Appeal No. 2005-2005
Application 10/273,845
and the polymer material has a degree of expansion from about 20%
to about 3000% (page 7, lines 31-33), which is relevant to
claim 3. The modulus of the polymer material decreases as the
degree of expansion of the material increases (page 18, line 28,
to page 19, line 12). WO 98/52197 provides a number of suitable
materials (page 8, lines 5-32). The background in WO 98/52197
indicates that it was known to use an expanded material around a
conductor to increase the transmission speed of the electrical
signals and to provide a film of nonexpanded polymer over an
insulating expanded polymer surrounding the conductor (pages
3-4), which is relevant to claim 5. WO 98/52197 teaches that the
sheath is produced by extrusion and the material can be expanded
by chemical or gas "expanders" (e.g., page 22, line 32, to
page 23, line 12), which is relevant to claims 2, 3, 17, and 20.
The difference between WO 98/52197 and the subject matter of
claims 1 and 16 is that WO 98/52197 teaches a flexural modulus
(tensile strength) before expansion of at least 200 MPa, whereas
the claims recite that the expanded material has a tensile
strength of between 10.0 and 50.0 MPa. The modulus of 200 MPa is
chosen so the expanded material will have a suitable impact
strength. The present invention is not concerned with impact
strength, but with reducing weight and amount of sheathing
- 9 -
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007