Method and apparatus for conveying printed products

An apparatus for conveying printed products comprising

• a feed conveyor for continuously feeding printed products in an imbricated formation, with spacings between successive printed products, to a transfer location,
• a removal conveyor which receives the fed printed products at the transfer location and comprises individually controllable grippers which are arranged at fixed spacings one behind the other in a conveying direction and are configured for gripping printed products,
• wherein the grippers of the removal conveyor have a depth which is larger than at least the spacing between two printed products following one after the other in the fed imbricated formation, with the result that at least some of the grippers of the removal conveyor can grip at least two printed products with the same mutual spacing which the gripped printed products have in the fed imbricated formation, and
• wherein for directing in each case a number of fed printed products into the grippers of the removal conveyor without a change in the spacing between respectively successive printed products, a deflecting arrangement is provided which is coordinated with the movement of the grippers past the transfer location and acts periodically and briefly on the printed products running along a normal conveying path toward the transfer location as defined by the feed conveyor and while the printed products maintain their feeding speed, so as to deflect said printed products from the normal conveying path onto another conveying path which is oriented counter to the conveying direction of the removal conveyor.