Appeal No. 2004-0470
Application No. 09/673,771
DISCUSSION
Ball, the examiner’s primary reference, discloses an article
for encasing and thermally insulating a well site valve to
prevent it from freezing and becoming inoperable in cold weather.
The article includes composite housing members formed of shells
of molded plastic having fiber glass or polyurethane insulation
disposed therebetween (see, for example, column 4, line 15,
through column 5, line 2), connecting means for joining the
housing members to one another (see, for example, column 5, lines
3 through 18), and sealing means for rendering water-tight the
joined edges of the housing members (see, for example, column 5,
lines 18 through 25).
As implicitly conceded by the examiner (see page 2 in the
final rejection), Ball does not respond to the limitations in
independent claim 1 calling for the casing members to comprise
inner and outer skins of fibre reinforced plastics material
having a plurality of overlaid layers of reinforcing fibres in a
plastics material matrix. To overcome this deficiency, the
examiner turns to Elliott.
Elliott pertains to spherically curved shell-type bodies
designed to withstand the high hydrostatic pressures associated
with underwater research and exploration. The walls of the
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