Appeal No. 96-2127
Application 08/158,054
Appellants have appealed to the Board from the examiner’s
final rejection of claims 1 to 5 and 7 to 11, the examiner having
allowed claims 6 and 12 to 17.
Representative claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. A method of rapidly producing a contoured part,
comprising:
(a) designing a computer graphic model of said part;
(b) sectioning said graphic model into graphic members which
are at least one of blocks and slab, said sectioning being sized
to facilitate carving of two or more sides of each member;
(c) independently carving a solid member for each of the
graphic members, said solid member being proportional to and
enveloping such graphic member, said carving being carried out by
accessing two or more sides of such solid member to at least
essentially duplicate the corresponding graphic member; and
(d) securing said carved solid members together to replicate
said graphic model as a usable unitary part.
The following reference is relied on by the examiner:
Christensen et al. (Christensen) 4,736,306 Apr. 5, 1988
Claims 1, 3 to 5 and 7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 102(b) as being anticipated by Christensen. The remaining
claims on appeal, claims 2, and 8 to 11, stand rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious over Christensen alone.
2
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