Appeal No. 98-0608 Page 4
Application No. 08/413,284
surface “for exerting pressure on the sludge during
filtration,” and being movable “between a filtration position
in which said filter forms a wall of said filtration chamber
and a scraping position.” Alvord discloses a press in which
both of the press elements are movable between a position in
which they form the walls of the press chamber and positions
in which the pressed cake is ejected from the machine.
However, contrary to the examiner’s position, we cannot agree
that either press plate also functions as a filter to separate
liquid from the solid phase cake. While the specification
contains the statement that the Alvord press is “of the filter
type” (page 1, line 35), there is no clue as to what this
means, and there is no explicit statement that a filter is
incorporated into either press element or that they perform a
filtering function. Nor, in our view, can it be discerned
from the drawings that either press element inherently
functions as a filter. From our perspective, there thus
exists no evidence upon which to base a conclusion that the
Alvord press teaches using a movable press element as a
filter.
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