Appeal 2007-2880
Application 11/098,984
Claims 1, 7, and 8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Dehari in view of Serban and Mooring.
OPINION
Both Dehari and Serban teach miter guards that have retraction
systems that retract the blade guard as the saw blade is moved toward the
work to be cut. Neither of these patents discloses a reaction system
configured to detect a dangerous condition between a person and a blade.
The Examiner has cited Mooring as disclosing this feature.
Mooring discloses a wood chipper with a drum 26 having cutter
blades 30 mounted thereon. In order to prevent dangerous contact between
the user 44 and the blade 30, a pivoting blade guard 67 is utilized to block
access to the blade (col. 3, ll. 2, 3). In order to detect the presence of the
user, rectangular tubular delivery chute 32 is provided with a 360 degree coil
loop detector (col. 2, ll. 54-65). The detector is tuned to detect metal placed
in the user’s gloves 46. When the loop detector 48 detects the metal
particles in the glove, the hydraulic cylinder with piston 62, 63 is actuated to
pivot the guard 67 into protective position. In the embodiment of Fig. 4,
vertically spaced feed rollers 74 and 75 can be actuated to reverse and pull
the material being passed through the delivery sheet toward the worker,
rather than toward the blade.
While obviousness does not require bodily incorporation, in our view,
the use of the loop detector of Mooring in a miter saw would not have had a
reasonable expectation of success, nor would the results of such a
combination have been predictable to one of ordinary skill. We are at a loss,
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