Appeal No. 96-2060
Application No. 08/308,205
This is a decision on appeal from the final rejection of
claims 10 and 13-18, all of the claims now pending in the
involved application.
The claims on appeal relate to a process for treating a
composite comprising an aluminum alloy matrix and a
particulate ceramic reinforcement material.
Appellants acknowledge in their Brief that the subject
claims stand or fall together for purposes of determining
their patentability. Accordingly, we will limit our
consideration to claim 10, the sole independent claim, which
reads as follows:
10. A treatment process for a composite comprising a
matrix of a precipitation hardenable aluminum alloy and a
particulate ceramic reinforcement, said process comprising the
steps of:
providing a composite prepared by hot pressing a blended
powder of said precipitation hardenable aluminum alloy and
said particulate ceramic reinforcement;
subjecting said composite to an intermediate thermo-
mechanical treatment step to produce a treated composite;
subjecting said treated composite to a controlled heating
step in which the temperature of said treated composite is
raised from ambient temperature to a temperature of from 250
to 450°C at a rate of temperature increase of from 3 to 100°C
per hour from ambient temperature to 450°C to produce a
temperature treated composite; and
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