Appeal No. 94-0792
Application No. 07/943,795
subsequent to the final rejection. See Supplemental Reply
Brief, Paper No. 15.
Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on appeal
and reads as follows:
1. A process for recovering ,-caprolactam from nylon
6 carpet, comprising:
a) providing a carpet made from nylon 6 fibers and
having a backing containing one or more non-nylon 6 materials
of polypropylene, jute, latex and fillers to a mechanical
separator to prepare scrap containing both nylon 6 and non-
nylon 6 backing materials, and a first auxiliary stream;
b) feeding the scrap from the separator to a
deploymerizing reactor to produce an ,-caprolactam containing
distillate and a second auxiliary stream;
c) separating ,-caprolactam in the distillate from
other volatiles therein; and
d) purifying the ,-caprolactam obtained after
separating so that the ,-caprolactam is of sufficient purity
for reuse as a starting material for nylon 6 intended for use
in carpet fiber.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Norris 4,028,159 Jun. 07,
1977
Dmitrieva et al. (Dmitrieva), “Regeneration of ,-Caprolactam
from Wastes in the Manufacture of Polycaproamide Fibres and
Yarns,” Khimicheskie Volokna, Vol. 17, No. 4, (July-August,
1985),
2
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