Appeal No. 1999-1721 Page 3
Application No. 08/734,125
Reference is made to the brief (Paper No. 33) and the answer (Paper No. 34) for the
respective positions of the appellant and the examiner with regard to the merits of these
rejections.
OPINION
In reaching our decision in this appeal, we have given careful consideration to the
appellant's specification and claims, to the applied prior art references, and to the respective
positions articulated by the appellant and the examiner. As a consequence of our review, we
make the determinations which follow.
Claim 2, the only independent claim on appeal, reads as follows:
2. A ball holder for a retainerless saddle having a bearing body and
a pair of end caps attached thereto, said ball holder to be used when the
retainerless saddle is taken out of a rail, the retainerless saddle having a recess,
the retainerless saddle to be assembled with the rail with a plurality of preloaded
steel balls therebetween when said retainerless saddle is slid onto said rail to
form a preloaded retainerless linear motion bearing assembly, said ball holder
comprising:
an elongated shaft portion independent of the retainerless saddle and to be
positioned within the recess of the retainerless saddle only when the retainerless
saddle is taken out of the rail, the elongated shaft portion also being independent
from the rail,
wherein said elongated shaft portion includes a plurality of ball holding
means for directly holding the steel balls and for preventing said steel balls from
falling off when the retainerless saddle is taken out of said rail, wherein the
plurality of ball holding means comprises a circumferential surface of the
elongated shaft portion along the axis thereof and are separate from the
retainerless saddle, each of said ball holding means being positioned adjacent to
each of grooves provided within the bearing body, such that each of said ball
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