Appeal No. 95-1042
Application 07/964,002
ratio greater than 2:1, and sintering the preform and support to
vaporize the support without damaging the preform and to sinter
the inorganic powder, thereby forming a flat sintered inorganic
sheet or tape which can survive bending to a radius of curvature
not exceeding about 20 centimeters.
Appellants’ claim 46 recites that the preform is sintered by
continuously transporting it through a hot zone at a temperature
above the sintering temperature of the inorganic powder.
Park discloses a method for making ceramic-particulate films
by mixing a ceramic powder, an organic volatile solvent, a
wetting agent and an organic binder to form a slip, depositing
the slip in the form of a film which is “as thin as on the order
of 1 mil” on a flexible moving tape support, and then drying the
slip (col. 1, lines 50-53; col. 2, lines 15-26). “The flexible
supporting tape may be of any impervious, non-porous material,
such as polytetrafluorethylene ('Teflon'), glycol terephthalic
acid polyester ('Mylar'), cellulose acetate, cellophane
(regenerated cellulose) and the like. A cellulose derivative is
preferred” (col. 5, lines 33-38). Park discloses cutting through
the ceramic-particulate film, but not the tape, such that small
squares or rectangular ceramic-particulate units are supported on
the tape, placing the tape units-side-down on a refractory plate,
5
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