Apparatus for compressing a stack of folded, essentially flat products, especially printed products

An apparatus for compacting a stack of folded, essentially flat products, especially printed products, comprising:

• means defining a receiver compartment for the stack;
• a support element for closing the receiver compartment at its lower end region;
• a counter pressure device arranged above the support element;
• means for moving the support element and the counter pressure device relatively towards one another, in order to compress together the product stack arranged between the counter pressure device and the support element;
• said counter pressure device comprising at least one pivotable pressing element;
• means mounting said pressing element to be pivotable about an essentially horizontal pivot axis;
• said pressing element being dispositioned to span the receiver compartment in the direction of the pivot axis;
• at least one pressure element acting upon said pressing element;
• said mounting means for said pressing element mounting said pressing element for pivotal movement between a lower pivotal position and an upper pivotal position;
• said pressing element being pivotable upwardly out of its lower pivotal position where it is inclined towards the support element by the action of the product stack against the action of said at least one pressure element acting upon the pressing element.