Appeal No. 2000-1799
Application 09/211,473
about 45 wt% fiber and about 55 to about 65 wt% resin, and
thermally curing the resin-impregnated fiber material (col. 4,
lines 20-45). The exemplified method of assuring substantially
complete impregnation of the resin into the fibrous reinforcement
is to interrupt the solvent stripping process twice, each time
pressurizing the assembly to 200 psig in an autoclave at 150ºC
(col. 7, lines 25-29).
The examiner argues that Seibold’s pressurizing is not
required (answer, page 8). Seibold, however, requires that the
thermal treatment under vacuum takes place under conditions which
assure substantially complete impregnation of the resin into the
fibrous reinforcement (col. 4, lines 27-32), and the disclosed
conditions include applying pressure (col. 7, lines 25-29).
Seibold does not specify in the portion of the reference relied
upon by the examiner (column 4, lines 27-32) that applied
pressure is needed to assure substantially complete impregnation.
However, Seibold’s silence at that point in his disclosure as to
the conditions needed to assure substantially complete
impregnation is not a disclosure that there are suitable
impregnation conditions which do not require applied pressure.
Because the examiner has not pointed out where Seibold
discloses conditions for assuring substantially complete
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