Sheet delivery for rotary printing machines

Sheet delivery for rotary printing machines having at least one printing unit including an impression cylinder, and gripper bridges carried by revolving endless chains traveling along a chain path having a straight ascending section merging with a section of the path extending horizontally across a delivery pile, comprising means defining a sheet guide path having a curvilinear configuration spaced at a continuously varying distance from the endless chains and disposed below the straight and ascending section of the chain path, the straight and ascending section and the horizontal section of the chain path merging at a transition location, and said sheet guide path having a generally rising section adjacent the straight and ascending section of the chain path, a generally horizontal section adjacent the horizontal section of the chain path, and a transition location between the generally straight and ascending and the generally horizontal sections of said sheet guide path, said transition location of said sheet guide path having a lesser curvature than that of the transition location of the chain path, the revolving endless chains being looped about reversing pulleys at the lower end of the straight and ascending section of the chain path, the reversing pulleys being disposable adjacent the impression cylinder, said sheet guide path being in the form of a flat sinusoidal curve spaced closest to the endless chains at a first location in proximity of said chain reversing pulleys and at a second location adjacent the straight and ascending section of the chain path and close to the transition location at which the straight and ascending section and the horizontal section of the chain path merge, said means defining said sheet guide path comprising a plurality of flexible narrow bands disposed beneath the straight and ascending section of the chain path, a curved strap member located below and adjacent the transition location at which the straight and ascending section and the horizontal section of the chain path merge, and an adjustably pivotal guide segment mounted below and adjacent the reversing pulleys, one end of said narrow bands being secured to said strap member and the other end thereof to said pivotal guide segment.