining a plurality of cardboard sheets for packaging, comprising:
- a store, for receiving a plurality of cardboard sheets stacked on one another to form a stack of cardboard sheets;
- a first support, arranged at a first side of the store to restingly receive an end portion of a cardboard sheet;
- a second support arranged on a second side of the store, opposite the first side and on the opposite side to the first support with respect to the store, to restingly receive a cardboard sheet with an end portion of the cardboard sheet projecting from the second support and facing towards the store;
- a third support, arranged between the second support and the store, and movable between a first raised position, in which a part of the third support is raised with respect to the second support, and a second lowered position in which the part of the third support is lowered with respect to the second support;
- gripping means for picking up a first cardboard sheet from the top of the stack of cardboard sheets present in the store and for transferring the first cardboard sheet to and positioning the first cardboard sheet at the first support with an end portion of the first cardboard sheet resting on the first support;
- application means for applying adhesive material on the upper face of the end portion of the first cardboard sheet rested on the first support;
- transfer means for transferring the first cardboard sheet, with applied adhesive material, from the store towards the second support and for resting the first cardboard sheet on the second support with the relative end portion having the adhesive material projecting and facing towards the store;
- and
- pressor means, predisposed and activatable between the second support and the third support, wherein the third support is positionable in the first raised position, to switch and raise an end portion of a second cardboard sheet which is transferred from the store towards the second support by the transfer means, to position the end portion of the second sheet which is raised above the end portion of the first cardboard sheet having the adhesive material and is projecting from the second support, and wherein the third support is then positionable in the second lowered position to lower the end portion of the second sheet and to position the end portion of the second sheet at the end portion of the first sheet bearing the adhesive material with the two end portions in contact with one another, and wherein the pressor means, once the third support has been positioned in the second lowered position and the end portion of the second sheet has been superposed and positioned on the end portion of the first sheet projecting from the second support, are activatable transversally to the two sheets, between the second support and the third support, to press the two superposed end portions of the two sheets to one another to fix the end portions to one another to form a cardboard strip.