Appeal No. 95-5066
Serial No. 07/931,330
Based on the insufficient prior art evidence of obviousness presented by the examiner, we are
constrained to reverse the examiner's rejection.
3. Rejection of claims 1-2 as unpatentable over Kaun in view of Kotchick and/or Huebner
a. Kaun in view of Kotchick
Kaun has been described above.
Kotchick describes a method of fabrication of a fuel cell core. As depicted in Figure 9, anode
material (e.g., a cermet of cobalt or nickel metal with stabilized zirconia), cathode material (e.g.,
strontium lanthanum maganite), and electrolyte material (e.g., yttria-stabilized zirconia) or interconnect
material (e.g., magnesium-doped lanthanium chromite) are each mixed with a binder system in a
separate mixer 80 to have a plastic consistency, then roll milled 82 into single
layer tapes of each material 30 (anode), 31/33 (electrolyte/interconnect), 32 (cathode). During
this step each tape is friction bonded to the adjacent tape(s). Three of the single layer tapes are then
roll milled into a trilayer tape (which Kotchick designates as electrolyte and interconnect walls
comprising 30/31/32 and 30/33/32, respectively). After cutting each trilayer to the appropriate size and
molding one or both into a desired wall shape, the formed electrolyte walls are alternately stacked with
the formed interconnect walls until a fuel cell core of a desired size is obtained. Although not necessary,
corrugating the electrolyte tape by compression molding, vacuum formation or gear forming, achieves
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