Appeal No. 96-3465 Application No. 07/848,856 Claim 3 Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Colombo in view of Young or Tumminia. We reverse this rejection. Claim 3 recites a method for sealing an open end of cylindrically formed material comprising (1) inserting a heating element having a plurality of heating parts into the open end; (2) expanding the heating parts into contact with an interior surface of the cylindrically formed material to cause the material at its open end to form overlapping material layers; (3) pressing the overlapping layers onto the heating element to melt the interior surface of the material; (4) collapsing the heating parts and removing the heating element from the open end; and (5) pressing the overlapping layers together at the melted interior surface to seal the layers to each other. According to the examiner (Answer, p. 6): [I]nserting particular types of heating elements which expands [sic, expand]/collapse on demand is directed to specifics of apparatus limitation as opposed to process limitations. Indeed, the manipulative step ofPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007