Appeal No. 1995-4981
Application No. 08/248,583
the application. This appeal is related to Appeal No. 96-
2829, an appeal from the final rejection of claims 10 through
12 in Application 08/403,356, which is directed to a fiber
reinforced silicon carbide matrix.
Claim 10, the broadest claim in this application, reads
as follows:
10. A method for forming a fiber reinforced composite,
the fibers being at least one of elemental carbon, or silcon
carbide, in a matrix of silicon carbide containing at least a
silicon carbide phase and elemental silicon phase formed by
molten silicon infiltration comprising: depositing a
continuous metal nitride coating on the fibers wherein the
metal is selected from the group consisting of silicon,
aluminum, titanium, zirconium, hafnium, niobium, or tantalum,
the metal nitride coating preventing reaction between the
reinforcement fiber and molten silicon;
admixing a carbonaceous material with the coated fibers
so that at least 5 volume percent of the mixture is the coated
fibers;
forming the mixture into a preform having an open
porosity ranging from about 25 volume percent to about 90
volume percent of the preform;
heating the preform in an inert atmosphere or partial
vacuum; and
infiltrating the heated preform with molten silicon to
form the silicon carbide matrix composite.
As evidence of obviousness, the examiner relies on the
following prior art:
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007