WO2008100236A2

WO2008100236A2 - Coding and tracing system with input for the liquid containers

Info

Publication number: WO2008100236A2
Application number: PCT/TR2008/000011
Authority: WO
Inventors: Emir Koyluoglu
Original assignee: Ase Plastik Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi
Priority date: 2007-02-15
Filing date: 2008-02-13
Publication date: 2008-08-21
Also published as: WO2008100236A3; TR200700901A2

Abstract

The invention is the coding and tracing system for the refutable recycled liquid containers (1) following the production of the same, comprising the process steps of applying in the code processing unit (B) the code including the information about the container (1) on a code zone (1.1.1) located on said liquid container's (1) body (1.1) by means of one of the marking, relief, embossed finish, scraping or notching methods; in the recording unit (C), obtaining the image of the code for said container (1) at any stage by an imaging component and saving said image to the computer; processing-separating the image saved to the computer and reading the code by a computer program in the code processing and reading unit (D); inputting the information about the production, filling, storage, transport or sale of said container (1) to the computer in the data input unit (E); and in the tracing unit (F), reading again the code for said container (1) to enable the container (1) to be traced in the system.

Description

CODING AND TRACING SYSTEM WITH INPUT FOR THE LIQUID CONTAINERS

Technical Field

The invention relates to the containers used for the purpose of transporting and storing the liquids.

The invention relates particularly to the coding and tracing system, which is applied to perform the recording and tracing in any kind of the refillable liquid containers used to transport the drinking waters.

Background Art

Today there is a need to be able to trace the refillable drinking water containers (demijohns) during their use. There exist some applications aiming at said purpose. One of these involves sticking a label on the surface of the bottle, on which label a barcode for the bottle is printed, and enabling to trace the bottle by reading the barcode. The disadvantage of this method is that the label leads to an extra cost and there is the possibility for the barcode to become impossible to read as a result of the label being detached or becoming worn out due to external factors during use.

The second alternative method in use today involves sticking a label on the surface of the bottle, on which label a radio frequency chip (RFID, radio frequency identification) is placed, digitally inputting the desired information about the bottle to said chip, and then tracing the bottle by inputting the information pertaining to use during the use thereof and reading the same information. This method also has the disadvantage in that the attachment of a chip to every bottle leads to a very significant extra cost and that the chip may become impossible to read as a result of the label being detached or worn out due to external factors during the use of the bottle.

Again today, the document patent no. FR2885248 titled "Authentication of a batch/container and/or finished articles to e.g. receive a drug and vaccine, comprises generating identification code, sparing in/on the container wail and a marking zone, and reproducing the code" relates to a code forming system on the containers for the purpose of authentication. Marking/coding zone comprises a cavity formed for this purpose at the interior of the container.

Also today, the patent document no. JP59191676 titled "CONTAINER CODE IDENTIFYING METHOD" comprises the method for identifying the code used for the containers.

Also, the patent document no. JP1232489 titled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR READING BAR CODE" relates to the apparatus and method used for reading the barcode.

Moreover, the patent document no. GB2005885 titled "Bottle sorting by code recognition" relates to the code recognition for sorting the container used.

Also today, the patent document no. JP5000821 titled "MANUFACTURE AND SELECTION OF BOTTLE WITH BAR CODE" relates to the manufacture and selection of the containers, especially the bottles, with barcode. In all the similar documents, the use of extra material and procedures leads to an increase in the cost.

As a result, the need for the coding and tracing system applied to be able to record and trace any kind of refillable liquid containers used to transport the drinking waters and the inadequacy of the existing solutions have made it necessary to provide an improvement in the relevant art.

Object of the Invention

In order to eliminate the disadvantages in the current state of the art, an object of the invention is to eliminate the problems like the detaching and wearing out of the labels, owing to the fact that the coding is applied permanently on the surface of the bottle, instead of being printed on any label, etc. present on the bottle.

Another object of the invention is to develop a special computer program to allow the code on the bottles to be read in a reliable manner especially for the transparent bottles, and thus to eliminate the problem of inability to read the code. Another object of the invention is to ensure that there is no extra cost added for the production of the bottle, since there is no need for a label or another expendable supply.

Another object of the invention is to trace in the computer environment any information including the date of production of the bottle, producer lot number, last fill date, the number of times the filling was carried out, the depots, dealers, distributors and end users to whom the bottle reached along with corresponding dates of arrival and the dates of return, owing to the process of coding the bottles.

Another object of the invention is to enable the companies using the refillable liquid bottles to carry out the inventory follow-up, dealer and distributor performances and the tracing of the bottles within the system in a healthy manner.

Still another object of the invention is to make it possible to determine the person to last use a bottle which has been used in a way not compliant with the purpose thereof and to indemnify the losses accrued due to the discharge of the bottle.

Still another object of the invention is to enable the rapid determination of which bottle is currently by which dealer, depot, distributor or customer and the rapid collection of the problematic products back from the system, in case the presence of a quality problem is detected possible to arise during the filling procedure particularly for those bottles that contact the food stuff.

Still another object of the invention is to minimize the damages that may be led to by the quality problems likely to threaten the human health.

The structural and characteristic features and all the advantages of the invention will be clearly understood from the enclosed drawings and the detailed description where the reference is being made to said drawings, and therefore, the evaluation must be made taking into account said drawings and the detailed description.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1a is the general view of the liquid container. Figure 1b the partial top view of the zone where the code is applied on the container body.

Figure 1c is the side sectional view of the zone where the code is applied. Figure 2 is the view of the flow diagram for the code processing system. .

Reference Numbers 1. Liquid container 1.1 Body

1.1.1 Code zone A. Producti on unit

B. C ode processing unit

C. Recording unit

D. Code processing and reading unit

E. Data in put unit F. Tracing unit

Detailed Description of the Invention

The invention relates to applying a permanent code unique to a bottle on a code zone (1.1.1) at any location on the interior or exterior surface of the body (1.1) by means of one of the marking, relief, embossed finish, scraping or notching methods, during or after the production of the transparent refillable recycled liquid containers (1) made of any plastic material, especially the bottles, and to trace the said bottle in the system by reading said code at various stages during the use of the bottle.

This structure has been developed in response to a need arising to trace especially the drinking water demijohns, one of the refillable liquid containers (1), during the use of the same. Said method may be used for any kind of transparent/nontransparent and refillable liquid container (1) made of plastic material.

As seen in Figure 2, the invention comprises the following process steps:

- Producing the liquid container (1) in the production unit (A),

- applying in the code processing unit (B) the code including the information about the container (1) on a code zone (1.1.1) located on the container's body (1.1) by means of one of the marking, relief, embossed finish, scraping or notching methods,

- obtaining an image of the code for the container (1) by means of a digital camera at any stage and recording said image to the computer in the recording unit (C),

- in the code processing and reading unit (D), processing the image containing a code for the transparent/nontransparent liquid container (1) saved to the computer by means of a computer program, and thus reading the code in a healthy manner by separating it from the other components detected on the image (e.g. stains on the container or the bottle, liquid or foreign matter inside the transparent/nontransparent container or bottle, other writings or details applied on said zone of the container or the bottle),

- inputting the information regarding the production, filling, storage, transport or sale of the transparent/nontransparent container (1) to the computer in the data input unit (E),

- in the tracing unit (F), tracing the code for the container by means of digital camera at any stage and reading the code again to enable the container (1) to be traced in the system.

In said production unit (A), especially the containers (1) made of plastics are produced. Said containers (1) are particularly in the form of bottles or demijohns. In the code processing unit (B), the information pertaining to the product is applied on a code zone (1.1.1) on the product with the containers (1) produced in said production unit (A). Such information, which was added by means of a separate label or band according to the prior art, now may be applied without the need for a separate material and later owing to the present invention.

After the step of application in said code processing unit (B), the applied codes are recorded by the recording unit (C) for the purpose of tracing. Digital cameras are used during said recording. The applied code is recorded with the image obtained by means of the cameras. The recording process is carried out by means of the computer. The recorded information in the form of a code pertaining to the product is separated and read again in the code processing and reading unit (D), so that the product may be traced. The separation process is carried out by means of a computer program. At this stage, the codes detected by obtaining the image of the same using the cameras are converted by the program from the image form into the data form. The data conversion is provided by means of the image decoding.

The separated and re-read code along with such information as the container (1) production, storage, transport and sale are transferred to the system by means of the data input unit (E). Said transfer process is performed by means of the computer. The information input to the system is traced by means of the tracing unit (F). Said tracing process is carried out by means of the digital camera and the computer. After the relevant code is traced and detected by the digital camera, it is re-read by means of the computer. In this way, it is possible to control and trace the product at any stage owing to the code provided following the production. In addition, the advantages are provided with regard to recycling.

The protective scope of the present application is determined in the part of claims, and the scope may by no means be limited to the description above provided only by way of example. It is obvious that a person skilled in the art may also provide the innovative step of the invention using the similar embodiments and/or apply this embodiment to other fields with similar purpose used in the relevant art. Consequently, such embodiments would obviously lack the criteria of innovative step and particularly, exceeding the known state of the art.

Claims

1. The invention is the coding and tracing system for any kind of refillable recycled plastic liquid containers (1) following the production of the same, wherein, it comprises the following process steps: - Permanently applying in the code processing unit (B) the code including the information about the container (1) on a code zone (1.1.1) located on said liquid container's (1) body (1.1) by means of one of the marking, relief, embossed finish, scraping or notching methods,

- in the recording unit (C), obtaining the image of the code for said container (1) at any stage by an imaging component and saving said image to the computer,

- processing-separating the image saved to the computer and reading the code by means of a computer program, in the code processing and reading unit (D), - inputting the information about the production, filling, storage, transport or sale of said container (1 ) to the computer in the data input unit (E),

- in the tracing unit (F), tracing the code for said liquid container (1) by means of an imaging component at any stage and reading the code again by the computer to enable the container (1) to be traced in the system.

2. The system according to claim 1 characterized in that the imaging component is the digital camera.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein, said liquid container (1) is made of transparent plastic material.

4. The invention is the coding and tracing system for the refillable recycled plastic liquid containers (1), after the production of the same in the production unit (A), wherein, it comprises; — the code processing unit (B), where the code including the information about the container (1) is applied on a code zone (1.1.1) located on said liquid container's (1) body (1.1) by means of one of the marking, relief, embossed finish, scraping or notching methods, — the recording unit (C), where the image of the code for said container (1) is obtained at any stage by an imaging component and saved to the computer,

— the code processing and reading unit (D), where the image saved to the computer is processed-separated and the code is read by means of a computer program,

— the data input unit (E), where the information about the production, filling, storage, transport or sale of said container (1) is input to the computer, — the tracing unit (F), where the code for said liquid container (1) is traced by means of an imaging component at any stage and the code is read again by the computer to enable the container (1) to be traced in the system.