Appeal No. 2003-0595 Page 5
Application No. 09/294,354
11 and 12 which support a winding roll 13. The winding rolls are rotatable on shafts
supported by bearing housings 22, which are positioned on “foundation[s] 17" (column
4, lines 6 and 7). A concrete cutter well “generally made of concrete, steel, or
equivalent material” (column 3, lines 51 and 52) contains a sealing box (sealing
chamber) 150, which is located beneath the carrying rolls, and air under pressure is
supplied thereto in order to at least partially support the winding roll. The sealing box is
supported by a pair of support beams 23, and may be movable laterally with respect to
the carrying rolls (column 4, line 40 et seq.). The support beams and the foundations
appear to rest on the ground. There is no explicit disclosure of any interconnection
between the support beams, the foundations, the bearing housings, and the sealing
box, and no such interconnection is apparent from the drawings.
Contrary to the position apparently taken by the examiner, it is our opinion that
even if one considers, arguendo, that foundation 17 and bearing housing 22
constitute the claimed “column device at each of the two ends of the carrying roll,”
Raudaskoski fails to disclose or teach the requirement in claim 1 that the column
devices are “connected to each other in the lateral direction by at least one cross bar,”4
much less that the cross bar comprises “a sealing box.” We view the examiner’s
conflicting conclusion to be grounded in speculation, in that there is no evidence in the
4 The common applicable definition of “connected” is “linked together.” See, for example,
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1973, page 240.
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