Appeal No. 2001-1464 Page 4
Application No. 09/141,499
exhibiting superplastic properties at some predetermined superplastic temperature and
that the part be heated to said superplastic temperature.
Okada, the jumping off point for the examiner’s determination of obviousness of the
subject matter of claims 1, 15 and 32, as well as the claims depending therefrom,
discloses a procedure (column 3, line 43 et seq.) for manufacturing a T-joint from a tube
wherein the tube is heated in the vicinity of a pilot hole to a working temperature of, for
o o o o
example, 900 C (1652 F) in the vicinity of points 2b, 2d and, for example, 700 C (1292
2
F) in the vicinity of points 2a, 2c for the disclosed example of a carbon steel tube. Okada
also discloses that the invention dislosed therein “is not limited to the use of a carbon steel
pipe; it can be applied to the case where a T-joint is manufactured by using any metal pipe
or alloy pipe, for example, a stainless steel pipe and a steel alloy pipe” (column 5, lines 39-
43).
Superplasticity is the “unusual ability of some metals and alloys to elongate
uniformly by thousands of percent at elevated temperatures, much like hot polymers and
glasses” (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, Fifth Edition (McGraw-
Hill, Inc. 1994)). Additionally, the main prerequisite for superplasticity is an
As explained by Okada at column 4, lines 11-16 and 41-46, the lower working temperature is2
used in the vicinity of points 2a, 2c to avoid undesired thinning and cracking at these points (see column 1,
lines 35-60) during the burring operation carried out by the burring punch 4 to form the collar portion 2A.
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