FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to security bags. In particular, the invention relates to a tamper evident bag, a tamper evident kit and a method of sealing a tamper evident bag.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Transporting valuable goods, including banknotes, confidential documents or even jewellery, from one destination to another, is a process which is often wrought with criminal activity. One such threat is observed during the transportation of cash from businesses to banks. Businesses hire security companies specialized in such transportation in order to ensure the safety of their cash. However, the value of cash inserted into a security bag does not always correlate with the value of cash received by the bank. In such cases, it becomes prudent to identify individuals who gained access to the content of the security bag. In many cases, chain of custody documentation is insufficient. Thus, it is necessary to identify suspects by identifying at which stage the security bag was tampered with, especially by means of visible tamper evidence.

Security bags are durable bags utilized to store and transport highly valuable goods or confidential documents. Security bags are designed to provide two forms of protection: tamper resistance and tamper evidence. Tamper resistance aims to provide a security bag which resists unauthorized entry by constructing the security bag so that it is difficult to open. Tamper evident security bags, on the other hand, provide protection in terms of indicating to an observer when the bag has had unauthorized entry. It should be noted that tamper proof security bags are implausible. Hence, a combination of tamper resistance and tamper evidence features presents the best possible deterrent for criminals.

Various security bags with associated securing devices have been described. Such devices are often secured by specialized adhesive tapes. However, such adhesive tapes have the disadvantage of not sufficiently indicating whether or not tampering has occurred at the sealed end of the security bag. Moreover, these security bags are expensive to manufacture and require intense concentration or attention in order to obtain an effective seal and later, to establish whether or not tampering has occurred.

The inventor is aware of such security bags and sealing devices, as well as their respective advantages and disadvantages. The invention aims to provide an improved alternative to existing security bags and devices, by providing a fully tamper evident, sealable security bag.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a tamper evident bag which includes

a security bag having at least one opening, the security bag being provided with a bag indicator; and

a seal, for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the seal being provided with a seal indicator which is associated with the bag indicator, such that unauthorized access to the security bag is evident when the seal has been tampered with.

The bag indicator and seal indicator may be in the form of visual indicators.

The association between the bag visual indicator and the seal visual indicator may be that the visual indicators are identical to each other, related to each other, associated with each other or the like.

The bag visual indicator and seal visual indicator may include any one or more of: a numerical code, an alphabetical code, a bar code, a colour code, a sequence, a hologram, an image, a symbol, a watermark, a pattern, a geometrical design, a shape, an optical diffraction or the like. The bag visual indicator and seal visual indicator may be constructed from any one or more of laser printing, ink-jet printing, thermal transfer printing, impact ribbon printing, embossing, etching, lithography, flexography, screen-printing, gravure printing, hot stamping, magnetic printing, coded printing or the like.

The bag visual indicator and seal visual indicator may be visible under any one or more of the naked eye, infrared light, ultraviolet light or the like.

The security bag may be in the form of a rectangular body, shaped and dimensioned to accommodate various objects. The security bag may be in the form of an envelope, packet, messenger bag, courier bag or the like. The security bag may be disposable or non-disposable.

The at least one opening of the security bag may be elongated and may be in the form of a slit, window opening, aperture or the like, the at least one opening allowing the insertion of various objects into the security bag.

The security bag may be manufactured by any one or more of: vacuum forming, 3D printing, side welding, single or multiple extrusion, blown film extrusion or the like. In a preferred embodiment, the security bag may be co-extruded from two materials, each selected for properties of durability, colour, tear resistance, cut resistance or the like.

The security bag may be manufactured from any suitable material or combination of materials, such that the security bag includes properties of durability, tear resistance, cut resistance or the like. Suitable materials include plastic, fabric, biodegradable materials or the like. The security bag may be manufactured to any appropriate thickness.

The bag visual indicator may include one or more of an external bag visual indicator, an internal bag visual indicator or the like. The internal bag visual indicator may be located inside the security bag and may be associated with the external bag visual indicator. In a preferred embodiment, the external bag visual indicator may be in the form of a plurality of external bag visual indicators. In this embodiment, the security bag may include an external bag visual indicator on an upper portion of the security bag, proximate the at least one opening and an associated external bag visual indicator on a lower portion of the security bag.

The seal may be integrated with the security bag, such that the seal forms part of the security bag.

The seal may be in the form of an adhesive seal. The adhesive seal may include a substrate portion and an adhesive portion, the substrate portion being defined by an operatively outer face of the seal and the adhesive portion being defined by an operatively inner face of the seal, in use to be affixed to the security bag. The adhesive portion of the adhesive seal may be affixed over the at least one opening of the security bag in use, such that the adhesive seal prevents access to an interior of the security bag and thus, the contents thereof. It is to be appreciated that the seal visual indicator may be provided on one or both of the substrate portion and the adhesive portion.

The adhesive portion may be in the form of a material having adhesive properties, for sealing and securing the at least one opening. In particular, the material having adhesive properties may ensure proper bonding of the seal to the security bag, the adhesive curing within 2 minutes of affixing the seal over the at least one opening. The adhesive portion may in the form of an adhesive tape, label, sticker, film, foil, rubber- based seal or the like. The adhesive portion may further include a pressure sensitive adhesive.

The adhesive portion may include an adhesive which causes a visible adhesive residue on the security bag when the adhesive seal is removed.

The adhesive portion may include a solvent revealing layer, in use to reveal previous application of a solvent to the security bag. The solvent may include any one or more of saliva, water, an acidic solvent, an alkaline solvent or the like. In one embodiment, the solvent revealing layer may reveal the presence of the solvent by an observable change such as a colour change. In another embodiment, the solvent revealing layer may reveal the presence of the solvent by the adhesive portion not affixing to the security bag where the solvent was previously applied. The substrate portion may include an interacting layer for interacting with adhesive. In particular, the interacting layer may interact with adhesive to produce an observable change such that placement of another adhesive seal over an original adhesive seal is revealed. In use, the interacting layer may interact with adhesive when another adhesive seal is placed over the substrate portion of an original adhesive seal, normally to conceal a cut in the original adhesive seal.

The adhesive seal may be manufactured to be cut resistant. For example, the adhesive seal may be manufactured to include glass particles, glass fibers or any other cut resistant particles to prevent cutting of the seal.

The adhesive seal may have at least one transparent portion. The adhesive seal may be affixed over the at least one opening such that the transparent portion of the seal overlays an external bag visual indicator of the security bag, the external bag visual indicator remaining externally visible to an observer.

The adhesive seal may be provided with a backing strip for storage and transport purposes. The backing strip may prevent premature adhesion of the adhesive seal to undesired positions on the security bag and may be removed from the adhesive seal prior to use.

The security bag may include a secondary tamper evident means. The secondary tamper evident means may be in the form of a solvent closure, a hot melt adhesive strip, zipper locks or the like. In use, the secondary tamper evident means may produce an irreversible change to the security bag such that tampering is evident. The irreversible change may be in the form of swelling, dissolving, discolouration, distortion, perforation or the like. The secondary tamper evident means may be positioned proximate any one or more of the at least one opening and edges of the security bag. The security bag may further include sealed, tamper-evident edges.

The security bag may include external or internal printing. The external printing may provide instructions, a chain of custody section, writing panels or the like. The external printing may also include tamper evident security bag edge seal printing. According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a tamper evident kit which includes

a security bag having at least one opening, the security bag provided with a bag visual indicator; and

a separate seal, for securely closing the at least one opening of the security bag, the separate seal being provided with a seal visual indicator associated with the bag visual indicator, which a user may affix to the security bag in order to detect unauthorized access to the security bag after closing.

The tamper evident kit may include a plurality of security bags and associated separate seals.

The associated separate seals may in the form of a roll of multiple seals.

The roll of multiple seals may include perforation lines between the seals to allow ease of separation prior to use.

The associated separate seals may include serial visual indicators or batch visual indicators.

The tamper evident kit may include instructions as to a sealing procedure of the security bag.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of sealing a tamper evident bag, which includes

providing a security bag, having at least one opening, the security bag provided with at least one bag visual indicator; and

affixing a seal with at least one seal visual indicator to a security bag, the seal sealing the at least one opening of the security bag, the seal visual indicator being associated with the bag visual indicator, such that a seal visual indicator and a bag visual indicator not being associated with each other would render evidence of unauthorized access. Affixing the seal to the security bag may provide a user with the ability to clearly detect when unauthorized entry has occurred via the associated visual indicators.

The invention is now described, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying figures.

FIGURE(S)

In the figure(s):

Figure 1 shows a tamper evident bag in accordance with one aspect of the invention; and

Figure 2 shows a tamper evident bag in accordance with a further aspect of the invention.

In the figures, like reference numerals denote like parts of the invention unless otherwise indicated.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In Figures 1 and 2, reference numeral (10) refers to a tamper evident bag. The tamper evident bag (10) is comprised of a security bag (12) and a separate seal (18). The security bag (12) has one opening (14) and is provided with a bag visual indicator (16). The seal (18) allows for securely closing the opening (14) of the security bag (12) and includes a seal visual indicator (20) which is associated with the bag visual indicator (16), such that visual indicators not associated with one another indicate seal (20) tampering and hence, possible unauthorized access.

As shown in the Figures, the bag visual indicator (16) is associated with an identical seal visual indicator (20). The visual indicators (16, 20) are in the form of an alphabetical and numerical code sequence, specifically "XYZ1234". The visual indicators (16, 20) have been formed by laser printing on to the security bag (12) and seal (18) respectively. The laser printed visual indicators (16, 20) are visible to the naked eye. In this example, the security bag (12) is in the form of a rectangular body, shaped and dimensioned to accommodate approximately fifty R200 notes. The security bag (12) is in the form of a packet and is disposable, intended for one use only. The opening (14) of the security bag (12) is characterized by an elongated slit in a front panel of the security bag (12). The security bag (12) is manufactured by co-extruding two durable plastic materials, each plastic material being of a different colour.

As can be seen in the Figures, the bag visual indicator (16) is in the form of an external visual indicator and includes two bag visual indicators (16): a first bag visual indicator (16a) is positioned on an upper portion of the security bag (12) and a second bag visual indicator (16b), identical to the first bag visual indicator (16a), is positioned on a lower portion of the security bag (12).

The seal (18) is in the form of an adhesive tape and is provided separately. In the figures, no distinction between the adhesive portion and substrate portion is shown. The seal (18) has one portion which is transparent, forming a transparent strip along the length of the seal (18) which is flanked by an upper and lower opaque strip. The seal visual indicator (20) is comprised of three, separate, spaced-apart seal visual indicators (20), with one positioned in the upper opaque strip and two positioned in the lower opaque strip.

In Figure 2, the seal (18) is affixed over the opening (14) of the security bag (12), thereby preventing access to the contents of the security bag (12). The seal (18) is affixed over the opening (14) in such a way that the transparent strip of the seal (18) overlays the first bag visual indicator (16a), rendering the first bag visual indicator (16a) visible to an observer.

The adhesive seal (18) also includes a backing strip for storage and transport purposes (not shown). The backing strip prevents premature adhesion of the seal (18) to undesired positions on the security bag (12). The backing strip is removed from the seal (18) prior to use.

The security bag (12) includes a secondary tamper evident means in the form of a solvent closure (not shown) encompassing the opening (14). This solvent closure results in an irreversible dissolving of the security bag (12) such that any attempt at tampering is evident to the observer.

As indicated by faint lines in Figures 1 and 2, the security bag (12) includes external printing. The external printing provides instructions for use, as well as writing panels for documenting a chain of custody of the tamper evident bag (10) or the like.

In use, the security bag (12), having an opening (14) and two bag visual indicators (16) is provided. The seal (18), having a seal visual indicator (20) identical to the bag visual indicators (16), is affixed to the security bag (12), such that the transparent strip of the seal (18) overlays the first bag visual indicator (16a), allowing the bag visual indicator (16a) to be visible to the observer. The association between the bag - (16) and seal visual indicators (20) renders evidence of unauthorized access if the visual indicators (16, 20) are not correctly associated, i.e. identical. In this way, the tamper evident bag (10) provides the observer with the ability to clearly detect when unauthorized entry has occurred via the associated visual indicators (16, 20).

The inventor believes that the invention, as described and illustrated, provides a tamper evident bag, a tamper evident kit and a method of sealing a tamper evident bag which are novel and provide superior tamper evidence means.