Appeal 2007-1370
Application 10/250,360
threads. The reference also teaches wetting the reinforcing
material with a matrix material and consolidating
the matrix material. (Abstract; Col. 2, lines 14-25)[.] The
reference teaches that the yarns or threads used to produce the
reinforcing material may be yarns, threads, rovings, tows or the
like, of continuous or discontinuous fibers, of glass fiber or
other suitable reinforcing material such as carbon fiber, aramid
fiber, among others. (Col. 2, lines 58-62). [Emphasis added.]
The Examiner has recognized that Vane does not expressly mention
employing the claimed “hairy” yarn which is defined, according to pages 1
and 2 of the Specification, as follows:
It is also known to produce carbon yarn formed from many
short fibres spun together. This produces a yarn with numerous
short lengths of fibre protruding out from the main orientation
of fibres, and will be referred to in the application as a "hairy"
yarn. …
The hairy yarn may be constructed from short lengths of broken
and twisted carbon fibre or alternatively from glass, KevlarŪ,
PBO or other suitable material.
To remedy this deficiency, the Examiner has selected yarns and
discontinuous fibers from various possibilities mentioned in Vane and
determined that the use of yarns formed from such discontinuous fibers
would necessarily result in the formation of the claimed “hairy” yarns
(Answer 4). According to the Examiner, Cheshire and Phillips show that
Vane’s yarns formed from discontinuous fibers, if employed to form non-
woven plies, would necessarily result in the formation of the claimed “hairy”
yarns in the non-woven plies (id.).2
2 Cheshire teaches a filament consisting of a staple yarn spun from typically
10 to 100 mm long discontinuous fibers (col. 1, l. 62 to col. 2, l. 11).
4
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Last modified: September 9, 2013