Gabriele Sablone, San Giovanni Teatino, Italy; Massimiliano Rossetti, San Giovanni Teatino, Italy; Carlo Di Sabatino, San Giovanni Teatino, Italy; and Marco Delli Rocioli, San Giovanni Teatino, Italy.

Assigned to Fameccanica.Data S.p.A., San Giovanni Teatino Chieti, Italy.

Filed: 5/5/22
Issued: 1/14/25

A carrier unit for a transfer system having a transfer path, the carrier unit comprising: a first carrier and a second carrier, the first and the second carriers being engageable to the transfer path and configured for negotiating the transfer path, wherein the first carrier is coupled to a first gripper configured for cooperating with a second gripper coupled to the second carrier to define a socket for holding one or more products, the socket having a socket geometry determined by a relative position of the first gripper with respect to the second gripper, and first and second turntable assemblies rotatably coupling the respective first and second grippers to the respective first and second carriers, wherein: the first gripper is rotatably coupled to the first carrier around a respective first axis of rotation, whereby the relative position of the first gripper with respect to the first carrier is defined by a first angle between the first gripper and the first carrier around the first axis of rotation, the second gripper is rotatably coupled to the second carrier around a respective second axis of rotation, whereby the relative position of the second gripper with respect to the second carrier is defined by a second angle between the second gripper and the second carrier around the second axis of rotation, and each carrier unit comprises an angle control device configured for adjusting the first angle and the second angle to maintain a predetermined socket geometry upon negotiation of the transfer path by the carrier unit, wherein the angle control device comprises arrays of comb-like extensions of top walls and/or bottom walls of the first and second grippers, the comb-like extensions of one of the first and second grippers being configured to interdigitate with the comb-like extensions of the other of the first and second grippers, and the first and second turntable assemblies each include respective first and second: base plates coupling the respective first and turntable assemblies to the respective first and second carriers, each base plate including a protruding hub; thrust plates coupled to the base plates, including about the protruding hubs; rotary plates rotationally fitted onto the thrust plates and coupled to the respective first and second grippers; and closure plates coupled to the base plate and configured to retain the respective turntable assemblies in place and prevent axial separation of components of the turntable assemblies in a direction parallel to the first and second axes of rotation, which are each parallel to a longitudinal axis of each carrier unit.