Appeal No. 1997-1676
Application No. 08/255,010
This is a decision on an appeal from the examiner’s final
rejection of claims 1 through 6 which are all of the claims
pending in the application.
Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on appeal
and reads as follows:
1. A process for electrochemical treatment of a
predetermined portion of a contaminated concrete structure
having an exposed surface area and embedded steel
reinforcement, wherein an electroconductive material is
applied to said exposed surface area of the concrete to form a
distributed electrode, a source of DC voltage is applied to
said electroconductive material, as a positive terminal, and
to said embedded steel reinforcement, as a negative terminal,
and wherein said DC voltage is applied to impart a distributed
current flow, of predetermined current density in relation to
surface area of the steel reinforcement, between said applied
electroconductive material and said embedded steel
reinforcement, and wherein said DC voltage and said
distributed current flow are continued until a predetermined
current flow of at least about 500 ampere-hours of current per
square meter of surface area of said embedded steel
reinforcement has flowed between said terminals, and wherein
said treatment is terminated as a function of said
predetermined current flow in relation to the surface area of
said embedded steel reinforcement, the improvement
characterized by
(a) said electroconductive material being applied to
only a predetermined fractional portion of the exposed
surface area of said predetermined portion to be treated,
(b) said predetermined fractional portion being less
than the entire exposed surface area of said
predetermined portion to be treated,
(c) said distributed current flow being applied to
said predetermined fractional portion at a current
2
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