Appeal No. 1998-0853
Application No. 08/381,364
speed and the web feeding speed (column 5, lines 37-44). Each of the suction members 12
comprises a front piece 12a and a rear piece 12b which are normally maintained in a linear
alignment in the direction of rotation of the transfer means 11. The front piece 12a is movably
mounted on an associated base block 26a such that a front end of the front piece 12a may be
laterally displaced by the mechanism discussed in column 10, lines 10-16, during rotation of the
associated rotor element 26 by pivoting movement around a supporting stud 34 so as to re-
orient the pieces of elastic band (see column 7, lines 54-61, and column 2, lines 40-49). The
transfer of the elastic band pieces onto the web occurs while the respective suction members
maintain at least one of their ends displaced, so one end of each of the respective pieces of
elastic band carried on the suction members is obliquely displaced relative to the direction in
which the suction members rotate when bonded to the web (column 5, lines 1-12). Ujimoto's
disclosure of the combined features of feeding elastic bands onto a rotatable transfer device
having a plurality of transport heads (suction members), rotating the transport heads about a
first axis in a progressively accelerating manner from a first speed at the feed location to a
second speed at a second location at which the bands are transferred to a moving web, with the
second speed being the same as that of the moving web, and simultaneously rotating the
transport heads about a second axis generally radial with respect to the first axis appears to be
particularly pertinent to the subject matter of the claims on appeal. Thus, the application is
remanded to the examiner to review the disclosure of Ujimoto in light of the claimed subject
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