Patent ID: 8915350

Claim:
A method by means of which flexible, sheet-like articles, in particular printed products, which are conveyed continuously in a conveying stream are shifted relative to the conveying direction of the conveying stream, comprising the following steps: conveying the articles in an ingoing conveying stream as an imbricated stream of articles located one upon the other or one inside the other, or a stream of spaced-apart individual articles in a first conveying direction, and with a first orientation of the surface normals thereof, and with predetermined cyclic timing to a deflecting region, terminating the conveying action of the individual articles of the ingoing conveying stream in the first conveying direction by an accelerating element, which acts on the articles with predetermined cyclic timing in the deflecting region and accelerating and deflecting individual articles in a second conveying direction, which is directed perpendicularly to the first conveying direction and perpendicularly to the first orientation of the surface normals in the ingoing conveying stream, by the accelerating element, deflecting the conveying stream, moving in the second conveying direction, in the deflecting region, into a third conveying direction, which is perpendicular to the first conveying direction and encloses an angle other than zero with the second conveying direction, and conveying the articles further, after leaving the deflecting region, in an outgoing conveying stream; wherein the surface normals of the articles at any point in time are oriented essentially perpendicularly to the current conveying direction.