For the control and regulation of the travel speed of sheet material in continuous strip form (10) from a processing unit to a receiving, piling and transferring unit a device comprises at least one roller (17, 18) freely tuning and moveable vertically under their own weight which are seated in corresponding loops of the continuous strip (10) of sheet material. At least one roller is designed to operate as the cursor of a rheostat controlling and regulating the pulling speed of said continuous strip into the downstream unit.