Appeal No. 1997-3260
Application 08/506,153
oxidizing conditions but, rather, recite a future exposure
which may take place at a later time (answer, pages 5-6).
However, although appellants’ claims do not recite a step of
exposing a surface of the composite to high temperature,
oxidizing conditions, they include a step of graduating the
fiber density of the preform such that it is lower near the
surface which will be exposed to high temperature, oxidizing
conditions, and higher toward the interior of the composite.
Thus, the claims place a capability requirement on the
composite made by the method, i.e., that a surface of the
composite having a relatively low fiber density compared to
the interior of the composite is capable of being the surface
exposed to high temperature, oxidizing conditions. The
examiner has not established that the methods of the primary
references modified by Boury as proposed by the examiner could
make a composite which is capable of being used in this
manner. Boury teaches that the fibrous preforms are made such
that they have a shape which corresponds substantially to that
of the structure being manufactured (col. 2, lines 34-30), and
the disclosed manufactured structures are “combustion chamber
walls of combined jet and rocket engines, . . . parts of
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