Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Automatic and/or material-triggered control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-01
2003-05-06
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Automatic and/or material-triggered control
C156S361000, C156S555000, C156S556000, C156S566000, C156S583200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06557606
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a device and a method for inserting a security and/or identification element between two layers of a marking strip for items of baggage, the two layers being an overlayer and a substrate joined together at at least in sub-sections by way of an adhesive layer, with the adhesive layer adhering to the overlayer when the substrate is delaminated. In implementing the method of the present invention, a plurality of marking strips in successive arrangement are processed as web material in a device of the present invention. The substrate of the web of the marking strips is interrupted at regular intervals.
The present invention further relates to a marking strip manufactured in accordance with the method aspect of the present invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Marking strips are used preferably for the identification of baggage items at airports. Essential information such as the passenger's name, destination, bar codes, etc. is printed on the overlayer of the oblong marking strip. The substrate is then removed at least in certain sections. The marking strip is looped around the handle of the baggage and in those sections where the adhesive layer lies exposed is adhered to opposite sections of the marking strip.
A preferred embodiment of such a marking strip is described in European Patent, EP 0 568 843 B1. This marking strip has a main part and an adjacent separable control section which follows in longitudinal direction, with the control section and an adjacent section of the main part having on the rear side an adhesive coating covered by a silicone-coated surface strip. The surface strip has in the area of the main part a strongly adhering section on its side facing the main part. To enable the surface strip to be affixed to the marking strip in one operation when joining together the two parts, the silicone coating is neutralized in the strongly adhering section or is covered by an adhesive layer. The marking strip described in this European patent specification is ideally suited for being manufactured with the method of the present invention, because the surface strip is interrupted at regular intervals. In the areas of the ends of the surface strip the possibility exists to position an identification element between the two strips using the method of the present invention.
However, the art also knows of other marking strips comprised of at least one continuous substrate and at least one continuous overlayer. All these marking strips can be provided with identification elements according to the method of the present invention if a serving cut is present in at least one of the aforementioned layers, the cut extending orthogonally to the longitudinal direction of the marking strip and hence interrupting the respective layer, so that it is again possible in the area of the severing cut to position a marking element between the interrupted and a continuous layer.
In this connection it is irrelevant whether the severing cut already exists in a layer of the marking strip or whether provision is made for a further device at a suitable site of the device of the present invention to provide the severing cuts in the respective layer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an economical marking strip with an integrated security/identification element as well as a suitable method and a suitable device for the manufacturing of such a marking strip.
As regards the device, this object is accomplished by providing a supply reel with marking strips in web form, by providing a roll pair consisting of a vacuum roll and a platen roll, with the marking strips being guided through the roll gap between the vacuum roll and the platen roll, by providing a dispensing device for security and/or identification elements, by providing a control device which controls the device so that one security/identification element is placed between the overlayer and the substrate of the marking strip, and by providing a take-up reel onto which the marking strips with the inserted security/identification elements are subsequently wound.
According to an advantageous further aspects of the device of the present invention, one servo motor each is operatively associated with the supply reel, the vacuum roll and the take-up reel. As a result of this arrangement it is possible to adapt the device without difficulty to any dimensions of the marking strips and/or security/identification elements. Hence the device can be put to universal use.
According to a low-cost embodiment of the device of the present invention, the dispensing device is comprised of a supply reel, a dispensing edge and a take-up reel. In this embodiment, too, respective servo motors are operatively associated with the supply reel and the take-up reel in order to increase the flexibility of the device.
An advantageous embodiment of the device of the present invention provides for the dispensing edge to be positioned in the vicinity of the roll gap between the vacuum roll and the platen roll. Further, a favorable aspect of the device of the present invention proposes positioning a first sensor between the platen roll and the take-up reel, the sensor supplying the control device with information about the respective position of a marking strip. Provision is also made for a second sensor which supplies the control device with information about the position of a security/identification element. The security/identification element is preferably an integrated circuit having assigned to it a resonant circuit for the purpose of exchanging data with an interrogating unit. By inserting such a security/identification element the interrogating unit always has access to essential information about the baggage item to which the security/identification element is attached. Furthermore, it is no longer necessary, as with the reading of bar codes, for example, for the source of information to be passed in the direc vicinity of the interrogating unit.
To make it easy for the control device to recognize the severing cut at which the substrate is lifted from the overlayer in order to insert the security/identification element, a marker designed to be readily detected by the sensor is applied to the marking strip. This maker is, for example, a wide transverse line which is readily detectable by an optical contrast sensor. It will be appreciated that any other markers may be used in conjunction with the present invention, provided they are clearly identifiable by the sensor used. As a rule, suitable markers are anyway applied for printing commercially available marking strips so that no additional markers are necessary.
A preferred embodiment of the device of the present invention provides for the sensor to be positioned between the roll gap and the take-up reel, the sensor's relative distance to the roll gap being made to equal the relative distance of the marker to the serving cut in the substrate of a marking strip, and for the vacuum roll to be switched on once the sensor detects a marker and relays a corresponding signal to the control device. Hence in this preferred embodiment of the device of the present invention, the recording of the marker by the sensor is directly coupled to the activation of the vacuum roll.
The object of the present invention with respect to the method is accomplished by providing the marking strips in web form and guiding them in a running direction past a vacuum source; the vacuum source is switched on as soon as a severing cut in one of the two layers of one of the marking strips enters the range of action of the vacuum source, whereby the substrate interrupted by the severing cut is lifted from the other layer of this particular marking strip: a security/identification element is dispensed onto the overlayer or substrate in the predetermined section; the running direction of the running strips is then reversed, and the vacuum source is switched off at the latest when the overlayer and the substrate of a marking strip are brought together again and
Crispino Richard
Hawkins Cheryl N.
Jones Tullar & Cooper P.C.
Meto International GmbH
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