Reusable Bolt Electronic Seal Module with GPS/Cellular Phone Communications & Tracking System

• US 20110273852A1
• Filed: 05/18/2011
• Published: 11/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: E J Brooks Company
• Original Assignee: E J Brooks Company
• Inventors: Dreisbach, Richard, Lundberg, George, Debrody, Robert, Ruth, Donald
• Granted Patent: US 9,472,125 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/747
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 39/005 Locks with means for tracking the location of locked items, e.g. freight containers
• CPC Class Codes: E05B 39/02 with destructible seal closures or paper closures
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/03 of security seals means for indicating unauthorised opening of container closures B65D, e.g. B65D27/30, B65D55/02; theft deterrent tags E05B73/0017
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0317 having bolt like sealing means means for preventing relative axial movement of a pin, spigot, shaft or the like and a member surrounding it F16B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0335 using RFID tags
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0376 using a special technique to detect tampering, e.g. by ultrasonic or optical means

Abstract

An electronics circuit first portion is entirely within an electronics module housing, sensing and transmitting a tamper condition of a normally locked bolt. The bolt comprises a second portion of the electronics circuit. The seal electronics circuit first portion comprises a seal monitoring, tracking and communications system. The bolt passes through the module housing and is secured with a locking device external the module such that the module is reusable when the bolt is severed. The bolt and module housing include a cooperative contamination sealing arrangement for sealing the bolt to the housing. The electronics circuit first portion includes RFID tamper detection circuitry, GPS, Wi Fi and cell phone communication and tracking technologies. The cell phone technology tracks the seal using cell phone towers and Wi Fi access points and communicates the seal tracked position and seal status data to a cell phone communications center.

Claims

1. An electronic security bolt seal with a reusable electronics module for locking a hasp comprising:

an electronics circuit having first and second portions;

an electronic module comprising a housing having a cavity, the first portion of the electronics circuit being entirely in the cavity for monitoring the tamper status of the seal;

a bolt having a head and an elongated shank engaged with the housing cavity, the bolt including the second portion of the electronics circuit engaged with the first portion of the electronics circuit for completing the electronics circuit and for engaging the hasp to be locked;

a bolt locking device engaged with and locked to the bolt external the module to secure the module to the bolt in the locked state and to lock the bolt to the hasp, the electronics circuit for sensing the integrity of the engaged locked bolt manifesting the seal tamper state, the locked bolt having an exposed region external the module for selective severing of the bolt at the exposed region to interrupt the electronics circuit second portion while unlocking the seal from the hasp and release the module from the bolt for subsequent reuse of the module; and

a tracking and communications system employing the electronics circuit first portion attached to the module for communicating the seal monitored status and the seal'"'"'s position to a communications center.

2. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the tracking and communications system comprises a GPS system comprising a GPS receiving unit coupled to the electronics circuit first portion for receiving and processing seal positioning signals from GPS satellites.

3. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the tracking and communications system comprises a cellular phone communications unit coupled to the electronics circuit first portion and which unit communicates with a communications center via cellular towers.

4. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the tracking and communications system detects and tracks the geographic position of the seal via a cellular phone tracking system coupled to the circuit first portion, the tracking and communications system comprising a cellular phone communications unit which sends seal status data from the circuit first portion and seal tracking data from the tracking system to a communications center via the communication unit and cellular towers.

5. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the seal tracking and communications system comprises a GPS tracking system and a cellular phone tracking system coupled to the electronics circuit first portion and a controller for selecting one of the GPS and cellular phone tracking systems to track the position of the seal.

6. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 5 wherein the communications system includes a cellular phone communications unit for communicating to a communications center via cellular towers.

7. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the seal tracking and communications system comprises a cellular phone tracking system coupled to the electronics circuit first portion, the cellular phone tracking system comprising an electronic arrangement for inputting cellular tower location data identifying the location of each of a plurality of towers adjacent to the seal for computing the location of the seal by triangulation computation of the inputted plurality of tower location data.

8. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the seal tracking and communications system comprises a cellular phone tracking system coupled to the electronics circuit first portion, the cellular phone tracking system comprising an electronic arrangement for inputting Wi Fi access points location data identifying the location of each of a plurality of Wi Fi access points adjacent to the seal for computing the location of the seal by triangulation computation of the inputted plurality of access points location data.

9. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the seal tracking and communications system comprises a cellular phone tracking system coupled to the electronics circuit first portion, the cellular phone tracking system comprising an electronic arrangement for inputting Wi Fi access points and cellular tower locations data identifying the location of each of a plurality of towers and Wi Fi access points adjacent to the seal for computing the location of the seal by triangulation computation of the inputted plurality of tower locations and Wi Fi access points data.

10. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the tracking and communications system comprises a GPS system comprising a GPS receiving unit coupled to the electronics circuit first portion for receiving seal positioning signals from GPS satellites, the electronics circuit first portion for processing the received GPS positioning signals to track the position of the seal.

11. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt includes first and second electrically conductive members in electrical isolation from each other forming the second circuit portion and ohmically engaging the electronics circuit first portion to form a circuit path to the electronics circuit first portion.

12. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt passes completely through the module, the bolt and module including a contamination sealing arrangement for cooperatively sealing the module cavity from ambient region contamination external the cavity.

13. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt is dimensioned to pass through the housing and includes a tip portion protruding from the housing, the tip portion and the locking device being arranged to lock the locking device to the tip portion, further including a contamination sealing arrangement for sealing the module cavity from contamination from the external ambient region in cooperation with the bolt.

14. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt is dimensioned to pass through the housing in a compartment in the cavity from an ingress first aperture and egress the housing at a second aperture, the bolt including a tip portion protruding from the housing through the second aperture, the tip portion and the locking device being arranged to lock the locking device to the tip portion, further including a contamination sealing arrangement comprising a grommet on the housing at the second aperture and a sealing element attached to the bolt for sealing the first aperture when the bolt is in a position for being locked, the grommet and sealing element for sealing the module compartment from ambient external contamination.

15. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt has a tip region, and includes a first sealing element intermediate the bolt head and the tip region, the housing has a second sealing element for engaging the bolt at the tip region.

16. The electronic security bolt seal of claim 1 wherein the bolt has a tip region, and includes a first tapered sealing element surrounding the bolt at a location intermediate the bolt head and the tip region, the housing having a second sealing element for engaging the bolt at the tip region, the module being secured in a region that is generally between the first and second sealing elements.