11036991 (B.P.A.I. Feb. 28, 2012)

Ex Parte Kottilingam et al

Board of Patent Appeals and InterferencesFeb 28, 2012

11036991 (B.P.A.I. Feb. 28, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 11/036,991 01/18/2005 Srikanth C. Kottilingam 2004P15524US 7313 7590 02/29/2012 Siemens Corporation Intellectual Property Department 170 Wood Avenue South Iselin, NJ 08830 EXAMINER HEINRICH, SAMUEL M ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3742 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 02/29/2012 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ________________ BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS AND INTERFERENCES ________________ Ex parte SRIKANTH C. KOTTILINGAM and PETER J. DITZEL ________________ Appeal 2010-010558 Application 11/036,991 Technology Center 3700 ________________ Before JENNIFER D. BAHR, LINDA E. HORNER and STEVEN D.A. McCARTHY, Administrative Patent Judges. McCARTHY, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE 1 The Appellants1 appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner’s 2 final decision rejecting claims 1-18 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being 3 unpatentable over Ferrigno (US 5,846,057, issued Dec. 8, 1998) and4 1 The Appellants identify the real party in interest as Siemens Energy, Inc. Appeal No. 2010-010558 Application No. 11/036,991 2 Grützner (US 4,584,031, issued Apr. 22, 1986). We have jurisdiction under 1 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). 2 We REVERSE. 3 Claims 1 and 10 are the only independent claims on appeal: 4 1. A method for welding alloys having a 5 directionally-solidified grain structure comprising: 6 breaking down a portion of the directionally-7 solidified grain structure in an area to be welded; 8 recrystallizing grains in the portion of the 9 directionally-solidified grain structure in the area 10 to be welded to form a localized region of grains 11 having a fine grain structure; and 12 welding the alloys in the localized region of 13 grains having a fine grain structure. 14 10. A method for repairing a turbine 15 component having a directionally-solidified grain 16 structure in at least a portion of the turbine 17 component comprising: 18 breaking down a portion of the directionally-19 solidified grain structure in the turbine component; 20 recrystallizing grains in the portion of the 21 directionally-solidified grain structure in the 22 turbine component to form a localized region of 23 grains having a fine grain structure; and 24 welding the localized region of grains 25 having a fine grain structure. 26 Prior rejections of claims 1 and 10 under § 103(a) were reversed in Appeal 27 2009-001092 (BPAI Mar. 12, 2009). 28 Ferrigno describes laser shock peening the surface of a turbine blade 29 formed from a directionally-solidified nickel-based superalloy material in 30 the vicinity of a crack before welding metallic weld material into the crack. 31 Appeal No. 2010-010558 Application No. 11/036,991 3 (Ferrigno, col. 6, ll. 41-63; see also id., col. 7, ll. 14-20.) Ferrigno teaches 1 that laser shock peening the surface of a crack before welding metallic weld 2 material into the crack counters the tendency of the weld to suffer 3 mechanical or thermal fatigue failure. (Ferrigno, col. 6, ll. 41-45.) 4 Grützner describes an austenitic steel alloy material having improved 5 0.2% offset yield strength (that is, a high “0.2 limit”) while maintaining 6 good weldability. (Grützner, col. 5, ll. 25-31; see also id., col. 1, ll. 16-20.) 7 Grützner describes fabricating the material by performing cold working and 8 recrystallization annealing on a low carbon stainless steel alloy with from 9 0.065% to 0.35% nitrogen content. The cold working and recrystallization 10 annealing forms an ultrafine grain structure with an average linear intercept 11 length of the grains below 10 m. (Grützner, col. 5, ll. 32-45.) 12 The Examiner reasons that the subject matter of claims 1 and 10 13 would have been obvious “because the combined cold work, such as 14 peening, and subsequent recrystallize annealing improve the workpiece 15 material in order to reduce possibility of fracture in the transition region 16 between the parent metal and the weld metal.” (Ans. 4.) The Examiner 17 additionally reasons that any combination of the teachings of Ferrigno and 18 Grützner would have been obvious “because both describe corrosion 19 resistant alloys which can be welded and both recognize problems pertaining 20 to cracks or fractures.” (Ans. 6.) 21 Ferrigno teaches that laser shock peening the surface of a crack before 22 welding metallic weld material into the crack counters the tendency of the 23 weld to suffer mechanical or thermal fatigue failure. (Ferrigno, col. 6, ll. 41-24 45.) Grützner teaches that the cold working and recrystallization annealing 25 of Grützner’s material reduces dislocations within the material, thereby 26 Appeal No. 2010-010558 Application No. 11/036,991 4 relieving stress. (Grützner, col. 4, ll. 1-4). Although both Ferrigno and 1 Grützner address the weldability of corrosion resistant metal alloys, their 2 teachings are not so similar as to imply that one of ordinary skill in the art 3 would have had reason to combine those teachings in the fashion claimed in 4 claims 1 and 10. 5 Furthermore, Grützner discloses that: 6 The particular composition of the alloy as 7 proposed is amenable to taking up high mechanical 8 loads and is quite corrosion proof and remains very 9 well weldable. This is due to the fact that 10 following cold working and recrystallization 11 annealing a high 0.2 limit is obtained due to large 12 grain-refining. Furthermore, the result is attained 13 by the utilization of filler metals made of high 14 strength, nitrogen containing, corrosion proof steel 15 or nickel alloys and therefore are weldable which 16 feature is based on the nature of the grain-refined 17 parent metal, i.e. the alloy as such; in spite of the 18 ultrafine grained structure of the alloy the 19 weldment specimens will not fracture in the seam 20 transition region, but in the unaffected grain-21 refined parent metal or in the seam resp. the 22 deposited weld metal. 23 (Grützner, col. 5, ll. 51-65.) Grützner does not clearly indicate that one of 24 ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the ultrafine grained 25 structure formed by combining cold work and subsequent recrystallization 26 annealing reduced the possibility of fracture in the transition region between 27 the parent metal and the weld metal. The teachings of Grützner do not 28 appear fully consistent with the Examiner’s reasoning on page 4 of the 29 Answer. 30 In view of the teachings of Ferrigno and Grützner, we agree with the 31 Appellants (see Br. 5) that the Examiner has not articulated reasoning with 32 Appeal No. 2010-010558 Application No. 11/036,991 5 some rational underpinning sufficient to support the conclusion that one of 1 ordinary skill in the art would have had reason to combine steps of breaking 2 down a portion of the directionally-solidified grain structure in the turbine 3 component; and recrystallizing grains in the portion of the directionally-4 solidified grain structure in the turbine component to form a localized region 5 of grains having a fine grain structure, as recited in claims 1 and 10. 6 We do not sustain the rejection of claims 1-18 under § 103(a) as being 7 unpatentable over Ferrigno and Grützner. 8 9 DECISION 10 We REVERSE the Examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1-18. 11 12 REVERSED 13 14 15 16 Klh 17