Apparatus and method for producing shaped composite pieces and a cutter for cutting sheet material

A gripper on a powered gantry (26), which moves longitudinally relative to a porous conveyor belt (30), pulls a selected length of a composite sheet material (14) and its backing from a supply roll (18) on a carrousel (17) and past a cutter (29). After a segment (12) has been cut, the gantry (26) returns the gripper to pull the composite sheet (14) and its backing from the supply roll (18) while the belt (30) moves the segment thereon to a desired position thereon. This continues until the belt (30) supports a plurality of segments. The gripper gantry (26) includes a marker to mark each segment on the belt. After marking is completed, a powered gantry (63) moves to dispose a top film (61) over the segments. A powered gantry (63), which has a cutter thereon, is then moved so that the cutter, which can move orthogonal to the motion of the gantry and also has its reciprocating cutting blades rotatable about a vertical axis, can cut one or more pieces of desired shapes from each segment. After cutting is completed, the segments are advanced from the belt (30) through a separator. The top film (61) is fed through pinch rolls (66,66') to pull all scrap downwardly after passing through the separator while each cut piece is advanced horizontally to a bottom film (198). The bottom film is connected to a first roller (205) to wind the bottom film with the pieces therearound.