Appeal No. 99-0872
Application 08/885,399
positions and rationale as set forth by the examiner and on which the examiner’s rejection
of the claims on appeal is based.
The claimed invention is a printing machine plate cylinder assembly comprising (1)
a plate cylinder, (2) a printing plate, and (3) a separating medium between the printing
plate and the plate cylinder. As is defined by claim 30, the plate cylinder has a plate
mounting surface and the printing plate has a mounting surface. Further according to claim
30, the separating medium consists solely of a layer of friction reducing material affixed to
one of the mounting surfaces, and the other mounting surface has no layer of friction
reducing material affixed thereto. The mounting surface without the friction reducing layer
directly contacts the friction reducing layer affixed to the mounting surface having the
friction reducing layer. According to claim 30, this structural arrangement is for facilitating
stable mounting of the printing plate in a predetermined position on the printing cylinder.
Very explicitly, claim 30 requires that there be no layer of friction reducing material
affixed to the mounting surface of one of (1) the plate cylinder and (2) the printing plate. In
contrast, Simeth does not disclose such a structure.
In Simeth’s assembly, two thin sheets 5 and 6 are disposed between the plate
cylinder and the printing plate (Abstract and Figure 1). The upper sheet contacts and
adheres to printing plate 3 and the lower sheet contacts and adheres to plate cylinder 1
(Column 2, lines 59-65). The thin sheets are coated with an appropriate plastic to form
easily sliding faces 8 and 10. (Column 2, lines 66-68). Whether Simeth’s thin sheets 5
3
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Last modified: November 3, 2007