Abstract: The individual grippers of a gripper head provided for simultaneously introducing a number of bottles into a box or removing them from the box, where the bottles have neck diameters close to the diameter of the body of the bottle, have polygonal external cross sections with even numbers of sides so that the cylindrical sockets can lie close together. The sockets receive elastic inserts which are actuatable by pistons.

Abstract: A grab for picking up a bottle by its neck has a hollow housing sleeve having a mouth engageable down over the neck of the bottle, an upwardly directed annular abutment in the sleeve adjacent the mouth thereof, and an elastically deformable cuff in the sleeve having a lower end resting on the abutment and an upper end. A piston vertically displaceable in the sleeve has a lower face bearing on the upper end of the cuff and an upper face defining with the sleeve a pressurizable compartment. This compartment can be pressurized to vertically compress the cuff and deflect same inward between its ends against the neck of a bottle engaged in the housing within the cuff.