Manufacturing machine designed to use reels of web material, in particular packaging machine for packaging cigarettes, or the like

A manufacturing machine which uses a core loaded with a reel of web material wound thereabout and which has a front side and a rear side, comprising:

• a processing unit in which the web material is consumed, a portion of said processing unit being located at the front side;
• a passage having a longitudinal axis which extends from the front side to the rear side;
• a transfer means for transferring through said passage a loaded core from the rear side to the front side at which front side the web material is consumed by said processing unit leaving an empty core, and for transferring the empty core back through said passage from the front side to the rear side after the web material has been processed by said processing unit, said transfer means including
• an unwinding chuck having a chuck axis about which the loaded core is gripped and mounted for unwinding of the web material,
• a chuck mounting means for mounting said chuck for movement of the chuck axis between a vertical orientation at the rear side and a horizontal orientation at the front side;
• a supply means for supplying the loaded core to said transfer means and for removing the empty core from said transfer means when said transfer means is at the rear side, said supply means including
• a gripping means for gripping the loaded core and for gripping of the empty core, and
• a moving means for moving said gripping means vertically between a raised position above said chuck and a lowered position adjacent said chuck whereby a loaded core held by said gripping means is vertically loaded on said chuck and subsequently an empty core is vertically removed from said chuck.