Appeal No. 2004-1912
Application No. 09/808,584
Schrauwers
The examiner’s position for this rejection is set forth on
pages 6 and 7 of the answer. The examiner states that the
metering bar or doctor 16, as depicted in Fig. 1 of Schrauwers,
is positioned against the roller applicator 15.
Appellants’ response for this rejection is set forth on
pages 7-9 of the brief. Appellants argue that element 16 of
Schrauwers does not meter a predetermined amount of coating
composition to the applicator for transfer to an article as
required by claim 1.
In response, on page 14 of the answer, the examiner states
that metering bar 16 of Schrauwers prevents the combination of
an excess of applied coating material and freshly applied
coating material from building up, to provide a different
thickness of coating to each subsequently fed article. In this
way, the examiner concludes that metering bar 16 facilitates
uniform metering of the coating material in a predetermined
amount to be applied to the applicator and then conveyed to the
article. Answer, page 14.
We find that Schrauwers discloses, in col. 2, beginning at
line 40, that “[t]he cleanliness of the external surface of the
transfer cylinder 5 [see Fig. 1] is guaranteed by a doctor 16
which is kept pressed against the external cylindrical surface”
of transfer cylinder 5, and alternates parallel to the rotation
axis of the cylinder. In this way, the external surface of the
transfer cylinder 5 is freed of any residual glaze before coming
into contact with the external cylindrical surface of the
matrix-bearing cylinder 4 and receiving fresh glaze. We do not
agree with the examiner that this is the same as a metering bar
used “to meter a predetermined amount of coating composition to
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