Machine and method for handling tubular manufactured items

A machine for transferring automatically tubular manufactured items for manufacturing men's socks, comprising a carousel structure made up of four stations:

• a station for loading automatically, on the machine, tubular items each arranged on a respective longitudinal axis of the tubular item;
• a station for positioning said items, loaded by said station for loading, in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the items;
• a station for orienting angularly the items, positioned by said station for positioning, with respect to a rotation axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the items;
• a station for transferring along a transfer line the items, oriented by said station for orienting, to a machine placed downstream, in which said station for transferring comprises the transfer line and a first and at least one second leading means configured for aligning a portion of the tubular items, in which said first and at least one second leading means are arranged one after the other along the transfer line of the items and are separated by a non-controlled section of said line, in order to correct in the second leading means possible errors of insertion of the item into said first leading means,
• in which at least said first leading means comprises a pair of opposed plates at a pre-established distance from the transfer line of the tubular items, in which said pair of opposed plates have a guide profile for making item insertion easier, and in which said guide profile is made up of a guide opening followed by at least one descending inclined section ending up in a rectilinear section aligned with the transfer line.