Appeal No. 2006-2962
Application No. 10/252,177
the limitations in appealed claim 25 except for the one requiring that the first
plastic be permitted to cool to a temperature beneath its softening point before
removal of the air bag cover body from the first mold. To overcome this perceived
deficiency in Cherry, the Examiner turns to Kikuchi.
Like Cherry, Kikuchi discloses a unitary composite air bag cover and
method of making same. In general, the cover 21 consists of a core layer 23 of
hard resin and a skin layer 22 of soft resin. The disposition of the soft skin layer
on opposite sides of the hard core layer in the area of a hinge line prevents
hazardous separation of the layers and shattering of the core layer upon
deployment of the air bag (see, for example, col. 1, ll. 41-63; col. 3, ll. 58-63; col.
4, ll. 11-13; col. 5, ll. 23-28; col. 7, ll. 60-67; and col. 8, ll. 32-42).
Of particular interest is the method by which Kikuchi makes the unitary
composite cover 21:
Still another feature of the present invention is that
a method of molding the air bag cover takes a first step in
which a pair of molds are clamped and thereafter molten
hard resin for a core layer is injected into a cavity of one
of the molds and is cooled and hardened to form the core
layer, and a second step in which after opening the
molds, a core die component (male die) of the one mold
is moved and brought into contact with a cavity die
component (female die) of the other mold and thereafter
molten soft resin for a skin layer is injected into a space
between the core layer formed on the core die component
and the cavity die component in order to form the skin
layer [col. 2, ll. 25-37; also see col. 5, l. 29, through col.
7, l. 13].
7
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