Cartridge feed mechanism

Claim 1

A cartridge feed mechanism for feeding cartridges in a direction transverse to its longitudinal direction, comprising at least two neighboring star wheels that can be driven at equal circumferential speeds and in opposite directions and which are so seated and arranged that their cup-shaped peripheral recesses form common retaining means for a cartridge in the area of the smallest radial distance between the star wheels, with guides being provided to prevent the cartridges from sliding off the peripheral recesses, characterized in that the design of the guides and their radial distance from the axes of the star wheels are suitably selected to permit the transportation of cartridges in both directions of movement of the star wheels, drive means coupled with the star wheels for selectively driving the star wheels in alternate directions of movement, reversible guide elements for directing the cartridges into the peripheral recesses of the next following star wheels provided on both sides of a plane extending through the axes of said two neighboring star wheels in the area of a tangential plane extending perpendicularly to said plane, a housing defining two discrete paths for two different cartridge types, only one endless chain running along said two paths in opposite directions and having cartridge cups for transporting cartridges along at least one path as a result of movement of said one chain in one direction and for transporting the cartridges along the other of said two paths as a result of said one chain movement in the opposite direction, at least one cup wheel in said housing, said cup wheel having cup shaped segments for receiving said cartridge cups of said chain such that movement of said one chain in one direction causes corresponding rotational movement of the cup wheel in a first direction and movement of said one chain in its opposite direction causes opposite rotational movement of the cup wheel, at least one star wheel having a sector thereof spaced from a sector of said cup wheel and from said one chain so that synchronous rotation of said star wheel in a direction opposite that of said cup wheel carries cartridges by one of said chain cups around said cup wheel sector, said star wheel being stationary except when so rotated to carry cartridges by said chain cup, and further characterized by a cartridge sensor capable of detecting the non-existence of cartridges in at least one path of the chain of the housing and chain combination so that upon reversal of the direction of movement of the chain the feeding of a second type of cartridge into the chain can be delayed until the cartridges of the first type have been discharged through the opening from which they entered the housing.