WO2001082271A1 - Self-contained unit for producing anti-theft tags for displayed articles - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns an equipment for automated production of anti-theft tags consisting of a substrate carrying a LC resonant circuit. The invention is characterised in that it comprises a first vertical etching station, means continuously recycling NaOH, an electrothermal welding station, a tag electric testing station, a deactivation station and a station cutting the labels into rolls.

Description

 SELF-CONTAINED UNIT FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SHOPPING LABELS

The present invention relates to the field of identification labels for goods, packages or shoplifting anti-theft devices, and more precisely to the field of equipment and methods intended for the manufacture of such labels.

The present invention relates to an autonomous equipment for the production of anti-theft shoplifting labels of low cost price made up of LC resonant circuits, winding (L) and capacitor (C) tuned in several possible frequencies, for example in 8.2 MHz. One of the aims of the invention is to allow a reduction of 50 to 70% in the cost of producing labels intended for the protection of articles in Super and Hypermarkets.

According to its most general meaning, the invention relates to equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels consisting of a substrate supporting an LC resonant circuit, characterized in that it comprises a first vertical etching station, means for continuous recycling NaOH, an electrothermal welding station, a deactivation station, an electrical label test station and a roll cutting station, all representing a floor area of less than 200 m2 (excluding storage area).

Preferably, the vertical engraving station comprises a tank having an inlet wall and an outlet wall each provided with a vertical slot for the passage of a film, and two lateral faces having nozzles for the formation of a mist of active product on both sides of the film passing through the tank.

The tank is extended by an adjacent rinsing tank having an inlet wall and an outlet wall each provided with a vertical slot for the passage of a film, and two lateral faces having nozzles for the formation of a mist of rinse aid on the two faces of the film passing through the tank.

The equipment includes a recycling station fitted with a micro-ceramic filtering tubing placed in a tank.

According to another variant, it includes a control station comprising means for marking defective labels by punching.

Each piece of equipment according to the invention is intended to manufacture, from rolls of complex (700 mx 0.297 m, thickness 88 μm, weight of 40 kg) 80,000 labels 4 cm x 4 cm or even 180,000 labels 3 cm x 3 cm, this allows an annual production, by equipment, of 150 million 4 cm x 4 cm labels or 350 million labels 3 cm x 3 cm maximum, applying the method of 3 times 8 hours of production per day.

The manufacturing process according to the invention is subdivided into 5 distinct operations: Vertical etching - Continuous recycling of NaOH (antipollution standard)

Electrothermal welding Deactivation

The electrical test of the labels and the cutting in rolls.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, referring to the appended drawings concerning a nonlimiting exemplary embodiment, where: FIG. 1 represents a schematic view of the etching and rinsing station; Figure 2 shows a schematic view of the recycling station; FIG. 3 represents a schematic view of the connection to be made on the resonant circuit; Figure 4 shows deactivation; FIG. 5 represents a schematic view of the welding station. The equipment according to the invention consists of a set of processing stations inside which a film to be processed runs.

The equipment comprises a first module shown in FIG. 1. This module consists of a vertical engraving station. It consists of a tank (1) having on the input face (6) a vertical window (2) for the passage of a continuous film formed by an aluminum / polyethylene / aluminum complex of 700 mx 0.297 m. This film forms rolls printed on both sides with a 4/4 or 3/3 cm label motif. These label designs can include local logos or brands upon request. These 40 kg rolls each represent 80,000 4/4 labels or 180,000 3/3 cm labels. Etching consists in eliminating the aluminum parts not protected by the printed patterns, using an active product composed of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and water (H ₂ 0). The tank has nozzles (3) on its lateral faces for spraying the active product under pressure, forming a mist over the entire surface of the film passing through the etching tank. This tank has a bottom (5) provided with a discharge orifice (4). Vertical engraving has the double advantage, compared to horizontal processes, of avoiding all "puddle" phenomena concentrating the waste of active product on the upper center of the roller as well as the assurance of an always optimal concentration of the active product in contact with the complex. The outlet face (7) has a vertical outlet slot (8). This outlet face (7) constitutes a partition wall with an adjacent rinsing tank (9).

This rinsing tank (9) also has on its lateral faces projection nozzles (10) for the formation on either side of the film passing through the rinsing tank of a mist of a rinsing liquid, which can evacuate through an orifice (11) provided in the bottom wall (12). This rinsing tank (9) is closed by an outlet wall (14) also having a vertical slot (13). The different vertical slots (2, 8 and 13) are all aligned and have a determined width in order to allow the passage of the continuous film (15) in a substantially sealed manner.

At the outlet of the rinsing tank (9), the film (15) passes through a drying module formed for example by a ventilated infrared radian.

The equipment also includes a module for continuous recycling of the active product. The engraving station requires 130 liters per hour of active product. It would be costly and environmentally damaging to simply dispose of the product after use. A recycling station reprocesses the active product loaded with aluminum, separating it from sodium hydroxide and water. The filtration principle uses specific micro-filtering ceramics as shown in Figure 2. The recycling station is formed by a tank (20) containing a tubing (21) made of filtering micro-ceramic. This tubing includes an inlet fitting (22) and an outlet fitting (23) for the discharge. This family of ceramics allows the choice of specific particles or even certain selectable molecules. The filtration and regeneration station includes a tubing (21) formed of a suitable ceramic, which is placed in the tank (20) in PVC, in which circulates the product to be decontaminated which separates into 2 components: aluminum particles entrained towards the outlet of the circuit and the residues of NaOH and water passing through the walls of the tubes (21) recovered by porosity. At the exit, a kind of wet and thick "aluminum mud" must be entrusted to a specialized recycling center. The useful part returning to use after the automatic re-dosing of NaOH in a dosing station (25).

The next station is an electrothermal welding station. This operation consists in bringing together the two parts of aluminum at a specific point which is the connection of the second face of the capacitor with the rest of the circuit as shown schematically in Figure 3. The equipment shown in Figure 4 to perform this operation, for labels 4/4 cm, consists of 4 blocks (30 to 33) of 6 heating elements, brought to an electrical potential, regulated in temperature and current. This process, which is fully automatic, is controlled by a computer indicating the number and characteristics of the welds performed. It is this same equipment which then performs the deactivation operation by selecting another control program on the PC as well as by changing the heating tips. At the exit of this station, control, test and roll-up of the labels produced is carried out. This last step consists in electrically controlling each label. This test measures the center frequency and the Q factor (quality factor) of the label. Defective or out-of-specification labels are marked by punching to be eliminated from end use. As a direct extension of the control, the 4/4 cm labels are cut into 6 separate rolls of 13,300 labels.

An additional step is inserted between the electrothermal welding and the label control. This is the deactivation operation which will, on the final place of use (the stores), permanently short-circuit the label to make it undetectable. This operation consists in locally weakening the thickness of the capacitor to make the label sensitive to the electronic deactivator of the user store. The future standard of the smart label in 13.56 MHz could be integrated into the system according to the invention by the supply of rolls of complex specific to this technology. The electrothermal welding operation is replaced by the addition of a specific integrated circuit in place of the capacitor, this integrated circuit being inserted by a CMS welding machine (placement and welding of the components of surface) . Custom labels can be provided, they can have frequencies of use from 7 to 14 MHz, according to the homologation standards of each country and all types of proprietary logos will be possible on the very surface of the complex.

Claims

1 - Equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels constituted by a substrate supporting an LC resonant circuit, characterized in that it comprises a first vertical etching station, means for continuous recycling of NaOH, an electrothermal welding station, a electrical label test station, deactivation station and roll cutting station. 2 - Equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels according to claim 1 characterized in that the vertical engraving station comprises a tank (2) having an inlet wall and an outlet wall each provided with a vertical slot for the passage of a film, and of two lateral faces having nozzles for the formation of a mist of active product on the two faces of the film passing through the tank. 3 - Equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels according to claim 2 characterized in that the tank (2) is extended by an adjacent rinsing tank (9) having an inlet wall and an outlet wall each provided with a vertical slot for the passage of a film, and two lateral faces having nozzles for the formation of a mist of rinse aid on the two faces of the film passing through the tank. 4 - Equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises a recycling station provided with a tubing (21) of filtering ceramic placed in a tank (20). 5 - Equipment for the automated manufacture of anti-theft labels according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it includes a control comprising a means of marking defective labels by punching.