This invention pertains to anti-theft packaging.

BACKGROUND ART

Theft and vandalism constitute an economical plague in the world of commercial transportation and logistics of physical goods, resulting annually in billions of dollars of losses for the entire value chain-supplier, forwarder, end-customer .

Short of transferring commercial goods by armored transport, each link of the logistics chain is subject to theft, primarily at the « truck level » during transport, and/or at the « pallet level » both during transport and storage. The latter is the subject matter of this invention . Billions of pallets are used each year to move goods from manufacturers to end-users. This is a standardized, effective, efficient, and economical means to manage the international and domestic transfer of physical goods.

Various levels of payload securing are customarily used, primarily and in order of complexity:

- plastic wraparound film: ~80% of all shipping, very light, space saving, very cheap, disposable, no protection against theft;

- wooden crate: ~10% of all shipping, heavy, bulky, expensive, (mostly) not reusable, good protection against theft; and specialty metal crate: ~1% of all shipping, heavy, bulky, very expensive, reusable, excellent protection against theft. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a flexible, foldable, steel wire reinforced cover for the protection of a payload against petty theft or vandalism during transportation or storage, where the fabric of the cover comprises at least: one external, heat resistant hydrocarbon polymer substrate film, such as PET, FEP, PP, one internal, heat sealable hydrocarbon polymer substrate film, such as PE, EVA, PP, PVC, one lose, light gauge (diameter ~50-1000pm) steel wire mesh, loosely bonded between said internal substrate film and said external substrate film, and one bonding agent applied to the wire mesh sandwiched between said internal and external substrate films, so as to provide bonding between said internal substrate film and said external substrate film while allowing the wire mesh to get loose and accumulate under the action of a cutting blade (« SmartWire™ action »), hence providing cutting resistance several times higher than that of a single, light mesh alone, while keeping the whole fabric very light, where panels of said fabric are assembled by heat sealing into the shape of a cover fitting the payload, where said cover is fitted with eyelets along its open sides, where a securing cable is run through said eyelets and secures the cover against another component such as a pallet, the securing cable's end being secured with a lock. The invention may advantageously have the following features:

- the internal heat sealable substrate film is made of tear-resistant, polyethylene or polypropylene mesh; - the internal heat sealable substrate film is made of tear-resistant, cross laminated polyethylene; the external, heat resistant substrate film is reinforced by a second, heat sealable film, such as PE, PP, PVC;

- the external substrate film features a reflective coating, so as to provide supplementary heat shield and solar radiation protection to the payload;

- the external substrate film, that is the outermost layer of the cover put over a payload, is made of UV- blocking and weather resistant hydrocarbon polymer compound, such as UV hardened PET, so as to provide a weather resistant cover;

- the wire mesh is sewn onto the internal substrate film; the internal and external substrate films sandwiching the steel wire mesh are assembled using reticulating adhesives; the internal and external substrate films sandwiching the steel wire mesh are assembled using cast extrusion of hydrocarbon polymers, such as PE, PVC, or EVA;

- the internal substrate film is doped with corrosion preventing compound such as Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI);

- the cover is fitted with water tight moisture vents, so as to prevent the formation of condensation; and

- the cover is fitted with an electrical, steel mesh short-circuit based intrusions detector and alarm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 shows a pallet carrying a crate, with thereon a kit comprising a flexible steel wire reinforced cover, a securing cable and a lock. Figure 2 illustrates the structure of the flexible steel wire reinforced cover.

Figure 3 shows the crate of Figure 1 covered with the cover secured by the lock and the securing cable to the pallet.

Figure 4 shows a magnification of a part of Figure 3, with the securing cable terminated with the lock and running through eyelets in the cover.

Figure 5 illustrates an attempt of cutting through the cover with a blade.

Figure 6 shows a magnification of Figure 5, with the loosely bonded flexible wire of the cover accumulating in the path of the blade.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

This invention pertains to a next-generation type of flexible, film-based, steel wire reinforced pallet/payload cover that provides anti-theft functionality to the level of a wooden crate, while circumventing its main drawback.

In the preferred embodiment, the cover 10 is made of a functional, light gauge stainless steel wire mesh 30 optimally loosely sandwiched between two substrate films that are respectively an external substrate film 20 and an internal substrate film 40, in what we call a « SmartWire™ » arrangement, the internal substrate film being heat sealable upon itself to provide a very strong bond, hence allowing the assembly of panels to make extremely strong protective covers, as illustrated by Figure 2.

One side of the cover may be left open so as to slide it over the payload 70 placed on a pallet 80 as illustrated by Figure 3, the perimeter of said open side being fitted with metal eyelets 50 through which a securing cable 65 terminated with a lock 60, will be run, as illustrated by Figure 4.

The pallet 80 thus covered by the invention as illustrated by Figure 3, is hence protected from opportunistic, box cutter or other knife-based petty theft, as any attempt to cut open said cover with a knife will result in the loosely bonded steel wire to unbind from the substrate films, then to accumulate in the path of the blade 90 as illustrated by Figure 5 and Figure 6, hence providing an obstacle to further cutting equivalent to several times the strength of a single steel wire, making it de facto impenetrable to simple knife cutting.