Appeal 2006-2301
Application 10/606,988
conveyor and the first lower conveyor, and thereby resulting in a smooth
surface board.
The Examiner relies upon the following references as evidence of
obviousness:
Debouzie US 4,632,685 Dec. 30, 1986
Brossy US 4,992,227 Feb. 12, 1991
Mazza US 5,843,523 Dec. 1, 1998
Barry US 6,030,559 Feb. 29, 2000
Appellant’s claimed invention is directed to a method for making a
smooth surface board from fibrous material. The fibrous material passes
through an oven on a conveyor assembly which includes an upper conveyor
and a lower conveyor to produce a board of fibrous material. The board is
pulled from the oven by an apparatus downstream of the oven at a speed that
is different from the speed of at least one of the upper and lower conveyor.
Pulling the board at such a different speed causes the fibrous material to skid
which results in a smooth surface board. Independent claim 15 also requires
that either the upper conveyor or the lower conveyor is driven at a speed
faster than the other conveyor.
The appealed claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
follows:
(a) claims 1, 15, 30, and 31 over Brossy in view of Barry;
(b) claims 2 and 16 over the stated combination of references;
(c) claims 3 and 17 over the stated combination of references;
(d) claims 4 and 18 over the stated combination of references;
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