Home/Customs and Patent Appeals/Application of Ulrich Finsterwalder

Application of Ulrich Finsterwalder

436 F.2d 1028, 58 C.C.P.A. 871
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedFebruary 4, 1971
DocketPatent Appeal 8425
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 436 F.2d 1028 (Application of Ulrich Finsterwalder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Application of Ulrich Finsterwalder, 436 F.2d 1028, 58 C.C.P.A. 871 (ccpa 1971).

Opinion

*1029 LANE, Judge.

This appeal is from the decision of the Patent Office Board of Appeals affirming the rejection of claims 20-24 in appellant’s application serial No. 284,797, filed May 29, 1963, for “Prestressed Concrete Highway Formed in the Fashion of a Bridge.” We affirm.

The appealed claims are drawn to apparatus used in the construction of bridges or elevated highways of the type wherein the roadway or carriageway is supported by one or more series of columns. The apparatus is said to be especially useful in the building of structures wherein the columns have top sections which cantilever out to form part of the roadway, as illustrated in appellant’s Fig. 1 at 2, 2' and 2".

Spans such as 3 and 3' form the remainder of the roadway.

The construction apparatus claimed is illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 of appellant’s drawing.

As described in appellant’s specification, at the stage of construction where two columns 1 and V are complete, a box girder 19 having a length equal to twice the distance between the columns is placed on the columns as shown in Fig. 6. Column 1' supports the girder through a trestle structure 25, while col *1030 umn 1 supports it through a gantry 21 which rides on rollers 22 on a track 23. To the extended end 34 of the girder may be attached equipment, such as derrick 35, for building the next column 1" while concrete work on the connecting span 3 is underway.

At spaced intervals along the box girder 19 are several cross-bearers 20 which are rigidly fastened to the box girder so as to be movable therewith. These cross-bearers permit hanging of the form work for the concrete roadway sections, as shown in Fig. 7, which is a section through column 1' at 90° to Fig. 6. The bottom portions 27 of the cross-bearers 20 form supports for the planking of working platforms 29.

When the concrete connecting span 3 and the next column 1" have been completed, the entire apparatus may be moved forward and the previous operations repeated.

Claim 20, divided into clauses, is as follows:

Apparatus for constructing an elevated highway on a plurality of piers including columns disposed in a series at intervals, said apparatus comprising
a scaffold construction in the form of a torsionally rigid elongated box girder adapted to be mounted above the carriageway of an elevated highway or bridge to be constructed and a number of cross-bearers which extend out on both sides from said girder and are movable therewith,
trestle means adapted to be mounted on one of said piers and supporting said box girder thereon,
said girder having a length corresponding generally to the length of two bridge spans intermediate three piers,
said cross-bearers extending over a distance laterally on both sides of said girder, and having portions extending downwardly joined by supporting portions extending inwardly toward one another to generally encompass the cross-section of the highway being built,
and adjacent [sic] said supporting portions at least on one side of the girder being adapted to support a working platform.

Claim 21 adds the recitation of the gantry and rollers, as illustrated at 21 and 22 in Fig. 6. Claim 22 recites an additional trestle means under the projected end of the box girder, as shown at 25' in Fig. 6. Claim 23 recites that the lower portions, 27 in Fig. 7, of the cross-bearers are spaced from each other to permit clearance for the bridge-supporting columns as the apparatus is moved, and that “said scaffold bearer,” which we take to mean the box girder, is mounted on the gantry for movement therewith relative to the trestles. Claim 24 adds the recitation of a derrick at the projected end of the girder, as illustrated at 35 in Fig. 6.

All claims stand rejected under 35 U. S.C. § 103 as obvious over Suter. 1 We reproduce Figs. 1 and 3 of Suter.

*1031

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Bluebook (online)
436 F.2d 1028, 58 C.C.P.A. 871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/application-of-ulrich-finsterwalder-ccpa-1971.