Appeal No. 96-1597 Page 8
Application No. 08/152,523
references, Salkeld discloses the required thermal insulating
layer and thus in and of itself contradicts the appellant’s
position. Matsunaga is merely confirmatory of the presence of
this feature in the art.
Nevertheless, we find ourselves in agreement with the
examiner that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art to modify Salkeld by replacing the disclosed
thermal insulating layer with the one taught by Matsunaga.
Salkeld discloses a heat insulating baffle that floats on the
surface of the quenching (cooling) bath. Its purpose is to
prevent heat from escaping in that, as explicitly taught by
Salkeld, it fits “snuggly” within the walls of the quenching
bath container and is provided with openings through which the
mold descends into the bath which are “contoured” to “conform
relatively closely to the outer walls of the article molds”
(column 3, lines 1-15). Matsunaga also discloses a heat
insulating baffle covering the surface of the molten bath,
which comprises salts or a slag (column 4, line 43) and which,
as can be discerned from the drawings, closely adheres to the
contours of the mold as it passes through into the molten bath.
It is our opinion that one of ordinary skill in the art would
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