Appeal No. 2003-0391
Application 09/228,433
THE PRIOR ART
The references relied on by the examiner to support the
final rejection are:
Palmer et al. (Palmer) 4,942,013 Jul. 17, 1990
Seemann, III et al. (Seemann) 5,721,034 Feb. 24, 1998
Louderback et al. (Louderback) 5,885,513 Mar. 23, 1999
THE REJECTION
Claims 1, 3 through 6 and 8 through 13 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Louderback in view
of Palmer and Seemann.
Attention is directed to the appellants’ main and reply
briefs (Paper Nos. 18 and 20) and to the examiner’s answer (Paper
No. 19) for the respective positions of the appellants and the
examiner regarding the merits of this rejection.
DISCUSSION
Claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal, recites a
process for optimizing resin distribution during VARTM (vacuum
assisted resin transfer molding) fabrication of a fiber-
reinforced resin structure having a core body with a core upper
surface and at least one fiber-reinforced ply disposed upon the
core upper surface. The claimed process comprises, inter alia,
the steps of forming longitudinal resin distribution grooves
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007