Appeal No. 1997-1380
Application 08/301,508
The controller translates the coordinates
representing a layer of the design (as compiled by
the CAD system) into suitable servo commands to
position the fabricating-particle jet above the
corresponding position on the substrate 16 that will
support the construction. The controller then
causes a droplet 18 of particle material to be
ejected. A complementary set of commands is issued
by the controller to the support-particle jet,
causing it to deposit droplets of support material
20 on positions of the substrate not occupied (or to
be occupied) by fabrication particles. After
deposition of this initial layer, subsequent layers
are similarly formed on top of and in contact with
one another.
. . .
After all layers have been deposited, the
structure consisting of the fused fabrication
particles must be separated from the mass of support
particles [column 2, lines 23 through 68].
Claims 1 and 13, the two independent claims on appeal,
stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as being anticipated
by Helinski. Anticipation, of course, is established only
when a single prior art reference discloses, expressly or
under principles of inherency, each and every element of a
claimed
invention. RCA Corp. v. Applied Digital Data Sys., Inc., 730
F.2d 1440, 1444, 221 USPQ 385, 388 (Fed. Cir. 1984).
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