Appeal No. 1997-2931
Application 08/237,034
The Invention
Appellants’ invention pertains to an apparatus for
coating a paper web. According to appellants (specification,
pages 1-2), problems in coating a web sometimes arise when the
coating applicator and doctor blade units of the coating
apparatus share a single common backing roller. For example,
in this type of coating apparatus, air pockets may form in the
area between the applicator and the doctor blade causing
uneven distribution of web tension in this area. Appellants’
solution to this alleged problem is to provide separate
backing surfaces and separately controlled drive means for the
coating applicator and doctor blade units such that “at least
one of the backing surfaces has a speed that is independently
controlled relative to the speed of the other backing surface
. . . in order to maintain control of the tensile stress of
the web” (specification, page 3).
A copy of the appealed claims can be found in an appendix
to appellants’ brief.
The Applied References
The references of record relied upon by the examiner in
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