Appeal No. 2001-0220
Application No. 09/244,044
30. A dam for a tundish comprising:
a body of refractory material and having an upstream side
and a downstream side;
said dam having holes consisting essentially of a pair of
holes substantially uniformly spaced across the width of said
dam;
said dam having a bottom, and a top, and a height dimension
corresponding to the distance between said bottom and said top;
and
wherein the distance from said bottom to the closest edge of
each hole is from 25 mm to 50% of the height of said dam,
measured on said upstream side of said dam.
In the rejection of the appealed claims, the examiner relies
upon the following references:
Soofi (Soofi '175) 5,064,175 Nov. 12, 1991
Soofi (Soofi '667) 5,295,667 Mar. 22, 1994
Schmidt 5,551,672 Sep. 03, 1996
Appellant's claimed invention is directed to a tundish
comprising a dam which extends upwardly from the tundish floor "a
distance between about 40-60% of the normal maximum operating
level of molten steel in said tundish" (claim 13, last two
lines). Appellant also claims a kit comprising an impact pad and
the dam for use in a tundish, and a dam, per se (claims 30-32).
Appealed claims 13, 15-19 and 24 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as being anticipated by Schmidt. Claims 30
and 31 also stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as being
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