Appeal No. 2000-0048
Application 08/909,869
lines 15-58), but does not disclose preheating the workpiece
prior to application of the powder coating material, or
cooling the workpiece from a temperature above the softening
point temperature of the powder coating material such that one
sheet of the workpiece having a slower cooling rate cools to
below the powder softening point temperature during the step
of applying the powder coating material.
Shaneyfelt discloses washing a workpiece, heating the
workpiece to dry it, and then cooling the workpiece only
partially before applying powder coating material thereto
(col. 8, lines 55-64). Applying the powder coating to a
workpiece which is heated, Shaneyfelt teaches, causes a
substantially greater adherence of powder particles to the
workpiece, particularly small particles that ordinarily do not
hold a charge and will not adhere to the workpiece (col. 8,
line 64 - col. 9, line 6).
The examiner argues that “[w]hen Suzuki et al. is taken
in view of the preheating and cooling advantages suggested by
Shaneyfelt, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the
art to cool the substrate completely, which would include the
components having the slowest cooling rates, below the
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