Appeal No. 96-3174
Application 07/970,608
the oversized mold cavity of appellant’s apparatus is
completely filled with melt before injection is completed.
The 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection
Turning to the anticipation rejection of claims 1, 2, 5
and 7, independent claim 1 calls for the step of forming an
oversized mold cavity with respect to an opposing pair of
relatively movable mold members, and the step of applying
force to said mold members to reduce a volume of the mold
cavity and compress the plasticized resin therein
simultaneously with the injection of the resin.
Maus discloses two alternative modes of utilizing a
variable volume mold cavity to mold an article. In each case,
a pair of relatively movable mold platens (e.g., elements 82,
90) are first brought together in a so-called “soft” clamp-up
condition to close a parting line of a mold cavity (column 13,
lines 42-48; Figure 4). In the first alternative mode, after
the “soft” clamp-up condition is achieved, injection of resin
commences and movable platen 90 moves toward stationary platen
82 through a pre-set stroke length to reduce the volume of the
mold cavity from its “soft-close” volume to a final “full-
12
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