Patent Application
20070200372
The present invention relates in general to a security device. In particular, the present invention relates to a device and method of indicating whether or not a sealed container has been tampered with.
Modern freight transportation often involves the shipping of cargo across the world by land, sea and air. Typically, freight is packaged in an intermodal container and sealed to indicate and/or prevent unwanted entry thereto. From the moment of departure of the freight until it reaches its final destination, the container may be loaded and unloaded to and from a number of cargo carriers (e.g. trucks, rail cars, ships, planes, etc.) depending on the distance and route to be traveled. Over the course of its transportation, the container may be left unattended for extended periods of time, at which time a thief may attempt to break into the container and pilfer some or all of its contents. Nowadays, an additional concern is that a terrorist may attempt to insert weapons or explosives into the container.
A close-up picture of a door of a freight container is shown in
One way of overcoming the deficiencies of the sealing mechanism described above is to provide a jacket and sleeve member for enclosing the hinging pin. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,904. However, removing this device is not a difficult task, and replacing it may not be necessary, since an inspector or person who handles the container will note that the pin is still in place (even though it is actually a substitute for the original pin) and may not even know that the jacket and sleeve device was originally there as well. Alternatively, a thief may attempt to replace the jacket and sleeve with a suitable substitute.
An additional concern, when providing sealing containers, is to conform to the relatively new container sealing requirements dictated by the U.S. Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and the ISO/PAS 17712 High Security standard. According to the C-TPAT requirements, a bolt seal conforming to the “High Security” grade as per ISO/PAS 17712 must be utilized for container sealing. Moreover, when a cable seal is utilized, the ISO/PAS 17712 High Security grade shear strength requirement effectively translates to a 4 mm thickness. These requirements can add cost to the manufacture and, therefore, sale price of seals and in particular door to door cable seals, which may be prohibitive to some manufacturers and consumers.
It is interesting to note that there are a number of deficiencies involved with bolt seals. In particular, although bolt seals possess high tensile strength, in many, if not most models, removal of the insertion bolt from the locking bush is achievable by a technique known as, “spinning”. In “spinning”, one end of the bolt seal, e.g. the insertion bolt, is fixedly held, while the other end, e.g. the locking bush, is inserted to a drill chuck. When the drill is turned on and the locking bush is rotated at a high speed, the locking bush may be removed from the insertion bolt by applying a sudden downward force to the locking bush. Despite this deficiency, the bolt seal has been accepted as a high security solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,599 discloses a disposable cable seal device for preventing opening of the container doors as well as providing indication of whether the container had been opened without authorization. The device comprises an elongated tube into which an insertion pin is secured. A steel cable is attached at one end to the tube and at the other end to the pin. When the cable is wrapped around the locking rods of the doors of a container, and the pin is inserted to the tube, the doors are secured shut. The device may be removed only by either cutting through the cable or by destroying the insertion pin and/or elongated tube. Either way, it is evident that tampering with the container has taken place. Additionally, a unique identifying mark, e.g. a serial number, is etched on the outer surface of the tube, such that upon close inspection of the number or mark, it may be determined whether one device has been removed and replaced by a different device having a different identifying mark on the housing. However, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,599 has a number of shortcomings. In particular, the cable is wrapped around the locking rods that are attached to the doors of the container. As is well known in the industry, the configuration of containers from different manufacturers, including the distance between locking rods, varies. Hence, as shown in
U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,022 discloses a seal assembly for securing container doors in a closed position. The invention is a multi-component assembly for providing supplemental sealing of the container doors. In particular, the assembly comprises an elongated cable having mating and/or locking segments at one or both of its ends. One end of the cable is situated in the seal clasp of the container door handle, and the other end of the cable is situated in a tamper evident cargo container door seal. The tamper evident seal comprises a horizontal cross-bar disposed transversally with respect to the locking rods. A c-shaped bracket having slots through which the cross-bar sits, and a bore through which one end of the cable is inserted, is positioned around at least the locking rod closest to the other end of the cable. In such a configuration, multiple levels of protection are provided for the container. However, this assembly is expensive, unnecessarily complex and requires installation and removal which takes time and skill to perform.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tamper indication device and method that overcomes the drawbacks of prior art devices.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a sealing device that prevents the opening of freight container doors.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a sealing device that conforms with the C-TPAT initiative and the ISO/PAS 17712 “High Security” grade.
Additional objects and advantages of the present invention shall become apparent as the description proceeds.
The present invention relates to a locking arrangement for securely sealing the doors of a freight container, wherein said container comprises:
Preferably, the thickness of the cable is less than 4 mm and at least 1 mm.
The cable further comprises a mechanism for tightening said cable around the locking rods, wherein said mechanism is selected from the group consisting of:
Preferably, an identifying marking is situated on the insertion bolt and/or the locking bush.
Preferably, the sealing device further comprises an electronic seal.
The present invention further relates to a locking arrangement for securely sealing the doors of a freight container, wherein said container comprises:
The present invention still further relates to a method of securely sealing the door of a freight container, said method comprising:
The method further comprises:
The second end of the cable is joined to either the insertion bolt or the locking bush according to any one of the following ways:
In the drawings:
a and 5b illustrate an alternative aspect of the first embodiment of the sealing device of the present invention.
c illustrates a locking arrangement using the aspects of the first embodiment as shown in either one of
All publications mentioned throughout this application are fully incorporated herein by reference, including all references cited therein.
Freight containers are often vulnerable to pilferage when being shipped from their original to final destination. The containers may be left unattended for extended periods of time, at which time a thief may attempt to break into the container and steal some or all of its contents, or terrorist may attempt to insert weapons or explosives into the container. It is therefore important for those involved with the transportation of the container to be able to easily determine whether the container's seal has been breached, at every stage of its transit. The present invention provides such a device, as well as a method for sealing and preventing a potential thief or terrorist from easily opening container doors.
The term, “container” as used herein refers to any form of sealable structure that is used to ship cargo. For instance, the container may take the form of the trailer portion of a truck or of a detachable, or stand-alone kind.
A first embodiment of the sealing device of the present invention, shown in
Insertion bolt (120) is preferably made from a heavy duty material such as steel which may be plastic-covered, and posses a strength that complies with the ISO/PAS 17712 “High Security” grade as described herein above. Cable (140) is flexible and preferably made of steel. Cable (140) may be of a lesser shear strength than the minimum requirement by the ISO/PAS 17712 “High Security” grade standard, since the main locking of the container is provided by the “High Security” grade bolt seal portion, as described herein below. Cable (140) provides an additional sealing protection, for which a cable (140) that conforms to the ISO shear standard is not necessary. Preferably, cable thickness is at least 1 mm. Hence, manufacturing costs, which translate to consumer costs, are significantly reduced. Nevertheless, it is understood that utilizing a 4 mm or thicker cable does fall within the scope of the present invention.
A unique identification mark (150), which may take the form of letters, numerals, a bar code, etc., is located on the outer surface of bush (130). A corresponding identification mark (150′) is (optionally) located along elongated body (122) of insertion bolt (120).
A preferred locking arrangement of the sealing device (100) of the present invention is shown in
Bolt seals are well known in the art, therefore a technical description of the inner locking mechanism is not necessary. Nevertheless, briefly, the notch (8) situated at the tip of insertion bolt (120), as seen in
Although cable (140) is shown herein as being wrapped only once around locking rods (4), (4′), forming a single loop, it is understood that the cable (140) may be looped around either bar (4), (4′) to minimize the slack, depending on the length of cable (140) and the distance between locking rods (4), (4′).
It is also understood that the design and arrangement of handle (1) and seal clasp (5) as shown in the figures herein is just one of many possible arrangements, and is shown herein as an illustrative but non-limitative example.
The maximum diameter of enlarged base (124) is greater than the maximum diameter of the first and second openings. Similarly, the maximum diameter of locking bush (130) is greater than the maximum diameter of the first and second openings. Thus, base (124) and bush (130) are prevented from being removed by sliding through the first and second openings.
The only way of disconnecting the sealing device (100) so that the container doors may be opened is by breaking bolt seal (110) or by cutting cable (140). Either way, indication of a security breach is evident upon even a cursory inspection of the seal and identification marks (150), (150′). Similarly, if a different seal is replaced in the appropriate arrangement, detection of incorrect identification marks (150) and (150′) indicates a security breach.
Locking bush (130) preferably only covers securing tip (126) of insertion bolt (120) such that elongated body (122), and, in particular, identification mark (150), not seen in
According to the arrangement shown in
According to an alternative aspect of the first embodiment of the sealing device (100) of the present invention, as shown in
As mentioned herein above, it is known that the distance between locking rods (4), (4′) may vary from container to container. If cable (140) has too much slack, a thief may be capable of prying the doors open and removing some or all of the contents of the container. Therefore, a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In an alternative aspect of the second embodiment of the present invention, locking bush (130) and a portion of cable (340) are shown schematically in
A third embodiment, shown in
According to all of the embodiments described herein, it may be desirable for sealing device (100) to further comprise an electronic seal (not shown in the figures). The electronic seal is a relatively new technology that is utilized in the sealing of freight containers. An electronic seal may be used, for instance, to read the identification mark and/or monitor the integrity of sealing device (100) en route. Information may be gathered on site, or, may be transmitted to a remote location. The electronic seal may be situated on bolt seal (110) as an integral portion of, or fixedly attached to insertion bolt (120) or to locking bush (130), or along cable (140).
In an alternative arrangement of the embodiments of the tamper indication device of the present invention, the cable may be passed through a suitable opening located at the container door in addition to or instead of being wrapped around locking rods (4), (4′)
While some embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be apparent that the invention can be carried into practice with many modifications, variations and adaptations, and with the use of numerous equivalents or alternative solutions that are within the scope of persons skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the claims.
