Appeal No. 98-1014
Application 08/521,013
it is known to use hydrophilic aluminum plate as printing forms for form cylinders in a printing
press and such printing forms can be regenerated by erasing the ink residue remaining on the
printing form after printing via various known methods so as to render the aluminum printing
forms hydrophilic again. However, the detailed method and apparatus for erasing the ink
residue from the hydrophilic aluminum printing plate are not given.
The examiner considers that Roberts teaches a method and apparatus for erasing ink residue
from the surface of a printing cylinder that includes the use of fixed nozzles 58 for impinging pressurized
fresh water against the surface of the printing cylinder, and that Chew teaches a cleaning system that
uses high pressure water jets to clean disk surfaces where the water pressure is 2500 to 4000 psi and
the impinging angle of the jets relative to the surface of the disks is 20E to 40E. Based on these finding
the examiner concludes (answer, page 4) that it would have been obvious
to provide the appellant’s admitted prior art with the ink residue cleaning structure of
Roberts with the nozzles arranged at an angle less than 90E with respect to the printing
cylinder surface as taught by Chew et al. to achieve improved cleaning result. The
mere application of a known way of washing the ink residue off the ink bearing surface
of printing cylinder by those having ordinary skill in the art would involve no apparent
unobviousness.
With respect to the “pressurized solvent-free water” limitation of claims 1 and 9, the examiner
posits (answer, page 4) that “this limitation would be automatically met by the teachings of Roberts and
Chew et al. . . .” Concerning the recited pressure requirements for the water jet called for in the claims,
the examiner further posits (answer, pages 4-5) that “[e]ven though the applied references may not
specify the same pressure setting for the pressurized water jet used in their cleaning operation, the
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Last modified: November 3, 2007