ROTARY FILLING MACHINE

A rotary filling machine (20) for filling containers with bridgeable dry materials includes a turret (30) supporting a plurality of circumferentially spaced drop buckets (32) and a plurality of funnel assemblies (34) located under the drop buckets (32). A stationary slide plate (100) is located vertically between the funnel assemblies (34) and the drop buckets (34). The slide plate (100) is configured such that flow paths from the bottoms of the drop buckets (32) to the inlet openings of the funnel assemblies (34) increase progressively through at least a portion of a circumferential extent of the slide plate. Each drop bucket (32) is provided with one or more partitions (80) that hinder the "snow-plowing of particles" along the edge of the slide plate so that materials fall off the slide plate one at a time or in small groups rather than in a single clump.