Appeal No. 1996-4067
Application No. 08/227,686
The subject matter on appeal is directed to a method of
manufacturing a motor rotary apparatus such as a DC or AC
servo motor used in industrial robots which apparatus contains
a rotary shaft having a journal portion rotatably supported by
a bearing member. Appellant explains in his specification in
the “Background Of The Invention” section (pages 1 and 2) that
the journal portion of the rotary shaft is “required to have
high durability” and that high durability steels “are
selected” for use as the rotary shaft of such an apparatus
with the attendant disadvantages of “increases in cost of
material and weight.”
See the specification at page 2, lines 11-20. In this regard,
the claimed method on appeal is said to form a low cost motor
rotary shaft that is of reduced weight compared to other
shafts because the claimed method forms a hard nitride layer
on the surface of the journal portion of the shaft without
forming a hard nitride layer “on the remainder of the rotary
shaft.” See the brief at page 4. To achieve this purpose,
appellant’s claimed method involves a step of masking portions
of the apparatus other than the journal portion of the shaft.
Then, the unmasked journal portion of the shaft is held in a
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