Appeal No. 1998-1433
Application No. 08/241,252
a set of input parameters, a set of control parameters, and a set
of observed resultant parameters," we are of the view that for
any given apparatus comprising a plurality of parts, appellants'
specification provides adequate guidance for ascertaining a set
of input parameters, a set of control parameters, and a set of
observed resultant parameters, and for carrying out the disclosed
method of assembling the plurality of parts so as to arrive at an
apparatus which performs in accordance with its design criteria.
In this regard, we note that appellants have characterized their
invention as an improvement over a known "select fit process" and
indicated on page 18 of the specification that
Prior art select fit methods of assembly select the
component to be assembled, based on its actual
dimension, for its capacity to reduce a measured
variation from a nominal target dimension, or, as it is
sometimes referred to, select fit to nominal. Thus,
although both the prior art and the present invention
use part or component dimensions in their respective
select fit process, prior art methods select fit to
compensate only for dimensional variations while the
present invention select fits to compensate for
performance parameter variations as well as dimensional
variations.
We see no reason why one of ordinary skill in the art would
need to resort to undue experimentation to incorporate
appellants' teaching of compensation for performance parameter
variations into the prior art select fit methods relying only on
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