Appeal No. 97-2715
Application No. 08/306,797
appellants’ invention (column 1, line 66 et seq.). Kostner
discloses two embodiments of the invention, both of which show
the strand mounted on a mandrel. The first comprises a block
having a round passage (5), through which the strand is pushed
(column 2, lines 41-48; Figure 1). The second utilizes “one
or more rolls” (column 2, lines 27 and 28; Figure 2), with two
rolls (14 and 15) being shown and described. Kostner is
silent as to how the strand is placed between the opposed
rollers. It is our view, based upon the absence of any
mention of moving the rollers apart, that one of ordinary
skill would have been taught by Kostner to fixedly mount the
two rollers with respect to one another with an appropriately
sized gap therebetween, and to push the mounted strand through
the gap either longitudinally (as in the first embodiment) or
laterally.
Kostner fails to explicitly disclose or teach contacting
the strand with three rollers, and providing an opening space
between the rollers to receive the strand and then closing the
space to smooth the strand along three different lines of
contact.
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