Apparatus for making containers which comprise a supporting skeleton and a layer of thermoformable material coupled to the supporting skeleton

An apparatus for making containers (2) which comprise a supporting skeleton (3) and a layer of thermoformable material (4) coupled to the supporting skeleton (3), comprising:

• a supporting structure (5);
• a motor-driven rotor (6) mounted on the supporting structure (5) and rotatable around a main axis of rotation;
• a thermoforming device (7) comprising a supporting unit (11) and a closing unit (12), the supporting unit (11) being mounted on the rotor (6) and the closing unit (12) being mounted on the supporting structure (5) in such a way that it is stationary relative to the rotation of the rotor (6);
• a feeding device (8) for feeding to the supporting unit (11) mounted on the rotor (6), a first article (13) for making the supporting skeleton (3);
• a positioning device (16) for positioning a sheet of thermoformable material (14) between the supporting unit (11) mounted on the rotor (6) and the closing unit (12) stationary relative to the rotation of the rotor (6);
• and
• an extracting device (9) configured to extract the containers (2) from the supporting unit (11) mounted on the rotor (6);
• wherein:
• the rotor (6) is configured to rotate in a stepping fashion to position the supporting unit (11) at a plurality of predetermined angular positions one after another, which are distributed around the main axis of rotation;
• the feeding device (8), the closing unit (12) stationary relative to the rotation of the rotor (6) and the extracting device (9) are distributed around the main axis of rotation;
• the feeding device (8) is configured to feed a first article (13) to the supporting unit (11), when the supporting unit (11) is at a loading predetermined angular position of said plurality of predetermined angular positions;
• the extracting device (9) is configured to pick up a container (2) from the supporting unit (11), when the supporting unit (11) is at an unloading predetermined angular position of said plurality of predetermined angular positions;
• when the supporting unit (11) is positioned in a thermoforming predetermined angular position of said plurality of predetermined angular positions, which is intermediate between the loading predetermined angular position and the unloading predetermined angular position, at least one of either the closing unit (12) or the supporting unit (11) is movable relative to the other between a disengaged position in which they are spaced apart and allow the rotation of the rotor (6), and an operating position in which they are coupled for thermoforming the sheet of thermoformable material (14) on the first article (13);
• and
• the positioning device (16) is configured to position the sheet of thermoformable material (14) between the supporting unit (11) and the closing unit (12), when the supporting unit (11) and the closing unit (12) are in the disengaged position and before they adopt the operating position.