| 摘要 |
<p>A seal of the type resembling a padlock and comprising a plastic housing having two portions joined only by a frangible portion, each of the housing portions having an aperture for receiving an end of a shackle. In the illustrated and preferred embodiment, the weakened portion is disposed at the bottom of a narrow elongated recess formed by adjacent housing portions, to minimize the effect of exposure to sunlight on the weakened portion. The seal can be easily fractured along the weakened portion, unintentionally, by unauthorized persons trying to remove the seal without destroying it, and can be easily fractured intentionally by authorized service personnel to facilitate removal. In an embodiment of the invention in which the shackle is a wire having reverse bent end portions, which end portions are each maintained in a flexed condition, when assembled into the housing opening, and in which the two housing portions are connected only by a centrally disposed thin web, attempts to remove an end portion will cause the extreme end of the reverse bent portion to pierce through the wall of the housing and start a fracture in the thin connecting web, which provides evidence of tampering, and often causes the web to break, allowing the housing portions to separate, giving obvious evidence of tampering.</p> |
