Appeal No. 2002-2090
Application 08/430,311
panel structure is a concrete material including cement, sand,
water, coarse aggregate and a proportion of short pieces or
fibers of wire (e.g., between 0.3% and 5% by volume at an average
spacing of less than 0.3 inch) so as to define a structural
concrete with improved resistance to cracking at the upper
surface thereof due to concrete volume shrinkage and temperature
changes (Givens, col. 6, lines 18-22 and Romualdi, col. 10, lines
19-25), and which will have a strength after cracking that is
less than the strength of the concrete prior to cracking and
wherein the short pieces or fibers of wire are present in a
quantity so as not to meet the requirements for “flexural
reinforcing,” as that term is defined on page 26 of appellant’s
specification. In that regard, it is apparent from the
disclosure in the paragraph bridging columns 5 and 6 of Givens
that the multitude of short wire segments in the fibrous concrete
do not themselves carry “all” the tensile bending stress of the
concrete panel member. Again, the cracking referred to above is
full cracking of the concrete panel structure wherein a crack
extends entirely through the panel structure.
However, even though we agree with the examiner that the
fibrous-concrete material of Givens is “plain concrete” within
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