Apparatus for transferring and checking groups of smoking articles

An apparatus for transferring and checking groups of smoking articles, associable with a packing machine for the selfsame smoking articles, comprising a conveyor which moves with intermittent motion to transfer the groups partly housed in respective compartments, each group comprising at least one straight layer of smoking articles and the compartments being arranged in such a way that the groups of smoking articles are moved perpendicularly to the laying planes defined by the at least one layer making up the groups;

• there being provided a checking station where the compartments of the conveyor are brought to a stop in succession, and there being provided a checking device operating at the checking station and comprising a detecting head which, during a mutual movement between the selfsame detecting head and each group of smoking articles housed in a compartment, checks all the smoking articles making up the at least one layer of the selfsame group;
• characterized in that it comprises actuating means for imparting to the detecting head, immediately after each compartment stops in the checking station, a translational movement directed along a direction parallel to the laying plane defined by the at least one layer housed in the selfsame compartment and such as to cause the detecting head to pass substantially in front of the central zones of the ends of the smoking articles making up the at least one layer;
• the actuating means being able to move the detecting head in both directions between two positions situated on opposite sides of the compartment which has stopped in the checking station;
• and each time a compartment of the conveyor stops at the checking station, the actuating means imparting to the detecting head a translational movement such that the detecting head moves to the zone opposite to the zone where it is when the conveyor stops.