Appeal No. 2005-0655
Application No. 09/896,505
DISCUSSION
Dolati, the examiner’s primary reference, discloses a rolled
metallic chord for use in the construction of roof trusses. The
chord embodiment 23 illustrated in Figure 3 comprises a base 24
and a pair of mirror image legs 26 and 27 depending from
respective edges of the base. Each leg includes, in sequence
from the base, a first planar portion 28, 32 perpendicular to the
base, an inwardly sloping planar portion 29, 33, a planar
attachment portion 30, 34 perpendicular to the base, and a flange
31, 35 having an outwardly directed portion 31a, 35a, an upwardly
directed portion 31b, 35b coplanar with the associated planar
portion 28, 32, and an inwardly directed portion 31c, 35c
terminating in a longitudinal edge 31d, 35d spaced from the
attachment portion. Figure 4 shows that the chord may be
reinforced by channel-shaped reinforcement tracks 43 secured to
the legs. Of the configuration of the flanges 31 and 35, Dolati
states that
[t]he particular outwardly, upwardly and inwardly
directed shape of the leg flange portions of the
present invention increases their stiffening power and
prevents hang up of the edges on objects on a jig table
or on the top of a wall along which the chord is pushed
or dragged and makes the chord safer to handle.
Furthermore, the particular configuration of the flange
portions of the chord legs enables installers to walk
on the bottom chord of a truss without twisting and
bending the chord [column 2, lines 26 through 34].
3
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