Automatic feeder device for cigarettes and similar rod-like articles

In a cigarette-packing machine having a hopper with an inlet over which two cigarette trays are placed in aligned relationship across the width of the inlet, wherein each tray has a mouth and a bottom and wherein the descent of cigarettes into the hopper proceeds alternately, with one tray releasing cigarettes into the hopper until it is empty while the other tray is being replaced by a full tray, the improvement comprising;

• a pair of automatic feeder devices which move trays that are full of cigarettes over the inlet and which discharge trays that are empty after the contents thereof have been released into the inlet, each automatic feeder device including
• a tray-carrying casing provided with a gate for closing the tray mouth and with tray-holding means cooperating with the bottom of the tray,
• feeding means defining a feeding path directed toward said hopper for feeding said full trays,
• discharging means defining a discharge path directed away from said hopper for discharging said empty trays, said discharge path being below said feeding path,
• a loading-and-unloading inclined frame having an upwardly oriented fore end that is disposed above said inlet of said hopper and having longitudinal side members that extend laterally to said paths,
• first means for swingably moving said frame about a transversely extending axis so that said frame moves between a first angular position wherein said fore end is lowered toward said inlet and a second angular position wherein said fore end is lifted from said inlet, said frame being more inclined when in said second angular position than in said first angular position,
• second means for mounting said tray-carrying casing so that said casing is longitudinally slidable along said longitudinal side members and rotatable about an axis extending transversely between said longitudinal side members, and
• third means cooperating with said frame and said first means for moving said tray-carrying casing from an overturned upper position, wherein a tray carried by said casing is disposed over said inlet of said hopper with the mouth of the tray directed downward so that articles fall from the mouth into said hopper, through an upstanding intermediate position, wherein an empty tray is released from said casing onto said discharge path, to an upstanding lower position, wherein said casing receives a full tray from said feeding path, and then to said overturned upper position.