US 5,180,200 AGranted

Rotatable seal

AssigneeE. J. Brooks Company

InventorsGeorge Georgopoulos, Richard Gnoinski

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Abstract

An improved security seal includes a plastic housing with a chamber open at one end and a plastic rotor which is insertable in the chamber. The housing wall contains bores aligned across the chamber and two annular grooves adjacent the chamber entrance. Tabs are formed adjacent the chamber entrance. The rotor has a bore and two annular ridges near its top. The ridges are relieved complementarily to the tabs. The rotor may be partially inserted in the housing by snapping the lower ridge into the upper groove and locating the tabs in the relieved areas to align all of the bores so that a seal wire may thereafter be inserted through the seal. The ridge-groove and tab-relief cooperation prevent inadvertent relative rotation of the rotor and housing and full insertion of the rotor. With a seal wire inserted, the rotor and housing are relatively rotated to wrap the wire about the rotor. The rotor is then fully inserted into the housing so each ridge snaps into one groove. This and the engagement of teeth on the bottom of the rotor and the chamber prevent removal of the rotor from the housing, relative rotor-housing rotation, and removal of the wire from the seal. Cowls may surround the housing bores to obviate insertion of an object and levering out of the rotor from the housing.

Claims22

Dependent claims

An improved seal of the type which includes a flexible wire insertable through an item to be secured, the seal being non-removably affixable to the wire to prevent opening operation of the item absent rendering the wire or the seal disintegral, such disintegrity providing a visual indication that such operation has been attempted or has occurred;

wherein the improvement comprises:
a walled housing defining a chamber and having first and second aligned bores formed therethrough on opposite sides of the chamber;
a rotor conformally receivable in the chamber and having a third bore therethrough;
first means
(a) for holding the rotor partially inserted in the chamber with the third bore coplanar with the first and second bores,
(b) for permitting the partially inserted held rotor and the housing to be easily relatively rotated about an axis generally transverse to the axis of the bores to align the coplanar bores for receipt of the wire through all thereof, and
(c) for permitting the partially inserted and held rotor and the housing to be relatively rotated after insertion of the wire through the bores so as to partially wrap and deform the received wire about the rotor;
second means for preventing inadvertant non-alignment of the bores prior to receipt of the wire in the bores and following alignment-effecting relative rotation of the partially inserted rotor and the housing until the rotor and the housing are relatively rotated to wrap and deform the wire;
and
third means for holding the rotor fully inserted in the chamber following wrapping and deformation of the wire and for preventing relative rotation of the fully inserted rotor and the housing.

7 more elements

wherein the improvement comprises:
a walled housing defining a chamber and having first and second aligned bores formed therethrough on opposite sides of the chamber;
a rotor conformally receivable in the chamber and having a third bore therethrough;
first means
(a) for simultaneously (i) holding the rotor partially inserted in the chamber with the third bore coplanar and aligned with the first and second bores for receipt of the wire through all thereof, and (ii) preventing inadvertant non-alignment of the third bore relative to the first and second bores, and
(b) for permitting the partially inserted and held rotor and the housing to be intentionally relatively rotated after insertion of the wire through the bores so as to partially wrap and deform the received wire about the rotor;
and
second means for holding the rotor fully inserted in the chamber following wrapping and deformation of the wire and for preventing relative rotation of the fully inserted rotor and the housing.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.