Appeal No. 2006-0235
Application 09/733,352
an optical fiber perform which can be situated in a furnace 42 (e.g., col. 1, ll. 6-31, cols. 2-3, and
col. 3, ll. 49-59; Figs. 1 and 3). The examiner finds that col. 3, ll. 59-62, of Knowles evinces
that winding a formed optical fiber on a spool was known in the art (answer, pages 4-5). We
find that appellants acknowledge that “[f]ber draw manufacturing techniques are known wherein
the optical fiber is drawn from an optical fiber perform and wound onto a spool,” wherein the
“spool” can include “bulk spools” from which the fiber can be rewound “to a plurality of smaller
shipping spools” (specification, pages 1-2). Thus, we are of the opinion that one of ordinary
skill in this art at the time the claimed invention was made would have been armed with the
knowledge that optical fibers are pulled from a fiber perform and wound on a spool, and thus
would have found that the method of testing the strength of optical fiber 18 disclosed by
Knowles is applied to the manufacturing process between pulling the optical fiber from the
perform and winding the drawn fiber onto a spool.8
We further find that Knowles would have disclosed that the apparatus includes first and
second tractor, that is, capstan, assemblies 10,11 (col. 2, ll. 6-7; Figs. 1-3). The first tractor
assembly 10 includes tractor wheel 12 which clamps fiber 18 against belt 15 to apply tension to
the fiber, the assembly being “driven by variable speed drive motor 24” attached to tractor wheel
12 which applies constant tension to the fiber at all speeds (col. 2, ll. 7-16, 21-24, 28-29 and
49-56; Fig. 1).
The second tractor assembly 11 includes tractor wheel 19 which clamps fiber 18 against
belt 22, the assembly mounted on plate 28 which pivots around belt wheel shaft 27 connected to
belt wheel 21 and is supported at the other end, that is, the “free end,” by transducer 30 of load
cell 29, wherein belt wheel shaft 27 is part of a drive attached to a clutch of constant torque
device 26 (col. 2, ll. 18-20, 31-33 and 38-42; Figs. 1 and 2). Transducer 30 and thus, load cell
29, “produces an output indicating the force thereon” because “fiber tension is applied at a right
and 11 find antecedent basis in the claims on which they are dependent for the phrase “said
shipping spool.”
8 It is well settled that a reference stands for all of the specific teachings thereof as well as the
inferences one of ordinary skill in this art would have reasonably been expected to draw
therefrom, see In re Fritch, 972 F.2d 1260, 1264-65, 23 USPQ2d 1780, 1782-83 (Fed. Cir.
1992); In re Preda, 401 F.2d 825, 826, 159 USPQ 342, 344 (CCPA 1968), presuming skill on
the part of this person. In re Sovish, 769 F.2d 738, 743, 226 USPQ 771, 774 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
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