Printed matter – Having revealable concealed information – fraud preventer or... – Utilizing superposed layers
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-29
2001-07-03
Fridie, Jr., Willmon (Department: 3722)
Printed matter
Having revealable concealed information, fraud preventer or...
Utilizing superposed layers
C283S072000, C283S098000, C283S086000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254139
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of packaging articles, and in particular the field of packaging consumer products such as foods, chemicals, cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals, e.g. presented in the form of a receptacle having a closure device. More precisely, the invention relates to a security envelope for an article, particularly but not exclusively for a receptacle having a closure device, the envelope being of the type constituted by a sleeve of heat-shrink plastics material suitable for being fitted closely around a portion of the article.
Such security envelopes have been known for a long time, particularly in association with the necks of bottles, where they are intended to guarantee tamper-proofing for the consumer, by guaranteeing that the product concerned has not been subjected to fraudulent substitution or has not been maliciously tampered with. The security envelope is then conventionally in the form of a sleeve fitted with a tear strip, with the strip making it possible, by applying traction to one end thereof, to open the envelope in order to gain access to the closure device of the receptacle. Tampering is sometimes made more easily visible by having micro-perforations present in a particular pattern in the wall of the sleeve so that any attempt at forcibly pulling off the heat-shrunk envelope causes it to be torn and complicates putting it back into place on the receptacle.
Document GB-A-2 298 391 describes a security envelope of heat-shrink plastics material that is fitted on its inside face with a transferable hologram strip, and optionally with a tear strip disposed in the vicinity of and parallel to the hologram strip. The tear strip serves solely to provide the conventional function of making the envelope easier to tear, and does not contribute in any way to the security function which is provided by the hologram strip.
Document GB-A-2 273 492 describes the use of a hologram tear strip (i.e. the tear strip then itself carries the hologram) which is stuck to the inside face of a heat-shrink sleeve, with a line of perforations provided through both the strip and the wall of the sleeve. It should be observed that the free face of the strip is naturally not adhesive, so that when the sleeve is opened, the two separated portions of the strip remain associated with the walls of the sleeve.
Documents EP-A-0 585 076 and JP-A-08 022250 describe a technique very similar to the preceding technique, with a holographic strip stuck to the inside face of a heat-shrink sleeve. The free face of the strip is coated in a thickness of silicone (for roll packaging) so that the hologram is not transferable.
Proposals have also been made to make security envelopes in which the sleeve is fitted on its inside face with a holographic element and with a tear strip that passes behind the holographic element so as to tear said element when the envelope is opened by pulling on said strip.
Under such circumstances, the inside wall of the heat-shrink plastics material sleeve carries a holographic element made in the form of a patch and stuck directly to the inside wall of the sleeve, the patch having a layer of holographic metallization carried by a support layer of transparent plastics material adhering to the inside face of the sleeve. The zone affected by the tear strip is then in direct contact with the layer of holographic metallization. With such a security envelopes, when the user exerts traction on the end of the tear strip to open the envelope, the tear strip tears the side wall of the sleeve progressively and digs a gap in the holographic element when the separation zone reaches this element. Once the tear strip has been completely removed, the safety envelope can be opened, and the holographic element carried by said envelope is split into two segments each remaining on the inside wall of the envelope, on either side of the gap.
Such a holographic element is designed to constitute a certificate of origin for the product.
However, such a security envelope does not provide a genuine indication of tampering, particularly because the sleeve can be removed by sliding or cutting and then replaced by another envelope fitted on the inside with another holographic element that is identical or analogous to the original element. In some cases, the dishonest person can even unstick the original holographic element if it is very difficult to reproduce so as to stick it back on a new support which is then put back on the article.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention seeks specifically to solve that technical problem by making it possible in completely reliable manner to detect any fraudulent or abnormal manipulation of the security envelope having a holographic element, so as to provide the consumer with a total guarantee.
An object of the invention is thus to provide a security envelope of the above-specified type whose structure makes it possible in totally reliable manner simultaneously to certify an origin and to indicate whether tampering has taken place by making visible any fraudulent or abnormal manipulation of the envelope that has been shrunk onto the article.
According to the invention, this problem is solved by a security envelope for an article, in particular a receptacle having a closure device, the envelope being of the type constituted by a sleeve of heat-shrinkable plastics material suitable for closely surrounding a portion of the article, said sleeve being also fitted on its inside face with a holographic element and a tear strip passing behind the holographic element so as to tear said element when the envelope is opened by pulling on said strip, wherein the holographic element is organized to be transferable onto the facing wall of the article and to adhere to said wall via zones situated on either side of the tear strip so as to hold a portion of said tear strip captive, such that any fraudulent manipulation of the envelope once shrunk on the article has the effect of displacing the tear strip and consequently of automatically and visibly destroying the transferred holographic element.
Thus, contrary to the prior technique in which the two portions of the holographic element that are obtained by applying traction to the tear strip being fixed to the sleeve, these two portions of the holographic element now remain indissociably associated with the article because they have been transferred onto the wall thereof and because they adhere to said wall. When a consumer pulls on the tear strip to open the security envelope of the invention, the consumer can see that the two residual portions of the holographic element are still adhering to the wall of the article, thus guaranteeing that the acquired product is indeed an original. Furthermore, if the security envelope shrunk onto the article has been subjected to fraudulent or abnormal manipulation, the thin and fragile holographic element (thickness of the order of a few microns) is automatically destroyed by the fact that it is disposed in intimate connection with the wall of the article while also holding the tear strip captive: any displacement of the sleeve, whether axially, circumferentially, or obliquely, will take the tear strip with it since it is intimately bonded thereto, and will consequently impart relative displacement between the holographic element and the tear strip, which leads to the holographic element being destroyed. The tear strip imprisoned in this way between the holographic element and the wall of the article thus serves as a force transmitter and as a member for destroying the holographic element in the event of the shrunk-on envelope being subjected to fraudulent manipulation.
The holographic element can be organized so that its corresponding zones are transferred onto the wall of the article when the sleeve is heat-shrunk, either in full or, in a variant, in part only in a predetermined pattern. In either case, at least a portion of the holographic element is transferred to the wall of the article, and after the security envelope has been opened it will thus be
Fridie Jr. Willmon
Friedman Stuart J.
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Sleever International Company
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