Appeal No. 97-1070
Application 08/100,418
objected to claims 12, 13, 17 to 21, 34, 35, and 39 to 43 as being allowable if rewritten in independent
form to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, and indicated the
allowability of claims 22 to 27 and 44 to 49. Thus, only claims 1 to 11, 14 to 16, 28 to 33, 37, and 38
remain on appeal.
BACKGROUND
The subject matter on appeal is directed to the field of compression pressure detection within
an internal combustion engine (specification, page 1), and in particular, to a method and apparatus for
determining low compression by measuring crankshaft acceleration of a running engine (specification,
page 1 and independent claims 1, 14, 28, and 37 on appeal). As indicated in the specification (pages 1
to 3), there were no prior art compression pressure detection methods or apparatus known to
appellants that first measured acceleration directly from the crankshaft of a running engine and then
provided a compression pressure which was dependent upon the measured crankshaft acceleration.
Appellants recognized that the prior art failed to diagnose low compression pressure in real-time on an
engine in service (specification, page 1). Appellants also pointed out (specification, pages 1 to 2) that
prior art systems relied on in-cylinder pressure measurement and average crankshaft velocity to predict
compression, and that compression was determined during a time when the engine was taken out of
normal operating service.
Appellants point out at page 2 of their specification that prior art compression pressure
2
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