Appeal No. 2000-0920
Application No. 08/829,034
combustion synthesis to form a porous ceramic skeleton having
interconnected pores. The resulting preform is then infiltrated
with molten metal. See, for example, column 3, lines 20-45, and
column 5, lines 46-61.
Appellant’s specification (see pages 4-9) indicates that
cermets made in accordance with the invention differ from prior
art cermets in that cermets made in accordance with the invention
have more evenly distributed porosity and more uniformly
infiltrated metal than prior art cermets. This is achieved by,
among other things, carefully selecting the ceramic starting
material, ceramic material particle size, and metal or metal
alloy to be infiltrated, so that the sintering temperature of the
ceramic is above the melting temperature of the metal, thereby
allowing the temperature of the molten infiltrating metal or
metal alloy to be low enough during infiltration to preclude
further sintering of the preformed ceramic matrix. See page 13,
lines 9-24; page 15, line 33 through page 16, line 2; page 16,
lines 17-22; page 16, lines 30-35; page 17, line 26 through page
18, line 14; and page 18, lines 22-28 of appellant’s
specification. However, claim 1 is very broad with respect to
the process limitations by which the claimed product is made in
that
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