Patent ID: 8662553

Claim:
An apparatus for handling and transporting containers, said apparatus comprising a plurality of gripper elements disposed on a periphery of a rotating star machine, each of said gripper elements for holding or gripping a container having a body region, a closable mouth opening on a top thereof, a neck region therebetween, and a container axis extending vertically through said neck region, said neck region having a circumference, said gripper element being connected to a medium source, arranged on a holding device, and configured as a suction gripper configured to grip said circumference of said neck of said container with said container oriented while said container axis is oriented in a direction parallel to the Earth's gravitational field at the location of said container, wherein the set of all points at which said gripper contacts said circumference of said neck defines a connected region such that given any first point and any second point in said connected region, there exists a path connecting said first point and said second point that lies entirely within said connected region.