Appeal No. 2002-1856
Application No. 09/255,699
As conceded by the examiner (see pages 3 and 4 in the
answer), Ciardella’s dot generator does not respond to the
limitations in independent claims 1, 10, 18 and 19 requiring a
nozzle plate having “a row of nozzles made up of a plurality of
nozzle holes,” or to the additional limitations in claims 1, 18
and 19 requiring a “monitoring camera” for determining the
existence of residual bubbles in the spray tank. The Ciardella
system embodies a nozzle 70 ostensibly having but a single nozzle
hole and a bubble detector in the form of strain gauge 144. To
cure these shortcomings, the examiner turns to Houser and Sander.
Houser discloses a jet drop recording/printing head assembly
10 (see Figure 1) comprising a fluid supply manifold 20 for
holding an electrically conductive recording/printing fluid, an
orifice plate 18 containing two rows of orifices 26 welded to the
manifold, a stimulator 28 for vibrating the orifice plate, and a
charge ring plate 50 and a pair of catchers 54 disposed beneath
the orifice plate. In use (see Figure 2), the stimulator
vibrates the orifice plate causing drops of conductive printing
fluid to issue from the orifices and pass through the charge ring
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007