Appeal No. 1998-1825
Application No. 08/658,014
roll (11). No brake per se is needed due to the interrelated
mechanisms that control the drive, supply and tension of the
web in Huck. Also, we understand the floating roller (23) of
this patent to be a tension adjustment mechanism, as opposed
to a tension responsive mechanism (col. 9, lines 58-74).
Therefore, the examiner turns to Asar for the teaching of a
brake means. However, the brake (32) of Asar is disclosed as
operating in response to signals supplied from a control
circuit (33), wherein the "brake . . . coupled to the pay-off
reel . . . facilitate[s] control over film tension, as well
as rapid stopping of the film" (col. 9, lines 47-51). This
statement by Asar clearly teaches that the tension in plastic
film (12) is in dependence on the brake, as opposed to the
operation of the brake being in dependence on the tension as
stated in appellants' claim 8 on appeal. In other words, in
the device of Asar, the brake controls the tension, instead of
the tension controlling the brake. Even when an optional
feed-back loop is used to determine the angular position of
the dancer arm, the feedback from the dancer arm "would allow
the braking motor to more closely track the instantaneous
speed of the drive motor and, thus provide more responsive and
11
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