A guide and setting device for elements, in particular fastener elements comprising a hollow guide piece, a plunger axially displaceably arranged within the guide piece and holding members which are displaceably guided perpendicular to the plunger and biased in the direction towards the longitudinal axis of the plunger andor of the guide piece. During edge detection mode the circuitry is supplied with serial training data that includes successive pairs of equal-valued bits. In this way the pressures are more uniformly distributed on the mould.