Appeal No. 2000-0008 Page 3
Application No. 08/842,990
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given
careful consideration to the appellants' specification and
claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the
examiner. As a consequence of our review, we make the
determinations which follow.
In support of the rejection, the examiner states:
In Figure 10 Bononi et al. discloses
reducing hollow stock, and in Figure 13
discloses forming splines 162 on the outer
surface of one end of the reduced stock.
See column 5, lines 44 to 55. Bononi et
al. specifies that the shaping is performed
by cold extrusion. [final rejection, at
page 2].
The examiner relies on U.S. Steel for teaching that strain
(work) hardening is an inherent and unavoidable phenomenon
resulting from plastic deformation at temperatures below the
recrystallization temperature and that as such a “work
hardened
hollow stock” is formed in the Bononi process.
Appellants argue that none of the prior art references
discloses a cold forging method in which the wall thickness of
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