Appeal No. 98-0028
Application No. 08/455,912
(emphasis added) would be equipped with a radially extending
member of some sort that prevents it from being removed from
the bore, and that a fluid connection which must be sealed
necessarily includes seals at appropriate locations other than
the weld, such as in the bore between the opposed surfaces of
the coupling and the bore, so than fluid cannot leak out
there. In this regard, we draw attention to Puttonen, which
discloses annular seal means for sealing between a circular
connector through which a pipe or hose is passed and the
circular opening into which it has been inserted, for the
purpose of preventing the entry of water or other materials
(column 1). It therefore is our conclusion that all of the
structure recited in the preamble would have been known to one
of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the appellant’s
invention.
The body of claim 1 recites that the bore be formed in
the tank after the tank is configured into an enclosure, and
that the bore be “a flow drilled bore formed by flowing the
material originally at the site around a flow drill to form a
bushing that is unitary with the tank.” This structure is not
taught by Robinson, the primary reference. The examiner
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