BY TOOL COUPLE PRESSING TOGETHER ADJACENT SURFACE PORTIONS OFSAME WORK (E.G., TUBE SEAMER):
(under the class definition) Subject matter including a tool couple* for, or a step of using a tool couple for, joining (i.e., securing one to another) two or more juxtaposed margins, parts of the face, or edges of a single piece of work.
(1) Note. A claimed tool couple will be identified with particularity sufficient to meet the requirements of this subclass if a claim recites any of the following: (a) the nature of the workpiece or the product (e.g., two margins or portions of a workpiece are locked or pressed together, or the product formed is a tube or pipe), the characteristics of which product indicate that a tool couple formed the product; or (b) the function of a machine (e.g., seaming rollers, operating as a tool couple, to unite a tube seam by pressure); or (c) the structure of the parts of a tool couple whose sole disclosed use is the uniting of two margins of a single workpiece.
(2) Note. This subclass does not accept patents claiming apparatus for assembling or for welding; see section VI, A of this class for the locus of patents claiming such operations.
SEE OR SEARCH CLASS
228, Metal Fusion Bonding,
15.1+, for tube-seaming apparatus involving welding; and subclasses 144+ for a process of forming a tube from a one-piece blank and welding the seam.
