Appeal No. 2000-1304
Application No. 08/994,974
disputed that the admitted prior art teaches, or would have
suggested, a method meeting all of the steps in independent
claims 1, 7 and 14 except for those relating to the use of the
right circular hollow cylindrical sleeve.
Sheen discloses a method of salvaging internal combustion
engine pistons having worn piston ring grooves. The method
includes the steps of “removing the original ring carrier by
machining or otherwise and then shrinking into the recess
remaining a premachined annular ring carrier having inside and
outside diameters of predetermined dimensions such that upon
the completion of cooling, the outside diameter becomes
axially continuous with the periphery of the main piston body”
(column 1, lines 51 through 57). As shown in Figure 2, the
replacement ring carrier 16 which is heat shrunk into the
recess 14, 15 on the main piston body 10 takes the form of a
right circular hollow cylindrical sleeve. Sheen suggests (see
column 1, lines 18 through 30) that the foregoing method is a
desirable alternative to more costly and time-consuming
piston-salvaging techniques.
In combining the admitted prior art and Sheen to reject
the appealed claims, the examiner concludes that it would have
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