Supercritical fluid cleaning of banknotes and secure documents
AssigneeSpectra Systems Corporation
InventorNabil M. Lawandy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for cleaning a secure instrument, such as a banknote, including a substrate, visual data and a security feature, including exposing the secure instrument to a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the substrate and not compromise the security feature and the visual data, wherein to clean the substrate includes to remove one or more substances from the substrate into the supercritical fluid. The substances removed from the substrate may include contaminants, dirt, sebum and pathogens.
Claims69
A method for cleaning a secure instrument including a substrate, visual data and a security feature, comprising:
- exposing the secure instrument to a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the substrate and not compromise the security feature and the visual data;
- wherein to clean the substrate includes to remove one or more substances from the substrate into the supercritical fluid.
A method for cleaning a plurality of secure instruments, each secure instrument including a substrate, visual data and a security feature, comprising:
- sorting the secure instruments based on one or more predetermined criteria;
- exposing the secure instruments to a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the substrates and not compromise the security features and the visual data of the secure instruments;
- wherein to clean the substrates includes to remove one or more substances from the substrates into the supercritical fluid.
An apparatus for cleaning a secure instrument including a substrate, visual data and a security feature, comprising:
- a chamber containing a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the substrate and not compromise the security feature and the visual data of the secure instrument;
- and
- a structure for holding the secure instrument in the chamber so that the supercritical fluid circulates through and around the secure instrument to remove one or more substances into the supercritical fluid.
An apparatus for cleaning a plurality of secure instruments, each secure instrument including a substrate, visual data and a security feature, comprising:
- a sorter for determining whether the secure instruments have one or more properties that satisfy one or more predetermined criteria;
- a structure for holding secure instruments that satisfy the one or more predetermined criteria;
- and
- a chamber containing a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the substrates and not compromise the security features and the visual data of the secure instruments;
- wherein the structure for holding secure instruments is capable of being disposed in the chamber so that the supercritical fluid circulates through and around the secure instruments to remove one or more substances into the supercritical fluid.
A method for restoring a material containing at least one of an image, paint textures, and print, comprising:
- exposing the material to a supercritical fluid at a temperature and a pressure and for a duration sufficient to clean the material and not compromise the image, paint textures, or print;
- wherein to clean the material includes to remove one or more substances from the material into the supercritical fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.