Appeal 2006-3219
Application 10/122,270
and inner fiber layers illustrated in Fig. 1 (id., e.g., col. 3, l. 31, to col. 4, l. 4,
and col. 8, ll. 10-19).
Yamada discloses the mat is formed on top of the fibers as disclosed
in Drummond (id., col. 4, ll. 24-32, and col. 6, ll. 46-49). Yamada teaches
that with the thus superimposed layers, “the mat on the opposite side from
the needles suffers less form breakage of the strands” such that “the
possibility of the decline of strength can be curbed to a greater extent” (id.,
col. 4, ll. 32-42). We find that Yamada does not refer to any particular part
of Drummond for the arrangement of the mat and fibers and does not
specifically refer to Drummond with respect to needling. In this respect, we
find Drummond discloses at column 6, lines 49-55, that during needling of
the mat, the continuous strands are broken up into a plurality of short and
long fibers.
Yamada discloses bumper beam 11 is prepared by heating a stampable
sheet having the desired weight in a metal die to the melting point of the
resin in the sheet for a desired “molding cycle” (Yamada, e.g., col. 5, ll. 7-20
and 45-46). One of ordinary skill in this art would have found from
Yamada’s Fig. 5 that the fiber mat(s) extends the entire length of the
laminate sheets forming the entire length of the bumper beam (id., col. 6, ll.
55-67, and col. 8, ll. 10-19). The bumper beam 11 so formed is attached to
each of two stays 14 by nuts/bolts 19 through holes in the bumper beam at
positions which are spaced a predetermined distance apart as illustrated in
Yamada’s Figs. 2 and 4 (id., col. 5, ll. 45-51).
We find Manning would have disclosed to one of ordinary skill in this
art C-shaped bumper beams 16 for an energy absorbing vehicle bumper, in
11
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