Rotary feeder for the accurate placing of sheet elements on flat supports

A rotary feeder for accurately placing sheet elements on flat supports, comprising:

• at least one fixed, translation-adjustable magazine for storing stacked sheet elements;
• a suction cylinder cooperating with a device for continuously feeding flat supports, each flat support to be provided with one sheet element;
• a press roller located adjacent to and cooperating with said suction cylinder;
• at least one picking up member for picking up and transferring the sheet elements one at a time to said suction cylinder;
• and
• moving means for supporting and driving said picking up member along an at least partly hypocycloidal trajectory so that two turning back points of the hypocycloidal trajectory coincide with a first point for picking up each sheet element in said magazine and a second point for transferring each sheet element to said suction cylinder adjacent said press roller and so that said picking up member, from said second point, avoids said press roller while transferring each sheet element to said suction cylinder;
• whereby each sheet element is attached at the first point to said picking up member with a relative nil speed between said picking up member and said fixed magazine, and at the second point each sheet element is disengaged from said picking up member during a turning back movement of said picking up member with respect to said press roller, thus ensuring an accurate continuous positioning at high speed of the sheet elements on the flat supports.