Method of operating a flat-bed die cutter

A method of operating a flat-bed die-cutter, the method comprising:

• feeding a printing substrate in the form of a web to a die-cutting module of the flat-bed die-cutter and guiding the web through the die-cutting module;
• severing a web section from the web downstream of the die-cutting module by either,
• cutting the web section off by a cross-cutter that rotates or moves up and down and is different from a die-cutting knife of the die-cutting module;
• or
• only partly cutting the web section off by a cross-cutter that rotates or moves up and down and is different from the die-cutting knife of the die-cutting module and then tearing off the web section;
• and
• removing the web section as waste by at least one of winding the waste onto a winding roller, depositing web sections into a waste delivery or shredding the web sections;
• operating the die-cutting module, during or after removing the web section, in-register at a matching speed relative to the speed of a printed image of a print on the web;
• and
• starting the feeding of the web to the flat-bed die-cutter and guiding of the web through the die-cutting module at a beginning of a production run, continuing the feeding and guiding without interruption during the removal of the web section and the in-register die-cutting of the web at the matching speed, and not stopping the feeding and guiding until production ends.