Abstract:
A passive RFID-based electronic seal having a lower body and an upper body, includes an upper, a central and a lower sleeve, two antennas, an RFID Chip, two sockets. When the first antenna of the upper body is inserted through a seal sleeve of the central sleeve of the lower body, a pawl suitably is placed at a middle of the first antenna gets stuck inside a pawl ring of the central sleeve of the lower body when passing through it and thus activates and completes the passive RFID-based electronic seal.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to a passive RFID-based electronic seal using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to secure and to identify containers or other objects.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Prior Art  
         [0004]     Nowadays in global container transportation, in order to easily identify the container and its cargo, and to keep the cargo from being stolen or being exchanged with something else, two kinds of seals, namely mechanical container seal and active type RFID-based electronic seal, are being used, wherein:  
         [0005]     1. Mechanical container seal: Presently mechanical container seals are applied to most containers. When the container is sealed up, it is not possible to break in the container unless using clipper to destroy the seal. Moreover, every seal contains a serial number corresponding to a specific container; when passing through customs, an inspector will check visually if the seal is destroyed, if so, then the container has been broken in. However, it is easy to counterfeit the mechanical container seal and the serial number and tends to undermine the security of the container.  
         [0006]     2. Active type RFID-based electronic seal: some containers use active type RFID-based electronic seals to avoid being forged and to provide better security. However, active type electronic seals are more expensive and their costs are a hundred times higher than those of mechanical container seals. Besides, high recycle costs related to electronic seals are also obstacles to widespread application.  
         [0007]     Therefore, the two devices mentioned above present several shortcomings to be overcome.  
         [0008]     In view of the above-described deficiency of prior-art seals, after years of constant effort in research, the inventor of this invention has consequently developed and proposed a passive RFID-based electronic seal.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     The present invention is to provide an electronic seal using passive type RFID chip to provide better protection in transportation due to the uniqueness and authenticity of RFID chip code, compared to the mechanical container seal. Also, the cost of passive type RFID chip is cheaper than that of active type RFID-based electronic seal, with no recycle cost. Therefore, it is advantageous to transportation service providers.  
         [0010]     Another, the present invention is to provide a RFID chip working with mechanically separated antenna to activate the RFID chip. When passing through a checkpoint, inspector can read the data inside the RFID chip using external device to check if the container has been broken in. Therefore, the passive RFID-based electronic seal is able to identify the container and other components to improve security and convenience during transportation.  
         [0011]     Still another, the present invention is to provide a simple-structure, low-cost and easy to operate passive RFID-based electronic seal.  
         [0012]     The passive RFID-based electronic seal disclosed herein has a lower body and an upper body, consisting of an upper, a central and a lower sleeve, two antennas, a RFID Chip, two sockets, a guide pin, a pawl ring and a seal sleeve. The lower sleeve has a slot placed within and a first inner screw thread placed at a front end of the slot, and a first spring, a retaining block and a first antenna installed sequentially. The first antenna is held against the retaining block to move back and forth inside the lower sleeve. The central sleeve has a step-like hole passing through it and a second inner screw thread placed at a front end of the central sleeve. A first outer screw thread is placed at a rear end of the central sleeve. A retaining plate, a second spring and a push ring are placed inside the central sleeve sequentially. The RFID chip has its two ends attached to a socket and placed inside the central sleeve, then a pipe placed at a rear end of the socket and a third spring and a first push tube placed sequentially inside the pipe, a guide pin passing through the middle of the first push tube and a retaining ring and a pawl ring placed at a front end of the guide pin. When every component mentioned above is placed in the step-like hole of the central sleeve, it is to screw the first outer screw thread at a rear end of the central sleeve to the first inner screw thread at a front end of the lower sleeve to form the lower body. The upper body comprises a seal pipe placed at a front end of the upper sleeve and a push tube inside the upper sleeve with a second antenna inserted therein, a pawl suitably placed at a middle of the second antenna. The the passive RFID-based electronic seal will not activate until the upper body and the lower body are combined together.  
         [0013]     Finally, inserting the second antenna of the upper sleeve through the hole of the central sleeve inside the lower body, when the pawl of the second antenna passing through the pawl ring, the upper sleeve and second antenna firmly gets stuck in the central sleeve for an aperture of the pawl ring being smaller than that of the pawl of the second antenna and held against a rear end of the seal sleeve from being pulled out. Transportation service providers can utilize the RFID chip technique and the structure disclosed in present invention to secure and to identify containers or other objects. Before passing through customs, inspector can read the data inside the RFID chip using external device to check if the container has been broken in. If the container has been broken in, then no data will be retrieved; on the other hand, if the data of the container can be obtained, then the container is allowed to pass through quickly. In this way, the proposed invention will improve the security and convenience in shipping the container and thus will be advantageous to transportation service providers.  
         [0014]     The features and advantages of the present invention will be fully understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]      FIG. 1  schematically illustrates a top decomposition view of the passive RFID-based electronic seal in the present invention;  
         [0016]      FIG. 2  schematically illustrates an integrated view of the passive RFID-based electronic seal in the present invention;  
         [0017]      FIG. 3A, 3B ,  3 C schematically illustrate the operation of the passive RFID-based electronic seal; and  
         [0018]      FIG. 4  schematically illustrates an implementation of the passive RFID-based electronic seal. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0019]      FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  schematically illustrate a top decomposition view and an integrated view of the passive RFID-based electronic seal in the present invention respectively. The passive RFID-based electronic seal comprises a lower body  100  including a lower sleeve  1  and a central sleeve  2 .  
         [0020]     The lower sleeve  1  has a slot  11  placed within and a inner screw thread  111  placed at a front end of slot  11 , and a spring  12 , a retaining block  13  and a  14  antenna placed sequentially. The antenna  14  is held against retaining block  13  to move back and forth inside the slot  11  of lower sleeve  1 . The antenna  14  provides transmission/reception of radio waves.  
         [0021]     The central sleeve  2  has a step-like hole  21  passing through it and an inner screw thread  211  placed at a front end of central sleeve  2 . An outer screw thread  212  is placed at a rear end of central sleeve  2 , and a retaining plate  22 , a spring  23  and a push ring  24  placed inside central sleeve  2  sequentially. A RFID chip  25  has its two ends attached to a socket  251  and placed inside central sleeve  2 , then a pipe  26  is placed at a front end of socket  251  and a spring  261  and a push tube  262  placed sequentially inside pipe  26 . A guide pin  263  passes through the middle of push tube  262  and a retaining ring  27  and a pawl ring  28  is placed at a front end of guide pin  263 . When every component mentioned above is placed in the step-like hole  21  of central sleeve  2 , springs  23 ,  261  inside central sleeve  2  lets every component in hole  21  of central sleeve  2  to move back and forth, then a seal sleeve  29  screws to inner screw thread  211  of a front end of central sleeve  2  to prevent every component in central sleeve  2  breaking away from the front end of central sleeve  2 . A hole  291  is placed in the middle of seal sleeve  29  passing through it. Finally, it is to screw outer screw thread  212  at a rear end of central sleeve  2  to inner screw thread  111  to form the lower body  100 . The RFID chip  25  records data, responds to query, encodes data during transmission and provides digital/analog data conversion. The socket  251  connects RFID chip is for turning on RFID chip;  
         [0022]     An upper body  200  comprises a seal pipe  3 , an upper sleeve  4 , a push block  5  and an antenna  6 . The seal pipe  3  has an inner screw thread  31  placed within. The upper sleeve  4  has an outer screw thread  41  placed at a front end of it. A step-like hole  42  passes through upper sleeve  4 , then antenna  6  is inserted into hole  42  and sealed at the front end of upper sleeve  4 . Push block  5  is placed inside hole  42  and placed in front of antenna  6 . Screwing the outer screw thread  41  of upper sleeve  4  to inner screw thread  31  of seal pipe  3  is to prevent antenna  6  and push block  5  from separating apart from each other and to form upper body  200 . A cone-like pawl  61  is suitably placed at a middle of antenna  6 . The antenna  6  of the upper sleeve  4  inserts through hole  291  of central sleeve  29  inside lower body  100 . When pawl  61  of antenna  6  passes through pawl ring  28 , upper sleeve  4  and antenna  6  firmly got stuck in central sleeve  2  for an aperture of pawl ring  28  being smaller than that of pawl  61  of antenna  6 , and held against a rear end of seal sleeve  29  from being pulled out. The antenna  6  provides transmission/reception of radio waves.  
         [0023]      FIG. 3A, 3B ,  3 C schematically illustrate the operation of the passive RFID-based electronic seal. Firstly assemble the upper, central and lower sleeve  4 ,  2 ,  1  respectively, then interlock central and lower sleeve together to form lower body  100  (as illustrated in  FIG. 3A ). Then combine seal pipe  3 , upper sleeve  4 , push block  5  and antenna  6  to form upper body  200 , and to insert the tip of antenna  6  of upper body  200  into the hole  291  of seal sleeve  29  in front of central sleeve  2  of the lower body  100 . At this moment, antenna  6  pushes guide pin  263  to slide backwards and to let guide pin  263  to contact with socket  251  of RFID chip  25 . For an aperture of pawl ring  28  being smaller than that of pawl  61  of antenna  6 , upper sleeve  4  and antenna  6  firmly gets stuck in central sleeve  2  and held against a rear end of seal sleeve  29  from being pulled out. When antenna  6  of upper body  200  inserts deep further, it will push every components in central and lower sleeve  2 ,  1  simultaneously, and springs  12 ,  23 ,  261  of central and lower sleeve  2 ,  1  will be squeezed as well, and antenna  14  of lower sleeve  1  will make contact with another socket  251  of RFID chip  25  (as illustrated in  FIG. 3B ). Finally, when antenna  14 ,  6  of upper sleeve  4  and lower sleeve  1  both connect to socket  251  and turn on the RFID chip, no further insertion movement will be asserted. Meanwhile every component of upper, central and lower sleeve  4 ,  2 ,  1  will return to its original position due to the restoring force of springs  12 ,  23 ,  261 .  
         [0024]      FIG. 4  schematically illustrates an implementation of the passive RFID-based electronic seal. The present invention uses container  7  as an example. When the fastener plate  72  of bolt body  71  of the container  7  is placed on a first and second locking member of container with locking holes  731 ,  741  placed within. At this moment, place lower body  100  consisted of central and lower sleeve  2 ,  1  under the lower end of locking hole  741  of the second locking member; guide upper body  200  through locking hole  731  of first locking member  73  and locking hole  741  of the second locking member to combine upper sleeve  4  of upper body  200  with central and lower sleeve  2 ,  1  of lower body  100  to become one unit and finish the locking movement. In the meantime, socket  25  of the electronic seal becomes operable. Inspector can utilize the technique of RFID chip  25  and the structure disclosed in present invention to identify if the container  7  has been broken in before passing through customs. If the container has been broken in, then no data can be retrieved and it can be judged that the container has been broken in.  
         [0025]     The advantages of the passive RFID-based electronic seal disclosed in the present invention are:  
         [0026]     1. The present invention provides a passive RFID-based electronic seal using passive type RFID chip to provide better protection in transportation due to the uniqueness and authenticity of RFID chip code, compared to the mechanical container seal. Also, the cost of passive type RFID chip is cheaper than that of active type RFID-based electronic seal, with no recycle cost. Therefore, it is advantageous to transportation service providers.  
         [0027]     2. The present invention provides an RFID chip working with mechanically separated antenna to activate the RFID chip. When passing through a checkpoint, inspector can read the data inside the RFID chip using external reading device to check if the container has been broken in. Therefore, the passive RFID-based electronic seal is able to help make a container or other components more secure and convenient during transportation.  
         [0028]     3. The present invention disclosed a simple-structure, low-cost and easy to operate passive RFID-based electronic seal.  
         [0029]     Many changes and modifications in the above described embodiment of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.