Appeal No. 96-3376
Application 08/164,889
lines 47-58. The fact that Forbes may refer to the zone
including the rings (90, 94) as a "refining zone" is, in our
opinion, of no moment, since one of ordinary skill in the art
would have recognized that such a zone would still provide the
increased shearing and mixing of the material passing through
this zone as desired in both Carre and Forbes. While appellants
have argued in their brief (page 10) that the truncated elements
of their invention "are not provided in any way, shape or form to
pro- vide a refining zone as is the purpose in Forbes," we find
such argument to be unpersuasive. One of ordinary skill in the
art would certainly view the zone in appellants' mixing device
which includes the truncated ring elements to be broadly a
"refining zone" where the coarse pulp entering through the inlet
(32) is subjected to fluidization and disruption of fiber flocks
so as
to expose individual fibers and to thereby maximize the direct
gas to fiber contact needed when using ozone as the bleaching
agent.
Regarding appellants' argument that there is no
suggestion of providing an increased pathway length in Carre
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