Appeal 2007-1177
Application 10/733,740
liquid component of the chemical mixing, or that the ball mixing produces
constituents that are physically held, or bound, together to some extent.
Also, even accepting Appellants’ argument that they had possession of the
knowledge that powder constituents can be unbound during ball mixing and
wet chemical mixing, there is no factual basis for concluding that the
original specification reasonably conveys the concept that the first and
second constituents are completely unbound during application. Also,
although Appellants assert that they unquestionably appreciated that the
claimed process of application binds the mixed powder into positively linked
constituents, this does not establish that the constituents in homogenous
composition are not bound to some degree after mixing and before
application.
We next consider the § 103 rejection of claims 5 and 13 over
Longo ‘184 in view of Nagaraj. Appellants do not dispute the Examiner’s
factual determination that Longo ‘184 discloses applying a zirconia-based
thermal barrier coating by flame spraying a composite powder that may
comprise zirconia particles and a ceramic material, such as Appellants’
titanium oxide or cerium oxide. Also, Appellants have not refuted the
Examiner’s finding that the flame spray process of Longo ‘184 is equivalent
to the claimed, but undefined, low velocity oxygen fuel process. Longo ‘184
does not expressly teach that the application process at least partially melts
the titanium/cerium oxide particles, but Appellants have not challenged the
Examiner’s rationale that the reference’s softening of these zirconia particles
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