Appeal 2006-2047
Application 10/257,927
According to Appellants, the invention is directed to a coil coating
process in which a metal strip is coated on at least one side with a powder
slurry by roller coating, and the applied film is heated so that the water
present therein evaporates to provide finely divided dimensionally stable
constituents which melt and coalesce to form a heated and coalesced powder
slurry film, with subsequent curing either thermally or by actinic radiation
(Br. 2).1 A copy of illustrative independent claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. A coil coating process comprising coating a metal strip at least one
side with at least one coating material by roller coating to provide an applied
coating film and curing the applied coating film, wherein the at least one
coating material comprises a powder slurry and the step of curing further
comprises heating the applied film so that the water present therein
evaporates to provide finely divided dimensionally stable constituents which
melt and coalesce to provide a heated and coalesced powder slurry film, and
subjecting the heated and coalesced powder slurry film to curing selected
from the group consisting of thermal energy, actinic radiation, and mixtures
thereof wherein curing is conducted within a period of from 10 s to 2 min,
wherein an application roll has a peripheral speed of from 110 to 125% of
the strip speed.
The Examiner has relied on the following references as evidence of
obviousness:
Tongyai US 3,999,957 Dec. 28, 1976
Innes US 4,046,931 Sep. 06, 1977
Martorano US 4,190,693 Feb. 26, 1980
Sirkoch US 4,634,602 Jan. 06, 1987
Betz (DE ‘581) DE 19843581 Mar. 30, 20002
1 We refer to and cite from the “Amended Appeal Brief” dated Dec. 27, 2005.
2 We rely upon and cite from a full English translation of this published German patent
application, previously made of record.
2
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