Appeal No. 96-0114
Application No. 08/128,279
This is a decision on an appeal from the examiner’s final
rejection of claims 12 and 15 through 17. Claims 1 through 11
stand withdrawn from consideration by the examiner as being
directed to a nonelected invention under 37 CFR § 1.142(b).
Claim 12 is representative of the subject matter on
appeal and reads as follows:
12. Starch cushioning particles formed by: feeding
starch granules into a drum; adding a nucleating agent having
a particle size of approximately 40µ in a quantity of from 0.1
to 0.2% of the weight of the starch granules; drum-coating the
starch granules with the nucleating agent in the drum such
that the nucleating agent is finely distributed onto the
surfaces of the starch granules; feeding the drum-coated
starch granules to an extruder and converting the drum-coated
starch granules into a viscous-liquid state; applying heat to
the extruder to generate in the viscous-liquid starch bubble
nuclei from the decomposition of the nucleating agent; gassing
the viscous-liquid starch with a propellant gas such that the
starch and nucleating agent mixture is supersaturated with the
propellant gas to generate a composition of molten starch foam
by expanding the bubble nuclei; cutting the starch foam upon
leaving the extruder; and providing for expansion of the
starch foam to form the starch particles.
The examiner has relied upon the following reference in
support of his rejection:
Osipow et al. (Osipow) 4,328,319 May 4,
1982
Claims 12 and 15 through 17 stand rejected under 35
U.S.C.
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