Appeal No. 97-3193
Application 08/467,326
Claims 2 and 3, the only other claims remaining in the application, have been allowed.2
Appellants’ invention pertains to a perforated spray disk for use in an injection valve
of a fuel injection system for an internal combustion engine. The disk has at least one
spray opining having a frustoconical form that flares in the downstream direction. This
shape is said to minimize variations in the volume of medium flowing through the openings.
Independent claim 1 is illustrative of the appealed subject matter and reads as follows:
1. A perforated spray disk for a valve having a lengthwise valve axis and a fluid flow
direction, comprising:
an upper surface;
a lower surface;
[3]
a metal spray disk central region, the central region having at least one spray
opening;
the at least one spray opening being formed by electrical discharge machining and
having a frustoconical form which expands in the flow direction around an opening axis, the
at least one spray opening frustoconically extending from the upper surface to the lower
surface; and
2An amendment filed subsequent to the final rejection on December 9, 1996
(Paper No. 21), wherein claim 2 was rewritten in independent form and claim 3 was
amended to depend from claim 2, has been entered. See the advisory letter mailed
January 3, 1997 (Paper No. 22).
3As shall be seen in our discussion infra, appellants make much of the fact that the
Erb patent applied by the examiner against the claims does not expressly disclose
element 37 as being composed of metal. We note in passing, however, that appellants’
original disclosure likewise does not expressly disclose spray disk as having a central
region composed of metal.
2
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