Appeal No. 95-3366
Application No. 08/113,550
12. A method of heat treating at least one workpiece,
comprising the steps of:
providing at least one workpiece;
selecting a heat treatment procedure for the at least one
workpiece;
forming a plasma of an ionizing gas around the at least one
workpiece, the plasma containing free electrons therein;
accelerating electrons from the plasma to the at least one
workpiece with a series of pulses of positive voltage, relative
to the plasma, applied to the workpiece to heat the workpiece;
and
continuing the step of accelerating until the heat treatment
procedure has been performed in the at least one workpiece.
The examiner relies upon the following references as
evidence of obviousness:
Pendse 3,503,787 Mar. 31, 1970
Fridlyand 4,317,984 Mar. 2, 1982
Enomoto 4,500,564 Feb. 19, 1985
Giacobbe 4,872,926 Oct. 10, 1989
Dexter et al. (Dexter) 4,900,371 Feb. 13, 1990
Japanese '280 1-51280 Sep. 14, 1990
(Japanese Kokai patent application)
Japanese '250 2-161250 Feb. 20, 1992
(Japanese Kokai patent application)
European '550 2 0,062,550 Oct. 13, 1982
Appellants' claimed invention is directed to a method of
heat treating a workpiece comprising forming a plasma of an
2Our understanding of the Japanese '280, Japanese '250 and
European '550 references is from the translations of record.
-2-
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