Automatic cutting of pieces in a sheet material

Abstract

Pieces are cut out from a sheet material by means of an installation comprising a cutting-out table (12) receiving the sheet material (30) from a loading station (12), and an unloading station (16) for unloading cut-out pieces. A flexible sealing film (32) is brought onto the sheet material upstream from the cutting-out table, and it is applied by establishing suction at the surface of the cutting-out table. After cutting-out, at least the skeleton (32′) of the sealing film is separated at the downstream end of the cutting-out table in order to be recovered. The recovery is preformed by automatic winding-up outside the unloading station, it being possible to deposit fastenings on the sealing film so that they straddle the cutting-out lines, or else said recovery is performed by sucking up the fragments of sealing film by means of a rotary member bearing against the sheet material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.