Appeal No. 96-2099
Application 08/128,976
examiner appears to believe. Instead, the strips might be
imbedded in the conveyor with the outermost surface thereof flush
with the conveyor’s outermost surface. Indeed, inasmuch as
Bush’s conveyor travels “continuously” (see column 2, line 12)
and the various article pushers are actuated while the belt is
traveling or moving (see, e.g., column 3 line 5; column 4, lines
1 and 2), it would appear that if the strips extended outwardly
of the belt as the examiner contends, the risk of the strips and
pushers interfering with one another would be great.
As to the examiner’s proposed modification of Teegarden in
view of the teachings of Anschutz, we find nothing in the
combined teachings of these two references which would suggest
the substitution in Teegarden for his deflection gate an air
nozzle as shown by Anschutz. While Anschutz discloses an air
nozzle 98 for deflecting articles in a sorting arrangement, the
environment and articles being deflected are completely disparate
to the collapsed carton sorting arrangement of Teegarden. In
Teegarden the collapsed cartons being sorted are conveyed on edge
in a vertical orientation along a continuously moving conveyor
362 and deflected to one side or the other at spaced locations by
various gates (e.g., DG1L or DG1R) which are pivoted into the
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