Patent ID: 7789380

Claim:
A method for the unification of a first and a second feed flow of printed products, comprising the steps of: conveying the feed flows parallel to one another and next to one another in a main conveyor direction into a unification region, wherein the inner and outer edges of the printed products of both feed flows are aligned parallel to the main conveyor direction and inner edge regions are directed towards one another; pushing the printed products of the two feed flows in the unification region onto one another by way of a displacement transversely to the main conveyor direction using transverse pushing means; and further comprising the steps of: conveying the first and second feed flows at a same level, by means of a plurality of parallel running conveyor belts; lifting, during the step of conveying the feed flows into the unification region, the inner edge region of each printed product of the first feed flow, wherein end regions of the parallel running conveyor belts are staggered from the outside to the inside in the main conveyor direction in the unification region, so that the conveyor surface becomes narrower through the unification region; and pushing, during a conveying through the unification region, the printed products of both feed flows transversely to the main conveyor direction and towards one another by means of the transverse pushing means, in a manner such that in each case an inner edge region of a printed product of the second feed flow is pushed below the lifted inner edge region of the printed product of the first feed flow, whilst retaining the alignment of the outer edges, wherein the unified printed product flow is further conveyed on the innermost of the plurality of parallel running conveyor belts which form a conveyor surface which extends through the whole unification region and at its exit.