An apparatus for collecting a tubular box in a flattened configuration from a store, for opening out the tubular box and for transferring the opened-out tubular box to a receiving station, the tubular box in the flattened configuration comprising a first sheet and a second sheet which are in contact with one another or very close to one another, the first sheet being connected to the second sheet at two common and opposite ends, the first sheet being provided with a first wall and a second wall which are separated from one another by a first fold line;
- the apparatus comprising:
- a frame;
- a first member, provided with a first suction means, which is hinged to the frame according to a first rotation axis, in a position below an outlet of the store;
- a second member which is hinged to the frame at a second rotation axis;
- a third member which is hinged to the frame at a third rotation axis, coinciding with the first rotation axis of the first member;
- a fourth member which is hinged, by a first end portion, to the second member at a fourth rotation axis and which is hinged, at an intermediate portion, to the third member at a fifth rotation axis;
- a fifth member, provided with a second suction means, which is hinged to a second end portion of the fourth member at a sixth rotation axis, so as to be activatable in rotation about the sixth rotation axis, with respect to the fourth member,
- wherein the first member is activatable in rotation, in a first rotation direction about the first rotation axis, so as to be positioned in a raised position in such a way that the first suction means can abut the tubular box in flattened configuration at the outlet of the store, and retain the tubular box by suction at the first wall of the first sheet, and thus activatable in rotation in an opposite second rotation direction in order to extract the tubular box in the flattened configuration from the store and in order to bring the tubular box in the flattened configuration into a lowered position facing the receiving station in which the tubular box in the flattened configuration is retained by the first suction means;
- wherein the fifth member is positionable in a position such that the second suction means are situated upstream of the first suction means of the first member, with respect to the receiving station, when the first member brings the tubular box in the flattened configuration into the lowered position, and inferiorly of the tubular box in the flattened configuration,
- and wherein the fifth member, when the tubular box is in the flattened configuration has been brought into the lowered position, and retained by the first suction means of the first member, is activatable in rotation about the sixth rotation axis, with respect to the fourth member, in such a way as to bring the second suction means to strike, and retain, by suction, the second wall of the first sheet of the tubular box and rotate the second wall with respect to the first wall about the relative fold line, for opening out the tubular box,
- with the fifth member which is configured to retain via the second suction means the opened-out tubular box following the deactivation of the first suction means and a rotation of the first member in order to disengage from the opened-out tubular box;
- further comprising a sixth member, provided with a third suction means, and a movement system of the sixth member, wherein the movement system is configured and predisposed in such a way as to move and position the sixth member in a first retracted position, in proximity of the lowered position, at which the third suction means can abut, and retain, by suction, a wall of the opened-out tubular box which is retained by the second suction means of the fifth member following the deactivation of the first suction means and the disengagement of the first member from the tubular box, wherein the movement system which is also configured and predisposed, following the deactivation of the second suction means and the disengagement of the fifth member from the opened-out tubular box, to move and position the sixth member, with the third suction means which retain by suction the opened-out tubular box, into a second advanced position at the receiving station so that the opened-out tubular box can be transferred to and released in the receiving station following the deactivation of the third suction means.