GB1563609A - Method of marking an article - Google Patents

Description

(54) METHOD OF MARKING AN ARTICLE (71) We, SAN-O INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD., a Japanese body corporate of 10-3, Shinbashi 6-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to the marking of articles for identification purposes.

Commodities at large are usually affixed with a variety of indications according to their standards and the like, and, in addition thereto, even internally of the manufacturing company, for management and other purposes, various marks, figures and the like are used and indicated.

However, as for the identification of similar articles, with figures or marks alone, there are disadvantages such as being confusing, taking time for identification and being easily mistaken; particularly, the smaller the articles become in size, the greater this tendency becomes, and the labor, too, required for identification management increases.

The present invention seeks to provide a method of marking which the foregoing disadvantage is substantially mitigated.

According to this invention, there is provided a method of marking an article with indicia wherein the selection of the colour for an indicia is indicative of one numerical value, and the shape or pattern of the indicia is indicative of a second numerical value.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to Figs.

1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings which both show a coded record for use in this invention where the value of the two digit code has been evaluated using chart 3.

This invention is explained in detail by reference to the accompanying charts and drawings. Chart 1 indicates the kind of colors corresponding to the respective figures, this being made the same as the rated value indication according to JIS C0801 "colors of parts for electronic machines and instruments", EIA, NEMA and the like so as to have commoness therewith. Chart 2 indicates various patterns made in correspondence to the respective figures. Also, Chart 3 is one example of those which indicate figures which, when the colors in Chart 1 and the patterns in Chart 2 are combined respectively result in correspondence thereto. In this example, the figures in Chart 1 each represent the first digit and the figures in Chart 2 each represent the first decimal digit, the combinations of these constituting figures from 0.0 to 9.9.

Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 each is one example of the method of indication in the case where this invention has been worked by using Chart 3.

That is to say, both Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 indicate the first digit by color 2 applied to pattern 1, and the first decimal digit by pattern 1, respectively.

Accordingly, in Fig. 1, when the color 2 is red, it indicates 2.0, and; in Fig. 2, when the color 2 is blue, it indicates 6.4, 3 represents a figure indicating each of these values, 4 represents a unit mark of each of the weights and measures or the like accompanying said figures, and 5 represents a portion for indication of characters, marks and the like such as the manufacturer's name, commodity name, trademark and the like.

By working this invention as described hereinabove, it is possible to insure that, as compared with the identification management with figures or characters alone which has hitherto been carried out, accuracy increases and identification becomes easier so that the labor required therefor can be reduced greatly, to thereby effect a great deal of improvement in efficiency.

The invention finds particular application to the marking of glass articles such as the glass tubes of electrical fuses.

The invention also offers the advantage that the indicia provided by the invention are easily read by an optical character reader (OCR) and other machine reading and character recognition techniques.

Chart 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 BLACK BROWN RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN BLUE PURPLE GRAY WHITE

O V zD 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 N mA S s a ut O t t sn ~ N D O o Chart 2.

Or"2 'D FLI O N ~ ~ ~ ID ~ ~ Irl o - cu m P' d cd C1 U I Ic o co c co c c c co q( ONFjQtlljDl;dl 0 O o o o q q q q q q ql ONOPI mmmmmmmmml ~ ~ w sJ t st t t st ~ 9D O ~ N ) st U1 (D 1 < al ~ 0.1 N 0.3 0.4 0.5 1 < 0.6 Ol eROWN. N 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 N 1.9 r I O . N (i v {Q ZD 19 OJ RED. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 k &num; O ~ N In 10 10 S O) O O O 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 GREEN. W N 3 ur ~ N ~ SLUE. 3 Q O O Z J J a I m m z 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 m 7.8 7.9 GRAY. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 WHITE. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 Chart 3

Claims (9)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method of marking an article with indicia wherein the selection of the colour for an indicia is indicative of one numerical value, and the shape or pattern of the indicia is indicative of a second numerical value.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the colour of said indicia is related to numerical value in accordance with Chart 1 set out herein.

3. A method as claimed in claim I or 2, wherein the shape or pattern of said indicia is related to numerical value in accordance with Chart 2 set out herein.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the colour and shape or pattern of said indicia is related to numerical value in accordance with Chart 3 set out herein.

5. A method as claimed in claim I wherein the colour of said indicia is indicative of a whole number numerical value.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the shape or pattern of said indicia is indicative of a fractional numerical value.

7. A method in accordance with any preceding claim wherein said indicia is machine readable.

8. A method of marking an article substantially as herein described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.

9. An article when marked by the method of any preceding claim.