Appeal No. 1998-2484 Page 9
Application No. 08/212,819
Further, to cope with corrosion of flange faces due
to penetration of rainwater or the like, a liquid packing
is injected under pressure through an injection opening
which communicates with the inside of the flanges,
thereby forming an annular gasket between the flanges to
retain watertightness.
From all of the above, we therefore find that JP’313 discloses
a liquid packing injected into said flange-fastening-means
inserting holes.
The appellants further assert (brief, page 7) that Sweeny
discloses a seal disposed outwardly from its bolts, but shows
no outward groove.
The examiner’s position (answer, page 12) is that JP’313
“has enough grooves to meet the requirements of the claims,
they are just not positioned as recited in the claims. The
Sweeny et al. reference is used to teach the positioning of
one of the grooves and its associated sealing means outwardly
of the flange-fastening-means inserting holes.”
We find that JP’313 (translation, page 3) discloses that
“for this type of existing equipment, there is a danger such
that the corrosion of the metallic studs and bolts caused by
the permeation of rainwater advances to the o-ring area,
disabling the retention of the airtightness,” and that
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