Appeal No. 1997-0144
Application No. 08/424,223
defined as a composite yarn adapted for use in cut resistant body
protection apparel, comprising: a) a non-elastic core yarn and b)
an abrasion and cut resistant non-elastic monofilament covering
yarn knitted onto and encasing the core yarn in a series of cut
resistant loops. In claim 8, which depends from claim 1, the
core yarn is further defined as comprising "a multifilament yarn
selected from the group consisting of SPECTRA polyethylene,
VECTRAN liquid crystal polymer, KEVLAR aramide fiber, olefin,
nylon or polyester."
In rejecting the claims before us on appeal, the examiner
has urged (answer, page 4) that it would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art
to exchange the Kevlar in both the core and the first
layer in Bettcher '251 for VECTRAN liquid crystal
polymer fiber in view of Robins et al '781 so that the
yarn produced will have a greater cut or abrasion
resistance as well as other property improvements such
as flexibility and suppleness thereby providing a
higher quality glove therefrom. Note that the liquid
crystal polymer disclosed in Robins et al '781 would
inherently possess the property of a tenacity which is
no more than 10 grams per denier. If however, the
liquid crystal such as VECTRAN does not inherently
posses the property of having a tenacity of no greater
than 10 grams per denier, it would have been obvious to
utilize the type of VECTRAN M fiber which does have
this property as a matter of engineering choice of
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