Reverse thermal label

Details Reverse thermal label Reverse thermal label

1997-02-06

2001-12-04

Ahmad, Nasser (Department: 1772)

Stock material or miscellaneous articles

Layer or component removable to expose adhesive

C283S081000, C428S041600, C428S041700, C428S041800, C428S042100, C428S913000, C503S200000, C503S226000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06326071

ABSTRACT:

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
None
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
None
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to adhesive labels. In particular, it relates to adhesive labels which may be used in security applications, e.g., where it is desired to hide or cover surface indicia or provide a means of indicating label tampering.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is common practice in industry to use adhesive-backed labels bearing indicia such as price, description, or SKU (stock kind unit) number to identify a particular item. As the information printed on the label becomes outdated, the old label must either be removed from the product, or covered over with a label bearing the new information. To ensure that individuals have not tampered with the label, it is desirable that adhesive labels have a security feature that provides visual indication when the label has been tampered with.
The advent and widespread acceptance of universal product code (UPC) scanning technology has placed additional demands on the quality of the labels bearing barcodes. The relative opacity of the label material is an important factor in the scanning quality of the label surface.
For “cover-up” applications, the label opacity is critical. For example, when an old price label is being covered up with a new label, it is important that the old information not be seen through the new label, for customer relation purposes. In industries such as automotive parts and apparel, where inventory is bought and sold repeatedly, it is important that the original or previous label containing old price and/or the previous vendor's name not be visible. In another case, outdated printed indicia on the surface of a packing carton itself may need to be covered up or changed; for example, if boxes for containing a product such as a toy have been prepared and the box artwork must be changed to something more appealing, a cover-up label with the new artwork could simply be affixed over the old, thus eliminating wasteful scrapping of the old cartons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention features an adhesive label comprising a substrate onto which has been coated at least, in order, a thermally-imprintable color producing layer, and an adhesive layer, preferably a pressure-sensitive adhesive. Such reverse thermal labels desirably include a release sheet to protect the adhesive before it is used.
The thermally-imprintable color producing layer may be such as described in, e.g., Arbree et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,887 at column 4, lines 16-60. Such a layer typically comprises a colorless or pale colored leuco dye, preferably in particulate form; an acidic developer substance to cause the dye to undergo color transformation upon imagewise application of heat to the thermally-imprintable color producing layer; a polymeric binding material; and an acid neutralizing (basic), preferably particulate, material for reducing background discoloration.
In one embodiment of the invention the thermally-imprintable color producing layer is uniformly heated to react the leuco dye and developer and thus render the label opaque. In another embodiment, certain indicia may be imprinted in the color producing layer upon imagewise application of heat to form a sort of watermark to enable identification of an item to which the label is affixed.
In another embodiment of the invention, a method of protecting against enclosure tampering involves affixing an activated label as disclosed herein to an enclosure to be protected. Peeling off the label to reveal the colored thermal layer provides visible indication, e.g., a company logo or security pattern, that the container has been opened.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, an adhesive label substantially as described herein can further be coated with a second thermal coating on a second surface (i.e., the uncoated side of the label) to allow printing of indicia thereupon, such as price information, barcodes, SKU numbers, or descriptive information.
A further embodiment of the invention, described herein, is a couponing method that uses reverse thermal labels of the invention which function as coupons or gaming tickets.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4591887 (1986-05-01), Arbree
patent: 4738472 (1988-04-01), Shibata
patent: 5043314 (1991-08-01), Suzuki
patent: 5294470 (1994-03-01), Ewan
patent: 5773386 (1998-06-01), Langan

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