The invention pertains to a device which allows a person to hold a camera with a first arm (10) which extends longitudinally in the first extension direction (E). The first arm (10) is designed to be attached to or detached from the camera (2) and features a first free end (100) and a chin rest surface (21) provided on that first free end (100). The chin rest surface (21) is designed to rest on the chin (K) of the person (P) holding the camera (2). A second arm (30) extends from the first arm (10) along the second extension direction (E') and features a free end (31) where a grip area (32) is provided. This grip area (32) is designed to allow a person (P) to grasp the camera with one hand (H) using the device (1) and is kept separate from the chin rest surface (21) along the first extension direction (E).

A focal plane shutter includes: first, second, and third boards respectively including openings through which light enters an image pickup element from an object side, and arranged in this order from the object side toward the image pickup element side; a blade arranged between the first and second boards and capable of opening and closing the openings; and a holding member arranged between the second and third boards, not coupled to the blade, and holding the second board from the image pickup element side.

The linear position of an object is estimated using multiple magnetic field sensors and a magnet. The multiple magnetic field sensors are held in fixed relation to one another and in moving relation with respect to the magnet. Readings of the first and second magnetic field sensors and the fixed distance between the first and second magnetic field sensors may be used to estimate the linear position. In some embodiments, an estimated frequency of an approximately sinusoidal field versus position characteristic is also used as part of the estimation.

Provided herein are devices and system to magnetically, rotably secure a lens filter to a camera. Generally the devices and systems comprise a magnet assembly and a lens filter assembly threadably engageable. Also provided are magnetic lens filter systems comprising the engaged magnet and lens filter assemblies and an attachment assembly securable around a camera lens and magnetically attachable to the magnet comprising the magnetic lens filter, magnetic adapter assembly or magnetic adapter. Further provided are camera systems comprising the magnetic lens filter systems rotatably affixed thereto.

The game device for a user including a flexible closure for receiving impacts from the user, one or more filler placed inside the flexible closure for reducing recoiling of the flexible closure from the surface on receiving impacts, a mechanical unit attached to the inner walls of the flexible closure and a gravity slowing unit attached to the mechanical unit for reducing the gravitational pull acting on the flexible closure. The mechanical unit includes an electric motor for providing torque, an impact sensor for sensing the impacts received from the user, and a power source for energizing the electric motor and the impact sensor. The gravity slowing unit includes a spring-loaded hinge for stabilizing the flexible closure from impacts projected by the user, a spring-loaded shaft connected to the electric motor through the spring-loaded hinge for rotating to rotate on receiving torque from the electric motor and at least one set of propellers connected to the spring-loaded shaft for the receiving torque and providing thrust against gravitational pull acting on the flexible closure.

An apparatus for suspending and positioning marionettes. The apparatus includes a thin, planar support membrane such as a plastic sheet. A tender vehicle is positioned on the upper side of the support membrane. A motor or other drive mechanism selectively positions the tender vehicle relative to the support membrane. The apparatus includes a puppeteer vehicle from which a marionette is suspended. The puppeteer vehicle is positioned proximate to the lower side of the support membrane opposite the tender vehicle. To support the puppeteer vehicle, one or both of the vehicles includes one or more rotatable magnetic elements such that the attractive forces support the weight of the puppeteer vehicle and the marionette. Typically, the puppeteer vehicle is a passive follower, and the drive mechanism of the tender vehicle includes motors to move the magnetic elements and position the tender and following puppeteer vehicle with its marionette to provide a show.

This invention relates to hand manipulated toy construction equipment such as backhoes, trucks, etc. In one embodiment, the truck body is hollow at one end so that the truck may be manipulated by inserting one's arm into the truck body and grasping and manipulating a transverse dowel handle. Spring-loaded means are provided within the truck body and are coupled to the dumper to control the motion of the equipment. A sound module is also provided to simulate construction sounds.

An improved set of toy building or construction blocks, each block having a substantially square cross-section and a generally rectilinear configuration. Incorporated into the structure of the individual toy blocks are transversely oriented slots, grooves and protrusions of predetermined size and location. The slots, grooves and protrusions of pre-determined size and location are of either male or female configuration disposed medially along one or more plane of each block. When the male protrusion of one block is introduced perpendicular to the female slot of one end of another block, a frictional engagement is created resulting in a right angle. When the male protrusion of one block is introduced to the female slot in a linear fashion the result is a line segment. Joining a plurality of said toy building or construction blocks using various perpendicular connections in conjunction with linear connections results in the stable formation of construction or geometric structures without the use of fasteners or other connecting elements.

A game calling device including a mouthpiece having inlet and outlet portions and holes between the inlet and outlet portions, whereby sounds having varied pitch and intensity can be generated. The game calling device also includes an inner tubular member that at least partially houses a reed and configured to be selectively positioned on the axial direction of the reed so that the emitted sound can be varied based at least on the position of the inner tubular member along the reed and thereby allowing the game calling device to be used hands-free.

A toy construction kit has a plurality of magnetic modules, each with a housing having a plurality of sides, each side having an internal hollow. A magnet is contained within each of the hollows at a given polar orientation relative to the housing and the hollow. The hollow has dimensions that permit the magnet to move within the hollow, but substantially constrains the magnet to the given polar orientation relative to the housing. When a side of a module is placed near a side of another module, they are bound by magnetic attraction by the respective aligned magnets, either because the polar orientations are opposite when they are initially juxtaposed or due to shifting of one or both magnets in their respective hollows to achieve relative polar opposition.

A toy construction system is provided that includes, in a toy construction system having a multiplicity of interconnecting members adapted for constructing a variety of projects, a rotator head device including a device housing having a conical-shaped cavity formed therein. The housing includes a plurality of female twist-lock connectors formed on the outer surface thereof, and the female connectors are adapted for attaching a first member of the toy construction system to the rotator head device housing. A rotating member, which is conical in shape and slightly smaller in size than the cavity formed in the device housing is included. The rotating member is rotatably disposed within the cavity and has a male twist-lock connector stem extending from an end thereof for connecting a second member of the toy construction system to the rotating member, whereby the first member is rotatable with respect to the second member.

In some embodiments, a kit includes a slide device and an action figure coupled to the slide device. The kit also includes a tool configured to modify a shape of a base material such that a path that has a non-zero height is defined within the base material. The action figure and the slide device can collectively slide down at least a portion of the path when disposed on the path. The base material can be, for example, snow or sand. In some embodiments, the tool can include tool body having a length dimension, a width dimension and a height dimension. The length dimension can be greater than the width dimension and the height dimension can be greater than at least half a height dimension of the slide device and the action figure collectively. A handle can be coupled to the tool body.

A model aircraft control and receiving device in a housing, comprising an electronic, gyroscopic multi-axis programmable flight attitude controller, having control inputs for a plurality of control channels and inputs for gyroscope signals, wherein the flight attitude controller provides at least one input for a receiver module disposed inside or outside of the housing of the flight attitude controller. The device may be used in a method for controlling and stabilizing a model helicopter, wherein the control comprises a self-learning function and/or the control comprises a coupling of the tail controller to the swashplate controller and/or the control comprises a stopping support function.

An aquatic toy that is a biomimetic fish with a watertight body portion. The body portion contains a battery electrically connected via a controller to at least one coil. The coil is positioned relative to a magnet and the coil can be caused to oscillate by virtue of a controller defined alternating current passing through the coil. The oscillation of the coil causes movement of a tail fin that is engaged to said watertight body to cause the fish to move forward through a body of water.

An optical active fiber is configured with an asymmetrically-shaped core having at least one long axis and a shortest axis which extends transversely to the long axis. The outmost cladding of the active fiber is configured with a marking indicating the orientation of the short axis. The marking allows for bending the fiber so that the shortest axis extends along and lies in the plane of the bend thereby minimizing distortion of a mode which is guided by the asymmetrically-shaped core as light propagates along the bend.

A multi-color harmonic synthesized laser system for laser processing and a laser processing method using multi-color harmonic synthesized laser are disclosed. The multi-color harmonic synthesized laser system includes a laser source for providing a single laser wave, a converter for converting the single laser wave into a plurality of harmonic waves with different frequencies, and a modulating unit for modulating amplitudes and relative phases of the harmonic waves to form a plurality of modulated harmonic waves, so as to synthesize the modulated harmonic waves as a single synthesized laser wave, wherein the single synthesized laser wave is focused on an object to perform a laser processing. The converter includes a plurality of non-linear crystals for converting the single laser wave into a fundamental harmonic wave and a plurality of multi-frequency harmonic waves. The harmonic waves are coherent and collinear, and the phases of the harmonic waves are related to one another.

A microlaser system includes an optical source, a microlaser, an actuator switch, and a photovoltaic power source. The microlaser, which includes a control element, is optically pumped by at least a portion of light emitted by the optical source. The actuator switch is configured to be activated by a triggering event. Furthermore, the photovoltaic power source is coupled in a series connection with the actuator switch and the control element, the series connection configured to connect the photovoltaic power source to the control element of the microlaser when the actuator switch is activated by the triggering event.

A conduction cooled high power semiconductor laser and a method for fabricating the same are provided. The conduction cooled high power semiconductor laser comprises a heat sink (2) and one or more semiconductor laser units (1). The semiconductor laser unit consists of a laser chip (3), a substrate (4) bonded to the laser chip for heat dissipation and electrical connection, and an insulation plate (5) soldered to the substrate for insulation and heat dissipation. The semiconductor laser unit is soldered on the heat sink with the insulation plate therebetween. The semiconductor laser unit may be tested, aged, and screened in advance, and thereby the yield of the lasers can be improved and the manufacturing costs can be reduced. The laser has desirable heat dissipation performance, high reliability, and is applicable to high temperature and other complex and volatile environments.

Implementing a layered hyperbolic metamaterial in a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) to improve thermal conductivity and thermal dissipation thereby stabilizing optical performance. Improvement in the thermal management and power is expected by replacing the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors in the VCSEL. The layered metamaterial structure performs the dual function of the DBR and the heat spreader at the same time.

An interposer (support substrate) for an opto-electronic assembly is formed to include a thermally-isolated region where temperature-sensitive devices (such as, for example, laser diodes) may be positioned and operate independent of temperature fluctuations in other areas of the assembly. The thermal isolation is achieved by forming a boundary of dielectric material through the thickness of the interposer, the periphery of the dielectric defining the boundary between the thermally isolated region and the remainder of the assembly. A thermo-electric cooler can be used in conjunction with the temperature-sensitive device(s) to stabilize the operation of these devices.

The specification and drawings present an apparatus and a method for protecting lasers or other sources of high optical power from damage due to external sources of contamination using a concept of a sacrificial optical component and automatic laser shutdown based on a pressure indication of a substantial damage to the sacrificial optical component such as puncturing through that component.

A method of manufacturing an optical semiconductor device including: forming a mesa structure including a first conductivity type cladding layer, an active layer and a second conductivity type cladding layer in this order on a first conductivity type semiconductor substrate, an upper most surface of the mesa structure being constituted of an upper face of the second conductivity type cladding layer; growing a first burying layer burying both sides of the mesa structure at higher position than the active layer; forming an depressed face by etching both edges of the upper face of the second conductivity type cladding layer; and growing a second burying layer of the first conductivity type on the depressed face of the second conductivity type cladding layer and the first burying layer.

An intra-cavity frequency doubled OPS-laser includes a laser-resonator terminated by a plane mirror and a mirror-structure of an OPS-chip. The resonator is folded by three fold-mirrors. The fold-mirrors are supported on a vibration-isolation plate supported by isolation posts above a base-plate. The plane mirror and the mirror-structure of the OPS-chip are mounted back to back on opposite parallel surfaces of a mounting block. The mounting-block is supported on the base-plate and extends through an aperture in the vibration-isolation plate. Movement of the vibration-isolation plate with respect to the base-plate does not change the resonator length.

A heat dissipation device of a light engine for a projector has a housing, a fan module, a light engine and a heat sink. The light engine is positioned in the housing and connected to the heat sink. The heat sink is positioned out of the housing. The housing has a fan-enclosed flow channel attached on an outer surface of the housing. The fan module is guided by the fan-enclosed flow channel to the heat sink to enhance heat dissipation efficiency of the light engine for the projector.

A terahertz light generation device 1 comprises a resonator structure 12 for intensifying incident light and outputting the intensified light and laser oscillation units 10, 11 for feeding the incident light into the resonator structure 12. The incident light comprises first and second incident light components having polarization states different from each other and frequencies different from each other. The laser oscillation units 10, 11 feed the resonator structure 12 with the first and second incident light components at an angle inclined from a principal surface in the resonator structure 12. The resonator structure 12 outputs light having a frequency corresponding to the difference between the respective frequencies of the first and second incident light components.

An EUV light generation system includes a driver laser comprising a master oscillator such as a semiconductor laser, a spatial filter, gas slab amplification devices, relay optical systems, and high-speed axial-flow amplifiers. The slab amplification devices include beam adjusting optical units disposed, respectively, at input and output sides of the slab amplifiers SA to convert the beam profile and/or polarization direction and/or an elongated direction of the beam profile with the slab amplifiers is parallel to a free space axis AF of the slab waveguides, i.e. parallel to the discharge electrodes.

A method for quasi-synchronous tuning of wavelength or frequency of grating external-cavity semiconductor laser and a corresponding semiconductor laser are provided. A grating or mirror is rotated around a quasi-synchronous tuning point (Pq) as rotation center, so as to achieve the frequency selections by grating and resonance cavity in quasi-synchronous tuning, wherein the angle of the line between the quasi-synchronous tuning point (Pq) and a conventional synchronous tuning point (P0) with respect to the direction of light incident on the grating is determined according to the angle difference between the incidence angle and diffraction angle of light on the grating. According to present invention, approximately synchronous tuning of laser is achieved with a simple and flexible design.

An apparatus comprising an optical medium, a power splitter coupled to the optical medium, a first delay line coupled to the power splitter such that the power splitter is positioned between the first delay line and the optical medium, a first comb reflector coupled to the first delay line such that the first delay line is positioned between the first comb reflector and the power splitter, and a second comb reflector coupled to the power splitter but not the first comb reflector and not the first delay line. A method comprising receiving an optical signal, splitting the optical signal into a first split optical signal and a second split optical signal, delaying the first split optical signal, tuning the delayed first split optical signal, tuning the second split optical signal, and delaying the tuned second split optical signal.

A method for generation of electromagnetic radiation has the following method steps: generation of electromagnetic radiation at a useful frequency,division of the electromagnetic radiation into a useful beam and a secondary beam,frequency shift of the electromagnetic radiation of the secondary beam,control of the useful frequency as determined by a manipulated variable, wherein the manipulated variable is derived from the frequency-shifted radiation of the secondary beam.

A method for fabricating a group-III nitride semiconductor laser device stably supplies laser cavity mirrors having a low lasing threshold current through the use of a semi-polar plane. A blade 5g is forced down through a first region ER1 to keep the first region ER1 squeezed between a support member H2 and a movable member H1 together with a part of a protective sheet TF in contact with the first region ER1 while the tension generated in the area of the protective sheet TF in contact with the first region ER1 with the movable member H1 increases until the semi-polar principal surface SF at an end face EG1 of the first region ER1 tilts by a deflection angle THETA from the semi-polar principal surface SF of a second region ER2, and a force is thereby generated in the first region ER1 in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the blade 5g toward the first region ER1. For example, an angle ALPHA is within the range of 71 degrees to 79 degrees, and the deflection angle THETA is within the range of 11 to 19.

Tensile strained germanium is provided that can be sufficiently strained to provide a nearly direct band gap material or a direct band gap material. Compressively stressed or tensile stressed stressor materials in contact with germanium regions induce uniaxial or biaxial tensile strain in the germanium regions. Stressor materials may include silicon nitride or silicon germanium. The resulting strained germanium structure can be used to emit or detect photons including, for example, generating photons within a resonant cavity to provide a laser.

A semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor nanowire of a first conductivity type provided over a substrate, a light emitting layer provided around the semiconductor nanowire and insulated at an upper end and a lower end thereof, a cladding layer of a second conductivity type different from the first conductivity type, the cladding layer being provided at an outer periphery of the light emitting layer, a first electrode electrically coupled to an end portion of the semiconductor nanowire, a second electrode electrically coupled to an outer periphery of the cladding layer, a first reflection mirror provided at a one-end portion side of the semiconductor nanowire, and a second reflection mirror provided at the other end portion side of the semiconductor nanowire.

A third-order distributed feedback laser has an active medium disposed on a substrate as a linear array of segments having a series of periodically spaced interstices therebetween and a first conductive layer disposed on a surface of the active medium on each of the segments and along a strip from each of the segments to a conductive electrical contact pad for application of current along a path including the active medium. Upon application of a current through the active medium, the active medium functions as an optical waveguide, and there is established an alternating electric field, at a THz frequency, both in the active medium and emerging from the interstices. Spacing of adjacent segments is approximately half of a wavelength of the THz frequency in free space or an odd integral multiple thereof, so that the linear array has a coherence length greater than the length of the linear array.

A communication module according to the present invention includes a substrate, a laser element and a light receiving element provided on a front surface of the substrate and separating from each other, a transparent resin package collectively sealing the laser element and the light receiving element, and a diffusion unit provided to be opposed to a light emitting surface of the laser element at a prescribed distance for diffusing a laser beam emitted by the laser element, while the distance T between the laser element and the light receiving element satisfies the following formula (1): T≧t1·tan θ+(t1+t2)·tan θ' . . . (1) (in the formula (1), t1 represents the distance between the light emitting surface of the laser element and the diffusion unit, θ represents the maximum angle of emission of the laser element, t2 represents the difference between the height from the front surface of the substrate up to the light emitting surface and the height up to alight receiving surface of the light receiving element, and θ' represents the maximum diffusion angle of the diffusion unit.)

Singlet oxygen metastables can be formed. A catalytic coating is formed on an interior surface of a flow reactor, and an oxygen containing species is flowed into the flow reactor to produce singlet oxygen metastables by a chemical reaction in the presence of the catalytic coating.

A fiber coupled semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing of such a device are disclosed. The method provides an improved stability of optical coupling during assembly of the device, whereby a higher optical power levels and higher overall efficiency of the fiber coupled device can be achieved. The improvement is achieved by attaching the optical fiber to a vertical mounting surface of a fiber mount. The platform holding the semiconductor chip and the optical fiber can be mounted onto a spacer mounted on a base. The spacer has an area smaller than the area of the platform, for mechanical decoupling of thermally induced deformation of the base from a deformation of the platform of the semiconductor device. Optionally, attaching the fiber mount to a submount of the semiconductor chip further improves thermal stability of the packaged device.

Frequency standards based on mode-locked fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers and fiber-based ultra-broad bandwidth light sources, and applications of the same.

A vertical geometry light emitting diode is disclosed that is capable of emitting light in the red, green, blue, violet and ultraviolet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The light emitting diode includes a conductive silicon carbide substrate, an InGaN quantum well, a conductive buffer layer between the substrate and the quantum well, a respective undoped gallium nitride layer on each surface of the quantum well, and ohmic contacts in a vertical geometry orientation.

A method to tune an emission wavelength of a laser diode (LD) finely is disclosed. The method first controls a temperature of the etalon filter in T1 or T2, where the transmittance of the etalon filter becomes 40 to 50%, assuming a height between the peak and the bottom of the periodic transmittance to be 100%, at the grid wavelength λ1 or λ2, respectively. Then, the temperature of the LD is adjusted such that the intensity of light emitted from the LD and transmitted through the etalon filter becomes 40 to 50%.

Various embodiments of a photonic device and fabrication method thereof are provided. In one aspect, a device includes a substrate, a current confinement layer disposed on the substrate, an absorption layer disposed in the current confinement layer, and an electrical contact layer disposed on the absorption layer. The current confinement layer is doped in a pattern and configured to reduce dark current in the device. The photonic device may be a photodiode or a laser.

Novel methods and systems for miniaturized lasers are described. A photonic crystal is bonded to a silicon-on-insulator wafer. The photonic crystal includes air-holes and can include a waveguide which couples the laser output to a silicon waveguide.

A device including one or more layers with lateral regions configured to facilitate the transmission of radiation through the layer and lateral regions configured to facilitate current flow through the layer is provided. The layer can comprise a short period superlattice, which includes barriers alternating with wells. In this case, the barriers can include both transparent regions, which are configured to reduce an amount of radiation that is absorbed in the layer, and higher conductive regions, which are configured to keep the voltage drop across the layer within a desired range.

There is provided a surface emitting laser allowing a direction of a far-field pattern (FFP) centroid to be inclined from a normal direction of a substrate providing the surface emitting laser, comprising: a substrate; a lower reflecting mirror, an active layer, an upper reflecting mirror stacked on the substrate; and a surface relief structure located in an upper portion of a light emitting surface of the upper reflecting mirror, the surface relief structure being made of a material allowing at least some beams emitted from the surface emitting laser to be transmitted therethrough, a plurality of regions having a predetermined optical thickness in a normal direction of the substrate being formed in contact with other region in an in-plane direction of the substrate, and a distribution of the optical thickness in the in-plane direction of the substrate is asymmetric to a central axis of the light emitting regions.

A light source for a photonic integrated circuit may comprise a reflection coupling layer formed on a substrate in which an optical waveguide is provided, at least one side of the reflection coupling layer being optically connected to the optical waveguide; an optical mode alignment layer provided on the reflection coupling layer; and/or an upper structure provided on the optical mode alignment layer and including an active layer for generating light and a reflection layer provided on the active layer. A light source for a photonic integrated circuit may comprise a lower reflection layer; an optical waveguide optically connected to the lower reflection layer; an optical mode alignment layer on the lower reflection layer; an active layer on the optical mode alignment layer; and/or an upper reflection layer on the active layer.

A paper-sheet handling device relating to the present invention has a configuration such that a binder paper alignment unit for temporarily reserving a plurality of paper-sheets perforated at predetermined positions, a movement mechanism for binding the bundle of paper-sheets thus aligned owing to the above by means of a binding component, and a binder cassette for storing the binding components for being transferred thereto, wherein the movement mechanism is arranged on the downstream side of the binder paper alignment unit and the binder cassette and also, the binder paper alignment unit and the binder cassette are arranges radially on the upstream side to form an approximately V-shape by making the aforesaid movement mechanism to be a reference. It is possible depending on this configuration to concentrate the necessary constructional elements at the periphery of the movement mechanism, so that the arrangement of the component members in the horizontal direction of the device can be restricted and the aforesaid device can be miniaturized.

A notch forming device, comprises a notch forming section to form a notch on an edge of a sheet constituting a sheet bundle to be outputted in accordance with an execution of a job; a shifting section to shift a position of a notch to be formed on a sheet by the notch forming section; and a control section to control the shifting section. When plural sheet bundles are outputted in accordance with the execution of the job, the control section controls the shifting section to make a position of a notch on a leading sheet of each sheet bundle at the same position.

A device is provided to shape a spine of a book casing positioned horizontally spread out flat and oriented to be distributed evenly over a spine of a book block. Two fold-shaping rails are arranged extending in a direction parallel to one another. A movable, shaping tool is arranged to face the inside of the book casing spine to shape a web on the book casing spine with the aid of the two fold-shaping rails. The shaping tool includes two spaced-apart support bars that extend parallel to the fold-shaping rails and are arranged to be adjustable so that together they adjust the web width of the book casing spine in a direction transverse to the direction of extension of the fold-shaping rails.

An adhesive applicator is disclosed for the application of a hot melt adhesive to the spine of a book block so as to adhesively bind the book block to its respective cover so as to form a perfect bound book. The applicator has a heated head in which a small quantity of a hot melt adhesive sufficient to bind at least one book block to its cover is quickly heated to a temperature such that it may be applied to the spine. The head is brought into operative engagement with the spine and is moved with respect to the spine so that the melted adhesive forced (dispensed) out of the head onto the spine. This applicator is particularly well suited for use with print on demand book printing and binding apparatus. A method of applying the adhesive to the spine of a book block is also disclosed.

In an embodiment, a booklet conveying device includes: a pair of conveying units; a positioning unit; a pressing unit; and a conveying-force changing unit. The pair of conveying units convey a booklet made of a stack of folded sheets, and change a distance therebetween. The positioning unit positions the booklet by making a leading-end portion of the booklet abut thereto. The pressing unit presses the booklet positioned by the positioning unit onto one of the conveying units in order to fix. The conveying-force changing unit changes the conveying force exerted by the conveying units.

In a cover feeding device (1) for feeding covers (13, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3) separated from a magazine (3, 3') to book blocks (14.1, 14.2, 14.3) that are transported while being clamped in book block grippers (2), it is proposed that the magazine (3, 3') features at least a first lateral stop (6.1) that is arranged such that it can be fixed transverse to the withdrawal direction (12) and against which different covers (13, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3) intended, in particular, for book blocks (14.1, 14.2, 14.3) of different thickness can be jointly placed, and that at least the magazine (3, 3') can be adjusted transverse to the withdrawal direction (12) such that an edge (17) of the spine region of the respective cover to be separated is withdrawn essentially in alignment with the rigid gripping jaw (2 a).