Claims
- 1. To securely close a container having at least one door, an improved cargo seal comprising:
- a lock assembly, said lock assembly being structured to secure the door in a closed orientation and including at least one lock aperture,
- an elongate segment of substantially strong, generally flexible material, said elongate segment including opposite ends and structured to extend through said lock aperture of said lock assembly so as to restrict movement of said lock assembly and accordingly release of the door from said closed orientation,
- at least one of said opposite ends of said elongate segment including a mating segment,
- a pair of lock segments, said lock segments structured to be correspondingly and substantially fixedly disposed at said opposite ends of said elongate segment so as to generally prevent removal thereof without physically damaging said lock segment or said elongate segment and thereby providing visible evidence of tampering,
- at least one of said lock segments being structured to be securely coupled with said mating segment,
- each of said lock segments having an increased diameter relative to a diameter of said elongate segment, so as to prevent removal of said elongate segment from said lock aperture, and accordingly movement of said lock assembly to permit opening of the door, without removal of at least one of said lock segments or visibly damaging said lock assembly, thereby providing clear evidence of tampering and opening of said door,
- said lock assembly including at least a cargo door latch assembly in which said lock aperture is defined, and a tamper evident container door lock,
- said cargo door latch assembly including a lock rod disposed on the door of the container,
- said tamper evident door lock including a retention bracket structured to be disposed about said lock rod, and a cross brace structured to generally enclose said retention bracket about said lock rod so as to prevent lateral removal of said retention bracket from said lock rod, and
- said elongate segment structured to extend through said cross brace and said retention bracket so as to maintain said cross brace in retaining, enclosing engagement with said retention bracket.
- 2. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 wherein at least one of said lock segments includes an identifying indicia disposed thereon so as to verify that said elongate segment and said lock segment originally secured through said lock aperture have not been replaced with new ones of said elongate segment and said lock segment after unauthorized access to the container.
- 3. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 2 wherein each of said lock segments includes identifying indicia disposed thereon.
- 4. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 wherein said tamper evident door lock is secured to the container by said fixed disposement of at least one of said lock segments with a corresponding end of said elongate segment, thereby requiring physical damaging of said tamper evident door lock, said elongate segment or said lock segment in order to permit removal thereof from the container.
- 5. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 wherein said one of said lock segments at least partially further defines said tamper evident door lock.
- 6. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 wherein said retention bracket includes a pair of spaced apart openings wherethrough said cross brace extends so as to enclose said retention bracket.
- 7. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 wherein said cross brace includes an aperture defined therein, said elongate segment further structured to extend through said aperture in said cross brace so as to prevent removal thereof from said retention bracket.
- 8. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 7 wherein said retention bracket includes one of said lock segments secured therewith and disposed such that said elongate segment extends through said aperture in said cross brace when said cross brace is disposed in said enclosing engagement with said retention bracket and into secure engagement therewith, thereby preventing slided removal of said cross brace from said retention bracket.
- 9. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 8 wherein said lock segment is fixedly secured to said retention bracket and is disposed relative to said cross brace so as to prevent facilitated severing of said elongate segment at a point which permits slided removal of said cross brace from said retention segment, thereby requiring visible damaging of at least two components of the cargo seal to effectuate complete removal thereof.
- 10. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 8 wherein said cross brace is generally elongate and is structured to restrict opening of the door of the container when in said enclosing engagement with said retention bracket.
- 11. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 10 wherein said tamper evident door lock includes a second generally C-shaped retention bracket disposed about a lock rod on a second door of the container and structured to receive said cross brace therethrough in enclosing engagement therewith so as to prevent normal opening of the doors of the container without removal of said cross brace and removal of said elongate segment from said lock aperture, thereby providing visible evidence of tampering.
- 12. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 1 further comprising a depiction of the improved cargo seal properly positioned on a container, said depiction being secured to a shipping manifest associated with a cargo in the container.
- 13. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 12 wherein said depiction further includes an identifying indicia visibly disposed thereon, and at least one of said lock segments includes said identifying indicia disposed thereon so as to verify that said elongate segment and said lock segment originally secured through said lock aperture have not been replaced with new ones of said elongate segment and said lock segment after unauthorized access to the container.
- 14. To securely close a container having at least one door, an improved cargo seal comprising:
- a lock assembly, said lock assembly being structured to secure the door in a closed orientation and including a door latch assembly and a tamper evident container door lock,
- said door latch assembly including a lock rod, said lock rod including a locking orientation wherein the door of the container is retained in said closed orientation, and a released orientation wherein opening of the door of the container is permitted,
- said door latch assembly further including a latch handle operatively associated with said lock rod and structured to position said lock rod between said locking and said released orientation,
- said latch handle including at least one lock aperture defined therein,
- an elongate segment of substantially strong, generally flexible material, said elongate segment including a first end and a second end and being structured to extend through said lock aperture so as to restrict movement of said latch handle and accordingly positioning of said lock rod between said locking and said released orientation,
- said tamper evident container door lock including a generally C-shaped retention bracket structured to be disposed about said lock rod and a cross brace structured to generally enclose said retention bracket about said lock rod so as to prevent lateral removal of said retention bracket from said lock rod,
- said elongate segment extending through said cross brace and said retention bracket so as to maintain said cross brace in retaining, enclosing engagement with said retention bracket,
- at least said first end of said elongate segment including a mating segment, and
- at least one lock segment, said lock segment structured to be securely coupled with said mating segment so as to generally prevent disengagement therebetween, and accordingly prevent movement of said latch handle and removal of said cross brace and said retention bracket, without physically damaging said lock segment or said elongate segment and thereby providing visible evidence of tampering.
- 15. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 14 wherein said lock segment includes an identifying indicia disposed thereon so as to verify that said elongate segment and said lock segment originally secured through said lock aperture have not been replaced with new ones of said elongate segment and said lock segment after unauthorized access to the container.
- 16. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 14 wherein said cross brace is structured to extend at least partially across the door of the container so as to prevent opening thereof without removal of said cross brace.
- 17. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 16 wherein the container includes a second door, said cross brace being structured to extend across a junction between the doors of the container so as to prevent outward opening thereof without removal of said cross brace.
- 18. An improved cargo seal as recited in claim 17 further including a second lock rod disposed on the second door of the container, said tamper evident container door lock including a second generally C-shaped retention bracket disposed about said second lock rod and structured to receive said cross brace therethrough in enclosing engagement therewith so as to prevent normal opening of the doors of the container without removal of said cross brace and removal of said elongate segment from said lock aperture, thereby providing visible evidence of tampering.
Parent Case Info
The present is a Continuation-In-Part of co-pending, allowed application Ser. No. 08/801,843, filed Feb. 18, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,721 which is incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (15)
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
801843 |
Feb 1997 |
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