Appeal No. 98-0680
Application No. 08/685,160
flow of Rion does not appear to be "significantly restricted,"
especially when compared to the appellants' embodiments of
FIGS. 13-16. In response to the examiner's position in this
regard, the reply brief on page 3 states:
As clearly shown in FIG. 15, the diffuser 320
overlies a non-symmetric gas output inflator 314.
The inflator 314 includes a cylindrical container
314 and a discharge assembly 336. The diffuser 320
includes gas passage apertures 364(A-B) adjacent the
end plates 344A and 344B respectively, with the
relatively large gas passage aperture 364B directly
overlying the inflation gas outlet ports 338 of the
inflator discharge assembly 336.
Similarly, FIGS. 13, 14 and 16 also show air bag
module assemblies wherein the diffuser face member
includes a relatively large gas passage aperture
directly overlying the corresponding inflation gas
outlet ports. Such placement/positioning of
diffuser gas passage apertures serves to minimize or
avoid gas flow restriction as output gas from the
inflator can pass directly through such directly
overlying apertures.
It does not follow, however, that merely because the inflation
gas can pass directly upwardly from one or two of the outlet
ports in the inflator through an aperture in the diffuser,
that the gas flow as a whole can be considered to avoid gas
flow restriction as the appellants would apparently have us
believe. Taking FIG. 15 as exemplary, only the flow from one
outlet port 438 of the inflator (i.e., the outlet port
10
Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007