Appeal 2006-2812
Application 10/149,490
it is often desirable in the world of industrial manufacturing to provide
viable alternatives for any number of process steps, recognizing, of course,
that a particular process may be unavailable or too costly.
Moreover, we are also satisfied that it would have been obvious for
one of ordinary skill in the art to use the known technique of roughening the
surface in conjunction with the application of pressure disclosed by
Narayama with the reasonable expectation that the bonding would be
improved. Smith is simply one piece of evidence that it was known in the
art that bonding between surfaces is enhanced by roughening one or both of
the surfaces due to the increase in surface area that is made available for
bonding. Smith is particularly relevant here because it discloses roughening
the surface to improve bonding between a tubular article and plastic
material.
Accordingly, based on the state of the prior art as a whole, we remain
of the opinion that it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in
the art to roughen the surface of the tubing disclosed by Narayama to
enhance bonding between the tubing and molding material.
In conclusion, based on the foregoing, we have granted Appellants’
request to the extent that we have reconsidered our decision, but we deny
Appellants’ request to make any change therein.
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