METHODS FOR QUALITY CONTROL
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for quality control of surface coating of a product in a manufacturing process comprising the steps of:
- a) associating a population of entities with coating medium of the product, wherein the counts or relative counts of entities correlate with deposition of at least one coating medium on the article;
b) analyzing the product to obtain a measured value of the counts, relative counts, and/or uniformity of deposition of a least one such population of entities;
c) comparing the measured counts, relative counts, and/or uniformity of deposition of entities with a corresponding expected counts, relative count, and/or uniformity of deposition acceptance value; and
d) releasing products manufactured by the manufacturing process when the measured value is within and acceptance range of the expected value.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to method for quality control of surface coated objects used independently or in conjunction with product authentication; methods for assuring proper product handling; methods for assuring that product contents'"'"' match product'"'"'s label, comprising the use of microparticulate taggants having different detectable physical properties, wherein each combination of properties is used as an encoding bit to create codes.
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Citations
92 Claims
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1. A method for quality control of surface coating of a product in a manufacturing process comprising the steps of:
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a) associating a population of entities with coating medium of the product, wherein the counts or relative counts of entities correlate with deposition of at least one coating medium on the article;
b) analyzing the product to obtain a measured value of the counts, relative counts, and/or uniformity of deposition of a least one such population of entities;
c) comparing the measured counts, relative counts, and/or uniformity of deposition of entities with a corresponding expected counts, relative count, and/or uniformity of deposition acceptance value; and
d) releasing products manufactured by the manufacturing process when the measured value is within and acceptance range of the expected value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A method for quality control and release of products from a manufacturing process, comprising the steps of:
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a) associating a population of entities with a product during the manufacturing process, wherein the population of entities comprises at least two distinct clusters of entities having detectable counts or relative counts of entities per cluster, wherein a signature array that comprises information about the counts or relative counts of entities of the at least two distinct clusters of entities is recorded;
b) analyzing the product to obtain a measured signature array of the population of entities associated with the product;
c) comparing the measured signature array with that which is expected based on the recorded information; and
d) releasing products manufactured by the manufacturing process when the measured signature array matches that which is expected. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A method for assuring the proper handling of a product comprising the steps of:
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a) associating a population of entities with a product during a manufacturing process, wherein the population of entities comprises at least two distinct clusters of entities having detectable counts or relative counts of entities per cluster and wherein the counts or relative counts of entities within at least one of said clusters changes in response to exposure of the product to an environmental stimulus;
b) analyzing the product to obtain a measured value of the counts of said cluster(s) that change(s) in response to exposure of the product to an environmental stimulus;
c) comparing the measured counts with a corresponding expected counts acceptance value; and
d) releasing products manufactured by the manufacturing process when the measured value is within an acceptable range of the expected value. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A method for minimizing the occurrence of packaging mismatch errors comprising the steps of:
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a) associating a population of entities with a product label to be applied to a container during a manufacturing process, wherein the population of entities comprises at least two distinct clusters of entities having detectable counts or relative counts of entities per cluster, wherein a signature array that comprises information about the counts or relative counts of entities of the at least two distinct clusters of entities is recorded;
b) determining that the signature array is consistent with proper match between the label and the container; and
c) rejecting labeled containers that are determined to be mismatched. - View Dependent Claims (62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92)
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Specification