In electrographic printing devices which print a printing material, for example paper webs, there exists a problem in the case of a malfunction that the printing material has to be removed from the printing unit as this occurs it should be avoided that drive rollers for the printing material are dirtied by non-fixed toner images. To avoid this, a cutting device is provided that presents a reel cutter that is guided in a guide groove of a guide tube. When a malfunction occurs, the cutting device is activated, the reel cutter cuts the printing material, and the cut sections of the printing material are pulled out of the printing unit separately.