JPS61155A - Method of wrapping in and sealing article - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a method of wrapping and sealing an article using cloth, and more specifically, a method for easily determining whether a seal has been repaired by forgery or not. The present invention also relates to a sealing method that can be verified reliably.

This invention is a sealing method that can be particularly effectively used as a means of safeguards for nuclear materials.

<Prior art> Generally, when items are wrapped and stored using cloth or film, etc., the cloth or film is unwrapped during storage and the contents are taken out or processed. To prevent this, it is conventional practice to seal the end opening of the package by one-dimensional or two-dimensional means.

In addition, various devices have been proposed to make such seals irreparable if they are tampered with, and to detect tampering.

<Problems to be solved by the invention> When using the sealing method as described above, repair due to unauthorized opening or forgery of the sealing part can be prevented, but if the cloth or film part other than the sealing part is opened, it may be restored to its original state. In such cases, it is not possible to detect whether or not the contents have been damaged.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method for sealing an article in which the article is wrapped with cloth and the edges are sealed, in which not only the sealed portion (but also opening and repair of portions other than the sealed portion) can be reliably detected. The purpose of this invention is to provide a sealing method that can prevent unauthorized opening and counterfeiting.

<Means for Solving the Problems> According to the present invention, optical l! Use knitted fabrics including cloth. After wrapping the item in this cloth,
The ends of the cloth are bundled and fixed using a fixing band or the like, and the bundled portion is cut to expose the end face of the optical fiber bundle at the cut surface.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the side shown in the drawings. Fig. 2 shows a state in which an article is completely wrapped inside a cloth 1, and this cloth is woven using optical fibers. It is made by knitting or knitting. Moreover, it is not necessary to use optical fibers entirely, for example, only the warp threads may be optical fibers, or a cloth in which every other optical fiber is woven may be used. Furthermore, if necessary, a waterproof cloth laminated with a plastic film or the like may be used.

Gather the ends of the cloth wrapped around the item in one place and tie them together.
Tightening is done using a fixing band 2 made of metal or plastic as shown in FIG. The fixing band 2a shown in FIG. 3 can be tightened by rotating a screw 3. Further, the fixing band 2b shown in FIG. 4 has both ends 4, 4 crimped and fixed by welding or the like.

When bundling with the fixing band 2, if the ends of the fabric are glued with adhesive and then tied with the fixing band, the fabric will not move or shift in the subsequent cutting process (to create a uniform cut surface). This is preferable because it allows the cutting to be carried out, and furthermore, there is no fear that the plane of the cut surface after cutting will shift during storage.

Note that it is not always necessary to use a fixing band to bundle and fix the ends of the cloth, and the ends of the cloth may be gathered and tightened and then fixed using an adhesive.

The bundled portion of the cloth ends fixed as described above is then cut using a sharp cutter or the like to form a flat cut surface 5 as shown in FIG. The end surface of the optical fiber bundle is exposed at the cut surface thus formed. Preferably, this cut surface is polished to make the optical 4I ITO end face smooth.

In addition, in the example shown in Figure 1, the ends of the cloth were gathered in one place and bundled, but as shown in Figure 5, the ends of the cloth were bundled in two places and cut at each of the bundled parts. A surface may be formed.

<Operation> When a part of the cut surface 5 is irradiated with light, the light enters from one end face of the optical fiber included in that part, passes through the optical fiber, and is transmitted to the other end face. Therefore, for example, by shining light on one half of the cut surface and examining the light pattern transmitted to the other half of the cut surface, abnormalities in the optical fiber bundle can be detected and the integrity of the seal can be confirmed.

In other words, as shown in Figure 6a, when light is applied to the lower half (light-receiving part) of the cut surface during sealing, the light pattern transmitted to the upper half (light-emitting part) of the cut surface will be transmitted to the cut surface. If the light pattern obtained in the same way at the time of verification after a certain period of time shows the same pattern as that shown in Figure 6a recorded at the time of sealing, the cut surface may have been forged or the cloth may have been damaged. This means that no unauthorized manipulation such as cutting of the woven optical fibers was carried out.

On the other hand, if a fraudulent operation is carried out, such as cutting the cloth wrapping the article and then repairing it, the cut of the optical fibers woven into the cloth cannot be repaired.
As shown in the figure, a change occurs in the light pattern of the cut surface light emitting section. Of course, changes in the light pattern also occur when the cut surface of the seal is forged or repaired.

Comparison of the light patterns at the time of sealing and at the time of verification may be done with the naked eye or may be done with a photograph. A more accurate method using electro technology is to divide the light pattern into many minute parts, measure the light intensity of each minute part, and compare the light intensity at sealing and verification. It is also possible to adopt a method of scanning, magnetically recording and collating the information.

If the verification device that performs the verification process as described above and the cut surface of the seal are connected via an optical cable such as a fiberscope, the optical pattern can be read and verified at a distance from the sealed object. can be done.

<Effects of the Invention> As can be seen from the above explanation, this invention
! This method uses knitted fabric containing fibers to wrap the article and bind and seal the edges of the fabric, and it is possible to completely check for tampering not only with the sealed portion of the edge of the fabric, but with the fabric as a whole. It will be possible to seal items three-dimensionally, and complete containment can be expected.

In addition, when verifying whether the seal was tampered with, cloth l
By reading the light pattern on the end face of the optical fiber bundle at the end cut surface, this can be done easily, quickly and reliably. Furthermore, by using electronic equipment for the verification device, remote control is possible, and by using an optical cable to read the light pattern on the end face of the optical fiber bundle, it is possible to maintain a sufficient distance between the object to be sealed and the verification device. This makes it possible to reduce radiation exposure during verification operations, especially when sealing radioactive materials.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an article sealed by the method of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the previous stage of FIG. 1, and shows a state in which the bundled portion is not cut. FIGS. 3 and 4 show examples of fixing bands that can be preferably used when binding the ends of cloth. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the article sealed by the method of the present invention, and shows an example in which the ends of the cloth are bundled at two points and cut. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a light pattern of an optical fiber bundle on a cut surface when sealed according to the present invention, with the pattern (a) at the time of sealing and the pattern (b) at the time of verification indicating tampering.
shows. 1... Textile fabric containing optical fiber, 2, 2a, 2b...
-Fixing band, 5...cut surface. Patent applicant Representative of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation
Human tail crotch separation
Tomonosuke ArakiFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3Figure 4Figure 5Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Wrapping an article with a textile fabric containing optical fibers, bundling and fixing the ends of the fabric, and cutting the bundled portion to expose the end face of the optical fiber bundle at the cut surface. Features: A method of wrapping and sealing items. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the end portion of the cloth is fixed using a fixing band made of metal or plastic. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the ends of the cloth are fixed by fixing the bundled portions with an adhesive. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cloth is laminated with a waterproof film.