Appeal No. 97-2596 Page 5
Application No. 08/319,345
shock peening. The pressure face of the dovetail assembly
component is a contact surface between a complementary dovetail
blade slot and dovetail blade root. The one region extends
inward from a laser shocked surface of the dovetail assembly
component along the transition portion of the dovetail assembly
component.
The examiner determined (answer, p. 3) that Morikawa
"discloses a dovetail assembly" wherein surfaces thereof are shot
peened and that Vaccari discloses that laser shock peening is an
alternative to shot peening. The examiner then concluded that it
would have been obvious to substitute laser shock peening for
shot peening in the dovetail assembly of Morikawa.
The appellants argue (brief, pp. 4-5) that Morikawa
discloses a fir tree assembly, not a dovetail assembly. We
agree. As shown in Figures 2-6 of Morikawa, Morikawa's
components include a fir tree assembly not a dovetail assembly.
While the substitution of a dovetail assembly for the fir tree
assembly may have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the
art at the time the invention was made, such a rejection was not
made by the examiner. Since all the limitations of claim 1 are
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