PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15978373
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-09
Patent Classification: ["072", "286000"]

Abstract:
A method of drawing a material into sheet form includes forming a preform comprising at least one material as a large aspect ratio block wherein a first transverse dimension of the preform is much greater than a second transverse dimension substantially perpendicular to the first transverse dimension. A furnace having substantially linearly opposed heating elements one spaced from the other is provided and the heating elements are energized to apply heat to the preform to create a negative thermal gradient from an exterior surface along the first transverse dimension of the preform inward toward a central plane of the preform. The preform is drawn in such a manner that the material substantially maintains its first transverse dimension and deforms across its second transverse dimension.

Claim (Index 1):
A method of drawing a material into sheet form, the method comprising the steps of:\n providing a first preform section comprising a first plurality of layers, each layer of the first plurality of layers having a refractive index different from the refractive index of a neighboring layer, applying heat to the first preform section to create a thermal gradient from an exterior surface through a thickness of the first preform section inward toward a center plane of the first preform section with a more uniform temperature distribution along a width of the first preform section than along the thickness; feeding the first preform section into a furnace; drawing the first preform section in such a manner that the first plurality of layers deforms less across the width than across the thickness; providing a second preform section comprising a second plurality of layers, each layer of the second plurality of layers having a refractive index different from the refractive index of a neighboring layer, applying heat to the second preform section to create a thermal gradient from an exterior surface through a thickness of the second preform section inward toward a center plane of the second preform section with a more uniform temperature distribution along a width of the second preform section than along the thickness; feeding the second preform section into the furnace; drawing the second preform section in such a manner that the plurality of layers deforms less across the width than across the thickness; stacking the first preform section and the second preform section on each other to form a combined preform, applying heat to the combined preform to create a thermal gradient from an exterior surface through a thickness of the combined preform inward toward a center plane of the combined preform with a more uniform temperature distribution along a width of the combined preform than along the thickness; feeding the combined preform into the furnace; drawing the combined preform through the furnace in such a manner that the plurality of layers deforms less across the width than across the thickness to form a flattened structure.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 1.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.76389
- Patent Class: 72.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14187969', '15426448', '14187492', '15308549', '10490808']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7144334380346932
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5305396156380744
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6960440557950314
- Mean Citation Score: 263.28554999999994
- Max Citation Score: 366.60687
- Similarity Product: 316.5024274273557

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test