Apparatus for thermoforming plastic containers

An apparatus for thermoforming plastic containers comprising:

• a pickup station (24);
• a feeder (25) for feeding flat sheets (8) of thermoformable plastic material to the pickup station (24);
• at least one thermoforming device (3) in turn comprising a shaped mould (4) and a closing element (5), the shaped mould (4) and the closing element (5) being movable relative to each other at least between a home position in which they are away from one another, and a forming position in which they are near to each other for, in use, clamping a flat sheet (8) between them;
• the closing element (5) comprising a resting surface (16) that is facing the shaped mould (4) at least when they are in the forming position;
• and being equipped with suction means designed to retain on the resting surface (16) at least one of said flat sheets (8) at least when the shaped mould (4) and the closing element (5) are in the home position;
• one or more heating elements (6) for heating the closing element (5);
• a transferring device (26) for transferring the flat sheets (8) from the pickup station (24) to the closing element (5);
• an extracting device (9) for extracting the thermoformed container (2) from the shaped mould (4);
• and
• an electronic unit (10) for controlling and checking operation of the apparatus (1);
• characterised in that said feeder (25) comprises:
• at least one support (50) for a reel (51) of a web (52) of said thermoformable plastic material;
• unwinding means (53) for unwinding said reel (51) of web (52), designed, in use, to feed the web (52) along a sliding path extending from the at least one support (50) to the pickup station (24);
• and
• a cutting device (54) for cutting the web (52) positioned along the sliding path for dividing the web (52) into a plurality of pieces, each of which corresponds to one flat sheet (8) to be fed to the pickup station (24).