Pick-up device, particularly for automatic lifting and conveying apparatus for plants for the packaging of food products

Claim 1

A pick-up device comprising a plurality of pick-up members, the device including a plurality of generally elongate and mutually parallel support members, each of which support members carries an associated respective row of pick-up members extending longitudinally of the respective support member itself; the device including drive means acting on the support members which, when activated, simultaneously move the support members towards and away from each other; each of the support members being divided into at least two parts, each of the at least two parts carrying at least one associated respective pick-up member; the device further including movement transmission members for moving the at least two parts towards and away from each other simultaneously with movement of the support members, the movement transmission members causing a simultaneous relative movement of the at least two parts of the support member as a result of the simultaneous relative movements of the support members, the movement of the at least two parts of each support member being in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of movement of the support members relative to each other during simultaneous movement of the support members towards and away from each other, wherein the movement transmission members are comprised of at least one slot provided in a frame for each support member, the slot having profiled edges acting as ramparts, and at least one of the parts into which each support member is divided has an appendage which can slidingly cooperate with the profiled edges of the slot.