Appeal No. 1999-0231 Application No. 08/472,354 the external diameter of the tube 10 so that the sleeve can easily slip over the tube. In this embodiment, the sleeve grips the tube by a vacuum applied from inside the tube 10. The vacuum is directed to the underside of the sleeve 17 by virtue of circumferential grooves 26 (arranged like grooves 10b in FIG. 1) each connected to the inside of the tube 10 by a single hole 27. See col. 4, ll. 25-42. The examiner relies on Arkell, Tittgemeyer, Vrotacoe and Fischer as teaching examples of conventional offset printing apparatus including a blanket cylinder and a printing blanket. See answer, p. 4. The examiner also relies on Arkell as teaching a blanket cylinder formed with means (i.e., grooves 22 (Fig. 2)) extending substantially across a length of the blanket cylinder for connecting an interface of the blanket cylinder and the printing blanket to a low pressure region, i.e., a vacuum source. Id. It is the examiner’s position that 10Page: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007