The devices comprises a helical tooth-carrying driving gear (16) mounted nonrotatably and slidably on an end portion of a cylinder shaft (10) at a driving side of a plate cylinder. It is meshed with a helical tooth-carrying driving gear (24) on a blanket cylinder. First crank arms (32) are engaged with an end portion of the shaft (10) so as to apply a thrust in the axial direction of the shaft (10) and adapted to be pushed by a first thrust unit (40). Second crank arms (34) are engaged with a side portion of the driving gear (16) so as to apply a thrust to the plate cylinder in the axial direction thereof and adapted to be pushed by a second thrust unit (46).
