Patent ID: 7891648

Claim:
An apparatus for gathering and/or assembling print products or supplements, comprising: a conveyor to convey first print products comprising a circulating traction mechanism, a conveying track on the traction mechanism, and uniformly spaced-apart pushers attached to the conveying track and defining respective conveying sections along the conveying track; feeding devices, each including a feed conveyor, arranged along the conveying track for supplying second print products to assemble on the first print products at respective conveying sections of the conveying track; a plurality of feeding device drives each arranged to drive a respective one of the feeding devices with synchronized timing; a conveyor drive which is separate from at least one of the feeding device drives to drive the conveyor; a first measuring device arranged to detect a position of a first print product conveyed on one of the conveying sections of the conveying track; a second measuring device arranged to detect a position of a second print product on one of the feed conveyors; and a control unit having computing capacity and being coupled to the first and second measuring devices to synchronize a feeding device drive of one of the feeding devices with a respective conveying section to assemble the second print product in a pre-determined position on the first print product in response to position outputs from the first and second measuring devices, wherein the control unit comprises a computer adapted to compute an actual position value of the first print products on at least one of the conveying sections or an actual position value of a second print product on one of the feed conveyors as a function of the position detection of at least one of the first and second measuring devices, and for comparing the actual position value to a desired position value for the first and second print products to control the feed conveyor based on a differential value.