PURPOSE: To eliminate the wides spaces, overlaps and folds of the plate-shaped materials, being fed to a conveyer connected to the supporters of them, for improving operation efficiency by using pulse signals indicating the length and moving distances of them and a signal indicating the distance between a starting point of measuring of length and stopper.

CONSTITUTION: The lifted area of plate-shaped material supporters R1WR14 is set by measuring the length of plate-shaped materials S1WS5 which are fed to a conveyer 1, and the moving distances of successive plates S2WS5 are computed, then the timing to lift the supporters R1WR14 can be set by measuring the moving distances from beam type detector 23. Next, the detector 23 sends a starting signal of measuring to a pulse generator 18 when the front edge of the plate S1 passes, the timing of lifting is set by a setting circuit 29, and lifting signals are sent to hydraulic cylinders C1WC3, then the supporters R1WR3 make the plate S1 comes into contact with a receiver 5, and, in the same way, the plates S2WS5, inseted at irregular intervals, come into contact with the receiver 5 successively. Then the plate S1 is stopped by a stopper 11 and successive plates S2WS5 are brought near end by end and collected to form a group of continuous plate S1WS5 without overlap or fold.