Appeal No. 1997-1162
Application 08/200,455
others, the outer races of the individual bearings are formed
in separate rings that are axially separated by a spacer."
Cartridge bearings have several advantages over individual,
spacer separated bearing rings (col. 1, lines 53-65). The hub
22 is heated to expand the opening 62 and assembled over
sleeve 36 of the cartridge bearing assembly 34 to form a
shrink fit. Fruge has a stepped shaft where the
large-diameter shaft portion has a ball-running groove, race
50, on the outer peripheral surface, eliminating the inner
race for one set of ball bearings. The small-diameter shaft
portion has an inner race 52 mounted on it and the second set
of ball bearings are disposed between the inner race and the
ball-running groove 42 of the sleeve 36. Fruge discloses that
the shaft 28 and stator mount cup, which are mounted by heat
shrinking, "could be formed with as monolithic (i.e.,
integral) structure from a single piece of material" (col. 9,
lines 25-26).
The Examiner concludes as to the stepped shaft difference
that it would have been obvious to use a stepped shaft in any
of the primary references "because the stepped shaft allows
for precise alignment of the bearings" (FR4; FR5).
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