Appeal No. 95-0140
Application 08/002,528
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is an appeal from the final rejection of claims 17, 18,
20, 22 and 24, the only claims remaining in the application.
The appellants’ invention pertains to an apparatus for
preparing granules wherein the product to be granulated is formed
by continuously spraying an atomized liquid into a fluidized bed
vessel. Initially, droplets of liquid from the spray are dried
in the vessel and form nuclei or “seed particles.” As the
operation of the apparatus continues, some of the droplets impact
the previously formed nuclei and are dried thereon in such a
manner so as to form successive layers in a “shell-like fashion.”
When the granules reach or are “grown” to a desired size they are
removed from the bottom of the vessel by a counter-current
gravity classifier. Droplets of liquid which do not impact on
previously formed nuclei are dried and thus form new nuclei.
New nuclei may additionally be formed by the abrasion of small
particles from the granules as the granules move about the
vessel. Independent claim 17 is further illustrative of the
appealed subject matter and reads as follows:
17. An apparatus for the continuous preparation of granules
that grow in a shell-like fashion and have a narrow grain
size distribution, said apparatus comprising:
2
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