Appeal 2007-1902
Application 09/398,006
We find Gaudin discloses a heavy duty tire with a triangulated belt
assembly of at least three breaker plies, that is, cord layers, of rubber coated
steel cords in which the cords of the innermost and outermost cord layers
have relatively small inclination angles to the equatorial plane in the range
of 5°-40° in opposite directions, and the cords of the middle cord layer have
a relatively high inclination angle to the equatorial plane in the range of 40°-
85°, the tire exhibiting improved resistance to belt cord layer looseness
(Gaudin, e.g., col. 1, ll. 4-6, col. 2, ll. 3-23, and col. 3, l. 21-23). Gaudin
discloses that “[w]hile the first, second and third [cord layers] may have
different widths in any configuration, most preferably, the innermost first
[cord layer] is the widest and the adjacent second [cord layer] is the
narrowest” (id., e.g., col. 2, ll. 24-27).
We find Gaudin illustrates the disclosed heavy duty tire in Fig. 1 with
a triangulated belt assembly with the optional fourth cord layer, in which the
first three cord layers 1, 2, and 3 can be represented by L/H/L′, respectively,
with the relative cord directions illustrated in Fig. 2, wherein 1 L is the
widest cord layer and 2 H is the narrowest, as also illustrated in Fig. 6
(Gaudin, e.g., col. 2, ll. 40-48, col. 2, l. 54, to col. 3, l. 14, and col. 3,
ll. 24-38). Gaudin further illustrates three other alternative arrangements of
cord direction and inclination angle of the three cord layers 1 L, 2 H, and 3
L′ in Figs. 3-5 (id. col. 3, ll. 24-35). In Figs. 3 and 4, the cord direction of
middle cord layer 2 H and of outermost cord layer 3 L′ is the same. Gaudin
illustrates five alternative triangulated belt assembly arrangements of cord
layer widths for cord layers 1 L, 2 H, and 3 L′ in Figs. 7-11 (id. col. 3,
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