Appeal No. 1996-2703
Application 08/339,637
comprise a thermoplastic material but preferably consists
essentially of a thermosetting material (col. 2, lines 66-69).
The examiner argues that it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art to use in the McKown assembly
the thermoplastic adhesives of Fell and Lynam instead of
McKown’s thermosetting adhesive in order to reduce the cycle
time (answer, pages 6-7).
The examiner’s argument is not well taken because McKown
uses a specific adhesive to obtain particular processing and
product characteristics, and the examiner has not explained
why the applied references would have led one of ordinary
skill in the art to forgo those characteristics in return for
a shorter cycle time. McKown teaches that the requirements
for structural adhesives “are particularly formidable, calling
for an adhesive which exhibits excellent strength properties
over a wide temperature range which in turn depends on
attainment of a delicate balance of such properties as
adhesion, toughness, and tensile strength” (col. 2, lines 17-
25). McKown discloses desired overlap shear, T-peel,
honeycomb peel and beam-creep properties (col. 2, lines 25-
6
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