Stacks of pieces are cut out from the lay-up on a cutting table, on the basis of recorded information relating to the locations of the pieces on the surface of the lay-up, and the skeleton of the lay-up is split up into a plurality of portions while the stacks of pieces are being cut out. A plurality of supports may be separated apart from the support flitch as a whole body, thus reducing welded amount and increasing efficiency. Other pairs of walls of the support wall sections are opposed to one another and define drain channels which fluid-connect the perimeter channel to the drain port. By cooperating with the ultrasonic vibrations, a processing portion of the five-axis machine can process the material. A damper support includes a band and a collar. The present IO ports can be effectively used in balanced photonic circuits and unbalanced photonic circuits.