PURPOSE: To work highly efficiently without producing an idle in working by automatically carrying in and out a sheet material and making the distance between the rear and front edges of preceding and succeeding materials to be zero.

CONSTITUTION: When the rear edge of the 1st sheet of sheet material is located at the upstream side of an upstream-side intermittent feeding means 14, the 2nd sheet of sheet material is advanced by a carry-in means 18 to guide its front edge-part onto the upper surface of a guiding member 94. The 2nd sheet material is piled by locating its front edge at the upper side of the rear edge of the 1st sheet material and keeping a slight distance between both edges. The distance between them is properly set by adjusting the position of the front and rear direction of a backward-movement preventing member 96. Accordingly, the 1st material which is being advanced by a downstream-side intermittent feeding means 16 and the 2nd material which is being advanced by an upstream-side intermittent feeding means 14, are intermittently advanced through a working zone 10 just as a single continuous sheet material.