Method and device for corrupting bar codes on articles prior to packing
AssigneeThe Coca-Cola Company
InventorStephen A. Kay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and device for corrupting bar codes on articles and for packing the articles conveys the articles from an orienter to a packer. Each of the articles has a bar code which is positioned by the orienter to face a marking device. The orienter can be a linear device or a carousel device with a rotatable table. The marking device is either an ink jet or laser which will place a pattern through the bar code of each article. The packer will place a plurality of the articles in an open ended receptacle such as a carton. Some of the bar codes will be visible through the open end of the receptacle. Due to the mark through these bar codes, however, these exposed bar codes cannot be read by an optical scanner.
Claims22
A method for corrupting bar codes on articles and for packaging the articles comprising the steps of:
- providing a plurality of articles, each of the articles having a bar code thereon;
- conveying the articles in a predetermined direction;
- orienting each of the articles to position the bar code at a predetermined location;
- directly marking through the bar code on each article;
- packaging a plurality of articles in a receptacle with the bar codes of at least some of the articles being visible outside the receptacle;
- and
- preventing optical reading of the bar code of each article as a result of the step of marking, the bar codes which are visible in the receptacle being unreadable by an optical scanner.
A device for corrupting bar codes on articles and for packing the articles, each of the articles having a bar code thereon, the device comprising:
- a conveyor for conveying the articles in a predetermined direction;
- means for directly marking through a bar code of each article;
- an orienter for arranging each article such that the bar code thereon faces the means for marking;
- and
- a packer for placing the articles in a receptacle with the bar codes of at least some of the articles being visible outside the receptacle;
- the conveyor conveying the articles from the orienter to the packer and the bar codes on the articles marked by the means for marking being unreadable by an optical scanner such that bar codes visible in the receptacle are prevented from being optically read.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.