PURPOSE: To stably and continuously produce lead terminals which are bent at front ends and have high dimensional accuracy by pinching the front end of a band-shaped metallic plate from a transverse direction by a bending mechanism and bending the front end while the band-shaped metallic plate is held from above by the holding blocks of two holding mechanisms.

CONSTITUTION: The 1st holding block 22 crimps the band-shaped metallic plate 2 between the same and a lower blade 27 when the band-shaped metallic plate 2 of a prescribed length is fed from a feed mechanism 7. The base of the 2nd holding block 25 is then pressed to the front surface of the band-shaped metallic plate 2. The front end of the band-shaped metallic plate 2 inserted between a stationary block and a moving block 35 is pinched from the transverse direction by the stationary block 34 and the moving block 35 and is thereby bent when the moving block 35 is moved in this state to the stationary block side by the driving of an air cylinder 36 along a groove 33a of a groove member 33. The band-shaped metallic plate 2 is cut by an upper blade 28 and the lower blade 27 when a moving member 30 is lowered along two pieces of guide shafts 29a by driving an air cylinder 31 to lower the upper blade 28.