Appeal No. 96-1225
Application 08/107,696
pressure zones, which appear to be suction and pressure zones,
and appellant has not distinguished these zones from the zones
referred to by appellant.
For the above reasons, when we apply JP ‘189 to
appellant’s claim 1 below, we consider the term "mechanically
circulated" in that claim to include the fluid movement
produced by ultrasonic energy.
Jackson ‘189 discloses a process for cleaning workpieces
wherein compressed gas is introduced into a pressure vessel
loaded with workpieces, and the temperature and pressure in
the pressure vessel are adjusted such that the gas becomes a
dense fluid (page 10, line 26 - page 11, line 4; page 12, line
27 - page 13, line 11). The phase of the fluid then is
shifted between liquid and supercritical states by varying the
temperature (page 11, lines 4-9; page 15, lines 21-29). After
completion of each phase shifting step, the temperature is
maintained for a period of time to allow contaminant removal
from the workpieces (page 4, lines 13-17). In one embodiment,
the cleaning is enhanced by applying ultrasonic energy to the
cleaning zone, which agitates the dense phase gas (page 21,
lines 15-18; page 22, lines 10-13). The frequency of the
10
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