US 4,149,738 AGranted

Tamper-proof page assembly

AssigneeMilton Wilkow

InventorsBill Illos, Robert D. Farkas

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Abstract

A tamper-proof page assembly utilizes a ribbon to string the assembly together by passing the ribbon through holes in the pages of the assembly. The ends of the ribbon are sealed to a cover page thereof with a thermosetting plastic slug. Removal of the slug leaves tell-tale marks on, or destroys the integrity of, the surface of the cover page to which it is adhered. The ribbon material is chosen such that it melts or disintegrates immediately above the chosen curing or setting temperature of the slug. Attempting to tamper with the seal by heating the slug above the curing temperature destroys the ribbon and additionally causes an increase in the mechanical hardness of the slug. Additional tamper detecting apparatuses include sequential numbers on pages, soluble indicia patterns on the pages for use with an ink pen containing an appropriate solvent, laminated pages, and pages having polished surfaces. The page assembly can be clipped into a ring binder when the pages are loosely strung together by the ribbon.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A bound booklet comprising a plurality of paper-like sheets, each sheet of said plurality of sheets having at least one hole therein, said plurality of sheets being disposed in stacked overlying relationship such that said at least one hole in said each sheet is aligned with said at lease one hole of the remaining sheets of said plurality of sheets, said plurality of sheets having a topmost sheet and a lowermost sheet, an elongated flexible ribbon, said ribbon having a first portion and a pair of second portions and a third portion and a pair of fourth portions disposed along the length thereof, said first portion of said ribbon passing through said at least one hole in said each sheet, said ribbon having a pair of ends, said pair of ends of said ribbon being disposed over said topmost sheet of said plurality of sheets, a thermosetting plastic sheet, said thermosetting plastic sheet being disposed bonded to said pair of second portions of said ribbon, said pair of second portions of said ribbon being located adjacent said pair of ends thereof, a portion of said thermosetting sheet being disposed bonded to the outermost surface of said topmost sheet whereby said plurality of sheets are permanently bound together by said ribbon.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.