Appeal No. 2000-0068
Application 08/858,116
ordinary skill in the art appellants' claimed process.
Specifically, appellants urge that the examiner has
mischaracterized the disclosure of Seymour which is directed to
so-called "drop forming" glass sheets, where heated sheets of
glass held above a mold by the force of a vacuum are dropped to a
shaping mold below, and not vacuum forming as claimed by
appellants. See the reply brief at page 3. According to
appellants' arguments, Seymour teaches the use of physical force
applied against the glass sheet, not a vacuum, to shape the glass
sheet. For reasons set forth fully below, we do not find any of
appellants' arguments to be persuasive.
Seymour, as correctly observed by appellants, is directed to
a so-called drop forming method of shaping glass sheets wherein a
heat-softened glass sheet is elevated by means of a vacuum platen
which holds the heated glass sheet against it in register and
thereafter the glass sheet is released onto a shaping mold below
to effect final shaping (column 2, lines 26 through 46).
Additionally, Seymour discloses auxiliary shaping means used in
conjunction with the vacuum platen are utilized to impart
localized curvature to side portions of the glass sheet, that is,
the heated glass sheet is shaped. The flat part of the platen is
designed to engage less than the full area of the sheet, leaving
side portions of the glass sheet extending beyond the flat side
of the vacuum platen. The auxiliary shaping means act upon the
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