Appeal No. 1995-4981
Application No. 08/248,583
Borom et al. (Borom) 5,015,540 May 14, 1991
(filed Jun. 1, 1987)
Rousseau 5,051,300 Sep. 24, 1991
(filed Aug. 15,1989)
Claims 10 through 16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103
as unpatentable over the combined disclosures of Borom and
Rousseau.
We reverse.
The examiner states (Answer, page 4) that:
In a method for forming carbon fiber composite
articles which may be used in aircraft construction,
Borom coats carbon on silicon fibers with
silicon wettable materials (see col. 4,
forth full paragraph), admixes the coated
fibers with a carbonaceous material (see
col. 5, first full paragraph), forms the
mixture into a preform having 25-90 vol%
porosity (see first and second full
paragraphs of col. 6), heats the preform in
an inert atmosphere of CO or CO and
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infiltrates it with molten silicon (see
second and third full paragraphs of col.
7). As taught in the first and second full
paragraphs of col. 9, the matrix formed by
Borom contains a silicon carbide phase and
an elemental silicon phase.
Also, please note Borom’s teaching that an outer
coating of carbon may be provided on the coated
fibers as part of the carbonaceous material (see
col. 5, lines 18-27).
Borom differs from the instantly claimed
invention only in that he uses boron nitride as the
first coating material instead of a nitride of
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