Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kriven (US 6361888).
Kriven teaches a ceramic composite comprising: a first ceramic matrix including at least a first ceramic material, a second phase including a second material, and an interphase material between the ceramic matrix and second phase and including a metastable ceramic compositionally stable at a temperature of at least about 1200.degree. C, including particle additives (see claim 1 and abstract).
Kriven teaches a material can be a coating or laminate on another composite material (see detailed description column 6) comprising Beta- cristobalite an/or aluminum phosphate with cations of group consisting of Li.sup.+, Ca.sup.2+, Al.sup.3+, B.sup.3+, Mg.sup.2+, Mn.sup.2+, Ln.sup.3+, Y.sup.3+ and mixtures thereof {additives) stabilizing the matrix region as claimed (See column 5 and claims including claim 5).
Wherein the second metastable ceramic is selected from the group consisting of: ZrO.sub.2, Dy.sub.2 O.sub.3, Tb.sub.2 O.sub.3, 2CaO.SiO.sub.2, 2LnO.sub.2.Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 (alumina) and mixtures thereof (See claims particularly claim 16).
Kriven teaches heating to above the temperature of Beta-cristobalite form and applying in a slurry; column 6 discusses heating above 265 C changes phase to Beta cristobalite (See claims, description Figure 3, and 11 and 12).
Regarding claim 14, Kriven teaches silica and teaches (see column 6 and Examples). It would have been obvious to provide the claimed [percentage dependent upon desired properties or in optimization of the desired properties of Kriven, providing strength, and a material that deflects stress (induced) faults and minimal thermal expansion differences (See Results section and end paragraph of background).
Regarding dependent claims to aluminum phosphate, boron phosphate and silicate glass; the art teaches a variety of glass additives and silica {glass] additives, Boron, and aluminum and aluminum phosphate (See claims), and teaches phosphate stabilizing the ceramic (see claims). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of filing to provide the claimed material as part of a ceramic composite material.
To the extent to which the arts embodiment may have to be combined or provided in specific concentrations in a laminate specifically, the art fairly teaches providing coatings and/or laminates and provides for substantially identical composition to the claimed composition and therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill at the time of filing to provide the claimed material as part of a ceramic coating as claimed to provide the benefits as discussed in the reference (see abstract).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL H MILLER whose telephone number is (571)272-1534. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 9-6.
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/DANIEL H MILLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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