A laminating apparatus includes workpiece transport units, a vacuum laminating device and a flat press device. The flat press device includes a ball screw having a screw shaft and supporting a first one of a pair of pressing elements, a servomotor connected to the screw shaft of the ball screw, a gap measuring device (linear scale) for measuring a distance between the first pressing element and the second pressing element, and a pressing gap control system for moving the first pressing element to a position in which a predetermined gap is defined between the first pressing element and the second pressing element to stop the first pressing element at that position. The pressing gap control system changes the RPM of the servomotor, based on information on the distance between the first and second pressing elements which is provided from the gap measuring device.