Appeal No. 2002-0963
Application No. 08/122,344
Chitwood is directed to a tape laying machine employing
filamentous tapes. The tapes comprise unidirectional, tectonic
filaments or fibers which are preimpregnated with a matrix of any
organic, thermosetting resin. See col. 2, lines 8-35. According
to the process of Chitwood, the tape is unwound from a spool and
fed beneath a detrusion nozzle where it is detruded onto the face
of a die pattern. At the detrusion nozzle, the tape is subjected
to the detrusion pressure of a single large jet of air, or
alternately, of a multiple of small high pressure jets. The
pressurized air may be preheated for the purpose of inducing
tackiness in the resinous matrix of the tape or to cure the resin
at the time the tape is laid down. See col. 6, lines 29-37; col.
8, lines 20-45.
Hebert discloses a filament preheat apparatus which is
mountable to the payout assembly of a filament winding machine.
According to Hebert (col. 1, lines 14-45):
[D]uring a winding process involving preimpregnated or
"prepregged" materials, such as resinous filaments, for
example, the material is fed from some sort of payout
assembly to a mandrel. . . .
When prepregged materials are wound it is
generally desirable to preheat both the material and
mandrel. Preheating causes better material compaction,
which thereby produces a higher quality finished
product. In the past, preheating has been accomplished
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