Appeal 2007-2426
Application 11/058,146
THE INVENTION
The Appellants claim a vehicle wheel assembly and a method for
disassembling it. Claim 1 is illustrative:
1. A vehicle wheel assembly comprising:
an input gear set;
a planetary gear set driven by said input gear set;
an output shaft driven by said planetary gear set; and
a brake component mounted for rotation with said output shaft wherein said
brake component is removable from the vehicle wheel assembly without requiring
removal of said planetary gear set.
THE REFERENCES
Mann US 2002/0134597 A1 Sep. 26, 2002
Thompson US 2004/0116228 A1 Jun. 17, 2004
THE REJECTION
Claims 1-16 and 18-23 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Mann in view of Thompson.
OPINION
We reverse the aforementioned rejection. We need to address only the
independent claims, i.e., claims 1, 12 and 18. Each of those claims requires an
input gear set.
Mann discloses an electrical individual wheel drive used in mobile vehicles
such as golf carts (¶¶ 0001-0002). Mann states that “[t]he problem on which this
invention is based is to provide an electrical individual wheel drive which is very
compactly constructed and stands out by a light weight” (¶ 0004). The electrical
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