Printed matter – Having revealable concealed information – fraud preventer or... – Identifier
Patent
1996-09-11
1999-04-20
Han, Frances
Printed matter
Having revealable concealed information, fraud preventer or...
Identifier
283 72, 283 83, 283100, 283101, 283103, 428915, 428916, B42D 1500
Patent
active
058950753
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a new security system, in particular a security label having both tamper-evident and anti-counterfeit features.
Known tamper evident systems provided on articles rely heavily on the customer to both initially notice the position of the system on the article and subsequently recognise if the system has been interfered with. A recent study (reported by H. E. Lockhart, PIRA Symposium on Intelligent Packaging, December 1992) conducted on 1,500 people showed that only 19% of packages having a tampered-with security system were identified as such where the tampering to the article had been repaired.
Nearly all articles sold to the public now include a bar code on their outer surface. Such a bar code is an example of a machine readable pattern.
The bar code is typically provided in the form of a rectangle comprising a series of parallel bars of varying width, each bar corresponding to an electronically readable digit. Usually the arabic numeral corresponding to the electronic digit is printed at the base of the bar. The code represented by the combined sequence of bars serves to identify the article, and standard international bar codes have 13 bars (i.e. 13 digits). These are typically read at point-of-sale kiosks or as part of a stock room validation system by an infra-red laser reader.
As nearly all articles sold to the public include this feature the applicants have recognised that by providing a tamper-evident security label comprising the code there may be provided a two-fold check for tampering: firstly at point-of-sale or in a stock room by the laser reader; and secondly visually by the customer.
Accordingly one aspect of the present invention comprises a security label for an article having an outer layer with machine readable pattern printed on its upper surface; and a second layer adjacent the outer layer; characterized in that the label is provided with a pull tab extending from the outer and second layers, which pull tab is attached to a detachable portion of the outer and second layers extending across the length and/or width of the machine readable pattern on the security label.
Thus by pulling the pull tab across the length and/or width of the security label the machine readable pattern is disrupted, preventing reading of the code by an electronic reader. Furthermore, this tampering will also be immediately apparent to a customer by visual inspection of the security label.
The material comprising the outer layer of the security label may, for example, be a paper material or a polymeric material (e.g. polyester, polyvinyl chloride, or polyvinyl alcohol. In particular, the material comprising the upper surface of the outer layer of the security label should generally be suitable for high quality printing of the machine readable pattern thereon. Printing processes which may be used include flexographic, letter-press, lithographic, or laser printing.
Where the machine readable pattern is a bar code, the detachable portion of the label is generally in the form of a strip not more than one millimeter thicker than the widest bar of the bar code. The strip may be defined by die cutting, preferably performed before the bar code is printed on to the outer surface. Other means for defining the detachable portion may be employed, e.g. a laser cutter may be used.
Generally the outer layer is itself a self-adhesive label.
The second layer may itself be an adhesive to bond the outer layer to an article.
Alternatively the security label may further include an inner layer which is in contact with the second layer and may be attached to the article such as a package, to be protected, usually by means of an adhesive.
Such an inner layer generally comprises a plastics material, for example low density polyethylene (LDPE) or polypropylene, although it will be understood that other suitable materials may be used. There is either no adhesive coating between the inner layer and the second layer, or preferably a moderate peel strength adhesion (provided for example by using a silicone resin betwe
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Aquasol Limited
Han Frances
LandOfFree
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