Patent ID: 7328784

Claim:
A labeling machine, comprising: a rotating carousel; an input star conveyor for conveying bottles to said rotating carousel; a plurality of pans supported at a peripheral region of the rotating carousel so that each pan of said plurality of pans is rotatable about an axis thereof and is further adapted to receive and support a bottle that is conveyed by said input star conveyor when, as a consequence of a rotary motion of the carousel, the pan is in a specific position for receiving and supporting the bottle; a toothed belt wound around the carousel for driving cooperation with the pans; and a driving pulley for actuating said toothed belt to rotate the pans about the axis thereof while the pans travel, entrained by the carousel, along a path extending between a pan rotation start position and a pan rotation end position, said pan rotation start position being arranged upstream in the path of the bottles, in a direction of rotation of the carousel, with respect to said specific position in which each said pan, already in rotation, receives and supports a bottle.