Appeal No. 96-2501
Application 08/177,243
As is explained in the portion of page 7 of appellant's
specification quoted above, it is critical to appellant's
invention that the mixing elements are sized and positioned
within the conduit such that "no such elements are in contact
with one another resulting in an open region of travel 96 for
fluids passing through conduit 31 along its longitudinal axis"
and that the elements are further provided with no points of
contact "so that there are absolutely no 'crotches' provided in
the present invention which would otherwise result in material
hangup." Thus, from our perspective, one of ordinary skill in
the art would readily understand that appellant's independent
claim 7 defines a mixing apparatus in the form of a conduit of
substantially circular configuration (i.e., a cylinder) having a
central
longitudinal axis (37) and a plurality of mixing elements mounted
within the conduit such that the mixing elements a) have no edges
perpendicular to said longitudinal axis, b) are sized and
positioned within said conduit such that at any plane passing
perpendicularly to said longitudinal axis, at least 75% of the
circumference of said conduit is free of any mixing element and
9
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