Appeal 2007-4013
Application 09/768,512
Claim 1, couched in product-by-process format, is a product claim in
which the encompassed metallic carrier is defined by the process by which it
is made, and the structural limitations thus conferred on the product by the
process must be given weight. See, e.g., In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695, 697,
227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985). The product comprises that formed by
at least the process steps of, among other things, subjecting the assembly of
the core press-fitted into the cylinder to any manner of heat treatment to
diffuse, that is, melt, the brazing foil disposed around the periphery at any
point on the exhaust gas outlet side of the core. There is no limitation on the
amount of brazing material in the brazing foil. The thus diffused molten
brazing material of the foil cools, joining the core components together and
the outer periphery of the core to the inner periphery of the cylinder. The
process has the limitation that the cylinder must have a circumferential
“solder-rising preventing groove” on the inner periphery at any position on
the exhaust gas inlet side thereof. The “solder-rising preventing groove” is
not dimensionally defined but must be capable of preventing the diffusing
molten brazing material on the exhaust gas outlet side from diffusing toward
the exhaust gas inlet side of the core, that is, the further diffusion of the
molten brazing material is prevented and the molten brazing material which
reaches the groove is retained therein. The unmelted brazing foil is not
disposed in the “solder-rising preventing groove” when it is disposed at any
point on the exhaust gas outlet side of the core prior to the heat treatment.
Thus, the unmelted brazing foil is disposed in any or all of the area of the
core/cylinder interface between the exhaust gas outlet side of the assembly
and immediately before the “solder-rising preventing groove.”
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