Identification tag adapted to be clipped to a shaft
AssigneePluritag Inc.
InventorsYannick Le Devehat, Bernard Lefebvre
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The identification tag is provided in a general horseshoe shape with resilient prongs engageable to a shaft such as a shaft of a pulley-mounted hook at a beginning of a processing line. The identification tag can be used to track a product throughout the processing line.
Claims8
An identification tag clippable to a shaft into a clipped position, the identification tag comprising a body having a slender, horseshoe-like shape with two prongs protruding from a base to corresponding tips, a substrate with computer-readable identification data stored therein, the substrate being embedded within the base, the two prongs having a neck area where the distance between the two prongs is smaller than a diameter of the shaft when in the clipped position, and a broader shaft area located between the two prongs, between the neck area and the base, where the shaft is received when in the clipped position, the body having an elasticity allowing the two prongs to spread apart from one another upon application of an external force to allow the shaft thereacross, into the shaft area, and to spring back toward one another thereafter to trap the shaft in the shaft area;
- wherein the substrate is provided as part of a RFID chip, the body further having a metal support having a seat area receiving the RFID chip in the base, and a plastic moulding encapsulating the RFID chip and in which the RFID chip and the seat area are embedded;
- wherein the prongs are provided in the form of extensions of the metal support which protrude from the plastic moulding;
- and wherein the metal support has a protrusion on each prong, at the neck area, and a protrusion protruding from the plastic moulding at the base, the protrusions being interspaced from one another along the horse-shoe like shape and protruding in a radially-inward direction from a remainder of the body to form a snug abutting engagement with the shaft for the identification to rotate with the shaft during use, while leaving a radial spacing between the remainder of the body and the shaft when in the clipped position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.