Appeal No. 2003-1583
Application 09/253,235
THE REJECTIONS
The claims stand rejected as follows: claims 31-33 and 35-39
under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as anticipated by JP ‘345, and claims 40
and 41 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over JP ‘345.
OPINION
We affirm the aforementioned rejections.
The appellants state that the claims stand or fall
separately (brief, page 7). We discuss the claims separately to
the extent justified by the appellants’ arguments. See In re
Ochiai, 71 F.3d 1565, 1566 n.2, 37 USPQ2d 1127, 1129 n.2 (Fed.
Cir. 1995); 37 CFR § 1.192(c)(7)(1997).
JP ‘345 discloses an apparatus and a method for producing a
semisolid metal slurry and using it to make castings (page 3).
Molten metal is supplied to the apparatus through a molten metal
supply pipe (5) to a vessel (3) having, between its iron skin (1)
and fire resistant liner (2), thermal media supply pipes (6) and
coolant supply pipes (7) (page 4). Molten metal in the vessel is
stirred with stirrer 16 which has a polygonal or cylindrical
shape and has embedded therein an iron piece (18) which creates
an induction electric current for heating the stirrer (pages 4-
6). “[S}tirrer 16 provides stirring and shearing effects to the
molten metal so that growing dendrite structures are crushed and
3
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