Abstract: A cutting apparatus (7) fixed to a robot arm and intended for separating off end parts of the packaging of a paper reel comprises an edge cutting unit (7) having an edge cutting disc (18) and a detector (19), and a positioning unit (16) having an elastic positioning strip (27) which is wound on a winding roller (26) and which is unwound after piercing an end part by means of a spindle (33) and is pushed at the spindle (33) between the end part and an end face of the paper reel and up to the edge of the end face and is passed through the circumferential packaging. The edge cutting unit (17) is then positioned as a function of the position of the tip of the positioning strip (27) determined by the detector (19) and is advanced, whereupon the edge cutting disc (18) makes an all-round cut just behind the end part with rotation of the paper reel, and the end part is clamped between gripper arms (20a, b) and a clamping arm (22) and is removed.