Patent ID: 7234395

Claim:
A device for conveying a sheet through a printing machine, comprising: a cylinder having a circumferential surface; grippers arranged in a channel formed in the cylinder for holding the sheet at a leading edge thereof; a chain conveyor with grippers fixed to endless chains for holding and picking up the sheet from the cylinder at the leading edge of the sheet and for holding the sheet at a trailing edge thereof; rotating sprockets over which the chains are disposed; coaxially revolving supporting elements for the sheet, the supporting elements being arranged between the rotating sprockets and being in rolling contact with the circumferential surface of the cylinder; and coaxially revolving suction grippers provided between the sprockets for holding the sheet at the trailing edge thereof; an actuating device for opening and closing the grippers; and a drive for the cylinder and the rotating sprockets, and further including gripper pads and gripper tips for the grippers for the trailing edge of the sheet; the grippers for the trailing edge, in the opened condition thereof, being able to run past the cylinder; said gripper pads and said gripper tips of the grippers for the trailing edge lying underneath a path described by the sheet held on the circumferential surface; the grippers for the trailing edge being closable in a rotational angle region wherein the chains run off the sprockets assigned to the cylinder; and radially movable suction qrippers disposed in a circumferential direction in vicinity of said gripper pads for the trailing edge, outside the contact region with the cylinder and being radially higher than said gripper pads for the trailing edge.