Appeal No. 2002-1803
Application 09/288,775
shipping cartons and the like” (specification, page 1).
Representative claims 1 and 8 read as follows:
1. In a machine for manufacturing packing cushions for use
in shipping cartons and the like: a chute, means for supporting
an elongated length of flexible plastic tubing coaxially about
the chute, means for drawing successive sections of the tubing
from the chute, means for introducing loose fill packing material
through the chute into a section of the tubing which has been
drawn from the chute, means for sealing the walls of the tubing
together along a transversely extending seal line above the loose
fill packing material to close the section and form a cushion,
and means for perforating the tubing along a transversely
extending tear line between the section in which the cushion is
formed and the next successive section.
8. In a method of manufacturing packing cushions for use in
shipping cartons and the like, the steps of: positioning an
elongated length of flexible plastic tubing about a chute,
drawing a section of the tubing from the chute, introducing loose
fill packing material through the chute into the section of the
tubing which has been drawn from the chute, sealing the walls of
the tubing together along a transversely extending seal line
above the loose fill packing material to close the section and
form a cushion, perforating the tubing along a transversely
extending tear line above the cushion, and repeating the process
to form a string of cushions separated by tear lines.
THE PRIOR ART
The references relied on by the examiner as evidence of
obviousness are:
Sperry 4,938,007 Jul. 3, 1990
Hoover et al. (Hoover) 5,693,163 Dec. 2, 1997
2
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