Collating path for flat goods and method for producing such a collating path

Method for producing a collating path for flat goods, which comprises a conveying apparatus that has, in a longitudinal direction, a plurality of collecting areas arranged one behind the other, into which the goods are collected and transported at a conveying speed in a conveying direction, with at least one exchangeable feeder station or a plurality of exchangeable feeder stations that keep goods in stock and are arranged along the conveying apparatus in such a manner that the goods stocked in the feeder stations can be deposited into the collecting areas, wherein the exchangeable feeder stations are coupled to a control device that is coupled with the conveying apparatus so as to control the deposition of the goods from the feeder stations into the collecting areas, wherein the exchangeable feeder station can be inserted at arbitrary work positions into the collating path and the control device receives information from which it determines the absolute release position of the individual feeder stations along the conveying apparatus at which the individual feeder station releases the goods stocked in it onto the conveying apparatus.

Method for the equipping of a collating path for flat goods with an exchangeable feeder station that keeps the flat goods in stock for deposition into collecting areas of the collating path, with the following steps:

• insertion of an exchangeable feeder station into the collating path at an arbitrary work position;
• transmission of information, which is composed of position information and feeder-specific information regarding the inserted feeder station, to a control device of the collating path;
• determination of the work position of the inserted feeder station in the control device from the transmitted information as the absolute position of the inserted feeder station in the longitudinal direction of the collating path.