Abstract: Empty bottles are checked for foreign bodies and other contamination by passing the bottles successively through two inspection zones in which they are optoelectronically scanned while they are on rotating disks that are mounted on a rotating table. When in one inspection zone a bottle is held stable on the disk by a rotatable socket that grips the bottle mouth to allow a clear view for inspecting down to the bottom. When in the other inspection zone the bottle is engaged by a ring at about shoulder height so there is a clear view for inspection of the bottle portion from the shoulder to the mouth. In transition regions between inspection zones the ring and socket both engage the bottle for a moment and then one gripper is withdrawn while the other remains to hold the bottle in the forthcoming inspection zone.

Abstract: A bottle labeling machine has a turret rotating on a fixed axle. The turret has circumferentially spaced apart curved glue pallets mounted on individual pallet shafts supported in oscillatable drive members, respectively, which drive the shafts. The pallets orbit and oscillate to pick up glue from a roller, pick up a label next and deposit the label on a cylinder from which it is transferred eventually to a bottle. The drive members are externally splined axially and are each surrounded by an internally axially splined clutch member. The drive member has a smooth bore to permit it to rotate on a shaft that is driven in oscillating fashion as the turret rotates. The oscillating shaft has a transversely extending element on which there are axially projecting teeth that engage in corresponding recesses in the clutch member to effect oscillation of the pallet shaft.