Patent Application
20080048434
This patent relates to fault protection devices typically used in power distributions systems, and more particularly, this patent relates to an apparatus and method that permits reliable authentication of fault protection devices such as fuse products
Power system fault protection device manufacturers for years have encountered both complete counterfeiting as well as rebuilding of their products and in particular power fuses. The counterfeit and/or rebuilt fuses are then sold as new fuses despite neither being the manufacturer's product nor having been “re-loaded” with a new fusible element after having previously interrupted a fault. Clearly either can be very problematic as there is no assurance the copied fuse has been tested or meets the manufacturer's performance specifications, and boric acid fuses, for example, are not designed to be able to interrupt more than once. Additionally, of course, there is lost revenue as a result of missed sales opportunities for the manufacture's fuses instead of the copied or rebuilt fuses as well as potential loss of goodwill as a result of poorly performing counterfeit products being passed off as the manufacturer's own.
Indicators are well known for fuses to allow for visual inspection of the operable state of the fuse. Such indicators, however, are often easily replaced during unauthorized remanufacture of the fuse. Furthermore, the indicator provides no indication of authenticity. This can lead to the problem of not adequately informing the consumer that the purchased product is not genuine and/or may be previously used. Furthermore, field sales organizations upon encountering these suspect devices may have no way to prove to the end user that the device is not authentic and in good operating condition.
While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter that is regarded as the present invention, it is believed that the invention will be more fully understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Some of the figures may have been simplified by the omission of selected elements for the purpose of more clearly showing other elements. Such omissions of elements in some figures are not necessarily indicative of the presence or absence of particular elements in any of the exemplary embodiments, except as may be explicitly delineated in the corresponding written description. None of the drawings are necessarily to scale.
To ensure the product being purchased is an authentic, new or properly remanufactured and unused product, an authenticating device is provided in conjunction with the fault protection device. The device may encode, using a coding method known only to the manufacturer or other security entity, data that may indicate the product and its manufacturing date or that may allow a person to easily verify the authenticity, manufacturer and manufacturing date of the product. The coded information, for example, allows a field representative to contact the factory or the security entity or to use field data to verify suspect fuses, and furthermore to allow the representative to be able to provide proof to the end user that the fuses are authentic and/or are not previously used or refurbished. The authenticating device further is responsive to use of the device to indicate such use.
The fuse 10 may include a fuse body 12, a first ferrule 14, a second ferrule 16, a first protective end cap 18 secured to the first ferrule 14 and a second protective end cap 20 secured to the second ferrule 16. The protective end caps 18 and 20 may seal the internal portion of the fuse, and may be displaced from the fuse 10 by discharge resulting from operation of the fuse to isolate a fault (
With continued reference to
In use, the end caps, and especially end cap 18, may be displaced from the fuse 10 either as a result of the particular installation of the fuse or as a result of operation of the fuse to clear a fault. The end cap 18 being displaced from the fuse 10 is illustrated in
The indicia 30 may convey several pieces of information, and the information may or may not be encoded. For example, the indicia 30 may include a date portion 32 and one or more manufacturing, sequence, authenticity or other code portions 34 and 36. The date portion 32 may provide a clear date indication such as the year of manufacture. As depicted the “0” and “6” indication on the label 20 provide an indication of manufacture in 2006. The first code portion 34 may be a sequence, a serial number, a product code number, or the like. The information provided by the first code portion 34 may be published and used by end users, or the code may be kept secret. Similarly, the second code portion 36 may be a sequence, a serial number, a product code number, or the like. Each of the first code portion 34 and the second code portion 36 is depicted as having an alpha portion and a numeric portion. In one embodiment, the alpha portion of one of the first code portion 34 or the second code portion 36 may indicate a month of manufacture, while the numeric portion serve as an authentication portion. The authentication portion may be a random code known only to the manufacturer, or the authentication portion may be other data or indications. For example, while shown as alpha/numeric sequence, the authentication portion may be another type of authenticating indicia. For example, replacing the numeric segment may be a watermark, hologram or virtually any other identifying indicia.
Referring to
The indicia 30 may be disposed on the first side while a layer of adhesive 46 may be disposed on the second side 44. The adhesive layer 46 may be formed over the entire second side 44, or may be disposed only in the areas of the first portion 24 and the second portion 26, as shown in
As shown in
As noted above, the encoded data may be maintained by the manufacturer or in the alternative, a security entity may be employed that, for security purposes, maintains the encoded data separately from the manufacturing facility. In such an arrangements the printers within the manufacturing facility may be communicatively linked with the security entity to receive encoded data or may be manually encode with the data be an authorized person. The encoded data is then transferred to the labels via the printing process, and the labels are affixed to the fault protection devices. The security data may be maintained as part of a database that may be accessed via a secured Internet or other suitable communication connection to either the manufacturing facility or the security entity based upon where the information is maintained. Importantly, the database, and the ability to interpret the encoded data, is maintained separate from a distributor, a storage facility or a place of use of the fault protection device so that it may be compromised and used to generate counterfeit labels. Field representatives may alternatively be provided the data on handheld electronic devices, laptop computer devices or in printed form, allowing them to easily determine the authenticity of the fault protection device in the field.
Thus, an authentication device in accordance with the various described embodiments provides an immediate visual indication of the state of the fault protection device, i.e., the damaged or undamaged state of the device; an immediate visual indication of the age of the fault protection device, i.e., by including decoded date data, and an ability to authenticate the fault protection device, i.e., by remote communication or onsite lookup verification of the encoded data and/or by verification of other indicia included with the authentication device.
It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in this patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in any section of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To the extent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent is referred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning, that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader, and it is not intended that such claim term by limited, by implication or otherwise, to that single meaning. Unless a claim element is defined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recital of any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim element be interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixth paragraph.
All documents cited in the Detailed Description are, in relevant part, incorporated herein by reference; the citation of any document is not to be construed as an admission that it is prior art with respect to the present invention.
While particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it would be obvious to those skilled in the art that various other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is therefore intended to cover in the appended claims all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of this invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/818,838 filed Jul. 6, 2006.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60818838 | Jul 2006 | US |
