Patent Application
20070158293
The invention relates to a bottle package equipped with an electronic article surveillance (EAS) label, to a method for making the same and to a method for manufacturing an advertising label suitable for such a bottle package.
Electronic surveillance systems are well known in the art. A typical application is theft prevention: the article is prevented from being removed in an unauthorized manner from a controlled area. In order to be removed from the controlled area, the article must traverse an interrogation zone where the EAS label attached to the article is detected by an EAS system which responds to the detection with a predetermined action, such as deactivation of an alarm system.
Such systems are commonly used for wine and spirit bottles, as the precious alcohol they carry must be preserved from stealing.
Typical magnetomechanical EAS labels are known under the brand names ULTRA●MAX® and ULTRA●STRIP®, sold by the SENSORMATIC ELECTRONICS CORPORATION. Such EAS label are taught in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,822,569 to Bellum et al, 4,510,489 to Anderson, III et al, and 4,254,868 to Humble et al.
It is known to stick the EAS label to the bottle, on a side thereof, or even under its bottom (as taught on B&G PLASTICS, INC's website, www.bgplastics.com).
The paper backing of the EAS label is simply removed, and the label applied automatically or manually on the bottle.
One drawback of such a bottle package is that the EAS label creates visual pollution of the package. EAS label manufacturers have tried to customize their labels, but there is still a visual inconvenience, since the label is often put where there should be nothing but clean glass.
The main drawback of EAS labels to be put under the bottom of the bottles is that they must be shaped and dimensioned for every type of bottle, thereby preventing standardized manufacturing.
In addition, unsticking an EAS label is somewhat easy, which facilitates the stealing of the corresponding bottle.
It is one object of the invention to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, providing a bottle package equipped with an EAS label which is more discrete.
It is another object of the invention to provide a bottle package equipped with an EAS label which is more difficult to remove from the bottle.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for making such a bottle package.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for manufacturing an advertising label suitable for such a bottle package.
The invention therefore provides, according to a first aspect, a bottle package comprising:
a bottle having a wall,
an EAS label sticked to the bottle wall,
an advertising label sticked to the bottle wall,
wherein the advertising label covers the EAS label.
In a first embodiment: the bottle wall is provided with a recess wherein the EAS label is received, said recess having a width and a length close to or greater than a width and a length of said EAS label.
The recess preferably has a depth close to or greater than a thickness of said EAS label.
In a second embodiment, the advertising label is provided with an embossment, wherein the EAS label is received, said embossment having a width and a length greater than a width and a length of said EAS label, respectively,
The embossment preferably has a depth greater than a thickness of said EAS label.
The invention provides, according to a second aspect, a method of making a bottle package, comprising the steps of:
A method of making a bottle package according to the first embodiment, comprises the steps of:
A method of making a bottle package according to the second embodiment comprises the steps of:
The invention also provides a method of manufacturing an advertising label for a bottle package according to the second embodiment, said method comprising the steps of:
Preferably, the top sheet paper is a woodless paper. Its grammage may be of 210 g/m2, and its thickness of 0.25 mm.
The backing web is e.g. made of a polyester film, a side of which is coated with silicon. For example, its thickness is of 36 μm, and it may have a grammage of 50.8 g/m2.
The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to
In one embodiment, the dimensions of the EAS label 4 are as follows: length: 44.6 mm±0.15 mm; width: 10.16 mm±0.15 mm; thickness: 1.20 mm±0.13 MM, which correspond to the SENSORMATIC ULTRA●STRIP® Low Profile Label. Such an EAS label 4 is provided with a paper backing which has to be removed (pealed off) before sticking the EAS label to the bottle 2.
The bottle package 1 further comprises an advertising label 6, formed of a flexible printed adhesive card covered with a peelable backing web and including information about the product inside the bottle 2 (such as the brand name, the ingredients, legal information about the produced, etc.), sticked to the bottle wall 3 over the EAS label 4, i.e. it entirely covers the EAS label 4, whereby the EAS label 4 is out of reach unless the advertising label 6 is torn off from the bottle 2.
According to a first preferred embodiment, illustrated on
In one embodiment, the dimensions of the recess 7 are as follows: length: L=51 mm; width: W=16 mm; depth: D comprised between 1.4 and 2.8 mm, in order to receive the SENSORMATIC ULTRA●STRIP® Low Profile Label, the dimensions of which are given hereabove.
In order for the EAS label 4 to be easily put into the recess 7, transversal and side edges 8, 9, 10, 11 of the recess 7 may be beveled, preferably at an angle of approximately 30° with a plane P perpendicular to the bottle axis X, and with a plane P′ parallel to the bottle axis X, respectively, as shown on
A method for making the bottle package 1 according to the first embodiment comprises the following steps:
According to a second preferred embodiment, illustrated on
In one preferred embodiment, the dimensions of the embossment 12 correspond to the dimensions of the recess 7 disclosed in the first embodiment.
A method for making the bottle package 1 according to the second embodiment comprises the following steps:
In order for the EAS label 4 to strongly stick to the bottle, it should preferably be chosen of the curved type, i.e. the side of the casing 5 facing the bottle 2 is concave, following the convexity of the bottle wall 3. An EAS label of this type is known in the art, and is also available by SENSORMATIC under the brand name ULTRA●STRIP® Low Profile Label.
As depicted on
Such a structure is suitable for both bottle package embodiments disclosed hereabove. However, in the second embodiment the paper the top sheet is made of is preferably a long fibers paper, in order to prevent fissures to occur during the embossing operation.
A method of manufacturing an advertising label 6 for a bottle package 1 according to the second embodiment comprises the steps of:
The embossing operation is preferably a hot embossing operation. As the paper is a long fiber one, no fissure will occur during the embossing operation. The combined choice of the paper and the adhesive, which is a strong one, results in an advertising label 6 which can not be manually unsticked as one piece: it will tear away and delaminate, thereby making it almost impossible to cleanly remove the EAS label 4 and consequently improving anti-theft properties of the bottle package. In addition, the bottle package according to the invention provides better visual aspect than the known one, since the EAS label is covered by the advertising layer.
