Appeal No. 1996-2624
Application No. 08/186,352
According to Katori, such prior art devices tended to be large
and heavy in order to withstand the pulsating loads caused by
the unconstant velocity (col. 2, lines 6-32). In order to
solve this problem, Katori supports the planetary shaft 5
(i.e., the shaft supporting the planetary gears 7 and 8) at
both ends by means of rotary body 12 and disk-like carrier 4
(col. 3, lines 36-47, and Figures 2 and 3).
It is the examiner's position that
it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art to have used complementary non-circular gears in
the apparatus and method of Bosse to provide the non-
uniform driving of the transfer drum as Katori teaches
that the use of noncircular gears in planetary gear
devices for providing unconstant velocity rotation and
velocity reduction is known. [Answer, page 5]
and
that one of ordinary skill in the art would have known
how to have shaped the complementary non-circular gears
such that the gearing not only accelerates and
decelerates the transfer drum but also rotates the drum
at the two different constant mean angular speeds as
required by Bosse. [Id.]
The appellants acknowledge (brief, page 7) that Bosse's
gearing is configured to drive the transfer drum at a first
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