Appeal No. 1999-0546
Application No. 08/724,542
brief (Paper No. 8, filed May 4, 1998) for the appellants'
arguments thereagainst.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given
careful consideration to the appellants' specification and
claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the
respective positions articulated by the appellants and the
examiner. As a consequence of our review, we make the
determinations which follow.
Claim 1, the only independent claim on appeal, reads as
follows:
1. A continuous process for the removal of sand cores
from the internal passages and cavities of a plurality of
metal castings formed by the sand cores, said sand cores being
comprised of sand and a binder to maintain a required form and
hardness of the sand core, said binder being thermally
decomposed at an elevated temperature, which comprises;
providing a fluidized bed furnace, having a bed formed of
fluidized sand maintained at a temperature sufficient to
thermally decompose the binder and a freeboard space above the
bed;
continuously passing in sequence through the furnace,
submerged in the fluidized sand, a series of individual and
4
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