Appeal No. 97-2596 Page 8
Application No. 08/319,345
three times greater. Lastly, Vaccari discloses that potential
applications for laser shock peening include the blades, vanes,
disks, etc. of turbines.
Morikawa discloses a turbine wherein blades 1 are imbedded
into wheel 2 at each cavity by a well-known method. As shown in
Figures 2-6, Morikawa uses fir trees as the well-known method of
imbedding the blades 1 to the wheel 2. Morikawa teaches to shot
peen portions of the wheel (Figures 3 and 4) and the blades
(Figures 5 and 6) which are subject to crack generation (see
Figure 2) caused by stress generated by centrifugal force and
temperature changes.
In applying the test for obviousness, we reach the 3
conclusion that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art at the time the appellants' invention was made
to subject the surfaces of both the dovetail root of the rotor
blades and the dovetail slots of the rotor disk of the admitted
prior art to peening as suggested by Morikawa to relieve the high
3The test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of
the references would have suggested to one of ordinary skill in
the art. See In re Young, 927 F.2d 588, 591, 18 USPQ2d 1089,
1091 (Fed. Cir. 1991) and In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 425, 208
USPQ 871, 881 (CCPA 1981).
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