a method and apparatus are described for cutting the web remaining from a plastic sheet containing thermoformed articles into strips , loosely indexing and aligning a plurality of thermoformed articles in each strip with article punches , sequentially isolating the articles from each other so that they have complete freedom of movement in both across - machine and machine directions , exactly registering the articles with the article punches in a selected sequence , precisely trimming the articles from the plastic web , and ejecting them from the apparatus .