Appeal No. 97-2116
Application 07/789,802
this claim.
Rejections (i), (j) and (k)
With respect to the anticipation rejection of claim 25
based on Heckman (rejection (i)), the only claim limitation
argued by appellant as distinguishing over Heckman is the
requirement that the thermoplastic sleeve is shrunk onto the
container body “for radially inwardly squeezing said container
body . . . for increasing the axial strength of the
container.” Appellant contends that Heckman’s sleeve 20 does
not do this, whereas the examiner maintains that the sleeve of
Heckman inherently increases axial strength when applied to a
plastic container.
Heckman pertains to a method for assembling a plastic
sleeve preform to a container. The preform comprises a
tubular sleeve made of heat shrinkable plastic. The method of
assembling the sleeve to a container involves several steps,
which are illustrated in Figures 7-10. In Figure 7, the
sleeve is positioned such that it loosely surrounds the
container. Next, see Figure 8, a hot air stream is directed
at the sleeve center region to shrink the central region of
-21-
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