Appeal No. 95-0140
Application 08/002,528
for the process of the present invention” (see column 12, lines
55-57)) and a counter-current gravity classifier (the annular
opening 3a in conduit 4 and the blower 27 for blowing inert gas)
located at the bottom of the vessel. In this latter regard it
should be noted that Kono expressly states that (1) “[w]hen the
resultant urea granules reach the desired size, it becomes
impossible for the stream of the inert gas blown through the
annular opening to support the resultant urea granules” (column
12, lines 27-30) and (2) “the resultant urea granules having the
desired size are separated from the other particles by utilizing
a principle of gas elutriation in the conduit 4" (column 13,
lines 40-42). We observe that Ube in lines 27-35 of page 5 also
clearly teaches that it is conventional in the art to utilize a
counter-current gravity classifier at the bottom of a fluidized
bed.
While Kono (as we have noted above) states that the
recovered fine granules are “reused,”4 there is no teaching that
4 The artisan would reasonably infer that Suzuki’s recovered
fine particles are “reused” as seed particles. This is
particularly the case inasmuch as Suzuki utilizes fine particles,
which are fed into the vessel through inlet 7, as seed particles
7
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