Method of separating apertured shadow mask flats after annealing

Method of separating an annealed stack of thin, planar, shadow mask flats, each flat being approximately 0.006 inch thick and having a plurality of apertures provided through the body thereof, comprising the steps of arranging two series of rollers one above the other and alternating the rollers of one series with the rollers of the other series so that each roller in said one series is disposed between two rollers in said other series, spacing apart the two series of rollers by a distance which is approximately 0.015 inch less than the stack distance, and feeding said stack of flats between said series of rollers while they are being rotated, whereby a flexure of the stack of flats occurs which permits easy separation of the individual flats after they have passed through the rollers.