Appeal No. 98-1554 Page 6
Application No. 08/586,894
Claim 16 has been rejected as being unpatentable over the
combined teachings of Schatz and Engineering Materials. It is
the examiner’s position that Schatz discloses all of the
claimed subject matter except for the teaching of forming the
lines of a metal having low heat conducting capability, but
that this is taught by Engineering Materials, and it would have
been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the
lines of Schatz of the claimed metal rather than the disclosed
plastic. The appellant argues that the applied references
would not have suggested this to the artisan, for several
reasons. We agree.
Schatz discloses forming the inlet and outlet lines of
plastic, which gives rise to the precise problems which the
appellant seeks to overcome. Engineering Materials discloses
on page 160, in a table entitled “TYPICAL PROPERTIES OF NICKEL
ALLOYS,” ten nickel alloys, including Inconel 600. The
examiner states that this reference establishes Inconel 600 “as
exhibiting . . . low thermal conductivity” (Answer, page 5).
As did the appellant, we take issue with this conclusion.
Nowhere in this reference do we find even the mention of the
thermal conductivity of this or the other nickel alloys, much
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