Appeal No. 2001-2265
Application No. 09/151,934
OPINION
We reverse the aforementioned rejection.
JP ‘080 discloses a method for making an automotive sunshade
panel by using compression molding to bend a hollow aluminum
panel such that the panel has a radius of curvature which can be
11,200 mm (pages 8 and 15).
Each of the appellants’ independent claims requires that
longitudinal edges of the hollow aluminum panel are flanged by
press forming or roll forming. The examiner argues that the
JP ‘080 stretch part 19 is a flange (answer, pages 5, 7, 9, 12,
13, and 15). Stretch part 19 is an edge portion which is formed
during the compression molding, as shown in figure 5, and is then
excised (page 15) to form a sunshade panel which, as shown in
figure 7, has no portion resembling a flange.
The examiner argues that Westaway (page 2, lines 30-36)
would have led one of ordinary skill in the art to bend the
JP ‘080 sunshade panel by passing it through the nip between
concave and convex rollers instead of using compression molding,
in order to reduce the cost and improve the retention of
curvature (answer, page 7). Using a metal roller in combination
with an elastic roller would have been obvious to one of ordinary
skill in the art, the examiner argues, in view of the appellants’
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