Appeal No. 1998-0203
Application No. 08/121,876
As indicated supra, the claimed invention requires the
deposit of hard wear-resistant material on specific portions
of side rail surfaces of an air bearing slider. In some of
the claims, the hard wear-resistant material is deposited on a
fraction of the surface area of the rails (claims 18 through
21). In other claims, the hard wear-resistant material is
deposited on a fraction of the total surface area of the rails
(claims 16 and 17). In more detailed claims, the hard wear-
resistant material is deposited on a fraction of the surface
area of the side rails, and the rearmost portion of the
material is spaced from the trailing edge of the slider
(claims 1 through 3, 5, 7 through 9, 12 and 13). The
remaining claims on appeal require the deposit of the hard
wear-resistant material over 10-70% of the length of the side
rails, and a thin residual layer of the hard wear-resistant
material over substantially the remainder of the air bearing
surface of the slider (claims 14 and 15).
Appellants and the examiner all agree that Krantz does
not disclose a hard wear-resistant material deposited on only
portions of the surface area of the rails (reply brief, pages
3 and 5; answer, page 4). From the disclosure in Krantz
5
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007