Appeal No. 97-2904
Application 08/565,457
For the foregoing reasons, we cannot sustain the §
102(b) rejection of claim 1.
Turning now to the § 103 rejection of dependent claims
2 and 4 through 7, the patentability of which appellants has
argued as a group, there is no dispute that Dragstedt
discloses a photocopying machine having a vacuum type sheet
transport system 32 for advancing a sheet, particularly a
document to be copied, into engagement with a registration
member 34. There also is no dispute that Dragstedt’s transport
system comprises side-by-side perforated belts 70 and 72
extending along a pair of suction chambers 82 and 84 for
gripping and advancing the sheet. Chamber 84 is directly
connected to a vacuum pump 90 or blower, as it is called, to
apply a relatively low vacuum in chamber 84. Chamber 82, on
the other hand, is connected to vacuum pump 90 through
solenoid actuated valves 102 and 116 which are under the
control of a controller 136 to switch the transport system
between two operating modes.
In the first mode of operation, the controller 136
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