Appeal 2007-1902
Application 09/398,006
We agree with the Examiner that one of ordinary skill in this art
would have found in the combined teachings of Farnsworth and Gaudin the
motivation to select any combination of relative widths of each of the three
layers of the belt based on the desired properties in the heavy duty
pneumatic tire. In this respect, we further agree with the Examiner that one
of ordinary skill in this art considering the teachings of Farnsworth and
Gaudin would have been armed with the knowledge in the art that
differences in the relative widths of the innermost, middle and outermost
cord layers of the belt affect stiffness and the stress concentrations at the belt
edges as acknowledged by Gaudin. We determine one of ordinary skill in
this art would have recognized that both Farnsworth and Gaudin improve on
conventional truck tire belt assemblies which optionally have a fourth belt
layer with a three cord layer belt, with Farnsworth preferring the high
inclination angle cord layer as the outermost layer and Gaudin employing
this layer as the middle cord layer. As the Examiner points out, Gaudin
illustrates all six configurations of relative belt widths wherein the
inclination angle range of each layer remains the same, and prefers the
configuration in which the low inclination angle innermost cord layer is the
widest and the high inclination angle middle cord layer is the narrowest.
Furthermore, while Kohno discloses a range of modulus of elasticity
of at least 200 kgf/mm2 for the coating rubber for the circumferential steel
cord belt and not the slant steel cord belt, we determine one of ordinary skill
in this art would have recognized that the properties of resistance to cord
buckling and breakup conferred by such rubber coating would be beneficial
for a slant cord belt, and thus would have used the coating rubber for the
slant cord belt. Appellants’ contention that Kohno uses a different method
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