provided finger shaped workpiece grippers 61 62 and 63 grippers 61 62 and 63 are mounted to lifting plate 6 so that they are aliqned along the edge of the workpieces of stack 3 on the side of the stack facing delivery station c spindle drive 2 of each magazine station a and b is controlled via a respective light scanner 7 to locate the uppermost workpiece of the respective stack 3 always in a predetermined removal plane independently of the height of the workpiece stack in the removal plane are further provided on the rear of lifting table 1 of each magazine station a and b two air blasting nozzles 8 which eject an air stream to facilitate the separation of a workpiece from workpiece stack 3 substacks 31 32 and 33 are stacked on top of each other in such a way that like edges of the substacks rear edges in the drawing figure engage a stop 9 in the form of a strip fastened to the rear edge of lifting table 1 the workpiece gripper 63 which is farthest removed from this stop 9 is adjustably mounted to lifting plate 6 via a drive 63a for controlling drive 63a workpiece gripper 63 carries a light scanner 63b which upon a change from one substack to the next causes.