Appeal No. 93-3623 Page 10
Application 07/629,690
at 5-6.) The relationship between the drain and reactor tubes
may be reversed to provide a "reaction zone free of unswept
volumes". (Paper 1 at 6.)
18. Appellant discloses a reaction tube 14 with an inner
diameter of / inch (approximately 1.6 mm). (Paper 1 at 5-6.)116
Hrdina
19. Hrdina notes that an essential feature of the flow-
through reactors of automated amino acid analyzers is a thin
capillary tube, preferably made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE,
e.g., TEFLON ). (1:44-51.)®
Urdea
20. Urdea uses a glass reactor, but notes that reactor
structural material is not critical as long as it is inert.
(4:44-46.)
21. Urdea further teaches that PTFE is inert and that it
may be used for other components, including the tubes 26, 28 into
and out of the reactor 12. (5:50-60.)
22. We find that, taken as a whole, Urdea would have
reasonably suggested an all-PTFE construction.
Leaback
23. Leaback teaches the use of a non-wettable (e.g., PTFE)
inlet tube for an inert reaction chamber (1:66-2:12) for use in
microvolume biochemical assays involving enzyme (protein) bearing
substrates and related reactions (1:8-16 & 31-38).
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