Appeal No. 1998-2899
Application No. 08/632,687
37 CFR
§ 1.142(b).
We REVERSE.
The subject matter on appeal is directed to an apparatus
for reducing procession of a gapless tubular printing sleeve
mounted on a cylinder. With reference to the appellants’1
Figure 3, the invention includes a groove 50 extending
straight across the circumferential surface of the mounting
cylinder 40 and connecting the interface of the mounting
cylinder 40 and the tubular printing sleeve (not shown) to an
air canal 60. During operation of the printing press, air
canal 60 is vented to atmosphere so that the fluid wave can
escape to a region of low pressure via the groove 50. See
specification, p. 8. Claim 32 is illustrative of the subject
matter on appeal and is reproduced in an appendix attached to
the brief (Paper No. 23).
1We are inform by the appellants’ specification (pp. 2, 3) that
printing sleeve procession is a phenomena caused by air trapped in the
interface between a tubular printing sleeve, e.g., printing blanket 16 (Fig.
1), and the outer surface of its corresponding mounting cylinder, e.g.,
blanket cylinder 14 (Fig. 1). The trapped air creates a continually advancing
wave (see bulge 26 in Fig. 1) in front of a nip between the mounting cylinder
and an adjacent cylinder against which it is pressed causing the printing
sleeve to bulge.
2
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