Patent ID: 8122930

Claim:
A labeling apparatus for applying labels to articles advanced along an article conveyor and comprising: a frame to be positioned adjacent the article conveyor; and at least one labeler carried by said frame and comprising an individual housing, a rotary bellows wheel carried by said individual housing, a fluid pump carried by said individual housing, and a plurality of bellows carried by said rotary bellows wheel, said rotary bellows wheel and adjacent portions of said individual housing defining a porting arrangement for selectively connecting said rotary bellows wheel to a fluid flow to selectively control internal fluid pressure for said plurality of bellows so that each bellows is movable between a retracted label pick-up position and an extended label-applying position and so that a peak negative internal fluid pressure is applied at the label pick-up position and a peak positive internal fluid pressure is applied at the label-applying position, the porting arrangement exhausting the fluid flow to ambient to generate the peak negative internal fluid pressure and restricting the fluid flow to ambient to generate the peak positive internal fluid pressure.