Appeal No. 1996-2802 Page 5
Application No. 08/140,142
grain. The examiner has rejected this claim as being
unpatentable over the combined teachings of five references.
The primary reference is Matthews, which discloses a machine
for manufacturing wafers for use in constructing molded wood
fiber board. Matthews teaches forming these wafers from the
edge of a length of an elongate piece of wood by a series of
lateral first cuts against the grain of the wood followed by a
lengthwise cut along the grain. While this aspect of the
Matthews invention can be read on the first (severing) step of
claim 1, the reference does not disclose or teach any of the
other three steps of the claimed method. In addition, Matthews
is not directed to a method for making compressed wood fuel
pellets and does not suggest that the pellets produced by the
disclosed method would be usable for any purpose other than the
manufacture of molded wood fiber board.
McCan is directed to the manufacture of fuel briquets
“from wood shavings and other loose combustible woody refuse”
(page 1, lines 8-10), and teaches placing this material in a
tubular mold and compressing it by means of a plunger until the
finished product is formed (page 1, line 54 et seq.). No
further details of combining and compressing the material are
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