Patent Publication Number: US-6910413-B2

Title: Workpiece registration station for a decorating machine

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
   This application is a divisional application of Ser. No. 10/305,475, filed Nov. 27, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,823,781. 

   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to an ancillary conveyance to adjust the transport speed of a workpiece while supported on a conveyor driven at a constant speed for the supply and/or discharge of workpieces to a decorating machine conveyor of an intermittent motion type-decorating machine, preferably incorporating an improved workpiece registration station. 
   2. Description of the Prior Art 
   U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,231,535; 2,261,255; 2,721,516; 3,146,705; 3,388,574; and 5,524,535 disclose intermittent motion type decorating machines using an indexing drive system to impart intermittent traveling motion to an endless chain conveyor provided with workpiece carriers for supporting workpieces such as bottles made of glass or plastic. U.S. Pat. No. 3,388,574 discloses horizontally orientated bottle carriers arranged in a side-by-side relation on a conveyor chain and used for supporting each bottle in a horizontal orientation while intermittently moved along a path of travel through a decorating machine. Each bottle is supported at its opposite ends by clamping chucks. One chuck, rotated by a machine drive, is temporarily connected with a crank arm on a journal extending from a bearing support. The other clamping chuck is resiliently moveable by a spring to release and resiliently the bottle for rotation about a horizontal axis extending along the extended length of the bottle. The clamping chucks are supported on a base, which is secured to chain-links forming the endless conveyor chain extending along the path of travel of bottles through the decorating machine. The clamping force acting on the bottle by the clamping chucks is the only force retaining the bottle on the conveyor. The effect of inertia acting on the bottle in response to the intermittent motion at a given through put speed must be offset by the clamping force. However, the magnitude of the clamping force establishes a break away force for relative rotation between the bottle and the clamping chucks for registration of the bottle relative to the decoration cycle by the machine. 
   In these known forms of intermittent motion decorating machines, a bottle is moved by the endless chain conveyor driven by an indexing drive through a predetermined distance, stopped, moved again through a predetermined distance, stopped and again moved until each bottle is advanced by the sequence of motions completely through all of the decorating stations of the decorating machine. A decorating station is provided at one or more places along the conveyor where the bottle comes to a stop. Additionally, a registration drive is arranged along the conveyor between the bottle loading station and the first decorating station. The registration drive rotates the bottle and uses an indexing finger to engage in a recess in the wall of the bottle. This action causes a slip clutch action by the stoppage to the rotation of the bottle while the driven clamping chuck continues to rotate to a completion of the registration cycle. The stoppage to the rotation of the bottle establishes a predetermined orientation of the bottle surface relative to a decorating station and serves for orientating the bottle particularly the usual seam line in the bottle surface formed by the parting line of the parsons mold part relative to the printing screen at each decorating station. One half of the decorating cycle is used for decorating the bottles and the remaining half of the cycle is used for the indexing movement of the bottle through the decorating machine. At each decorating station while the bottle is stopped from traveling motion, a decorating screen is displaced into line contact by an associated squeegee with the surface of the bottle while the bottle is rotated about the longitudinal axis thereof. During the first part of the decorating cycle, the screen is moved synchronous with the peripheral speed of the rotating bottle to avoid smearing during decoration at the line of contact established between a squeegee and the bottle. The squeegee remains stationary during the decorating process. When the screen moves to the end of its travel, the bottle has rotated 360° whereupon the screen drive mechanism maintains the screen stationary for the remaining part of the decorating cycle while the bottle is removed from the decorating station and an undecorated bottle is moved to the decorating station. 
   Thermosetting ink was usually the printing medium in such intermittent motion decorating machines, particularly when multiple color decoration was applied to the bottles. Ink of only one color is applied at each decorating station and to decorate with multiple colors requires a corresponding number of decoration stations. When the different colors interleave in a given area of the bottle and therefore, because the same area is contacted with a screen for applying each color, it is necessary that the applied ink/color is solid and will not smear before each additional ink/color is applied. Although the thermosetting ink is solidified after each printing operation, it is necessary to cure the ink usually by feeding the bottles through a furnace after discharging from the decorating machine. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,326, curing of an ink decoration is completed after applied at one decorating station before an additional decoration is applied. The dwell period to the intermittent advancing motion by the conveyor chain is used to both apply ink decoration and to cure the applied decoration all at spaced apart sites along the course of travel by the bottles in the decorating machine. All the decoration on a bottle when delivered from the decoration machine is cured so that the bottles can be loaded directly into a shipping container without the need to cure the decoration in a furnace. 
   As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,535 the machine cycle in an intermittent motion decorating machine is altered to attain an increase to the workpiece decoration rate. The altered machine cycle provides that the portion of the cycle for conveyor indexing have a reduced duration in order to provide an increased part of the machine cycle for decorating. The conventional chain conveyor required an indexer drive to transmit the torque required to rapidly accelerate and decelerate a chain conveyor laden with carriers and including the compliment of bottles or workpieces processed in a decorating machine. A deviation to the use of a chain conveyor for workpieces in an intermittent decorating machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,553 and notably includes the use of elongated barrel cams and transfer disks arranged to provide a continuous traveling motion to the horizontal workpiece carriers. The traveling motion of the horizontal carriers is interrupted only at each decorating station and, when provided, at each curing station. The continuous traveling motion greatly increased the through put rate for workpieces in the decorating machine. 
   The present invention provides an increase to the rate at which the workpieces are delivered and, if desired, supplied to an intermittent motion decorating machine. The handling of workpieces particularly bottles demand the use of constraints as they are manipulated during the feeding operation from a source of supply and discharged from the decorating conveyor. The glass forming operations employed to produce the bottle also impose dimensional variations to the bottles that must be accommodated particularly during high speed handling by the bottle at the entry and delivery equipment as well as during passage through the actual bottle decorating machine. 
   The present invention further seeks to provide a workpiece steadying apparatus to alter the transfer speed of workpieces individually and consecutively from a delivery rate by a decorating transfer conveyor as received from the transfer operation carried out simultaneously with a reorientation of the workpiece. The change to the workpiece orientation, such when the workpiece comprises a bottle, has been carried out in the past as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,821 in which a conveyor supplies the bottles in a vertical orientation to a point where they are orientated horizontally and transferred to a conveyor of a decorating machine. The bottles are decorated while horizontally orientated and then delivered from the decorating machine by a transfer device to a discharge conveyor. The transfer device orientates the bottles from the horizontal to the vertical for conveyance by the discharge conveyor. When the rate at which bottles are fed through the decorating machine increases, there is also the need to captivatingly hold the bottle while supplied by the the feed conveyor to the conveyor of the decorating machine and while transported by the conveyor of the decorating machine to the delivery conveyor. Also, the motions necessary to grip and release the workpiece during these transferring operations must be executed with great precision to insure successful handling of the workpiece that necessarily requires that the workpiece be taken from the freestanding vertically, stable attitude, re-orientated to the horizontal and placed in a wholly confined driven conveyor and taken from the driven conveyor, re-orientated from the horizontal to again regain a free-standing vertically, stable attitude. 
   It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for adjusting the conveyance speed and at the same time stabilizing a workpiece particularly a bottle during delivery from and, if desired, delivery to a decorating machine. 
   It is a further object of the present invention to provide, in a decorating machine, horizontal workpiece carriers continuously advanced except at each of a plurality of spaced decorating stations and a registration station wherein the latter establishes the registration of the workpiece orientation at a reduced clamping pressure on the carriers which is restored to a predetermined clamping pressure for receiving decoration at each of the subsequent decorating stations. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   According to the present invention there is the combination of a workpiece steady in the flow path of a workpiece delivery conveyor to handle workpieces carried by a decorator conveyor of a decorating machine, a plurality of workpiece stabilizers to drivingly support workpieces during a change to a workpiece speed of travel along the workpiece delivery conveyor, each of the workpiece stabilizers including a cam follower and stabilizer guides, and at least one workpiece drive cam having a cam track receiving the cam followers for changing the speed of travel by workpieces between an entry speed and a discharge speed, one such speed corresponds to and the other speed differs from the conveyance speeds by the workpiece delivery conveyor, a space between the consecutively advancing workpieces along the workpiece drive cam ever changing by the change to the speed of travel by the consecutively advancing workpiece stabilizers. 
   Preferably, the combination according to the present invention further includes conveyance guides engaged with the workpiece stabilizers for maintaining the cam followers drivingly engaged with the cam track. The conveyance guides may be embodied as guide rollers mounted on the workpiece stabilizers for orbiting endless cam tracks in spaced apart horizontal housing plates of the workpiece stabilizers. The present invention is particularly useful for stabilizing workpieces undergoing a change of speed either at the entry end of a decorating machine or at the delivery end of the machine where the workpiece is accelerated to the thru put speed at the entry end and decelerated to a desired transport speed for more densely populating the delivery conveyor with workpieces. 
   Additionally, the present invention provides an apparatus to establish a predetermined orientation of a surface of a workpiece to receive decoration relative to screen printing stations of an intermittent decorating machine, the intermittent decorating machine having a plurality of decorating stations preceded by a registration station and all horizontally spaced along a workpiece feed cam, the feed cam includes a continuous motion cam track constructed with a dwell period at each of the stations for independently presenting a workpiece on a horizontal carrier to register the orientation of the workpiece and apply decoration to the workpieces on the horizontal carriers. The apparatus is preferably provided with an operating system and a registration station to reduce the clamping pressure applied to the workpieces when registration of the workpiece orientation occurs. In its most preferred form, the workpieces undergo continuous advancing movement in the decorating machine except only at workstations for registration and decorating of the workpieces. In a machine of this type, workpieces are fed with continuous motion to the decorating machine and discharge by continuous motion from the machine. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will be more fully understood when the following description is read in light of the accompanying drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a plan view of a decorating machine according to a first embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a front elevational view of the decorating machine shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 3  is a sectional view taken along lines III—III of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic drive layout illustrating the major drive components comprising the decorating machine and the supply and delivery apparatus for a bottle workpieces; 
       FIG. 5  is a plan view taken along lines V—V of  FIG. 3 ; 
       FIG. 6  is an enlarged end elevational view taken along lines VI—VI of  FIG. 5 ; 
       FIG. 7  is an elevational view in section taken along lines VII—VII of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 8  is a fragmentary sectional view taken along lines VIII—VIII of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 9  is an enlarged view of the workpiece conveyance shown in  FIG. 8 ; 
       FIG. 10  is an enlarged elevation view in section at a decorating station taken along lines X—X of  FIG. 8 ; 
       FIGS. 11A ,  11 B,  11 C, and  11 D are displacement diagram views illustrating the timing sequence for the conveyance control of a bottle horizontal carrier during transfer from a transfer disk to a barrel cam; 
       FIG. 12A  is a plan view of a bottle horizontal carrier taken along lines XII-XII of  FIG. 8 ; 
       FIG. 12B  is a side elevational view of the bottle horizontal carrier shown in  FIG. 12A ; 
       FIG. 12C  is a bottom plan view of the horizontal bottle carrier shown in  FIG. 12A ; 
       FIGS. 13A ,  13 B,  13 C,  13 D and  13 E are timing sequence illustrations taken along lines XIII—XIII of  FIG. 2  showing a cam track for imparting traveling motion and a dwell period in relation to a decorating station; 
       FIG. 14  is an enlarged elevation view of the registration station at the entry side of the conveyor for the decorating machine of the present invention; 
       FIG. 15  is an elevational view taken along lines XV—XV of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 16  is a plan view taken along lines XVI—XVI of  FIG. 14 ; 
       FIG. 17  is an elevational view of the bottle unloading equipment embodying the present invention; 
       FIG. 18  is a geometric diagram illustrating the reorientation of a bottle from vertical to horizontal by operation of the loading/equipment shown in  FIG. 17 ; 
       FIG. 19  is an end elevational view taken along lines XIX—XIX of  FIG. 17 ; 
       FIG. 20  is a sectional view taken along lines XX—XX of  FIG. 17 ; 
       FIG. 21  is a plane view taken along lines XXI—XXI of  FIG. 20 ; 
       FIG. 22  is a front elevational view of a bottle gripper taken along lines XXII—XXII of  FIG. 21 ; 
       FIG. 23  is a rear elevational view of the bottle gripper shown in  FIG. 22 ; 
       FIG. 24  is a sectional view taken along lines XXIV—XXIV of  FIG. 23 ; 
       FIG. 25  is a sectional view taken along lines XXV—XXV of  FIG. 23 ; 
       FIG. 26  diagrammatical illustrates the pivotal displacement of a bottle gripper by a cam drive; 
       FIGS. 27-30  are illustrations of the sequence of the transfer of support of a bottle from a supply conveyor to a bottle transfer according to the present invention; 
       FIGS. 31 and 32  are elevational views to illustrate the transfer of a bottle from the bottle transfer to the workpiece conveyor; 
       FIG. 33  is an elevational view similar to FIG.  31  and illustrating the transfer of a bottle from the workpiece conveyor to a bottle steady apparatus of the present invention; 
       FIGS. 33A ,  33 B,  33 C, and  33 D are illustrations of the sequence of the transfer support of a bottle from a bottle transfer to the bottle steady apparatus of the present invention;. 
       FIG. 34  is a front elevational view of a vertical bottle carrier forming part of the bottle steady apparatus of the present invention; 
       FIG. 35  is a sectional view taken along lines XXXV—XXXV of  FIG. 34 ; 
       FIG. 36  is a sectional view taken along lines XXXVI—XXXVI of  FIG. 34 ; 
       FIG. 37  is a sectional view taken along lines XXXVII—XXXVII of  FIG. 34 ; 
       FIG. 38  is a sectional view taken along lines XXXVIII—XXXVIII of  FIG. 33 ; 
       FIG. 39  is a plan view taken along lines XXXXIX—XXXIX of  FIG. 33 ; 
       FIG. 40  is an elevational view taken along lines XXXX—XXXX of  FIG. 39 ; 
       FIG. 41  is an illustration of the profile of the cam track for speed control cam for part of the bottle steady apparatus of the present invention; 
       FIG. 42  is an enlarged sectional view taken along lines XXXXII—XXXXII of  FIG. 38 ; and 
       FIG. 43  is a sectional view taken along lines XXXXIII—XXXXIII of FIG.  42 . 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION 
   Referring now to  FIGS. 1 and 2  of the drawings, there is illustrated a decorating machine  10  having a base  11  for supporting a workpiece conveyor  12  to convey workpieces, which, for describing the preferred embodiment of the present invention, consist of glass bottles. The bottles each have an elongated longitudinal axis A extending centrally in a uniformly spaced relation from the center of the bottle and centered along the elongated length of the bottle. The axis A of a bottle is changed from the vertical to the horizontal by bottle loading equipment L and remains horizontal while the bottles are conveyed by conveyor  12  along a plurality of machine stations which for the purpose of disclosing the present invention comprise a registration station R and a plurality of successively arranged decorating stations of which only inline decorating stations P 1  and P 2  are shown. However, the number of inline decorating stations comprises P 1 -PN where N is the number of decorating stations each selected to supply ink of a selected color to form the final decoration on the glass bottle. The number of inline machine stations may, if desired, also include a machine station immediately following each decorating station for inline curing of applied ink with ultraviolet/heat radiation. For the purpose of disclosing the present invention the decorating machine is provided with the inline registration station R and inline decorating stations P 1  and P 2 . The bottles are advanced from the last inline machine station PN to bottle unloading equipment U. 
   The drive arrangement for the bottle loading equipment L, the decorating machine and the bottle unloading equipment U include, as shown in  FIGS. 3-6 , a main drive motor  14  having a drive output shaft connected by a belt  14 A to a first line shaft  15  rotatably supported by spaced apart pillow blocks  15 A. Spaced along line shaft  15  are five drive output pulleys  16 ,  17 ,  18 ,  19  and  20  provided with belts  16 A,  17 A,  18 A,  19 A and  20 A, respectively. The belt  20 A extends to a pulley on a second line shaft  21  supported by spaced apart pillow blocks  21  A and used to drive the bottle loading equipment L and unloading equipment U. For this purpose, drive output pulleys  22 A and  22 B are connected by belts  22 C and  22 D, respectively, to drive input shafts of cone worm drives  22 E and  22 F for workpiece transfer apparatus forming part of the bottle loading equipment L and bottle unloading equipment U. Also driven by the second line shaft  21  are sprockets  23 A and  23 B connected by drive chains  23 C and  23 D to sprockets  23 E and  23 F, respectively, mounted on drive input shafts for supply and delivery conveyors  24 A and  24 B, respectively. 
   The sprocket  23 A, drive chain  23 C and sprocket  23 E for supply conveyor  24 A supply drive torque to a drive shaft  23 G which is transferred by drive sprocket  23 H through an idler shaft  23 I having input and output sprockets connected by chains for driving a sprocket  23 J mounted on a drive roller  23 K. The drive roller  23 K is mounted for rotation at a spaced site from an idler roller  23 L to support an endless belt  24 C moving at a constant rate of travel to advance undecorated bottles along the course of travel established by the conveyor belt. Drive shaft  23 G is also provided with a drive gear meshing with a drive gear  23 M on an idler shaft on which there is also mounted a sprocket for a drive chain  23 N used to provide torque to an input shaft for a drive  23 P. The drive output gear of the drive  23 P is mounted to the end of a timing screw  25  having a helical groove  25 A for controlling the advancing movement of the bottles by the conveyor as will be described in detail hereinafter. 
   The sprocket  23 B, drive chain  23 D and sprocket  23 F of the delivery conveyor  24 B supply torque to a drive shaft  23 Q which is transferred by meshing drive gears  23 R to an idler shaft  23 S having a drive output sprocket  23 T connected by a chain to a sprocket  23 U mounted on a drive roller  23 V. The drive roller  23 V mounted for rotation at a spaced site from an idler roller  23 W for supporting an endless belt  24 D used for discharging decorated bottles along the course of travel for handling and shipping. Drive shaft  23 Q is elongated to provide a mounting site for a sprocket  23 X connected by a drive chain  23 Y to a cone worm drive  23 Z for a bottle steady apparatus S. While the bottle supply conveyor  24 A utilizes a horizontally orientated endless belt  24 C for supporting bottles, the present invention is equally applicable for use with other forms of a conveyor having, for example, bottle carriers to support bottles in alternative ways which include, for example, bottle carriers on supply and delivery conveyors extending along a lateral side or above the conveyance paths for the bottles. 
   The belt  16 A connects pulley  16  mounted on line shaft  15  to an index drive  16 B. The index drive  16 B has an output shaft on which is mounted a gear  16 C meshing with gear  16 D provided with a sprocket  16 E. A chain  16 F interconnects the sprocket  16 E and a sprocket  16 G mounted on a registration drive shaft  16 H. Also mounted on the drive output shaft of index drive  16 B is a cam  16 I having a closed cam track  16 J containing a cam follower connected by a drive arm  16 K to oscillate a shaft  16 L secured to a registration head  16 M by an arm  16 N. 
   The belts  17 A and  19 A extend to gear drives  27  and  29 , respectively, having output shafts secured to rotate cams  31  and  32  ( FIGS. 1 ,  3  and  4 ). The cams  31  and  32  are formed with closed cam tracks  31 A and  32 A also known as face grooves or positive cams. Bottles are decorated at each decorating station in an identical fashion by initiating screen travel when a bottle arrives at the decorating station.  FIG. 4  il 1 ustrates the cam tracks  31  A and  32 A of the respective cams. Each cam track is constructed to form two bottle decorating cycles each separated by a screen dwell cycle. More specifically, cam track  31 A consists of a screen dwell cycle  31 B. bottle decorating cycle  31 C, screen dwell cycle  31 B′, and a bottle decorating cycle  31 C′. Cam track  32 A consists of a screen dwell cycle  32 B, bottle decorating cycle  32 C, screen dwell cycle  32 B′, and a bottle decorating cycle  32 C′. In the first bottle decorating cycle, the decorating screens at each decorating station P 1  and P 2  are linearly displaced in one direction during which decoration is applied to a bottle at each decorating station. After these bottles are decorated, the screens remain stationary during screen dwell cycles and then the screens are reciprocated in the opposite direction during which decoration is applied to succeeding bottles at each decorating station. The cam tracks  31  A and  32 A define the precise occurrence of events with respect to the movement of the bottles by the workpiece conveyor  12  since the cams  31  and  32  and the workpiece conveyor are interconnected in the same drive train and driven by the same main drive motor  14 . Each cam has a follower in the respective cam track to pivot an oscillating drive output at each of the decorating stations as will be discussed in detail hereinafter. The belt  18 A driven by the first line shaft  15  extends to a pulley  20 B mounted on a rotatably supported shaft having a gear  28  meshing with a gear  33 . Gears  28  and  33  form a speed reduction relationship. Gear  33  is mounted on an intermediate shaft  34  supported by pillow blocks and having a pulley  35  provided with a belt  36  extending to a pulley  37  mounted on a third line shall  38 . 
   As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  5  and  7 , line shaft  38  is rotatably supported by two spaced apart arms  40  extending from the base  11  in a cantilever fashion and secured by bolts to the base of the decorating machine. The outer most ends of the arms  40  are connected to an elongated cover plate  41 . As shown in  FIGS. 5 ,  6 ,  7  and  8 , secured to each of the arms  40  are spaced apart spacers  42  that extend horizontally and outwardly in opposite directions from the arms  40 . The outer ends of the spacers  42  carry vertically extending mounting plates  43  from which various drive gears project only at the unload end of the conveyor. As shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the third line shaft  38  is rotatably supported by bearings  44  mounted on portions of the arms  40  adjacent the base  11  and latterly outwardly of each of the bearings  44  there is also a bearing assembly  45  mounted by a carrier bracket  46  to the base  11 . The bearing assemblies  45  rotatably support the outer end portions of the third line shaft  38 . As shown only in  FIGS. 4 and 6 , mounted on each of the terminal end portions outwardly of each bearing assembly  45  of the third line shaft  38  are worm gears  47 . A worm gear  47  near the bottle loading equipment L meshes with a gear wheel  48  and the worm gear  47  at the unloading end of the decorating machine meshes with a gear wheel  49 . The gear wheels  48  and  49  are mounted on drive shafts  50  and  51 , respectively. 
   As best shown in FIGS.  3 , 4  and  5  spaced apart horizontal carrier supply disks  52  and  53  are mounted on the inboard and outboard ends, respectively, of drive shaft  50  and spaced horizontal carrier return disks  54  and  55  are mounted on the inboard and outboard ends, respectively, of drive shaft  51 . A pulley  56  is mounted on the third line shaft  38  and joined by a drive belt  57  to a pulley  58  mounted on a drive shaft  59  extending horizontally above the drive shaft  51 . Tension in the drive belt  57  is controllably set by using fasteners to secure a roller support arm  57 A,  FIG. 3 , rotatably supporting a slack adjusting roller  57 B in a fixed position to arm  40  for establishing the position for roller  57 B to impose a desired tension on belt  57 . As shown in  FIG. 6 , a drive pinion gear  60  is mounted on the horizontally extended end of drive shaft  59  and meshes with idler gears  61  and  62 , which in turn mesh with idler gears  63  and  64 , respectively. Idler gear  61  meshes with a drive gear  65  mounted on a support shaft of a barrel cam  66 ; idler gear  62  meshes with a drive gear  67  mounted on a support shaft of a barrel cam  68 ; idler gear  63  meshes with a drive gear  69  mounted on a support shaft of a barrel cam  70 ; and idler gear  64  meshes with a drive gear  71  mounted on a support shaft of a barrel cam  72 . As shown in  FIGS. 4 and 7 , the barrel cams  66 ,  68 ,  70 , and  72  are rotatably supported by bearings  73  carried on the support shafts at opposite ends of the barrel cams. The bearings  73  are mounted in suitable apertures formed in the vertically extending mounting plates  43  such that the barrel cams can rotate about horizontal axes with the axes of barrel cams  66  and  68  lying in a common horizontal plane and there below the axes of rotation of barrel cams  70  and  72  lie in a common horizontal plane. Each of the barrel cams  66 ,  68 ,  70  and  72  have a closed cam track  66 A,  68 A,  70 A and  72 A which is a continuous groove milled in the cam body engaged by a roller attached to a follower for executing movements by horizontal bottle carriers as will be described in greater detail hereinafter to provide continuous traveling motion until interrupted by a dwell period “D” provided for the printing operation. 
   As shown in FIGS.  8  and  12 A- 12 C, the closed cam tracks  66 A,  68 A,  70 A, and  72 A receive spaced apart roller parts of cam followers  74  and  75  mounted on each of a plurality of discrete and independently moveable horizontal bottle carriers  76 . The details of the construction of the horizontal bottle carriers are best shown in  FIGS. 12A-12C . Each horizontal bottle carrier is provided with a base cup  77  having a shallow support surface  77 A surrounded by a protruding beveled edge to receive and center the base section of the bottle for rotation about the longitudinal central axis A of the bottle. A mouthpiece  78  has a shallow support surface  78 A surrounded by a protruding beveled edge to receive and center the mouth of a bottle. Mouthpiece  78  is rotatably supported by neck chuck  79  having diverging support legs  79 A and  79 B. Leg  79 A is selectively positionable along an actuator shaft  80  having teeth  81  for engaging a releasable latch to allow clamped positioning of the mouthpiece  78  relative to the base cup  77  at any of diverse sites to accommodate a particular height of a bottle between the base cup and mouthpiece. The actuator shaft  80  is slidably supported by spaced apart linear bearings  82  and  83  mounted on an elongated carrier plate  84 . An actuator cam follower  80 A is rotatably supported by an end portion of shaft  80 , which protrudes from the bearing adjacent the base cup  77  for contact with cam surfaces  85  and  86  of actuator cams ( FIG. 2 ) mounted on the base of the decorating machine at the entry and deliver ends thereof respectively. The cam surface  85  increases the distance separating the base cup  77  and the neck chuck  79  to allow loading of a bottle between the cup and chuck and similarly at the bottle-unloading site the cam surface  86  again increases the distance separating the base cup and the neck chuck to allow removal of the bottle from the horizontal carrier. The neck chuck  79  is provided with a linear bearing  87  resiliently supported by a support shaft  88 . 
   As shown in  FIGS. 12A-12C  extending from the base cup  77  is a journal  89 , which is rotatably supported by a bearing in an upstanding housing  90 . An end part of the journal  89  is bolted to a crank arm  91  extending perpendicular to the rotational axis of journal  89 . The free end of arm  91  supports a drive roller  92  for rotating the base cup and a bottle at each of the machine stations P 1  and P 2 . Laterally outwardly from the cam followers  74  and  75  there are mounting blocks  94 A and  94 B secured to the bottom surface of the carrier plate  84 . The mounting blocks  94 A and  94 B support rotatable follower rollers  95 A and  95 B, respectively, which pass into engagement with horizontally aligned cavities  52 A and  53 A distributed about the outer peripheral edges of the supply disks  52  and  53  when cam followers  74  and  75  exit cam tracks  70 A and  72 A of the barrel cams  70  and  72 . Similarly, the follower rollers  95 A and  95 B, respectively, which pass into engagement with horizontally aligned cavities  54 A and  55 A distributed about the outer peripheral edges of horizontal carrier return disks  54  and  55  when cam followers exit cam tracks  66 A and  68 A of the barrel cams  66  and  68 . 
   The horizontal bottle carriers are each sequentially transferred from an established positive driving relation with barrel cams  66  and  68  into a positive driving relation with horizontal carrier disks  54  and  55  and transferred by horizontal carrier disks  54  and  55  into a positive driving relation with barrel cams  70  and  72  and thence from barrel cams  70  and  72  to a positive driving relation with horizontal carrier disks  52  and  53  and completing a conveyance cycle transfer from horizontal carrier disks  52  and  53  into a positive driving relation with barrel cams  66  and  68 . The cams to disks transfer of bottle carriers is always the same and the transfer of bottle carriers from disks to cams is always the same. The sequence of events for the transfer of bottle carriers from disks to cams is the reversal of the sequence of events for the transfer of bottle carriers from cams to disks. The bottle carrier transfer for one end of the bottle carrier is schematically shown in  FIGS. 11A-11D  for the disk  53  to barrel cam  68  via cam followers  95 B and  75 , and it is to be understood that the same relationship between disks  52 , cam  66  and cam followers  74  and  95 A at the end of the bottle carrier adjacent to the decorating machine. 
   In  FIG. 11A , the cam follower  95 B is seated in cavity  53 A of disk  53  and cam follower  75  resides at the entrance of cam track  68 A in barrel cam  68 . As shown in  FIG. 11B , as disk  53  rotates counter clockwise, follower  95 B is carried in cavity  53 A to a 12 o&#39;clock position of disk  53  and the barrel cam  75  rotates in the direction indicated by an associated arrow bringing the cam track  68 A into a position so that the site for entrance to cam track  68 A is positioned for entry of follower  75 . As shown in  FIG. 11C , continued rotation of the disk  53  and barrel cam  68  drives the cam follower  75  into and along cam track  68 A of the cam  68  by continued advancing movement of follower  95 B in cavity  53 A while at the same time the cavity  53 A of disk  53  recedes from the cam follower  95 B. The bottle carrier transfer is completed, as shown in  FIG. 11D , when the disk wall defining cavity  53 A of disk  53  passes out of contact with cam follower  95 B and at the same time cam follower  75  advances along cam track  68 A of barrel cam  68  as shown. 
   As shown in  FIGS. 9 ,  10 ,  12 B and  12 C, a cluster of three spaced apart inboard guide rollers  96 A,  96 B and  96 C are rotatably supported by the carrier plate  84  at its end most closely adjacent the decorating machine and a cluster of three spaced apart outer guide rollers  97 A,  97 B and  97 C are rotatably supported by the carrier plate  84  at its end remote to the decorating machine. As best shown in  FIGS. 9 and 10 , secured to arms  40  extending from the decorating machine is an endless track plate  98  having a cavity wherein inboard guide rollers  96 A and  96 C engage opposed horizontal track surfaces  98 A and  98 B of the cavity. Guide roller  96 B engages a vertical face surface  98 C of the guide track. Secured to each of the arms  40  and plate  41  is an endless track plate  99  having a cavity wherein outer guide rollers  97 A and  97 C engage opposed horizontal track surfaces  99 A and  99 B of the cavity. Guide roller  97 B engages a vertical face surface  99 C of the guide track. The guidance provided by the cooperation between the guide rollers  96 A,  96 C,  97 A and  97 C which rotate about horizontal axes and the horizontal guide surfaces  98 A,  98 B,  99 A and  99 B provide load-bearing support for the horizontal carrier; maintain cam followers  74  and  75  engaged with the cam tracks of cam  66 ,  68 ,  70  and  72  and maintain the horizontal carrier in a stable orientation during movement along the cam track. Guide rollers  96 B and  97 B, which rotate about vertical axes, prevent unwanted displacement of the horizontal carrier between the guide tracks  98  and  99  in a longitudinal axis of a bottle when supported by the horizontal carrier. 
   As can be seen from  FIGS. 13A-13E , the motion imparted to each of the discrete horizontal bottle carriers is made up of three components namely, a continuous traveling motion “C”, accelerated traveling motion “A”, and dwell period “D” which are identified in relation to the schematic illustration of cam tracks in segments of barrel cams  66  and  68  upstream and downstream of a decorating station identified as P 1 . In each of the  FIGS. 13A-13E  five bottles,  1 - 5  are shown, in their relative spaced relation during advancement to and from a dwell period “D” at a decorating station. As described and shown previously, a cam follower  74  engages in a closed cam track  66 A and cam follower  75  engages in closed cam track  68 A. In  FIG. 13A , a vertical line extends between a cam follower  74  and a cam follower  75  to bottle  1  and intended schematically to represent that bottle  1  is carried by a horizontal bottle carrier while advanced by barrel cams. Similar relations are illustrated concerning bottles  2 ,  3 ,  4  and  5 . It is assumed for disclosure purposes that bottle  3  resides at the commencement of a dwell period “D” at the decorating station and the cam follower of the decorating machine resides at the commencement of the bottle decorating cycle  31 C defined by the cam track  31 A (FIG.  4 ). As the barrel cams  66  and  68  rotate in the direction indicated by arrows, bottle  3  remains stationary with respect to motion at the decoration station. Bottle  2  is at a site of exiting an accelerated travel motion “A” and entering cam track segment providing continuous traveling motion “C”. The cam followers for bottles  1 ,  4 , and  5  reside in cam track segments providing continuous traveling motion. In  FIG. 13A  bottles,  2  and  3  are more closely spaced than the relative spacing between the remaining bottles. The bottles maintain an equally spaced apart relation as shown in  FIG. 13B  where bottle  3  has resided about one-half through the dwell period and bottles  1 ,  2 ,  4  and  5  are advanced by motion imparted by the cam part segments of cams  66  and  68  providing the continuous travel “C” and the cam follower of the decorating machine resides midway along the bottle decorating cycle  31 C defined by cam track  31 A of cam  31 . At the end of the dwell period for bottle  3  the cam follower of the decorating machine resides at the conclusion of the bottle decorating cycle  31 C defined by the cam track  31 A and as shown in  FIG. 13C , bottles  1 ,  2 ,  4  and  5  continue in the cam segment providing continuous travel “C” whereby bottles  1  and  2  have moved away from bottle  3  and bottles  4  and  5  have moved toward bottle  3 . The cam followers for the carrier of bottle  3  are at the entrance of cam track providing accelerated travel “A” and the cam followers for the carrier for bottle  4  are at but not in the segment of the cam track providing accelerated motion “A”. 
   The cam follower of the decorating machine proceeds into the screen dwell cycle  31 B defined by cam track  31 A and remains in the screen dwell cycle until the arrival of a bottle at the dwell period “D” of the cams  66  and  68 . As shown in  FIG. 12D  after bottle  3  has progressed in the accelerated travel motion “A”, departing from the dwell period the cam followers for the carrier bottle  4  enter the accelerated travel motion “A” to rapidly introduce bottle  4  to the dwell period at the decorating station. In these relative motions, the distance between bottles  4  and  5  increases and the distance between bottles  3  and  4  decreases as depicted in  FIG. 13E  where bottle  4  arrives at the dwell period “D”at decorating station and bottle  3  emerges from the segment of the cam track providing acceleration and enters the segment of the cam track providing continuous traveling motion “C”. 
   As shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  10  and  11 , as the bottles are supplied by the bottle loading equipment L to the decorating machine, each bottle is arranged with the longitudinal axis A horizontally orientated when brought into a supported engagement between base cup  77  and mouthpiece  78  of a horizontal workpiece carrier  76  and thence advanced to the registration station R. As a bottle arrives at the registration station, the drive roller  92  on the end of the crank arm  91  passes into one of four peripherally spaced openings between drive blocks  30 A secured to a face surface of a gear  30 B. The gear teeth of gear  30 B mesh with gear teeth of a gear  30 C mounted on an end portion of registration drive shaft  16 A which, as previously described, is driven by a chain drive arrangement shown in  FIG. 15  connected to an index drive  16 B. The bottle is rotated about its longitudinal axis by the bottle rotating drive gear  30 B that rotates about a drive axis of gear  30 B. A registration finger  16 R is pivotally mounted on a finger mounting plate  16 S at a predetermined location along a slotted end portion of a registration arm  16 M so that the registration finger  16 R extends into the path of travel of a registration cavity formed in the lower base portion of the bottle. The registration arm  16 M is secured to the drive shaft  16 L supported by bearings and driven by the pivot arm  16 K as shown in  FIG. 15  in response to oscillations produced by a follower in a closed cam track  16 J also known as a face groove or positive cam driven by a drive output shaft of index drive  16 B. The motion imparted to the registration arm  16 M moves the registration finger into its operative position so that when the registration finger passes into the registration cavity of the bottle, rotation of the bottle is stopped thereby, and slippage occurs between the bottle base and the base cup  77  as the cup continues to rotate to completion of the bottle registration cycle. 
   A feature of the present invention provides that the clamping pressure applied by the mouth piece  78  and base cup  77  against the bottle to hold the bottle in place on the horizontal carrier is substantially reduced to a nominal pressure which is only sufficient to maintain the position of the bottle on the horizontal carrier during the time the bottle is rotated at the registration station R. The release of the clamping pressure on the bottle greatly reduces the breakaway frictional driving force by the base cup  77  and the vitreous bottle material when the registration finger  16 R drivingly engages in registration cavity and stops rotation of the bottle. The registration cavity has a reduced wall thickness that is vulnerable to fracture when impacted by the registration finger and the continuing force prevents rotation of the bottle while the gear  30 B continues to rotate to a start indexing position. As shown in  FIG. 14  the diameter of gear  30 B is relatively smaller than the diameter of gear  30 C which produces a speed up relation causing the gear  30 B to rotate through an angle greater than 360 degrees for each revaluation of gear  30 C. This is necessary to assure that the rotation of the bottle stops at the same registration position to accommodate the random occurring position of the registration cavity in each bottle arriving at the registration station. The reduction to the clamping pressure is developed by a cam  30 D supported in a cavity of a housing  30 E by a vertically extending pivot shaft  30 F secured the machine frame at a site to present a cam surface  30 G protruding from a window opening in the housing into the path of travel by a cam follower  80 A of a horizontal bottle carrier  76 . The configuration of the cam surface  30 G is designed to apply a resilient biasing force axially on the actuator shaft  80  at the exact location where the horizontal bottle carrier dwells during the registration process. The resilient force applied to the cam  30 D is provided by a spring  30 H seated at one end in the cavity of a cup shaped carrier  30 J pivotally joined to a cantilevered arm section  3 ODA of the cam  30 D and overlying the housing  30 E. The free end of the spring  30 H is retained by a threaded shaft  30 K protruding into the spring&#39;s helical configuration sufficiently to maintain contact by a washer  30 L position by a nut  30 M. The shaft  30 K is mounted on a bracket  30 N by nut members  30 P at opposite sides of the bracket. The nut members  30 P are advanced along the end position of the threaded shaft and tightened against opposite sides of the bracket to establish the resilient biasing force necessary to reduce the clamping pressure to the desired magnitude. A bolt  30 Q is in threaded engagement with the cantilevered arm  30 DA and arranged to abut against the overlying face surface of the housing  30 E. A locknut  30 R is used to secure the bolt  30 Q at a position, which limits pivotal displacement of the cam  30 D by the spring  30 H. 
   When bottle rotation is stopped, there is established a predetermined bottle orientation with respect to the decorating screens because the decoration screens are also stationary at a start position at this time so that thereafter bottle rotation and linear screen movement are always in a synchronous speed relation. The registration process is particularly useful to orientate seam lines extending along opposite sides of a bottle with respect to the location of the desired area on the surface of the bottle intended to receive decoration. Registration of the bottle is concluded with the orientation of the crank arm  45  such that the drive roller  46  trails the advancing movement of the horizontal bottle carrier to each of the decorating stations. As the drive roller  46  emerges from a slot between the drive blocks  30 , the roller  46  is captured and guided by spaced apart guide rails  93 A and  93 B. These guide rails extend along the course of travel by the drive roller  46  throughout the indexing movement by the conveyor to thereby maintain registration of the bottle at each decorating station. As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 14 , the guide rails  93 A and  93 B form an endless path to capture the roller  46  and thereby guide the crank arms  45  of each of the horizontal bottle carriers. However, at each of the decorating stations P 1  and P 2  the continuity of the guide rails  93 A and  93 B are interrupted by a gap wherein a rotator assembly  51  is located to receive and rotate the bottle. Downstream of each decorating station are outwardly protruding collector rail portions  93 A and  94 A that return the roller and crank arm to the gap between guide rails  93 A and  93 B as the conveyor operates to advance bottles after completion of the decorating cycles. 
   At each of the decorating stations P 1  and P 2 , the arrangement of apparatus is identical. As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4  and  8 , it can be seen that the gear drive  29  has its output drive shaft connected to rotate the cam  32 . A cam track  32 A is machined into the cam  32  and received in the cam track is a cam follower  32 D. The cam follower is mounted to a lever arm.  100 , which is in turn secured to the lower end of a vertical shaft  101 . The shaft  101  is supported by spaced apart bearings, as shown in  FIG. 8 , which are in turn carried by a tubular column  102  supported by the base of the decorator machine  10 . At the top of the column,  102  there are superimposed oscillation arm assemblies  103  and  104 . Assembly  103  is made up of a lever arm  105  secured to shaft  101  and provided with a guideway  106  extending radially of the shaft. In the guideway there is arranged a drive bar  107 , which can be moved along the guideway by the threaded portion of a hand wheel  108 . The distance the drive bar  107  is located radially of the rotational axis of shaft  101  is controlled by the hand wheel  108 . A drive block  109  is mounted on a portion of the drive bar  107  projecting vertically above the guideway and reciprocates in an inverted “U” shaped slot formed in a drive bar  110 . The drive bar is joined to a slide  111  supported in a guideway  112 . The slide is held in a slot of guideway  112  by gib plates  113 . While not shown, the slide  111  protrudes laterally from opposite sides of the tubular column  102  and is provided with outwardly spaced apart receiver arms  114  and  115 . The receiver arm  114  engages a decorating screen assembly  116  that is reciprocated by the linear motion of the slide  111  to thereby reciprocate the decorating screen assembly along the body portion B 1  of a bottle for carrying out decorating operations thereon. Assembly  104  includes a lever arm  119  secured to shaft  101  and provided with a guideway  120  extending radially of the shaft. In the guideway there is arranged a drive bar  121 , which can be moved along the guideway by the threaded portion of a feed screw operated by a hand wheel  122 . The distance the drive bar  121  is located radially of the rotational axis of shaft  101  is controlled by the hand wheel  122 . A drive block  123  is mounted on a portion of the drive bar  121  projecting vertically downwardly from the guideway and reciprocates in a “U” shaped slot formed in a drive bar  124 . The drive bar is joined to a slide  125  supported in a guideway  112 . The slide  125  is held in a slot of guideway  112  by gib plates  126 . The slide  125  protrudes laterally from opposite sides of the tubular column  102 , in the same manner as slide  111  protrudes. Similarly, the receiver arm  115  engages a decorating screen assembly  118  that is reciprocated by the linear motion of the slide  125  to thereby reciprocate the decorating screen assembly along the neck portion N 1  of a bottle for carrying out decorating operations thereon. 
   Hand wheels  108  and  122  are used to select a desired stroke for the screen reciprocation to match the circumferential distance of the bottle, which is to be decorated. This matching relationship is critically significant because no relative motion between the screen movement and the bottle rotation can be accepted otherwise, smearing, or poor quality decorating will occur. As shown in  FIG. 8 , squeegees  129  and  130  are carried by a support arm  131  in positions above the screens  116  and  118 , respectively. The squeegee construction per se is known in the art and is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,357. Each squeegee includes a squeegee rubber  132  on the end portion of squeegee positioning cylinder operated pneumatically against the force of a return spring thereby to establish line contact between the screen assembly  116  and  118  and a bottle as the bottle is rotated in a synchronous speed with linear movement of the screens. The squeegees are adjustably located by fasteners engaged in a mounting slot  133  extending along the elongated length of the support arm  131 . 
   At each decorating station there is provided as part of the screen drives, a drive to rotate a rotator assembly  136 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , the rotator assembly includes a drive gear  143 , which is located beneath lower arm  105  where the teeth of gear  143  mesh with teeth of an elongated rack  137 . Rack  137  is secured to a slide  138  arranged in a slideway supported by a pedestal  142 . The slide  138  is constrained in a slideway by gibs  139  to reciprocate in response to a driving force imparted to a “U” shaped drive bar  140 . The driving force is imparted by a drive block  141  mounted in a slot formed in the underside of lower arm  105 . Drive block  141  serves to convert oscillating motion of lower arm  105  to linear motion of the slide thereby reciprocating the rack  137 . The teeth of the rack  137  mesh with gear teeth of a drive gear  143  mounted on an end portion of an arbor  144  which is rotatably supported by a bearing  145  mounted in a bearing housing secured to a face plate  146  mounted on the base  11 . A rotator drive head  147  is secured to the end portion of the arbor  144  and formed with a slotted opening  148  extending transverse to the longitudinal axis about which the arbor  144  rotates. The slotted opening receives the drive roller  92  on a bottle carrier  76  as the carrier approaches a dwell position “D” in the course of travel along the decorating machine. When the drive roller  92  is received in the opening  148 , a driving relationship is established whereby rotation of the rotator head  147  rotates the drive roller  92  and the crank arm  91  for rotating the bottle 360° at the bottle decorating station. 
   As shown in  FIG. 10 , at each decorating station where a workpiece carrier is brought to a dwell period “D” interrupting its course of traveling motion there is an elongated riser section  149  representing an elevation increase to guide surfaces  98 A and  98 B of the guide  98 . At the outboard side of the workpiece conveyor there is at each decorating station an elongated riser section, not shown, horizontally aligned with an identical elongated riser section  150  of guide  98  and representing an elevation increase to guide surfaces  99 A and  99 B of the guide  99  whereby each workpiece carrier arriving at a decorating station is acted upon simultaneously by a riser section at each of the opposite ends of the workpiece carrier. The riser sections elevate the bottle carrier and thus the bottle supported thereby a short distance so that the decorating screens can freely reciprocate in either direction without impingement contact with adjacent bottles. 
   At each of the decorating stations P 1 -PN the arrangement of apparatus is identical. As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4  and  8 , the gear drive  29  connected to rotate the cam  32  so that cam track  32 A moves a cam follower  32 D which is mounted to a lever arm  100  which is in turn secured to the lower end of a vertical shaft  101 . The shaft  101  is supported by spaced apart bearings, as shown in  FIG. 8 , which are in turn carried by a tubular column  102  supported by the base of the decorator machine  10 . At the top of the column,  102  there are superimposed oscillation arm assemblies  103  and  104 . Assembly  103  is made up of a lever arm  105  secured to shaft  101  and provided with a guideway  106  extending radially of the shaft. In the guideway there is arranged a drive bar  107 , which can be moved along the guideway by the threaded portion of a hand wheel  108 . The distance the drive bar  107  is located radially of the rotational axis of shaft  101  is controlled by the hand wheel  108 . A drive block  109  is mounted on a portion of the drive bar  107  projecting vertically above the guideway and reciprocates in an inverted “U” shaped slot formed in a drive bar  110 . The drive bar is joined to a slide  111  supported in a guideway  112 . The slide is held in a slot of guideway  112  by gib plates  113 . While not shown, the slide  111  protrudes laterally from opposite sides of the tubular column  102  and is provided with outwardly spaced apart receiver arms  114  and  115 . The receiver arm  114  engages a decorating screen assembly  116  that is reciprocated by the linear motion of the slide  111  to thereby reciprocate the decorating screen assembly along the body portion B 1  of a bottle for carrying out decorating operations thereon. Assembly  104  includes a lever arm  119  secured to shaft  101  and provided with a guideway  120  extending radially of the shaft. In the guideway there is arranged a drive bar  121 , which can be moved along the guideway by the threaded portion of a feed screw operated by a hand wheel  122 . The distance the drive bar  121  is located radially of the rotational axis of shaft  101  is controlled by the hand wheel  122 . A drive block  123  is mounted on a portion of the drive bar  121  projecting vertically downwardly from the guideway and reciprocates in a “U” shaped slot formed in a drive bar  124 . The drive bar is joined to a slide  125  supported in a guideway  112 . The slide  125  is held in a slot of guideway  112  by gib plates  126 . The slide  125  protrudes laterally from opposite sides of the tubular column  102 , in the same manner as slide  111  protrudes. Similarly, the receiver arm  115  engages a decorating screen assembly  118  that is reciprocated by the linear motion of the slide  125  to thereby reciprocate the decorating screen assembly along the neck portion N 1  of a bottle for carrying out decorating operations thereon. 
   Hand wheels  108  and  122  are used to select a desired stroke for the screen reciprocation to match the circumferential distance of the bottle, which is to be decorated. This matching relationship is critically significant because no relative motion between the screen movement and the bottle rotation can be accepted otherwise, smearing, or poor quality decorating will occur. As shown in  FIG. 8 , squeegees  129  and  130  are carried by a support arm  131  in positions above the screens  116  and  118 , respectively. Each squeegee includes a squeegee rubber  132  on the end portion of a squeegee-positioning cylinder operated pneumatically against the force of a return spring thereby to establish line contact between the screen assembly  116  and  118  and a bottle as the bottle is rotated in a synchronous speed with linear movement of the screens. The squeegees are adjustably located by fasteners engaged in a mounting slot  133  extending along the elongated length of the support arm  131 . 
   At each decorating station there is provided as part of the screen drives, a drive to rotate a rotator assembly  136 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , the rotator assembly includes a drive gear  143 , which is located beneath lower arm  105  where the teeth of gear  143  mesh with teeth of an elongated rack  137 . Rack  137  is secured to a slide  138  arranged in a slideway supported by a pedestal  142 . The slide  138  is constrained in a slideway by gibs  139  to reciprocate in response to a driving force imparted to a “U” shaped drive bar  140 . The driving force is imparted by a drive block  141  mounted in a slot formed in the underside of lower arm  105 . Drive block  141  serves to convert oscillating motion of lower arm  105  to linear motion of the slide thereby reciprocating the rack  137 . The teeth of the rack  137  mesh with gear teeth of a drive gear  143  mounted on an end portion of an arbor  144  which is rotatably supported by a bearing  145  mounted in a bearing housing secured to a face plate  146  mounted on the base  11 . A rotator drive head  147  is secured to the end portion of the arbor  144  and formed with a slot opening  148  extending transversely to the longitudinal axis about which the arbor  144  rotates. The slot opening receives the drive roller  92  on a bottle carrier  76  as the carrier approaches a dwell position “D” in the course of travel along the decorating machine. When the drive roller  92  is received in the opening  148 , a driving relationship is established whereby rotation of the rotator head  147  rotates the drive roller  92  and the crank arm  91  for rotating the bottle 360° at the bottle decorating station. 
   The continuous conveyance of the bottles as shown in  FIGS. 1 ,  2  and  4  by the supply conveyor  24 A; a bottle transfer  150 ; and the bottle carrier  76  occurs with the bottles arranged in a spaced relation on the supply conveyor  24 A with their axes A vertically orientated and changed to horizontal orientation by operation of a bottle transfer  150  forming part of the bottle loading equipment L. The bottle transfer  150  acquires support of each bottle with its axis A in a vertical orientation on supply conveyor  24 A; reorientates the bottle in a manner so that its axis A is in a horizontal orientation; and when the axis A is horizontal or substantially horizontal release or otherwise allow engagement and support for the bottle between a base cup  77  and a neck chuck  79  of a bottle carrier  76  while passing through a loading station  151 . The bottle carrier remains in the driving relation between followers  95 A and  95 B interfitting and drivingly engaged in aligned cavities  52 A and  53 A, respectively, of supply disks  52  and  53  to the registration station, not shown. An example of bottle registration is to provide a dwell position for a workpiece along the conveyor  12  where before the first decorating station P 1  the bottle is rotated about its longitudinal axis A by a rotator head constructed in the same manner as rotator  147  and stopped from rotation when a registration finger engaged in the registration cavity formed in the lower base portion of the bottle. When rotation of the bottle is stopped there is established a predetermined bottle orientation with respect to the decorating screens. 
   The bottle transfers  150  and  155 , embodying the same construction of parts, are located at the opposite ends of the workpiece conveyor  12  for loading undecorated bottles on the horizontal bottle carriers  76  and unloading of the decorated bottles from the horizontal bottle carriers of the decorating machine. The following description of the construction of bottle transfer  150  is equally applicable to the bottle transfer  155  except as otherwise noted. As illustrated in  FIGS. 17 ,  19  and  20 , the bottle transfer  150  includes a rectangular shaped pedestal  160  having a top wall  161  with one side wall  162  joined with two end walls  163  and  164 . The side wall  162  is secured by bolts  162 A to the base  11  at an angular orientation for rotational operation of the bottle transfer about an angularly orientated rotational axis  165  which as shown schematically by  FIG. 18  forms an acute angle α a with a horizontal plane  166  containing the axis A of a bottle when orientated for support by a bottle carrier  76  of the decorator conveyor  12  and forms an acute angle β with a vertical plane  167  containing the axis A of a bottle when orientated for support by either supply conveyor  24 A or delivery conveyor  24 B. The angular orientation of the rotational axis  165  is an important feature of the present invention that automatically brings about a change to the orientation of the axis A of a bottle from the vertical plane  167  to the horizontal plane  166  or when desired from the horizontal plane  166  to the vertical plane  167 . The acute angles α and β are preferably each 45° which offers the advantage of allowing the feed and delivery conveyors  24 A and  24 B to extend perpendicularly to the direction of bottle movement in the decorating machine and at opposite lateral sides of the decorating machine. 
   The angular orientation of rotational axis  165  is established by using the top surface of top wall  161  to support a barrel cam  168  that is secured by a mounting flange  169  to the top wall  161  by the use of bolts  170 . The barrel cam  168  has a closed cam track  172  and a hollow interior wherein bearings  173  and  174  are carried in spaced apart recesses and rotatably support a drive shaft  175  between a collar  176  and a threaded lock nut  177 . The bearings  173  and  174  support the drive shaft  175  to rotate about an axis  165  in response to torque applied to the drive shaft through an overload clutch  178  connected to a drive output shaft of the cone worm drive  22 E. The cone worm drive is supported by mounting bolts on the bottom surface of the top wall  161 . As shown in  FIG. 20 , the drive shaft  175  includes a splined portion  180  projecting upwardly beyond collar  176  to which there is mounted a control rod carrier  181  having upper and lower flanges  182  and  183 , respectively. A drive hub  184  is secured by a washer and bolt assemblies  185  to the drive shaft  175  and to the upper flange  182  of control rod carrier  181 . The drive hub supports six, angularly spaced apart, bottle grippers  186 A- 186 F (FIG.  21 ). It is preferred to utilize six grippers or more in pairs of grippers to reduce the rotational speed of the grippers about axis  165  between the bottle supply conveyor  24 A and the workpiece conveyor  12  of the decorating machine and or the workpiece conveyor  12  and the bottle delivery conveyor  24 B. Six grippers are particularly suitable for inclusion in each of the bottle loading and unloading equipment L and U where the decorating machine operates at a bottle throughput rate of 200 bottles per minute or more. The grippers  186 A- 186 F are identically constructed and supported by angularly spaced apart upstanding clevis  184 A forming part of the drive hub  184 . Each clevis is secured by a pivot shaft  184 B to one of carrier arms  187  for pivotal movement in discrete planes that are parallel and intersect axis  165 . 
   Bottle gripper  186 A has been identified in  FIGS. 22-25  for describing the construction of each of the bottle grippers  186 A- 186 F. The carrier arm  187  is elongated with a rectangular cross section containing a slot  188  elongated to extend in the direction of the extended length of the arm. Beyond the terminal projected end of the slot, the end of the arm  187  is secured by a mounting fixture  189  to a rectangular carriage  190  to project in opposite directions at an angle of 45° to the plane containing pivotal movement of the carrier arm  187  whereby the bottle gripper is vertically oriented at the supply conveyor  24 A and horizontally orientated at the workpiece conveyor  12  while angularly rotated about axis  165 . The carriage  190  is constructed with a tubular carrier section  191  extending along one lateral side opposite a bifurcated tubular carrying section  192  for supporting elongated gripper support rods  193  and  194 , respectively. The gripper support rods  193  and  194  extend in a parallel and spaced apart relation with each other and with axis A of a bottle when supported by the bottle gripper. Moreover, the axis A of a bottle when supported by the bottle gripper always forms an angle of 45° to the plane containing pivotal movement of the carrier arm  187 . The gripper support rod  193  is rigidly secured by setscrews  195  to the carrier section  191 . On the lower terminal end portion of rod  193 , there is mounted a C-shaped carrier arm  196  to which is mounted a wear-resistant insert  197  having angular surfaces  197 A,  197 B and  197 C for engaging a hemispherical portion of the base of a bottle. The upper end of the rod  193 , which is opposite the location of carrier arm  196 , is secured to a carrier arm  198  provided with a wear resistant insert  199  having a V-shaped surface  199 A to engage and support the neck portion of a bottle. 
   At the opposite side of the carriage  190 , the rod  194  is pivotally supported by spaced apart bearings seated in the bifurcated parts of carrier section  192 . On the lower terminal end portion of rod  194  there is rigidly mounted a pivotal carrier arm  205  provided with a wear-resistant insert  206  in an opposing relation to the C-shaped carrier arm  196 . The pivotal carrier arm  205  and wear-resistant insert  206  are pivotally displaced about a rotational axis extending centrally along the length of rod  194  in response to displacement by a cam follower  207  carried by a crank arm  208  secured to a lower terminal end portion of rod  194  beneath pivotal carrier arm  205 . An upper terminal end portion of rod  194  protruding from carrier section  192  is rigidly secured by a link arm  209  to the lower end of a control rod  210 , which extends parallel with the extended length of rod  194  at one lateral side defined by the length of link arm  209 . The pivotal carrier arm  205  and link arm  209  also serve as retainer members to maintain the rod  194  pivotally engaged by the carrier section  192 . The link arm  209  forms part of a geometric link for imparting pivotal movement by rod  194  to a generally planar support face  211  of a wear-resistant insert  212  on pivotal carrier arm  213  to engage and form a supporting relation for a neck portion of a bottle with the V-shaped surfaces  199 A of support arm  198 . The pivotal movement of pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  are biased in a direction for maintaining supporting engagement with a bottle the force for this bias is provided by using the attachment block  200  as a mounting structure for a control rod  201  having a threaded end portion extending through an aperture in a support lug  202  on carriage  190 . The threaded end portion of rod  201  is engaged with a lock nut  203  that is adjustably positioned along the threaded end portion to apply a compressive force of a helical spring  204  surrounding the control rod  201  as the biasing force to pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  when engaged with the bottle. 
   Referring again to  FIGS. 19 and 20 , the slot  188  in each of the carrier arms  187  of the grippers  186 A- 186 F receives a slide bar  214  connected by a pivot to a clevis  215  on an upper end of an actuating rod  216  which is slidably supported by linear bearings  217  and  218  carried by each of the upper flange  182  and lower flange  183  respectively of the central rod carrier  181 . The lower end of the actuating rod  216  is secured to a cam follower  219  residing in the closed cam track  172  of barrel cam  168 . The course of travel by the cam follower  219  along the cam track  172  produces a literal reciprocating motion by the actuating rod  216  in a timed relation with rotation of the bottle gripper about the rotational axis  165 . A control arm  220  is secured to the actuating rod  216  immediately above the site of cam follower  219  and carries a linear bearing  221  to guide the control arm  220  to reciprocate along a guide rod  222  supported by and extending downwardly from lower flange  183  and thereby prevent unwanted rotational movement of the actuating rod  216  about its axis extending in the direction of its extended length. 
     FIG. 26  diagrammatically illustrates the reciprocal movement of a gripper support arm  187  of gripper  186 A which is the same as each cam follower  219  of the gripper support arms  187  proceeds along the same cam track 172  of the barrel cam  168 . A BOTTLE RECEIVING position is identified by a 0° designation point on the barrel cam track  172  and established in the transfer cycle by the relation of the gripper support arm  187  extending at a horizontal position and midway between extreme upward and downward positions. In the BOTTLE RECEIVING position, the arm  187  extends in a horizontal plane that is perpendicular to the axis A of a bottle while supported on the supply conveyor  24 A. The pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  assume supporting engagement with a bottle when the cam follower  207  ceases contact with an arcuate cam surface  225  of a C-shaped cam  226  as shown in FIG.  30 . The cam  226  is mounted on a shelf  227  extending horizontally at one lateral side of the conveyor  24 A in the direction toward the bottle transfer  150 . Immediately prior to the supporting engagement between the bottle and pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213 , as shown in  FIG. 29 , the follower  207  advances along cam surface  225  which operates to maintain pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  pivotally displaced outwardly in a direction away from the V-shaped surface  1   99 A and the angular surfaces  197 A,  197 B and  197 C, respectively. The delivery of a bottle to the site where supporting engagement is established with one of the bottle grippers  186 A- 186 F is in a timed relation between advancing movement of a bottle by the conveyor  24 A and the movement of a gripper to a vertical orientation by passing through a zone where a bottle is engaged and supported by the gripper. When alternative forms of supply and delivery conveyors extend along a lateral side or above the conveyance, paths for the bottles such as described hereinbefore, the reciprocating motion imparted to the bottle grippers  186 A- 186 F of the carrier arms  187  will facilitate the receiving and delivery of bottles with such alternative forms of supply and delivery conveyors. 
   As shown in  FIG. 27 , the bottles are advanced along a horizontal guide rail  228  by the conveyor  24 A initially with the bottles in an abutting relation until engagement is established with the timing screw  25  whereupon the helical groove  25 A having an ever increasing pitch in the direction of advancing movement by the conveyor establishes a correspondingly ever increasing space between the bottles. The pivotal carrier arm  213  and C-shaped carrier arm  196  are shown in  FIGS. 27-30 , in their generally horizontal path of travel at the end portion of the timing screw. In  FIG. 28 , there is illustrated the carrier arm  196  advanced above the conveyor beyond the bottle undergoing restrained advancing movement by the timing screw and held captive by the timing screw and the guide rail  228 . The pivotal carrier arm  213  resides at a lateral side of the conveyor while the cam follower  207  which is coupled by the pivot arm  208  to gripper support rod  194  approaches cam surface  225  of the C-shaped cam  226 . In  FIG. 29 , the timing screw allows continued advancing movement of the bottle while the carrier arm  196  moves toward a central position along the conveyor  24 A ahead of the bottle and the pivotal carrier arm  213  undergoes pivotal movement by engagement by the cam follower  207  with cam surface  225 . Pivotal carrier arm  213  now trails the bottle at a location above the conveyor. In  FIG. 29 , the carrier arm  196  advances along the conveyor with pivotal motion that operates to orient angular surfaces  197 A,  197 B, and  197 C into a proximal confronting relation with the advancing bottle while still restrained by the timing screw. The relative movement between the carrier arm  196  and the bottle continues the advancing movement of the bottle toward the carrier arm as the follower  207  nears the trailing end portion of the cam surface  225  which serves to initiate pivotal movement of the pivotal carrier arm  213  toward the side of the bottle generally opposite the side of the carrier arm  196 . As the cam follower,  207  moves out of contact with cam surface  225 , pivotal carrier arm  213  pivots into contact with the bottle.  FIG. 30  illustrates the moment of release of a bottle from the timing screw and the simultaneous establishment of supporting engagement between carrier arm  196  and pivotal carrier arm  213  that is the BOTTLE RECEIVING position identified as a 0° designation point on the barrel cam track  172  forming part of the transfer cycle in FIG.  26 . 
   As shown in  FIG. 1  there is a segment of travel by a bottle gripper across a substantially vertical orientation zone  230  characterized by advancing movement of the bottle gripper in a substantially vertical orientation before and after the moment the bottle gripper engages the bottle with the axis A vertically orientated. As shown in  FIG. 26  the CONVEYOR CLEARING segment of travel is part of a zone  230  where the axis A of a bottle remains substantially vertical and is produced as the cam follower  219  of a bottle gripper travels  4  along cam track  172  from 0° to 45° which maintains the gripper in a substantially vertical orientation and with advancing substantially horizontal movement across the terminal end portion of the conveyor  24 A. Another part of the zone  230  is an APPROACH CONVEYOR segment occurring along can track  172  at about 45° prior to 0° by the bottle gripper movements causing a substantially vertical orientation of the bottle gripper before the moment when a bottle is engaged by the bottle gripper. The APPROACH CONVEYOR segment and the CONVEYOR CLEARING segment form the entire substantially vertical orientation zone  230 . This course of travel by the bottle gripper is the result of rotary movement of the gripper about axis  165  and a pivotal displacement of the gripper by rod  216  in a vertically upward direction by the follower  219  movement along cam track  172 . The bottle gripper enters the CONVEYOR ENTRY segment in a substantially vertical orientation due to the same rotary movement combined with the vertically downward movement produced by pivotal displacement of the gripper by rod  216  in a vertically downward direction by the follower  219  along cam track  172 . 
   From 45° through 90° to 135° the bottle gripper is pivoted downwardly and then from 135° through 180° to 225° a bottle on the gripper is pivoted upwardly. These upward and downward pivotal motions of the gripper occur simultaneously with the rotary motion of the gripper about axis  165 . The combined effect is a reorientation of the gripper whereby the axis A of a bottle supported by the gripper is changed from generally vertical orientation to a generally horizontal orientation. The reorientation is beneficially enhanced by the action produced by cam track  172  by providing that the bottle carrier moves across the bottle supply conveyor  24 A with a continuous motion characterized by substantially matched speed and direction. This feature of the present invention enables the transfer of support for a bottle from the supply conveyor to the bottle gripper while the bottle remains in a stable orientation without a significant change to the take off speed by the bottle from the conveyor. In a similar fashion, the combined continuous motions of the bottle carrier approaching the 180° point along the cam track produce an approach by the bottle toward a horizontal bottle carrier  76  in a substantially horizontal orientation zone indicated by reference numeral  231  in FIG.  2 . In the horizontal path the movement by bottle carrier slows to a stable horizontal orientation without a significant speed difference with the bottle carrier speed. At 180° the bottle is handed off for support by the decorator conveyor. The pivotal positioning of the gripper by operation of cam track  172  from 225° through 270° to 315° reorientates the bottle gripper for approach to the supply conveyor  24 A along a substantially horizontal path of travel as indicated by reference numeral  231  in FIG.  2 . 
   Concurrently with the passage of the bottle along the substantially horizontal path of travel  231 , there is an increase to the preset separation distance between the base cup  77  and mouthpiece  78  of a horizontal bottle carrier  76  by displacement of the actuator shaft  80  ( FIGS. 12A and 12B ) in response to contact between the actuator cam follower  80 A and cam  85  as previously described as shown in  FIGS. 2 and 7 . As the mouthpiece  78  moves to clamp the bottle between the mouthpiece and the base cup in response to passage of the follower  80 A beyond cam  85 , the pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  are displaced from supporting engagement with a bottle by contact of the cam follower  207  with an arcuate cam surface  235  of a C-shaped cam  236  as shown in  FIGS. 31 and 32 . The cam  236  is secured by a bracket to the base  11  of the decorating machine to strategically reside in the pathway of cam follower  207 . As seen in  FIG. 32  the cam surface  235  is engaged by the cam follower  207  when or at least immediately after the bottle is engaged and supported between the base cup  77  and mouthpiece  78  of a horizontal bottle carrier  76 . The transfer of support occurs when the axis A of the bottle is horizontal and residing in horizontal plane  166  and thus completing the change to the reorientation of the bottle as shown in  FIG. 18  from the vertical where the axis A is coextensive the vertical plane  167  to the horizontal where the axis A is coextensive with the horizontal plane  166 . As the bottle is transported by the carrier  76 , the pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213 , as shown in  FIG. 32  are maintained pivotally displaced outwardly in a direction away from their respective V-shaped surface  199 A and angular surfaces  197 A,  197 B and  197 C and thereby avoid interference with the moving carrier  76  and bottle supported thereby. 
   Referring now to  FIG. 33 , the bottle transfer  155  at the bottle unloading equipment U utilizes the cam  236  with cam surface  235  oriented in the manner of an opposite hand arrangement to that shown and described in regard to  FIGS. 31 and 32 . This opposite hand arrangement is characterized by a positioning of the cam  236  along the path of travel by a bottle carrier  76  at a site located before the bottle unloading station  154  which is to be compared with the positioning of cam  236  in the same manner along the path of travel by a horizontal bottle carrier at a site located before passage to the bottle loading station  154 . At the bottle unloading station  154 , the cam  236  has functioned to pivotally displace the pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  in a direction away from the C-shaped carrier arm grippers  196  and the carrier arm  198  before the horizontal bottle carrier  76  arrives at the unloading station. The and grippers pass along opposite sides of a bottle while supported by a bottle carrier  76  approaching the bottle unloading station  154 . Cam  86  operates to release the bottle at the unloading station at substantially the same time as cam follower  207  passes downwardly beyond cam surface  235  causing the pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  to assume a supporting engagement with the bottle. The cam  226 A supported by the shelf  227 A along the side of delivery conveyor  24 B operates to move the pivotal carrier arms  205  and  213  in a direction to release a bottle from support by the bottle transfer and conveyance by conveyor  24 B. The release of the bottle by the bottle transfer for conveyance by delivery conveyor  24 B occurs by the operating position of the cam surface  225 A of cam  226 A at the side of the conveyor to engage the follower  207  when the central axis A of a bottle is centrally disposed with respect to the width of the conveyor. The follower  207  pivots the carrier arm  205  and  213  forwardly in the direction away from the bottle and the gripper  196  is rotated by the bottle transfer away from the bottle as seen by the illustration of  FIGS. 33A and 33B . A vertical bottle carrier  300  of a bottle steady apparatus  302  establishes supporting engagement with the bottle by the time the baffle is released from the bottle transfer.  FIGS. 33C and 33D  illustrates two sequential separations between the bottle as advanced by the vertical carrier and the departing bottle transfer. The bottle is advanced linearly in the direction of conveyer  24 B which displaces the bottle beyond the rotary path of travel by the bottle transfer. The bottle steady apparatus  302  is provided according to the present invention to reduce the spacing between consecutive bottles delivered from the decorating machine by the bottle transfer and the apparatus is particularly useful to reduce the linear advancement speed that is necessary to accommodate a bottle-decorating rate of, for example, 200, or more bottles per minute. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the moment of inertia acting on each bottle is centered about axis  165  of the bottle transfer at the arrival site on the delivery conveyor and therefore is non-linear at the release site on the delivery conveyor  24 A with respect to the direction of movement by the conveyor. The bottle steady apparatus  302  serves the additional function of dissipating the destabilizing forces acting on the bottle on the conveyor, which destabilizing forces can be very detrimental when the bottle unloading operations occur with continuous motion and capable of relatively high bottle throughput operating speed. 
     FIGS. 33-36  illustrate the details of the construction of the vertical bottle steady carriers  300 . Each carrier essentially includes a pusher arm  304  with a mounting arm secured by a bolt to a vertically arranged base plate  308  at a location so that the pusher arm can engage the lower base of a bottle at a site between the conveyer and gripper  196  when present. Pairs of upper and lower guide rollers  310  and  312  are mounted by bolts  314  to the base  308  at outwardly spaced locations from the face surface of the base plate  308  by spacer sleeves  316 . A slide plate  318  carries parallel guide bars  320  having V-shaped edges protruding beyond the side edges of the slide plate and engaged within corresponding-shaped groves in the face surfaces of the rollers  310  and  312 . The arrangement of parts is such that the plate moves vertically downward to displace a vertically biased mouthpiece  322  by a spring and slide rod mounted on the slide plate in supporting engagement with a bottle. As shown, the mouthpiece  322  is provided with a shallow protruding bevel edge  324  to receive and center the mouth of a bottle in the mouthpiece whereby the upper portion of the bottle is restrained and driven linearly by the vertical bottle carrier. The mouthpiece  322  is slidably supported on one leg of an L-shaped arm  326  secured by bolts  328  to the slide plate  318  between the guide bars  320 . The mouthpiece  322  is lowered into a engagement with the mouth of a bottle while the bottom of the bottle is seated onto a conveyer by a follower roller  330  mounted to the face surface of a slide plate  318  opposite to the guide bars  320 . As shown in  FIG. 40 , the follower roller  330  passes along an oval shaped cam  332  having a linear cam surface  334  located in a lower plane of two planes established to position the mouthpiece  322  in supporting engagement with the mouth of a bottle. A linear cam surface  336  located in the upper of the two planes establishes an inoperative location for the mouth piece  322  wherein the mouth piece is advance along the cam track at a elevation above the mouth of the bottle. The linear cam surfaces  334  and  336  are joined by transitional cam segments  338  wherein the follower roller moves between the two planes and thereby moves into and out of engagement with the mouth of the bottle. The bottle steady apparatus  302  further includes an oval shaped cam carrier plate  350 , an oval shaped upper housing plate  352 , and an oval shaped lower housing plate  354 . Extending from a base plate  356  is a support pedestal  358  provided with a flange for securing the pedestal at the central portion of the oval shaped lower housing plate  354 . Three spacer columns  360  are used to rigidly secure the oval shaped lower housing plate  354  to the oval shaped upper housing plate  352 . The upper oval shaped housing plate  352  rigidly supports an array of four upstanding and threaded spindles  361  that extend through apertures in the oval shaped cam carrier plate  350  and into threaded engagement with a corresponding array of four drive nut assemblies  362  ( FIG. 38 ) that are flange mounted to the upper surface of the oval shaped cam carrier plate  350 . Each of the drive nut assemblies includes a sprocket  364  coupled by an endless chain  366  that is also coupled with a drive sprocket  368 . The drive sprocket is secured to a vertical drive shaft rotatably supported by a flanged mounting on the oval shaped cam carrier plate. The drive shaft is joined with a crank arm  370  which is rotated to simultaneously rotate the four drive nut assembly  362  and thereby alter the elevation of the oval shaped cam carrier plate  350  and the cam  332  supported thereon to accommodate a particular height of a bottle between the conveyor and mouthpiece. 
   The vertical bottle steady carriers  300  are driven about the oval shaped cam  332  by the combination of parallel and spaced barrel cams  372  and  374  extending horizontally along opposite sides of the three spacers columns  360 . At the ends of the cams  372  and  374 , the vertical bottle steady carriers  300  are transferred by a pair of carrier return disks  376 A and  376 B from barrel cam  372  to barrel cam  374 . A pair of carrier supply disks  378 A and  378 B transfers the vertical bottle steady carriers from barrel cam  374  to barrel cam  372 . The barrel cams  372  and  374  have closed cam tracks  372 A and  374 A, respectively that receive the roller parts of a cam follower  380  mounted on each of the vertical arranged based plates  308  of the bottle steady carriers. As shown in  FIGS. 36 and 37 , each of the vertically arranged base plates  308  is provided with two pairs of spaced apart guide rollers  382 L,  384 L, and  386 L,  388 L at the lower portion the base plate  308  and two pairs of spaced apart guide rollers  382 U,  384 U, and  386 U,  388 U at the upper portion the base plate  308 . As best shown in  FIG. 42 , the downwardly facing surface  352 F of the oval shaped upper housing plate  352  is provided with an endless vertical guide track  390  spaced inwardly from an endless horizontal guide surface  392 . The cavity of the endless vertical guide track  390  receives the guide rollers  382 U and  386 U which have vertically arranged rotational axes and the endless horizontal guide surface  392  is engaged by rolling contact the guide rollers  384 U and  388 U which have horizontally arranged rotational axes. The upwardly facing surface  354 F of the lower oval shaped housing plate  354  is provided with an endless vertical guide track  394  spaced inwardly from an endless horizontal guide surface  396 . The cavity of the endless vertical guide track  396  receives the guide rollers  384 L and  388 L, which have vertically arranged rotational axes, and the endless horizontal guide surface  394  is engaged by rolling contact the guide rollers  382 L and  386 L, which have horizontally arranged rotational axes. The guidance provided by the cooperation between the guide rollers  382 L,  386 L and  382 U,  386 U which rotate about vertical axes and the vertical guide tracks  390  and  394  provide load-bearing support for the vertical bottle steady carrier  300 ; maintain cam follower  380  engaged with the cam tracks of the barrel cams  372  and  374  and maintain the vertical carrier in a stable orientation during movement along the cam tracks. The guidance provided by the cooperation between the guide rollers  382 L,  386 L and  384 U,  388 U which rotate about horizontal axes and the horizontal guide surfaces  392  and  394  maintain the vertical carrier in a stable orientation during movement along the cam track and prevent unwanted displacement of the vertical carrier between the horizontal guide surfaces  392  and  394  in a longitudinal axis of a bottle when supported by the vertical carrier. 
     FIGS. 36 ,  37  and  42  illustrate the mounting block  400  secured to the back surface of the vertically arranged base plate  308  supporting the upper guide rollers  382 U,  284 U,  286 U, and  388 U and similarly, mounting block  402  secured to the back surface of base plate  308  supports the lower guide rollers  382 L,  384 L,  386 L, and  388 L. Upwardly of the mounting block  400  is a mounting block  404  rotatably supporting a follower roller  406  and downward of mounting block  402  is a mounting block  408  rotatably supporting follower roller  410 . The follower rollers  406  and  410  are orientated to rotate about a vertical axis and pass into engagement with vertically aligned cavities  412  and  414  distributed about the outer peripheral edges of the pairs of carrier return disks  378 A and  378 B when cam follower  380  exits cam track  372 A of the barrel cam  372 . Similarly, the follower rollers  406  and  410  pass into engagement with vertically aligned cavities  416  and  418  distributed about the outer peripheral edges of carrier supply disks  376 A and  376 B when cam followers exit cam track  374 A of the barrel cam  374 . 
   The vertical bottle carriers are each sequentially transferred from an established positive driving relation with barrel cam  372  into a positive driving relation with return disks  376 A and  376 B and transferred by return disks into a positive driving relation with barrel cam  374  and thence from barrel cam  374  to a positive driving relation with supply disks  378 A and  378 B completing a conveyance cycle. The cams to disks transfers are always the same to maintain a continuous supply of vertical bottle carriers  300  for supporting and decelerating a bottle during initial travel of the bottle along the delivery conveyor  24 B, i.e. negative acceleration, the deceleration to the linear speed is accomplished by the configuration of the closed cam track surface  372 A shown in detail in  FIG. 41  the cam track follows a course of continuous deceleration which also functions to reduce the spacing between adjacent bottle carriers. 
   As shown in  FIG. 1  the distances between consecutive vertical bottle carriers  300  progressively decreases as the carries move along the length of the barrel cam  372  and thereby decrease the speed of the bottle to such an extent that the forward speed of the bottle match the linear speed the conveyor. The carrier return discs rotate at different constant speeds which match the delivery and exit speeds of the carriers at the ends of the barrel cams. The barrel cam  374  accelerates the speed of the carriers thus increasing the distance between the carriers so that the carrier speed when driven by the carrier supply discs  376  imparts a traveling motion corresponding to the velocity of the bottle at the handoff location between the unloading bottle transfer and the vertical bottle carrier at the entrance to the cam track of the barrel cam  374  where upon the cycle is completed. As shown in  FIG. 38  the drive sprocket  23 R drives a sprocket  450  that is joined by the chain  452  to a sprocket on an input shaft of a cone worm drive  454 . The drive  454  is connected through an overload clutch  456  to a drive shaft  458  that is mounted to rotate the supply discs  378 A and  378 B. A pulley mounted on shaft  358  is joined by a drive belt  460  to a pulley  462  mounted on a drive shaft  464  to rotate the return discs  376 A and  376 B. Details of a bevel gear drive for the barrel cams and disks are shown in  FIGS. 42 and 43 . Shaft  457  drives a spur gear  465  that meshes with a spur gear  466  mounted on a vertical drive shaft  467 . A bevel drive gear  468  is mounted on shaft  467  and meshes with a bevel drive gear  468  mounted on a line shaft  470 . The line shaft  470  drives spaced apart bevel gears  474  and  476 , which in turn mesh with bevel gears  478  and  480 , respectively, mounted on a drive shaft joined with the barrel cams  372  and  374 , respectively. 
   While the present invention has been described in connection with the preferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiment for performing the same function of the present invention without deviating there from. Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the recitation of the appended claims.