Appeal No. 96-3465
Application No. 07/848,856
Claim 3
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Colombo in view of Young or Tumminia. We
reverse this rejection.
Claim 3 recites a method for sealing an open end of
cylindrically formed material comprising (1) inserting a heating
element having a plurality of heating parts into the open end;
(2) expanding the heating parts into contact with an interior
surface of the cylindrically formed material to cause the
material at its open end to form overlapping material layers;
(3) pressing the overlapping layers onto the heating element to
melt the interior surface of the material; (4) collapsing the
heating parts and removing the heating element from the open end;
and (5) pressing the overlapping layers together at the melted
interior surface to seal the layers to each other.
According to the examiner (Answer, p. 6):
[I]nserting particular types of heating elements which
expands [sic, expand]/collapse on demand is directed to
specifics of apparatus limitation as opposed to process
limitations. Indeed, the manipulative step of
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007