Pilfer and tamper resistant strapping of sheet material including currency notes

Abstract

A pressure sensitive removable adhesive is applied on ribbons used for wrapping the counted bundles of currency notes. The wrapping is in a way that a portion on the sides of the stack of notes will face enough amount of adhesive, to adhere each leave of the note with the ribbon strap, so that pulling out a note from a packed bundle will become difficult. Trie tape will have tear lines made of perforation or cuts so that it will disintegrate if opened. The adhesive can have chemical and/or colour coding for further security.

1 . A pilfer and tamper resistant ribbon strap for packaging sheet material including currency notes com p rising of:
 a removable ribbon strap ( 210 ,  220 ,  230 ) for wrapping bundles or stacks such as 100s of sheet material such as currency notes, the said strap having on at least a portion (B 1 , D 1 ) of its surface an adhesive such as a pressure sensitive removable adhesive to bind at least one of the sides of the leaves ( 250 ) in the said bundle or stack to secure the said sheets from being pilfered or tampered;   a perforated or weakened or punched tear lines on at least one of the said portion of the said strap, the said strap being disintegratable along at least one of the said lines, on at least one of the said sheets being pulled or removed from the said bundle or stack, or the strap being removed from the said bundle or stack.   
   
   
       2 . The ribbon strap according to  claim 1 , the said adhesive comprising an invisible chemical marker identifiable by chemical analysis, for marking authenticity of the sheets. 
   
   
       3 . The ribbon strap according to  claim 1 , the said adhesive comprising a colour visible under normal or specified conditions. 
   
   
       4 . The ribbon strap according to  claim 1  to  3 , the said adhesive, chemical or colour being in a gel form, in particular a thixotropic gel form such as a silica thixotrope. 
   
   
       5 . The ribbon strap according to  claim 4 , the said gel comprising polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinylpyrrolidone, and additives such as water, defoamers, plasticizer and presevative; the said gel formulated so as its viscosity breaking down due to pressure applied on pilfering the said bundle or stack. 
   
   
       6 . The ribbon strap of the preceding claims comprising a higher thickness of an adhesive on a portion (B 1 , D 1 ) of said strap than another portion of the said strap (A 1 , C 1 , E 1 ), the said higher thickness of said adhesive being capable of adhering the said at least one of the sides of the leaves ( 250 ) of the said stack or bundle of sheets. 
   
   
       7 . The ribbon strap according to the preceding claims, wherein the said ribbon strap is in the form of a continuous roll of an adhesive tape, applicable on a bundle or stack of sheets. 
   
   
       8 . A method of forming a pilfer and tamper resistant packing of a bundle or stack such as in 100s of a sheet material like currency notes comprising; wrapping the ribbon strap ( 210 ,  220 ,  230 ) around at least one axis of the bundle or the stack to adhere at least partially a portion of at least one of the sides ( 250 ) of each of the said stack, with a corresponding adhesive portion of the said ribbon, said adhesion being secured on applying a pressure or heat on the said adhesive portion in contact with the said side of the stack, the remaining portion remaining free for being counted by flipping the said notes in the said bundle. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 7  further comprising determining integrity of the said pilfer resistant pack by randomly selecting a sheet from a pack, applying a measured pulling force on the said note, measuring shift of the said note and determining a value of integrity of the said pack in relation to the degree of the shift of the said sheet. 
   
   
       10 . An apparatus for pilfer and resistant packaging of sheets as per  claims 7  comprising a gripping device, a bundling device, a measuring device, a wrapping device, a cutting device, a pressure or a heating device, a sensor device and an alarm device. 
   
   
       11 . An apparatus for testing the integrity of the pilfer and tamper resistant packs according to  claim 8  comprising; a random sample picking device, a pulling device, a measuring device to measure the shift, a calculation device to arrive at an integrity score and an alarm device to signal a negative score if any. 
   
   
       12 . The apparatus of  claims 9  and  10 , as a part of an automated printing and packing assembly wherein the said packaging and testing apparatus is integrated with a printing and packing line of sheets such as currency notes.