Abstract: A feeder for introducing and feeding plates into a machine tool, comprising a positioning station in which the plates are positioned one after the other with respect to orthogonal axes, a transfer section between the machine tool and the positioning station, two feeding carriages provided with grippers for seizing an edge of the plates and adapted to be adjusted along two parallel first guides between the positioning station and the machine tool by first feeding drives, with the two first guides guided by a second guide, the axis of which extends orthogonally with respect to the axis of the first guides, and adapted to be adjusted each by a second feeding drive of their own; and an automatic control controlling the feeding drives in such a manner that a plate is fed into a first processing position before the machine tool after the last working stroke for the preceding plate and before the machine tool performs a further working stroke.