Ex Parte BOLL et al - Page 10




          Appeal No. 2002-0963                                                        
          Application No. 08/122,344                                                  


               Sherwood discloses a method of fabricating reinforced                  
          plastic pipe or other tubular articles using a filament or tape             
          winding apparatus.  See Answer, p. 6.  The apparatus includes a             
          rotatable reel 2 on which a coil of tape 3 is mounted.  The tape            
          3 is guided onto a mandrel 4 in a generally helical pattern by a            
          guide mechanism 5 which serves to properly guide the tape and               
          impart a selected twist to the tape as it moves from the coil on            
          reel 2 to the mandrel.  See col. 2, lines 30-41.                            
               The tape is formed of a reinforcing material and is                    
          impregnated or coated with a thermosetting resin (col. 3, lines             
          18-27):                                                                     
                    The resin is applied to the reinforcing material                  
               in any conventional manner such as dipping, spraying,                  
               roller coating, and the like.  After the resin and                     
               curing agent are applied to the reinforcing material,                  
               the resin will begin to cure or polymerize and the                     
               curing of the resin is halted at a predetermined stage                 
               by refrigerating the tape so that the resin will be in                 
               the solid partially cured state and will not be full                   
               cured to the infusible state.  The tape can then be                    
               wound in coiled form on reel 2 in preparation for the                  
               pipe fabricating process.                                              
               During the fabrication process, the partially cured                    
          thermoset resin may be melted by passing the tape over a heated             
          distribution roller 21 located proximate the mandrel 4 or by                
          heating the mandrel itself.  See col. 1, lines 23-26.                       


                                          10                                          





Page:  Previous  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  Next 

Last modified: November 3, 2007