Ex parte Narang et al.

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Sep 29, 1998

08169081 (B.P.A.I. Sep. 29, 1998)

Application for patent filed December 20, 1993. 1
THIS OPINION WAS NOT WRITTEN FOR PUBLICATION
The opinion in support of the decision being entered today
(1) was not written for publication in a law journal and
(2) is not binding precedent of the Board.
Paper No. 16
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
_____________
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
_____________
Ex parte RAM S. NARANG and WILLIAM R. BURGER

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Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,0811
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ON BRIEF
_______________
Before MARTIN, JERRY SMITH, and CARMICHAEL, Administrative
Patent Judges.
MARTIN, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the
examiner's final rejection of claims 1-6 and 14 under 35
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
A rejection of claim 14 under the second paragraph of2
§ 112 was withdrawn in the Answer (at 1).
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U.S.C. § 103. Claims 7-13 stand withdrawn from consideration2
as directed to a non-elected invention (final Office action at
2). No claims stand allowed. We reverse.
The invention relates to the use of a flexible porous
member and a thermal setting adhesive to create a seal between
a printhead and the housing of an inkjet printer cartridge
which contains the ink supply. Referring to Figure 2, a
porous member 36 is located between surface 26 of cartridge 10
and the printhead 14 (Spec. at 8, lines 5-11). As is also
apparent from that figure, the porous member has a slot 35
therethrough for connecting one end of cartridge recess 30
(which receives ink from ink chamber 11 via outlet 16) to the
interior end of the nozzle passage 37 in the printhead. As
shown in Figure 4, prior to assembly of the cartridge and the
printhead, surface 31 of porous member 36 (excluding slot 35)
is provided with thermosetting adhesive layer 38, which is
insoluble in components utilized in ink (Spec. at 7, lines 20-
25). During assembly, the porous member is positioned against
surface 26 of the cartridge and the temperature raised to
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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about 80EC to cause the adhesive 38 on surface 31 to adhere or
tack thereto without the adhesive moving completely into the
porous member (Spec. at 8, lines 5-8). The adhesive layer on
the porous member also closes all of one side of recess 30
except for a small portion in alignment with slot 35 of the
porous member, thereby forming a closed ink passageway from
the cartridge chamber 11 to the printhead nozzle 37 (Spec. at
8, lines 11-14). The printhead 14 and bonded heat sink 24, as
an assembly 46, are then aligned with and placed in contact
with the porous member (Spec. at 9, lines 3-6). The cartridge
housing 12 and the attached printhead and heat sink assembly
are cured in an oven, curing the thermosetting adhesive
material and causing it to migrate or diffuse through the
pores of the porous member 36 and establish good contact with
the printhead 14, thereby creating a direct bond between the
cartridge housing wall 25 and the printhead 14 and making the
porous member solid and impervious to air and ink (Spec. at 9,
line 29 to p.10, line 4). The printhead is also attached to
the cartridge by means of stake pins 40, whose ends are staked
to preform pin heads 41 (Spec. at 9, lines 16-18).
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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Of the two independent claims before us (i.e., claims 1
and 14), Appellants' brief specifically addresses only
claim 1, which is the narrower of the two claims. We will
begin our analysis with claim 14, the broader claim, which
reads as follows:
14. In an improved thermal ink jet printer which
includes a cartridge having a supply of ink therein, said
cartridge being in ink flow communication with nozzles of
a printhead, the improvement comprises an interface
between the printhead and the cartridge which is sealed
by a flexible porous member having a slot therethrough
and having first and second surfaces coated with a
thermal setting adhesive which fills all pores of said
member, the porous member being impervious to air and
ink[,] the porous member further providing a direct
bonding between the cartridge and printhead.
The examiner relies on the following references:
Baker et al. (Baker) 4,771,295 Sep. 13, 1988
Kneezel et al. (Kneezel) 4,864,329 Sep. 5,
1989
Claims 1-6 and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as
unpatentable over Baker in view of Kneezel.
Figure 2 of Baker shows a substrate member or interface
seal 102 whose top surface is bonded to the surface 100 of pen
body 10 by an adhesive 114, 116, and 118, which is simply
described as a "suitable adhesive" (col. 4, lines 3-8). The
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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bottom surface of substrate member 102 is bonded to the upper
surface of a nozzle plate 104 by an adhesive 106, which is
advantageously selected to be a polymer material such as one
of the polymer materials sold by E.I. Dupont's under the trade
names RISTON and VACREL (col. 3, lines 47-52). The material
of which substrate member 102 is formed is not disclosed. The
substrate member includes passages 108, 110, and 112 for
allowing ink to pass from ink chambers 88, 90, and 92 in pen
body 10 to the orifices in the nozzle plate (col. 3, lines 52-
58).
In comparing the claims to Baker, the examiner reads the
claimed cartridge on pen body 10, the claimed printhead on
nozzle plate 104, and the claimed "member" having a slot
therethrough on substrate member 102, having passages 108,
110, and 112 (final Office action at 4). The examiner
concedes that Baker's substrate member is not described as
being porous or flexible or as containing a thermal setting
adhesive in its pores (id.). For these teachings, the
examiner turns to Kneezel, which discloses a method of
providing inkjet printheads with ink filters by laminating a
substantially flat wafer-size filter to an ink inlet wafer or
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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substrate containing a plurality of ink channel plates (col.
2, lines 28-32). Figure 1 shows a filter 14 and a silicon
wafer 16 having a plurality of channel plates 31 formed
therein (col. 3, lines 51-54; col. 4, lines 41-44). Referring
to Figure 2, each channel plate 31 has an ink fill hole 25
(col. 3, lines 56-60). As shown in Figure 7, the pores 24 of
filter 14 are much smaller than the fill holes 25 in each
channel plate 31. Filter 14 is adhered to wafer 16 as follows
(col. 4, lines 45-68):
Basically, the method of bonding the filter 14 to the
channel wafer 16 is accomplished by coating a flexible
substrate (not shown) with a relatively thin uniform
layer of adhesive having an intermediate non-tacky curing
stage with a shelf life of around one month for ease of
alignment of parts and ease of storage of the components
having the adhesive thereon. About half of the adhesive
layer on the flexible substrate is transferred to the
surface of [sic] 33 of the wafer within a predetermined
time of the coating of the flexible substrate by placing
it in contact therewith and applying a predetermined
temperature and pressure to the flexible substrate prior
to peeling it from the channel wafer. This causes the
adhesive to fail cohesively in the liquid state, assuring
that about half of the thickness of the adhesive layer
stays with the flexible substrate and is discarded
therewith, leaving a very thin uniform layer of adhesive
on the channel wafer surface 33 without permitting the
adhesive to flow into the fill hole edges. The
transferred adhesive layer remaining on the wafer surface
enters in[to] an intermediate, non-tacky curing stage to
assist in subsequent alignment of the filter. The filter
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14 and the etch[ed] channel wafer 16 are cured to
complete the bonding of the filter thereto.
Filter 14 may be 1-100 microns thick, may be electroformed,
and must be a plateable material that is corrosion resistant
to ink, diceable, and robust enough to handle, such as nickel
(col. 5, lines 1-11). In addition to filtering out
contamination from the ink and ink supply system, the filter
prevents dirt and other debris from entering the relatively
large inlets during printhead assembly (col. 5, lines 53-56).
The filter alternatively may be a woven, mesh type filter or,
preferably, a membrane filter produced, for example, by
electroforming or other photolithographically defineable
processes (col. 7, lines 33-36). The examiner argues that
it would have been obvious . . . to incorporate a
flexible porous member having an intermediate no[n]-tacky
curing stage as taught by Kneezel et al. as a substrate
into the teaching of Baker et al. for the purpose of
achieving adhesive flowing into the pores to form a
bonding process between the ink chamber wall and the
printhead. [Final Office action at 5.]
We agree with Appellants (Brief at 11-12) that the
rejection must fail for lack of motivation to combine the
teachings of Baker and Kneezel in the manner proposed by the
examiner. Obviousness cannot be established by combining the
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Application 08/169,081
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teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention,
absent some teaching, suggestion or incentive supporting the
combination. In re Bond, 910 F.2d 831, 834, 15 USPQ2d 1566,
1568 (Fed. Cir. 1990). The examiner has not satisfactorily
explained, and it is not apparent to us, why the artisan,
without using hindsight based on Appellants' application,
would have desired to replace Baker's substrate member 102,
which does not perform any filtering whatsoever, with
Kneezel's filter 14, which does, especially since Baker's pen
body 10 already includes three ink filters 36, 38, and 40,
which are formed of stainless steel wire mesh and serve to
filter out air bubbles and solid particles (col. 2, lines 36-
43).
For the foregoing reason, the rejection of claim 14
under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Baker in view of
Kneezel is
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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reversed, as is the § 103 rejection of narrower independent
claim 1 and its dependent claims 2-5.
REVERSED
)
JOHN C. MARTIN )
Administrative Patent Judge )
)
)
) BOARD OF PATENT
JERRY SMITH )
Administrative Patent Judge ) APPEALS AND
)
) INTERFERENCES
)
JAMES T. CARMICHAEL )
Administrative Patent Judge )
DYM
Appeal No. 96-0515
Application 08/169,081
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Ronald Zibelli
Xerox Corporation
Xerox Square 020
Rochester, NY 14644