Rotary cutting apparatus comprising a placing system for the orderly sorting of cuts

A device for producing blanks from a product web, the device comprising:

• rotary cutting means;
• means, disposed downstream of said rotary cutting means, for sorting and stacking the blanks, said means for sorting and stacking comprising a delivery nest defining steps onto which the blanks are disposed at differing vertical and horizontal positions, wherein adjacent steps have a mutual vertical separation which is sufficiently large as to permit horizontal displacement of at least one blank from a higher lying step onto at least one blank disposed on an adjacent lower lying step;
• means, disposed between said cutting means and said sorting and stacking means, for determining faulty blanks and for directly removing said faulty blanks prior to delivery to said sorting and stacking means;
• and
• waste means accepting the faulty blanks from said determining and removing means.