Appeal No. 1999-1663
Application No. 08/715,221
be derived from a reading of exemplary claim 1, the only
independent claim on appeal, which is reproduced as follows:
1. A stress evaluation method for evaluating stress acting on
a test piece to be tested from changes in an acoustic velocity
of an acoustic wave which propagates through said test piece,
wherein the stress evaluation method comprises the steps of:
changing a propagational direction of a surface wave
which propagates in a surface layer of said test piece both at
a non-loaded portion and a loaded portion of the test piece;
measuring an acoustic velocity of said surface wave; and
evaluating stress at the loaded portion of said test
piece based on a difference in acoustic velocities of said
surface wave between the non-loaded portion and the loaded
portion of said test piece.
The prior art references of record relied upon by the
examiner in rejecting the appealed claims are:
Thompson et al. (Thompson ‘836) 4,080,836 Mar. 28,
1978
Hildebrand 4,210,028 Jul. 1,
1980
Thompson et al. (Thompson ‘081) 5,154,081 Oct. 13,
1992
Claims 1, 4 and 12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as being unpatentable over Thompson (‘836) in view of Thompson
(‘081) and further in view of Hildebrand.
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